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HYPERDSK.TXT HyperDisk(TM) Disk Accelerator by HyperWare(TM) Shareware Version 4.01 Installation and User's Guide July 11, 1990 Program and Document Copyright (C) 1987-1990 by Roger Cross. Scope of This Document This document contains information on HyperWare's: Shareware License, product disclaimer, additional license plans, order methods, product line brief, company address, FAX, BBS and voice phone numbers. The balance of this document is an installation and user's guide for the HyperDisk disk caching product. It explains disk caching, outlines the procedure for installing HyperDisk, and includes additional information for customization. HyperWare Shareware License Agreement This software and documentation is protected by both United States copyright law and international treaty provisions. This "Shareware" version of HyperDisk is NOT PUBLIC DOMAIN NOR FREE SOFTWARE. Users are granted a limited license to make and use an evaluation copy for trial use on a private, non-commercial, non-governmental basis, for the express purpose of determining whether HyperDisk is suitable for their needs. At the end of this trial period you should either register with HyperWare or discontinue using HyperDisk. You may make copies of the software and documentation only for your own use or for the use of others in conducting their own trial use, however all materials relating to this license statement, software, documentation, order information, copyright and trademark statements must remain intact as supplied in the original shareware package. You may not distribute, rent, sublicense, integrate or lease the software or the documentation. You may not alter, modify, or adapt the software or documentation, including but not limited to translating, decompiling, reverse assembling, or creating derivative works. You may not use the software in a network, timesharing, multiple CPU, or multi-user environment. What Does This Mean? If, after a reasonable trial period, you continue to use this product you should pay for the service provided by HyperWare. HyperDisk is not free nor is HyperWare giving away free software. We are giving you the opportunity to try HyperDisk, without risk, before you pay for it. It is just that simple. Try it; either purchase a registered license or quit using it. There is no risk or refund problems. How long is the trial period? You should be able to determine that HyperDisk meets your needs within 3 months. If you require a longer period, please consider your motives: a registered license is very inexpensive. This is a great offer, there is no need to abuse it. All corporate, business, government, organization, or other entities require a commercial license! ONLY PRIVATE USE is permitted by this "Shareware" license. If you license a copy of HyperDisk, you will receive a professional manual, update notices, discounts on future versions and technical support; plus a version of HyperDisk which supports an advanced UNINSTALL function, additional HOTKEYs, special LOAD-HI functions and does not display the opening Shareware panel or require a manual entry keystroke after each report. In addition, your purchase will help HyperWare support, upgrade and development new products, for the Shareware and Commercial market places. You may make copies of the original Shareware package. The original package is archived and will fit on one 360K floppy. If you operate a BBS, please place a complete package copy in your public download sections, (BBS operators may receive a special discount if you display in your opening BBS panels that you are using HyperDisk!). Disk Vendors MUST obtain written permission from HyperWare before distributing any HyperWare product. Generally, ASP approved vendors will be granted permission; others are handled on a case-by-case basis. Contact HyperWare for details. HyperWare currently offers several different licenses plans: A Non-Commercial Use License is provided for direct upgrade of Shareware users; it is ideal for private users. $35.00 is a small price for the increased performance you receive! A Commercial Use License provides commercial and governmental interest with the highest performance disk cache available! $69.00 is insignificant when compared to the increase in productivity HyperDisk provides! Call your standard software supplier or order direct from HyperWare. A Commercial Site License for large commercial and governmental users can provide the most cost effective means for your organization to enjoy the benefits of using HyperDisk with the minimum of cost. Site fees are based on the number of users. Special discounts are also available for Non-Profit, Educational and Charitable organizations. Call HyperWare for details. ALL PRICES, TERMS AND DISCOUNT PLANS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. Discounts are not cumulative; they