The 640 MEG Shareware Studio 2/The 640 Meg Shareware Studio CD-ROM Volume II (Data Express)(1993).ISO/info/drdtips.zip/1200.TXT

Text File | 1992-06-05 | 16KB | 385 lines

Document 1200
SUPERSTOR - INSTALLATION & OPERATION
JD/RS
6/5/92

Description:

                        INSTALLATION

A full installation and usage of the SuperStor disk compression
utility consists of several user steps.  First, the user should
prepare their drive in order to ensure a smooth compression
process.  Second, the user will compress the drive using the
SSTOR.EXE compression utility.  Finally, the user will observe
and maintain their compressed partitions using DR DOS utilities.

SuperStor requires that a Config.sys file be present in the root
directory on a bootable drive to run properly.  If you do not
have a Config.sys file, you can create one using the DR DOS 6.0
EDITOR.  Use the DR DOS "DEVICE=" statement to load the
SSTORDRV.SYS and DEVSWAP.COM drivers.

STEP #1: Preparation of Drive
The preperation of a prospective compressed drive is the most
vital step in order to ensure a smooth compression process and
smoothly operating compressed partition.

Backup
It is HIGHLY recommended that the user backup their hard disk
drive previous to running the SSTOR program.  This is done for
two reasons.  First, BACKUP is done to ensure that a user is
able to recover from any error which may occur with the disk
compression.  Second, if the user wanted to return their
compressed drive to a non-compressed state, they would have to
remove their SuperStor partition, thus loosing all their data on
that partition.  Note: There is no uncompress feature which
restores a currently compressed drive back to its previous
uncompressed state.

Remove Copy Protected Software
Generally copy protected software cannot reside on a SuperStor
drive.  This is because copy protected software will generally
put its copy protection at a specific location on the drive.  As
soon as SuperStor is used, the copy protection will be moved and
the application will not work.  Copy protected software may be
reinstalled after a drive has been compressed with SuperStor.

Free Up Disk Space
SuperStor requires a minimum of 1.5 MB of drive space.  Make
sure that you have at least 1.5 MB prior to running SSTOR.
Please see the Delwatch/Delpurge section for further information
regarding freeing up drive space.

Delwatch/Delpurge
Often the DR DOS 6.0 SETUP will install a delete tracking
utility called DELWATCH.  DELWATCH then becomes active as a TSR
which loads from the Autoexec.bat.  As files are deleted from
DOS they are marked by DELWATCH as Pending Deletes.  These files
no longer show in a directory, but still exist on the disk until
they are purged with a second utility called DELPURGE.  It is
recommended that all files which have been deleted, with
DELWATCH active, be DELPURGEd from the soon to be compressed
drive prior to compressing the drive with SuperStor.  Please see
the DR DOS 6.0 User Guide for additional information about
DELWATCH and DELPURGE.

NOTE: The 12/6/91 DR DOS 6.0 Business Update will allow users to
use DELWATCH and DELPURGE on a SuperStor compressed partition.
The DR DOS 6.0 Business Update is currently being shipped to all
registered DR DOS 6.0 users.

CHKDSK
It is recommended that a user use CHKDSK on a drive prior to
using SuperStor.  CHKDSK is helpful in order to verify the
current integrity of your hard disk.  Any errors reported by
CHKDSK may be fixed using the CHKDSK /F command.  Please see the
DR DOS 6.0 User Guide for additional information regarding the
CHKDSK and CHKDSK /F commands.

DISKOPT
DISKOPT is a DR DOS utility which helps to optimize the
performance of a hard disk drive.  It is recommended to run
DISKOPT on a drive prior to using the SuperStor compress utility
on the drive.  Please see the DR DOS 6.0 User Guide for
additional information about the DISKOPT utility.

Third Party Surface Analysis
As a third and final aid to ensure a smooth compression, a
surface analysis of your hard disk is recommended.  There are
several third party surface scanning utilities on the market.
These utilities will further verify the integrity of your hard
disk's low level formatting.

Virus Programs and SuperStor
Many of todays viral detection software report viruses on the basis
of the changes the viral program detects within various system
structures. These viral programs may incorrectly report a virus on
a SuperStor drive if the program was installed prior to the
compression of the drive. This is due to the virus program suddenly
seeing vast changes to the drive structure after the drive has been
compressed. It is recommended that virus protection software be
removed prior to compression by SuperStor and then reinstalled once
compression is complete. This will allow the virus program to
accept the SuperStor structures as normal DOS structures.

STEP #2: Compression of Partition
Once a user is confident that their drive is void of any
hardware or software level defects, they may continue to the
compression of a particular partition. This particular phase is
described in the DR DOS 6.0 User Guide.  However, key areas of
interest are outlined in additional detail below.

