Green party rep needs help with DOS commands ASAP:TRIAD!!!

[Wordie]

I am posting this, copied from another thread, for a new DU member who cannot post yet:
megalith (3 posts) Thu Dec-23-04 03:14 PM
Response to Reply #6

10. Need HELP with DOS cmd on Triad DIR tree


Hello all
New poster and cannot start thread. I am working with the directory tree for installations of Triads Electab software in Ohio. Here is what I need. Please find me a DOS person to tell me the proper command so that I can get it out to our people in the field.

Knowing the name of a file, we need to locate that file on the hard disk and print its location, file size and last modified date.

I need the DOS command to do this from the root directory,, C:\

Now is a chance for DU to really help efforts with the recount

Orren Whiddon
SE Ohio Regional Co-ord
Green Party


Alert Printer Friendly | Reply | Top



megalith (3 posts) Thu Dec-23-04 03:16 PM
Response to Reply #10

14. More on DOS request


Perhaps a senior poster could copy this as a thread and post it.

This is in fact urgent
best

Orren

[liveoaktx]

1. command

Dir (name of tile) /s
example
Dir dog.txt /s

s being for subdirectories.

[Hex_0x]

2. heh

Beat me to it...

:-)

dir "test.txt" /s

[democrat_patriot]

6. That only searched root of C for me.

Files in other folders, it didn't find.

[karlrschneider]

13. That should work...I've used it for years & just now verified it also work

in a Windoze DOS box...
:eyes:

[ccarter84]

22. this seems to work actually

it searched the hard drive, I was in the root directory (C:)
and searched for a filename on my desktop that way
example) dir "journal.doc" /s

what this does is searches the hard drive...its still searching my hard drive for results, but it seems to do what you need to do

[ChicanoPwr]

3. What kind of DOS commands

I can help. You can PM if you need to.

[sabra]

4. PM megalith

He needs help!

[Wordie]

7. Can new DUers use the PM function? Perhaps you should try to PM him. nt

[dogindia]

23. could not PM as new person

[KingoftheJungle]

5. Here is everything you need

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000309.htm
for everything you need search-related
and

http://www.computerhope.com/overview.htm for a basic overview of all DOS commands.

[democrat_patriot]

8. There are also utilities to find files that have been deleted.

In case the machine was 'cleaned'.

DOes removing a CMOS battery wipe RAM and the BIOS?? Just curious as that is supposedly what TRIAD did.

THese machines need to be looked at by a computer forensic expert.

[Wordie]

10. Actually, it does reset the BIOS to remove a CMOS battery. RAM will be

reset each time the computer is restarted.

[King Coal]

28. And that is what the tech said he did.

He probably put the hard drive in another computer with autodetect to get the drive parameters, and the put it back in the other computer and told them not to shut it off. But, how did he know it was down if they didn't tell him. As John Q. Citizen pointed out, the must have lost their connection to it. Makes sense.

[GAspnes]

37. only in very minor cases

The BIOS is stored in non-volatile Read Only Memory (nowadays, EEPROM) otherwise the system would never boot after the battery was replaced.

The only purpose of the battery *was* to keep the clock ticking when the system was powered off and/or unplugged. Nowadays a small rechargable battery or a slow-drain capacitor supplies power to the clock when system power is off.

[wlubin]

9. tons of ppl know dos, geeez the green party could probably just

get the info from some guy on their staff. How hard is it to find someone who knows dos????

[Niche]

11. Please get info to Green Party (email below). Attn: Research team...

[e-mail]

[punpirate]

12. I thought I read that...

... the Triad systems were Unix-based, so there might be a command for more efficient searches.

If, indeed, DOS is appropriate, then this will return the location of the file(s) if the filename is known:

dir /p /s filename.ext

Wildcard "*" is acceptable. This will return the subdirectory locations of any files of a specific name. My suggestion would be to search with a wildcard in the extension. That will return all files with .bak extensions and reveal backups of the original file(s).

Cheers.

[Wordie]

15. Actually, as I think about this, wouldn't it be sensible to have some

person knowledgeable in DOS to do such a search? Messing around in DOS by people who aren't familiar with it is not a great idea, imho. Not to mention, wouldn't that person be tampering with evidence as well?

I wonder if we may be jumping the gun here. Perhaps the OP could explain a bit more about the circumstances that lead to the initial request.

[punpirate]

21. Just looking for a file...

... is not tampering with evidence. It's a search for evidence. Now, if one accidentally (or intentionally) erases that file, or alters it, that could be tampering with evidence.

I agree that goofing around in DOS without any knowledge can be dangerous, but given the preponderance of Windoze today, I can understand how someone might not know anything about command line instructions. After all, we've had almost a generation now of people who've known nothing but Windows.

What this sounds like to me is that someone has been given a tip, i.e., look for this file, and they don't know how to find it in a non-Windows machine.

Maybe we'll get some more info later. But, the instruction I provided is non-destructive-- the /p instruction is to page screen info and /s is to look in all subdirectories. That's all.

Cheers.

[GetTheRightVote]

16. I do not if DOS or not but ATTRIB command gives you info

ATTRIB = Display and change file attributes.
or
FASTHELP = Displays a listing of MS-DOS commands and information about them.

[megalith]

30. dir /p /s filename.ext

Did not work on the windows system dos window I am testing on. The machines are generally old, DOS machines. The code is dos run Cobol <Yikes, that is old> We can print the directory file tree for a system and wade through the paper, but the non-tech at the other end would never find the file.

We are trying to compare file size for a given file by telling people what to type over the phone, on systems located over the state, not knowing the DIR structure.

By the way, Greens are bucks down, can do. Demo and Repugs spend more on booze at the conventions than we are running our recount on :) HA! smile

more suggestions?