apply to single orders of like products only. Unit prices are the same as for individual users. Shareware Disclaimer HyperWare specifically disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose with respect to defects in the software and documentation, and the program license granted herein in particular, and without limiting operation of the program license with respect to any particular application, use, or purpose. In no event shall HyperWare be liable for any loss of profit or damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, or consequential damages. This statement shall be construed, interpreted, and governed by the laws of the State of California. Trademark Information HyperWare, HyperDisk, HyperKey, HyperScreen, Touch-Shifting and SpeedKit are trade-marks of Roger Cross. MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft Windows is copyrighted by Microsoft Corporation. Qualitas and 386MAX are trademarks of Qualitas, Inc. SpeedStor is a trademark of Storage Dimensions. Disk Manager is a trademark of Ontrack Computer Systems, Inc. Other programs and/or equipment mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective publishers and/or manufacturers. Available HyperWare Products HyperDisk, Version 4.0 HyperDisk is the ultimate disk caching utility that increases your computer disk drive's performance by implementing advanced features including support for Conventional, Extended, and Expanded Memory usage, interrupt-driven I/O for both read and write caching, and support for PC, XT, AT, 80386, and 80486 type computers. It also features advanced options such as Shadow RAM loading of all overhead memory. Conventional RAM requirements vary from 10K to 35K depending on the model and size of cache selected. HyperKey, Version 4.0 HyperKey is a powerful keyboard enhancement package that allows each user to customize completely all keyboard functions including type-ahead buffer, repeat rates, keyboard clicking, and Touch Shifting(TM). HyperScreen, Version 2.0 HyperScreen is a screen utility that accelerates video output in all text modes and a versatile screen blanker that supports both text modes and all graphic modes. SpeedKit Version 4.0 HyperWare's family of enhancement utilities for your IBM and MS-DOS operating systems, HyperDisk, HyperKey, and HyperScreen, are included in one cost effective package. Order Information To order call or use the enclosed order form for MAIL or FAX. We accept Visa or Mastercard, company or personal check. International orders should be payable in U.S. dollars (Visa or Mastercard preferred). Orders outside Canada, Mexico or the United States should include an additional $8.00 U.S. for shipping and handling. HyperWare 14460 Sycamore Avenue San Martin, CA 95046 USA Sales/Administration: (408) 683-4911 FAX (Group II,III): (408) 683-4042 Technical Support Registered users may obtain direct Technical Support for this product Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., Pacific Time. Technical Support: (408) 683-4923 Registered and Non-Registered users may obtain Technical Support by accessing HyperWare's BBS or CompuServe Mail. BBS (USR-HST/V.32/V.22bis; 8N1): (408) 683-4988 CompuServe Address: 72230,2321 Hyperware's BBS Obtain the latest updates, registration information, general utilities and services. Available, online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Asynchronous format: 8 Data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit. Modem is U.S. Robotics Dual Standard, supporting: USR: HST; CCITT: V.32, V.22bis, V.22, V.21; Bell: 212A and 103; MNP error control protocol Service Classes 1-5. You MUST use your real name and telephone number. Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction to HyperDisk.........................................1 What is Disk Caching?.....................................1 How is HyperDisk Different from a RAM Disk?...............2 Other Benefits of HyperDisk...............................2 Chapter 2 Installing HyperDisk..............................................4 Backup Your System........................................4 HyperDisk Models..........................................4 The Install Program: INST_DSK.EXE.........................5 Special Note for Staged Write Users.......................6 <Ctrl><Left-Shift><Alt>...................................7 Manual Installation.......................................7 Chapter 3 Technical Information.............................................9 HyperDisk Parameters......................................9 Controlling HyperDisk via the Keyboard...................15 Technical Control Options................................17 Advanced Models Only: HYPER286.EXE or HYPER386.EXE.......19 Notes for Extended Model HyperDisk: HYPERDKX.EXE.........20 HyperDisk Limitations....................................22 Chapter 4 Caches