Choosing Amount of Uncompressed Area (in k)
The SSTOR compression utility allows the user to define an
amount of space to be left uncompressed by SuperStor.  Certain
applications such as a programming compiler may perform better
if on an uncompressed portion of a drive.

Note: that a Windows 3.0 permanent swap file cannot reside on a
compressed volume.  Also, applications which create fixed length
data files should also be stored on an uncompressed volume.

The actual amount left uncompressed will depend on the data
compression ratio and the disk space available before the
compression was done (in other words, SuperStor will use as much
space as necessary to compress all of your files).  Uncompressed
space should be entered in K.  For instance, if a user wants to
set aside 4mb of a 20mb drive as uncompressed, the number
entered would be 4000.

Verify, Compress, and Defragment
Verify, Compress, and Defragment are the three phases of actual
disk compression which are performed by SuperStor.  Verify
further analyzes the chosen SuperStor drive for its integrity.
Compress, the longest of the three phases, actually does the
compression of the files on the drive.  Defragment reorders the
compressed files so that they are in a contiguous order.

                        Operation

STEP #3: Understanding and Maintenance of a SuperStor Drive
The results of compression on a drive can be difficult to
understand.  There are two particular scenarios which can occur.
 That is, one can compress their primary Boot Partition or a
Secondary Non-Boot Partition.

Installation to a Boot Partition (scenario #1)
On default, a 512k uncompressed boot partition will be created
when SuperStor is utilized on the Entire Boot Partition of a
hard disk.  As the user you have the option to increase the size
of this partition as explained above in "Choosing Amount of
Uncompressed Area (in k)."  This uncompressed boot partition is
needed to accommodate system files which must remain in an
uncompressed state in order to boot the system.  During the
booting process the SuperStor driver will load from this
uncompressed boot partition and mount all of the compressed
partitions found.  Then, the uncompressed boot partition will
swap drive letters with the original boot partition where the
remaining of the DR DOS operating files exist.

The following is a list of files which MUST be in the root
directory on the uncompressed boot drive in order for SuperStor
to operate properly.

IBMBIO.COM  - Hidden system file used in booting process

IBMDOS.COM  - Hidden system file used in booting process

COMMAND.COM - DR DOS Command Processor

DCONFIG.SYS - Your computer's boot configuration file

DEVSWAP.COM - Device swap allows for the swapping of drive
letters.

SSTORDRV.SYS - SuperStor driver which mounts all presently
compressed drives.

SSPARTSS.* - This is the SuperStor compressed drive.  It is
marked read-only, system, and hidden so it is not harmed.  ANY
MANIPULATION OF THIS FILE COULD LEAD TO THE LOSS OF ALL DATA ON
THE COMPRESSED PARTITION.

Additional files may be needed in the root directory such as a
device driver for an additional I/O device or for a Memory
Manager.  The DR DOS memory manager should also exist in the
DRDOS subdirectory on this uncompressed boot partition.

DCONFIG.SYS
The DCONFIG.SYS file is the acting boot configuration file which
will be created on the uncompressed boot drive after SuperStor
has been used on the boot partition of a hard disk.  The basic
contents of this file, in the proper order, are as follows:

MEMORY MANAGER - A DR DOS or 3rd party memory manager which
creates Upper Memory Blocks (UMBs) should begin the DCONFIG.SYS
file.  This will allow SUPERSTOR.DRV to put a portion of itself
into the available Upper Memory Blocks created.  For further
information about SuperStor and memory management see DR DOS Tip
#1202.

ADDITIONAL I/O DEVICE DRIVER - If a driver is needed on your
system to access a certain drive, (disk partitioning utility) it
should be placed here (before SSTORDRV.SYS).  Drivers such as
Disk Manager's DMDRVR.BIN or a CD ROM driver should be loaded
prior to SuperStor so that their existence is properly
recognized by the SuperStor driver.

SSTORDRV.SYS - The SuperStor device driver

DEVSWAP.COM  - Device Swap device driver.

ADDITIONAL I/O DEVICE DRIVER - It is possible that an additional
I/O device driver will be loaded after loading the SuperStor
drivers.

CHAIN STATEMENT - Chains or jumps to execute the CONFIG.SYS
which exists on the now compressed old boot partition.



EXAMPLE (Compression of a Bootable Drive):
Prior to using the SuperStor compression utility a user has one
C: drive partition.  The user decides to compress this entire
boot partition.  Once the SSTOR compression utility has done its
job the user reboots and watches the booting messages display.

The machine now boots and activates the DCONFIG.SYS which exists
on what now is the 512k uncompressed C: boot partition.  The
first SuperStor message to display is:

SuperStor fixed disk drive C: mounted as drive D:

The above message is displayed by the SSTORDRV.SYS device driver
as it mounts the newly compressed C: drive as D:.

