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com - Dummy File Creator

 
 
Dummy File Creator 
Dummy File Creator, A simple program which Version: 1.2
generates files of any size with ease. Very useful Last Update: 2008/05/17
for disk speed test, CD burning test, network File Size (w/ installer): 391KB
speed test, or simply create files to fool your friends. This File Size (w/o installer): 23KB
program also has a built-in random function, so users can
License: Freeware*
choose to create either compressible or non-
compressible files. Developer: Nikko Cheng
Minimum Req: Windows(All)**
Download (w installer): dummy12_setup.msi (391KB) * For educational and non-commerical personal use only.
** Dummy File Creator requires Microsoft .NET Framework
Download (w/o installer): dummy12.zip (23KB)
2.0 Redistributable Package.
Introduction - Why Dummy File Creator?

The idea was simple: a dummy file. Usually, a warez FTP site would include a dummy file of exactly 1 MB for
people to test the speed of the FTP server. Dummy File Creator fits right in the spot; it can easily create a file
of any size for testing network speed, or data transfer rate of a disk drive. Also, Devices like hard drives have
different data transfer rates at different physical location on the disk. For example, You will get different data
transfer rates from the same 100GB hard drive when it's empty and when it's 80% full (defragged). With
Dummy File Creator, you can easily fill your hard drive with 80GB of data and do the speed measurement
again to compare.

However, Dummy File Creator is not only useful for speed testing; it is also useful to make fake files. Why
would you need such fake files?

Prevent easy spread of illegal copies of your software - Imagine you just publish a new software with a
size of 56MB onto a CD. You can fill the the remaining 644MB free CD space with fake files. If you
cannot stop the crackers, you can still slow them down. People who try to transfer your software over
the internet will have to spend longer time, while the authentic users who purchased your CD will not
be affected.

Fool people on peer-to-peer file sharing networks - Although most peer to peer network programs have
built-in CRC/Hashing check to prevent malicious fake files, a person can still share fake files with the
same file name or catching program/media title to confuse P-to-P users.

Enhance protection of exsiting encryption - put a few fake files with randomly generated content along
with your encrypted files. Investigators will have tough time finding/decrpyting your files, since they
won't even know which one to start with!

Test drive fitness - simply fill up the drive with a large dummy file. Any bad sector will result an write
error.

Wipe data to prevent file recovery - Have important data that you want to make sure it's deleted
beyond recovery? Simply fill the drive after deletion/formation with a large dummy file. Normal file
deletion or disk formation procedures only modify the file allocation table (FAT) to make the space
available for writing without actually removing the data, so it makes data recovery possible by scanning
through the entire disk to look for remaining data traces. By filling up those available spaces with
dummy file contact, it overwrites all the those data traces with dummy file content.

What's new in version 1.2

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A complete rewrite using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2005.

Improved random content generation, so it as fast as uncompressible content.
File generation is now using thread, so cancel the process anytime you want.
Added writing speed display for easy-monitoring the current writing speed.
Now supports batch file generation, you can now use a batch list to create dummy files.
Dummy File Creator Commandline Edition is also included in the package (DummyCMD.exe) for
those command prompt lovers.

Manual - How to use?

It's easy! Simply:

1. Execute Dummy File Creator

2. Input desired file size (integer) and unit
3. Click on "Browser" (ALT+B) to choose desired file name and location
4. Click on the check box(ALT+R) if you want a file with randomly generated content
5. Click on create (ALT+C) and the program will start generating a file
6. The program will stop when the progress bar reaches 100%
7. Click on "Exit" (ALT+X) to quit this program

Commandline Edition (DummyCMD.exe) Usage Example

C:\>DummyCMD
Dummy File Creator 1.2 Commandline Edition
Copyright c 2008 Nikko Cheng
Generates a dummy file
Usage: DummyCMD.exe FILE_PATH FILE_SIZE_IN_BYTES RANDOM_SWITCH

C:\>DummyCMD test.txt 102400000 1

Dummy File Creator 1.2 Commandline Edition
Copyright c 2008 Nikko Cheng
Generating file: 100%
Total Data Written: 102,400,000 byte(s)
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Time used: 2.34375 second(s)
Average Write Speed: 42,666 KB/sec

C:\>

Batch File Format

Batch file list is a pure text file contain lines of following format:

FULL_FILENAME[tab]FILESIZE_IN_BYTES[tab]RANDOM_SWITCH[enter]

So a typical batch list would contain lines similar like the following:
C:\Temp\Directory 1\1.txt 1024 0
C:\Temp\1.txt 0 0
C:\Temp\2.txt 1024 0
C:\Temp\3.txt 2048 1
C:\Temp\4.txt 1048576 1

Please note that RANDOM_SWITCH can only be a value of 0 or 1. Files will automatically be overwritten if
exists.

Technical Facts

File Stream -
Unlike previous version, Dummy File Creator 1.2 generates files in 4MB increment in order to increase
performance of large file generation. To generate a 50MB file, Dummy File Creator will write 4MB data
chunk 12 times and a 2MB chunk once to complete the task. In most cases, this behavior is
unnoticeable. However, for people who would like to fill a disk drive with a larger-than-capacity dummy
file. Dummy File Creator will try to fill the drive with closest size in 4MB increment. For example, if you
are trying to fill a 50MB SD Card with a 1GB dummy file, Dummy File Creator will report an error and
abort the operation after the size of generated file reaches 48MB, not 50MB as the software was
unable to complete the writing task of the last 4MB data chunk. For data wiping purpose, this is already
sufficient as all the of the available space was filled before the disk full error occurs; it is just that the
last write operation attempt failed and resulted a size gap. Please keep this in mind if you are
performing similar tasks.
Random Content -
Dummy File Creator 1.2 writes random bytes ranging from 0 to 255. However, unlike previous version
which generates true random file content, Dummy File Creator 1.2 uses a different approach in random
content generation in order to increase the performance of random content generation. Dummy File
Creator now will generate 4MB of random data and reuse the same data by altering only some bytes at
random locations for each subsequent write. While the result still defeats all of the compression
software we tested (i.e. a larger compressed file than the original size), but it is still possible to
compress this pseudo-random content if a specifically designed compression algorithm targeted at
Dummy File Creator (very unlikely) is used. To design such algorithm, it must use dictionary words with
length ranging from 1 to 4,194,303 bytes. Most people will not notice this change, but for people who
are developing compressing algorithms, it is recommended to use the previous version which
generates true random contents (but much slower) for testing.
Compressible Content -
Dummy File Creator 1.2 still writes ' ' (space character, Decial: 34, HEX: 20) as repeated content.

Previous verions

Dummy File Creator 1.1

 
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