Explained.................................................23 Disk Controller Caches...................................24 Disk Caching vs. Other Caching Systems...................24 Appendix A Installation of Near Compatibles.................................25 Appendix B HyperDisk Error Messages.........................................27 Appendix C STAGED WRITE Feature.............................................29 Appendix D Microsoft Windows and The Keyboard...............................31 Appendix E Borland's Reflex Package.........................................31 Appendix F Hard Disk Integration Packages...................................31 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 Chapter 1 Introduction to HyperDisk Welcome to the ultimate disk performance utility for your personal computer system. Disk caching has been used for years in the computer industry to improve disk performance in many mainframe computer systems and is now available for your personal computer. With HyperDisk, hard disk system performance will generally increase 300% to 1000%, while simultaneously prolonging the lifetime of your drive by reducing the wear and tear caused by frequent access. HyperDisk will improve the performance of any PC, XT or AT based system. New computers based on the 80386 and 80486 microprocessors will be incomparable in performance. HyperDisk uses either Conventional, Extended (also XMS), or Expanded (EMS) memory. It may be installed a DOS Device Driver (DD) or as a Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) program. Most operating parameters may be changed easily without requiring you to reboot your computer. For computers based on Chips and Technologies NEAT 210 or 300 Series Chip sets, all of the program may be loaded in special Shadow RAM using none of the lower 640K. What is Disk Caching? What is Caching? Caching is simply keeping often-read items readily accessible in memory. Why is a disk not "readily" accessible? It is a matter of relative comparison: disks are very fast compared to file cabinets, but your computer's internal Random Access Memory (RAM) is far faster than disk memory. How can the small amount of RAM I have improve my disk performance? Some of your computer's RAM can be used to store the data you use most often. This is known as buffering. What happens when the buffer is full? A cache maintains a history of data usage. When space is needed to store new data, the oldest data in the buffer is replaced. You never run out of space, because it is automatically reused to hold your most recent requests. Why does replacing the oldest data with new data improve performance? Because in many cases data is reused frequently. For example, consider the usage of items in your kitchen. Do you have some favorite items used more often than others? If your kitchen is like most, you have some items used ever day, others less frequently, and some only a few times each year. You probably store the frequently used items in the most accessible places. This is the way caching works. HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare......................1 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 How is HyperDisk Different from a RAM Disk? HyperDisk is similar to a RAM disk in that both programs transfer data to and from RAM. A RAM disk user must first copy all the needed files to the RAM disk and remember to copy them back to the hard disk after processing has finished. The entire file must be placed in RAM, even if only part of the file is active. If you find you need additional files, processing is interrupted again, while you copy the necessary files to the RAM disk. If the RAM disk becomes full, you must decide which files to copy back to your hard disk, and then delete them from the RAM disk. If you need more files for a given task than the RAM disk can hold, you cannot use the RAM disk. If a power failure occurs or your computer crashes, all your work in the RAM disk must be done again. And if you forget to copy the data back to your disk or diskette, all your efforts are again wasted. HyperDisk eliminates all these shortcomings. When your application issues a disk read operation, HyperDisk intercepts the request, copies the data from the disk to its buffer memory, and then passes the data on to the requesting application. All subsequent requests for the same data are copied by HyperDisk from its buffer memory to the requesting application. When your application issues a disk write operation, HyperDisk compares the new data to the data already in the cache memory. If it is the same data, the disk update is bypassed, and valuable time is saved. HyperDisk copies only active data (data you are actually using) to the buffer; thus providing much more efficient use of the valuable RAM in your machine. Other Benefits of HyperDisk Optionally, HyperDisk can delay immediate updating of the disks and diskettes