Drives C: and D: swapped

The above message is displayed by the DEVSWAP.COM device driver
as it swaps drive letters so that the newly compressed C: drive
shows once again as C:.

REMEMBER, the drive letter used for the uncompressed boot
partition will vary depending on the next available drive letter.

Installation to a Non-Bootable Drive (scenerio #2)
Installation of SuperStor to a Non-Bootable Drive is a much
simpler process than to that of the boot partition.  As with the
Bootable Partition, the full Non-Bootable Drive may be
compressed entirely or uncompressed space may be set aside as
another drive letter (see "Choosing Amount of Uncompressed Area
(in k)" above).

The following is a list of the files seen on a Non-Bootable
Drive having booted without the SuperStor driver installed.

SSPARTSS.* - This is the SuperStor compressed drive. It is
marked read-only, system, and hidden so it is not harmed.  ANY
MANIPULATION OF THIS FILE COULD LEAD TO THE LOSS OF ALL DATA ON
THE COMPRESSED PARTITION.

EXAMPLE (compression of a Non-Bootable Drive):
Prior to using the SuperStor compression utility a user has one
C: partition and a D: partition.  The user decides to compress
the entire D: partition.  Once the SSTOR compression utility has
done its job the user reboots and watches the booting messages
display.

The machine now boots and activates the CONFIG.SYS which exists
on the C: drive.  The first SuperStor message to display is:

SuperStor fixed disk drive D: attached

The above message is displayed by the SSTORDRV.SYS device driver
as it mounts the newly compressed D:.

Note: DEVSWAP.COM is not needed as a device driver if
Non-Bootable Drives are the only to be compressed.

Common Questions

Q: Can SuperStor be used on a network server to compress the
drive?

A: No, SuperStor is not designed to be used on a network server.



Q: If a previous version of DOS had a partition which was
created using SuperStor, can it be used under DR DOS 6.0?

A: Possibly.  The AddStor retail version 1.3 partitions will be
recognized using DR DOS 6.0's SuperStor drivers.



Q: Can the version of SuperStor which comes with DR DOS 6.0 work
with another version of DOS?

A: ABSOLUTLEY NOT!  DR DOS 6.0's version of SuperStor was
designed specifically for DR DOS 6.0 and may cause severe disk
corruption if used with any other DOS version.



Q: What is the largest SuperStor compressed partition I can
create with SuperStor?

A: You can compress physical partitions of up to 256 Mbytes to
create a 512 Mbyte SuperStor partition.  If you have a larger
than 256 Mbyte partitions you will have to back up your hard
disk and use FDISK to create a smaller partition size before
using SuperStor to compress the partition.



Q: Can I use a third party disk optimizer on my SuperStor
partition?

A: It is not recommended to use a third party disk optimizer on
a SuperStor partition as data may be lost or corrupted.  This is
because third party optimizers might not properly recognize the
structure of the SuperStor partition and will therefore cause
worse fragmentation than that which existed prior to the
optimization process.  Therefore, we recommend that you use the
DR DOS 6.0 DISKOPT utility, which will properly handle the
SuperStor partition.



Q: How large is the cluster size for the SuperStor partition?

A: The cluster size is 512 bytes.  Therefore, 512 bytes is the
smallest size compressed file possible.



Q: What if there are 30Mb of compressed (zip'd or Arc'd) files
on a 30Mb drive that has been SuperStor'd?

A: There will be very little drive space left for other files.
This is a very inefficient use of a SuperStor'd drive.  The best
files to compress will be data, document, or ASCII files.  The
files which compress the least will be .COM or .EXE files as
well as files which have already been compressed (eg. arc'd or
zip'd files).  The compression ratios will show using the XDIR
command or the statistics option in the SSTOR.EXE utility.



Q: How does SuperStor Work?

A: It works transparent to the person using it.  Once the driver
has been installed and the SuperStor utility has created the
partition, it is completely unnoticeable to the user.  It
provides the compression and decompression activity to the files
as they are read or written to the partition.  Also, a user who
has compressed a drive using SuperStor shouldn't notice any
reduction in speed with respect to file execution on average
systems.



Q: Does it effect data going to tape of floppy drives?

A: No.  It will require that you have as much backup space as is
shown in the SuperStor partition.  For example, if the SuperStor
partition reports 45Mb used out of 60Mb, you will need 45Mb of
floppy or tape storage to backup the drive.  In this sense, it
is compatible with your existing backup software.



Q: Can I try SuperStor on a diskette before trying it on my hard
drive?

A: No.  The DR DOS 6.0 version of SuperStor will only work on
media which is considered fixed.



Sources:     DR DOS 6.0 Optimization and Configuration Tips Guide
                DR DOS 6.0 User Guide