Orren

[megalith]

31. GOT IT !!

c:\dir filename.txt /s works as advertized.

THANK YOU ALL !!!!!

Orren

[You do not need that]

32. To record directory listing to a disk file

C:\> dir /s /a > A:\LIST.TXT

After that you can browse the list back and forth in a text editor.

[Clark2008]

35. What did you find?

We'd really like to know.

:)

[Ladyhawk]

43. They could tell us, but then they'd have to kill us. :)

[punpirate]

39. Then it wasn't input correctly...

... because it's a standard MSDOS command that's been in existence since the first versions of DOS. I checked it on the Windows DOS I use.

Either that, or the input filename is not correct, or it is a system or hidden file. A normal directory search, depending on how things are set up, may not find it.

As someone else mentioned, try the command ATTRIB, but use it with the subdirectory switch, /S.

Whatever the filename is, run the command on the command line as follows:

ATTRIB /S filename.*

The wildcard will ensure you'll get all versions of the file. This will also show the subdirectory location of the file. If it's a system file, the attribute will be "S," if a hidden file, an "H," and if read-only, "R." Some files can have all those attributes. To change the attribute so you can read the file, follow the instructions shown by the command: ATTRIB /?

Cheers.

On edit, sometimes I miss the obvious. One other thing--you're being kind of circumspect about this, so I'm not sure of the context of this search (what OS is being used, etc.), but, if these are networked machines, make sure that the person(s) doing these file searches is (are) logged on with full administrator's rights, and that all the directories to be searched are either shared, and/or the administrator is allowed to view them. If that's done, you don't need to do this via DOS. winfile.exe will show all files, regardless of attribute, if the administrator is logged on and uses a wildcard in the file extension. That will bring up the files you're looking for, along with attribute, time/date stamp and file size.

Cheers.

[newyawker99]

40. Hi megalith!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[KingoftheJungle]

14. I have some suggestions for data recovery (finding deleted files)

EasyRecovery ( http://www.ontrack.com/easyrecoverydatarecovery/ ), or the pro version. I have had a lot of sucess with this one.

Also, check out the Winternals software, which includes an OS-independent boot cd called ERD commander which has a file recovery tool built in. Details here: http://www.winternals.com/products/repairandrecovery/index.asp?pid=ap

[shraby]

18. Someone said that Triad uses

Visual Fox Pro if that makes a difference.

[ChicanoPwr]

25. Yes, but it runs on top of MS Access

[Clark2008]

36. Hmmm... this was just IMed to me

Try this:

oFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
? oFSO.Getfolder(folder_fullpath).Size

> I have the need to know how many bytes are in a directory. This directory may include several subdirectories. Right now, I use ADIR() to traverse the different directories, adding the bytes in the files as I find them. This works, but as the directory includes more and more directories, it is taking noticeable time to determine the number of bytes.
>
> Is there a system call or API call that I can use to get the number of bytes from the upper level directory?
>
> Many thanks!
> Cheryl A Bellucci
> TRIAD GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEMS, INC


http://www.foxite.com/archives/0000052081.htm

Main directory of listings: http://www.foxite.com/archives/search.aspx?q=cheryl++bellucci

And, this interesting exchange: http://www.foxite.com/archives/0000039405.htm

Ahem... maybe this guy needs to take the same advice that Ms. Bellucci took.

Hmmmmmm.......

[Boredtodeath]

17. What DOS version?

The best bet would be to use the TREE>LPT1 command and print the tree to a hard copy on the printer.

But it depends on the version of DOS if the tree command is available.

And, the Greens have a great DOS/*nix guy in their organization in Atlanta.

[karlrschneider]

19. Here's a comprehensive list of commands and switches

http://www.easydos.com/dosindex.html

[GetTheRightVote]

24. Thank you for posting web site, it is good info ,,,,

:bounce:

[wlubin]

20. how do we know the machines are dos, unix, or any well know

OS. Maybe the os was written exclusively for their machines.

[roseBudd]

27. They used FoxPro originally, now they use Visual FoxPro n/t

[nickdw]

26. examples

Do not forget " attrib +r +h +a +s " -- and " dir, " shows all files incl. hidden ones on some older systems.

[Senator]

29. DOS Command Index

http://www.csulb.edu/~murdock/dosindex.html/

[BigBearJohn]

33. DOS Command

Ok, this will search for the file and output
it to a file you can print.

dir c:\file*.* /s >c:\results.txt

In this command, where I have typed the word "file",
substitute the name of the file you are searching for.

This command will search for any file with the name
you have provided AND will output the results to
a file called "results.txt" and it will store it in
the root of your C: drive.

John

[You do not need that]

34. Do not write on the hard disk

I don't know but I think that it would be good to not to write anything on the disk you're examining.

[MarkusQ]

42. AGREED: DO NOT MODIFY THE DISK YOU ARE EXAMINING

Further, if this is something you hope to use in court,

DON'T TOUCH IT AT ALL UNLESS YOU ARE WELL TRAINED

The easiest way to destroy the forensic evidence is to give it to someone who doesn't know what they are doing and tell them "poke around, see what you can find."

--MarkusQ

[newyawker99]

41. Hi BigBearJohn!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[BigBearJohn]

44. Thanks NEWYAWKER99

It DOES make a difference when people say HI
Thanks for saying hi!! You're the best!

[jfern]

38. Do the following

Go to the root directory
type DIR/A/S *.* > FILELIST
EDIT FILELIST

FILELIST contains a list of all of the files. Use the search command to find the filename you're looking for

You can replace *.* with some sort of specific search, too.

[BigBearJohn]

45. If you dont want to write to the hard drive -- do this

Place a floppy disk in the A: drive, then
type DIR/A/S *.* > A:\filelist
EDIT A:\FILELIST