to provide much greater disk and diskette efficiency. Delaying or staging the update allows HyperDisk to optimize the process by coalescing and sorting operations. In this way, HyperDisk minimizes the number of disk rotations and head movements required to update the disk. Additionally, for AT, PS/2, 386, 486, and some XT class computers, updates are performed in the background asynchronously (Advanced Update Mode), providing your application with even more computing power for faster execution. No longer must you wait while the data is being written to the disk and diskette drives. HyperDisk is fully automatic. If the cache memory is full when any application issues a new disk request, HyperDisk will make space available to hold this new data. The least recently used data (oldest data) is eliminated from the cache, and free memory is then used for the new data. HyperDisk is continually updating your disk with changes you have made. The updating is done in the background HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare......................2 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 at times when your computer is idle, to avoid interrupting your processing. HyperDisk automatically writes all new data to disk (even if you issue a "warm-reboot" via the <Ctrl><Alt><Del> key sequence), so you cannot lose your important updates. No user intervention is necessary. When you change diskettes, HyperDisk automatically updates the cache for the new diskette and beeps to let you know it recognizes the new diskette. HyperDisk prolongs the life of your drive by reducing the amount of access and eliminating redundant access to the drive. HyperDisk is meant to be installed as a set-it-and-forget-it utility. The benefit of the program will be your day to day improvement in total system performance. We have taken every step to ensure compatibility and reliability of our product. However, it is impossible to test every combination of hardware and software. For this reason, our technical support department is standing by ready to assist you, at no charge, with any questions, comments, or installation problems. Thank you for purchasing HyperDisk. All of us hope you enjoy using HyperDisk and all other HyperWare products. HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare......................3 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 Chapter 2 Installing HyperDisk This chapter contains both the automatic and manual procedures for installing HyperDisk. Before you actually install HyperDisk on your system, read all of Part I of this manual and any READTHIS files on the disk. This manual has been intentionally written in a brief and concise format so that you may read it quickly. The manual with index is available on the package diskette by running: READ_DSK.BAT. To successfully install HyperDisk, you will need an IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2, or 100% compatible computer system and PC-DOS or MS-DOS version 2.0 or greater. Backup Your System It is a good idea to backup your hard disk before installing any new program. This is especially true if you have a particularly complex or non-standard system. HyperDisk Models The HyperDisk model you install will be determined by the memory on your system. HYPER286.EXE - Advanced 286 Mode Uses proprietary Extended memory management for RAM transfers. This model provides the fastest possible transfers but still allows other programs to interrupt when needed. If you have an 80286-based computer with Extended memory, try this model first. If you experience compatibility problems, use the Extended model. HYPER386.EXE - Advanced 386 Mode Same as the Advanced 286 model, but optimized for 80386 machines. If you have an 80386-based computer, use this model. If you experience compatibility problems, use the Extended model. HYPERDKX.EXE - Extended Uses the memory above 1 megabyte as cache memory. Normally you should use either the Advanced 286 or 386 Mode models. However, if your system uses one of the 80386-based EMS emulators such as Qualitas 386Max, Quarterdeck QEMM, Compaq EMM, etc., you should use this model. The 286 and 386 models are compatible with these products, but most of the advanced mode support is not allowed while operating under the above systems. Therefore, you may save a small HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare......................4 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 amount of Conventional memory by using the smaller code size provided by the Extended model. (Technical note: This model supports two transfer protocols, XMS and INT 15h- 87h. INT 15h is generally faster than XMS and is the default mode.) HYPERDKE.EXE - Expanded Uses bank-switched memory like that provided by the Intel Above Board (LIM EMS), AST Research's EEMM products, and their 100% compatibles. You can finally put this