Commodore 1581 - Splat Files

LOAD "0:*",8 loads the first file on the diskette (C64 and C128 in
C64 mode).
DLOAD "*" loads the first file on the diskette (Plus/4 and C128 in
C128 mode).
SPIAT FILES
One indicator you may occasionally notice on a directory line,
after you begin saving programs and files, is an asterisk appearing just
before the file type of a file that is 0 blocks long. This indicates the file
was not properly closed after it was created, and that it should not be
relied upon. These "splat" files normally need to be erased from the
diskette and rewritten. However, do not use the SCRATCH command
to get rid of them. They can only be safely erased by the VALIDATE or
COLLECT commands. One of these should normally be used when
ever a splat file is noticed on a diskette. All of these commands are
described in the following chapters.
There are two exceptions to the above warning: one is that
VALIDATE and COLLECT cannot be used on some diskettes that in
clude direct access (random) files (Chapter 6). The other is that if the
information in the splat file was crucial and can't be replaced, there is
a way to rescue whatever part of the file was properly written. This
option is described in the next chapter.
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