memory in your computer to work, speeding up all your programs all the time, instead of having only a few special applications customized to use LIM EMS. You can install up to 8 megabytes of expanded memory for LIM EMS 3.2 and up to 32 megabytes for LIM EMS 4.0 and EEMM 3.2. HYPERDKC.EXE - Conventional Uses the memory between 0 and 640KB. This is also the memory used by DOS and your programs. If you do not have Extended or Expanded memory, use this model. The best compromise (with the Conventional model only) is achieved with a cache size between 128K to about 256K. Default is 128K. HYPERDK.EXE (for batch files) The purpose of this file is to change options for a copy of HyperDisk already installed on your computer. Include this program name in any batch files rather than the above program names. For example, if you start your computer with HyperDisk enabled, but at some point you want to disable the cache, you can do so in a batch file by adding the command: hyperdk D The Install Program: INST_DSK.EXE To install HyperDisk on your hard disk, run INST_DSK.EXE. Place a backup of the HyperDisk diskette in Drive A: and type: A:INST_DSK <Enter> Note: <Enter> means that you press the <Enter> key. 1. You will first be asked if you want to install HyperDisk. If you have a complete system backup, enter "Y." When INST_DSK prompts you for a response, enter only the first letter of your choice. HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare......................5 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 2. If you do not have a backup, you will be given a second chance to abort the installation. If you want to proceed with the installation, press the Space Bar. 3. The next three screens help you decide which HyperDisk memory model to use. See Page I-5 for an explanation of the five HyperDisk models. 4. You will be asked whether you want to install HyperDisk as a device driver or as a TSR. We recommend the device driver method, which uses less Conventional memory. If you have DOS version 2.xx, you must use the TSR method. 5. Enter the letter of the disk drive where you plan to keep the HyperDisk files. This will typically be Drive C:, but your configuration may differ. 6. Enter the amount of memory to use as cache. The amount you enter corresponds to 1,024 byte (1K) increments. For example, 2048 will create a 2-megabyte cache size. If the size of the cache you enter here is not available on your computer, all available memory will be used. The default size is recommended for first-time users. Press <Enter> to select the default response. 7. You may now specify any HyperDisk options. Please refer to the section on command line parameters in Part I, Chapter 3, "Technical Information." Generally, for first-time users no extra parameters are necessary. However, to improve your performance, you are encouraged to read the "Technical Information" chapter and discover which options will likely fine-tune your system. 8. After completing INST_DSK, modify your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files on your boot drive. In the CONFIG.SYS file, either add the line BUFFERS=5, or modify your existing BUFFERS statement to set BUFFERS=5. In the AUTOEXEC.BAT, add the line VERIFY=OFF. Edit these files using EDLIN (see your DOS manual) or with some other editor. 9. Reboot your computer to complete installation of HyperDisk. Simultaneously press <Ctrl><Alt><Del>. Special Note for Staged Write Users With HyperDisk installation, you should always press <Ctrl><Alt><D> before powering off your computer (or if provided, press the reset button). This will insure that HyperDisk has copied all data to your disk. HyperDisk will beep twice to inform you the cache is being disabled. If HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare......................6 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 any updates are pending, they will be copied to disk immediately. After your disk access light goes out, feel free to power off. <Ctrl><Left-Shift><Alt> When booting your computer, but before device drivers load, pressing <Ctrl><Left-Shift><Alt> will cause HyperDisk to suspend loading and prompt you with a choice to continue or abort HyperDisk installation. Manual Installation For users who are familiar with the DOS operating system, this section provides a quick review of procedures to manually install HyperDisk. We strongly suggest that you familiarize yourself with the HyperDisk parameters specified in Part I, Chapter 3, "HyperDisk Parameters," of this manual. For the automatic installation procedure, see the previous section, "The Install Program: INST_DSK.EXE." For a more thorough understanding of how HyperDisk works, see Part I, Chapter 4, "Caches Explained." 1. Run the ID program, which will place your serial number ID on your program disk. This must be done on the original floppy disk. The HyperDisk program files will not run until the ID program has been executed. The ID program needs to be run only once. 2. Check to make sure that no other disk caching software is installed. HyperDisk works fine with hardware cache controllers, but it may conflict with other software caches. Below is a list of the most popular software caching products and the associated program names: Product: Called from Called from AUTOEXEC.BAT CONFIG.SYS Super PC Qwik SUPERPCK PCKWIK.SYS Flash FLASH n/a Speed Cache + SCPLUS n/a Speed Cache SC n/a Vcache CACHE or n/a CACHE-AT or n/a CACHE-EM or n/a VKETTE n/a SmartDrive n/a SMARTDRV.SYS PC Cache PCACHE n/a FAST! FAST???.EXE FAST???.EXE HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare......................7 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 If any of these programs are installed, you must remove them before attempting to install HyperDisk. Running two or more caching programs simultaneously may result in the loss or damage to your data and program files. 3. Copy all the "EXE" files from the diskette to your hard disk. You may place the files in the root directory or in any subdirectory. 4. Choose whether to install HyperDisk as a device driver or as a TSR. We recommend a device driver unless you wish to uninstall HyperDisk later in your session. If uninstalling is required, use the TSR method. 5. As a device driver, HyperDisk should be installed after any special disk device drivers, such as: Disk Manager - DMDRVR.BIN SpeedStor - HARDRIVE.SYS or SSTOR.SYS DOS - DRIVER.SYS *** W A R N I N G *** Do Not use HyperDisk with Golden Bow's VFEATURE Deluxe VFEATURE is a non-compatible INT13 device driver. 6. Install the HyperDisk device driver line at the end of the CONFIG.SYS file. If you placed the HyperDisk files in a subdirectory, you should specify a fully qualified path in the "DEVICE =" statement. The following example of a 512K EMS Cache device driver shows the files placed on a C: drive subdirectory named "TOOLS" : device=EMS40.SYS { ems driver } device=C:\tools\hyperdke.exe C:512 { HyperDisk driver } 7. As a TSR, HyperDisk should be placed at the beginning of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. The following example of a 512K EMS Cache TSR shows the files placed on a C: drive subdirectory named "TOOLS" : C:\tools\hyperdke C:512 8. Now reboot your machine, and HyperDisk will be installed and ready to use. HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare......................8 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 Chapter 3 Technical Information The following technical information is provided for users to customize HyperDisk to their own system requirements. We strongly recommend that you read this section before specifying any installation options. Although most users readily install and use HyperDisk with no options at all, your system's performance may be optimized by specifying various parameters. You will want to be aware of how the selection of different options may affect your system's operation. HyperDisk Parameters You can control the operating characteristics of HyperDisk via the command line parameters you specify during installation. Some parameters may be specified for installation only and may not be altered later. These are noted as "installation only." Other parameters may be changed at any time at the DOS command line or using batch files. When you enter: hyperdk [parameters] the selected parameters will be set to the new specifications. Parameters which are not respecified on this command line will remain unchanged. The parameters listed as "default setting" are automatically selected by HyperDisk upon installation unless you specify an alternate option. Parameter Definition H HARD DRIVES ONLY Sets to cache only hard (fixed media) drives. F FLOPPY DRIVE CACHING Sets to cache all drive types. Default setting. E ENABLE/UPDATE HYPERDISK Enables caching of the selected drive types. If caching is already enabled, any modified data will be written to the disk/diskette. Default setting. D DISABLE HYPERDISK Disables caching of all drive types. You may enable it later via hotkey or command line. V VERIFY READ Verifies the disk and/or diskette after each disk and/or diskette write. This replaces the DOS Verify command. Do NOT use DOS Verify with HyperDisk. HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare......................9 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 N NO VERIFY Does not verify the disk and/or diskette after each write. Default setting. C:nn SIZE of HyperDisk Specifies the amount of memory (in Kbytes) to initially install for the HyperDisk cache. For example, a value of 2048 means 2 megabytes. The cache size may be varied after installation using the XC, XD, and XA options, but the size cannot become larger than the value set with the C:nn option upon installation. Default value for 286 Advanced, 386 Advanced, Extended and Expanded models is all the remaining memory. Default value for Conventional model is 128K. W WRITE THROUGH HARD Writes all data through to the hard disk immediately rather than wait for the TIMER DELAY or BACKGROUND UPDATE. HyperDisk performance will be somewhat less than STAGED WRITE mode since HyperDisk must write data to the disk immediately, instead of waiting until the system is idle or the cache is full. Default setting. Q WRITE THROUGH FLOPPY Same as above, for floppy drives. Default setting. S STAGED WRITE HARD Delays writing hard drive data changes until the computer is idle; then writes all changes to disk. WARNING: See Appendix C before selecting this option. A STAGED WRITE FLOPPY Same as above, for floppy drives. WARNING: See Appendix C before selecting this option. T:nn TIMER DELAY When using STAGED WRITE, this parameter specifies the computer idle time before writing the modified HyperDisk cache data to disk. You may specify a value of zero (0) for a 500 millisecond delay. Units are in seconds. K HOTKEY ENABLE Enables or disables the use of HyperDisk's Hotkeys. K or K:+ enable the Hotkey functions. K:- disables the hotkeys. HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare.....................10 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 K:aclr HOTKEY SHIFT STATES Allows you to alter HyperDisk's Hotkey shift states. Normally, the <Alt> and <Ctrl> keys must be depressed before you select a Hotkey letter. However, any combination of <Alt>, <Ctrl>, <Left Shift> and <Right Shift> may be used. Use only the first letter of the shift name. For example, to select <Ctrl> and <Left Shift> specify: K:cl. M:nn MEDIA CHECK RATE Specifies the time period for floppy diskette media verification. Removable media devices (floppies) are checked periodically to confirm that the media in the drive still matches the media image in the cache. Default value is 3 seconds. Units are in seconds. Z:nn SECTORS per BUFFER Specifies the number of sectors per cache buffer. A track is mapped to one or more buffers. This value is auto-selected by default. Z:0 specifies full- track caching. You may respecify this parameter after installation, but for the extended memory models, you cannot increase the sectors per buffer beyond that specified at installation. If you wish to experiment, install with full track buffering. Generally the auto-selected value will provide the best overall performance. XC:nn RESIZE CACHE BUFFER Resizes the cache buffers to nnK bytes. You cannot specify more memory than originally installed. XC without a numeric parameter will restore the cache to its start-up value. XD:nn DELETE CACHE BUFFERS Deletes nnK of memory from the current cache buffer. Use this parameter in conjunction with XA or XC to adjust the cache buffer size for the best utilization of your system memory. Note for Conventional model: To obtain the best configuration of your system memory allocation map, install with the XD parameter selected; also, specify the largest cache size (C:nn) you will desire at any time during the session. After the system has "booted" (all your device drivers and TSRs are installed), run: D:>hyperdkc XC HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare.....................11 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 This procedure allows you to install HyperDisk before any other TSRs, such as FASTOPEN. XD without a parameter will allocate no memory to the cache buffers. XA:nn ADD CACHE BUFFERS Adds nnK of memory to the current cache buffer. You cannot specify more memory than originally installed. Use XA in conjunction with XD:nn to adjust the cache buffer size for the best utilization of your system memory. XF:file EXECUTE COMMAND FILE Directs HyperDisk to execute the commands contained in the designated "file," where "file" is a standard DOS path and file name. You can use this function to store common procedures or personalized caching properties. Create a file that contains the command line and parameters desired for a specific user or application. The command file may contain multiple lines, and comments may be delimited by a semicolon. Example: d:>hyperdkc XF:C:\anyfile.ext Example of "anyfile.ext" format: EH:0 ;comment: enable only first hard drive OT OC ;comment: disable tone and change line XB:9 ;update disk every 1/2 second XU UNINSTALL CACHE *** NOT AVAILABLE IN SHAREWARE Attempts to uninstall HyperDisk from memory. After writing any pending updates to the disk, HyperDisk will release the cache buffers, restore the system interrupt vectors to the same as before it was installed, and release the memory used by the program code and tables. If you installed other device drivers and/or TSRs that use the same vectors as HyperDisk after the HyperDisk installation, the uninstall operation will fail. Only the cache buffers will be released, and the cache will shutdown (i.e XU acts the same as XD). I:n FLUSH INDICATOR Allows you to select a "beep" indicator tone whenever HyperDisk is updating the modified data to disk. This is useful if you have a system that does not have a drive indicator light. Select a tone frequency, nn (in Hz) that you prefer. Default is disabled, I:0. Also see the "P" parameter. HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare.....................12 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 P:nn FLUSH INDICATOR PERIOD Allows you to specify how frequently the FLUSH INDICATOR should sound, where nn is seconds. Example: P:5 will beep every 5 seconds during the update flush operation. R RESET HyperDisk HIT Resets the HyperDisk Cache Hit percentage after the report is displayed. OR OVERRIDE REPORT Allows you to disable the output report that is normally generated whenever you execute HyperDisk from the command line. This option is useful if you are running HyperDisk from batch files and do not want the report to fill the screen. Also, specifying OR:- will disable the installation report delay. OT OVERRIDE TONE Disables the acknowledgment tone. OT or OT:+ disables the tone; OT:- restores the tone. OK OVERRIDE DISPLAY METHOD Allows you to select the display method. HyperDisk normally displays data directly via the Video BIOS. OK or OK:+ forces I/O directly to the Video BIOS, while OK:- forces DOS I/O. Alternatively, the standard output device may be redirected to any device or file. Default is direct to Video BIOS. In the following example, HyperDisk will display the report via DOS Standard Output device: C:>hyperdk OK:- In the following example, output is redirected to CON (console) device: C:>hyperdk >CON OK:nn OVERRIDE COLORS/ATTRIBUTES Allows you to select the Colors/Attributes for the current display. Color displays provide 16 foreground (text) colors to be applied on either 8 (CGA) or 16 (EGA/VGA) background colors. Monochrome display provides a variety of display attributes. Some allow 2 or more intensities, underlining, blinking, etc. For CGA displays there are 120 useful combinations. EGA/VGA displays 240. HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare.....................13 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 Monochrome displays vary and are generally less than CGA. Value nn may be entered in either decimal or hexadecimal formats. Decimal example: C:>hyperdk OK:30 Hexadecimal Example: C:>hyperdk OK:X1E Both examples select yellow text on blue background. Alternatively, you may select the colors manually by specifying the following: C:>hyperdk OK:0. OKC:nn OVERRIDE COLORS ONLY Same as OK:nn, except only Color Display attributes are affected. Useful for systems with both monochrome and color displays. OKM:nn OVERRIDE ATTRIBUTES ONLY Same as OK:nn, except only Monochrome Display attributes are affected. XI ENABLE ADVANCED UPDATE For AT, PS/2, and some XT class computers. Enables asynchronous update of the disk and diskette modifications. XI:+ enables function; XI:- disables. Default is enabled. XIH ENABLE ADVANCED HARD DISK UPDATE Same as above XI, except affects hard disk drives only. XIF ENABLE ADVANCED FLOPPY UPDATE Same as above XI, except affects diskette drives only. XP:nn BACKGROUND UPDATE PERCENT Specifies an upper limit on the percentage of modified buffers before updating the disk and diskette on every access. The oldest data (LRU data) will be updated on each cache access until the modified buffer percentage falls below nn. Default is 75%. XB:nn BACKGROUND UPDATE TIME Specifies an upper limit on the age of the oldest modified buffer. After nn system timer ticks (55 milliseconds), updates the oldest modified buffer to disk. The background update functions are most useful in systems that are seldom idle, such as network servers. Default is disabled (XB:0). HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare.....................14 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 XW CHECK REDUNDANT WRITE Checks for redundant disk/diskette write operation. This function compares the write data to the current image held in cache memory. If it is the same, the update operation is not performed. Only diskette drives that support media change signaling are supported (720K, 1.2M, 1.44M, etc.). XW or XW:+ enables redundancy checking; XW:- disables. Default is enabled. Note: HYPERDKX Model does not support this function. XWH CHECK REDUNDANT HARD WRITE Same function as XW, except affects hard disk drives only. XWF CHECK REDUNDANT FLOPPY WRITE Same function as XW, except affects diskette drives only. XS SHADOW RAM LOAD *** NOT AVAILABLE IN SHAREWARE VERSION Loads HyperDisk in Shadow RAM memory. If you have a Chips and Technologies NEAT 210 or 300 Series Chip Set based computer, or use an XMS type product that supports Upper Memory Blocks (UMBs) such as 386Max 4.03+, HyperDisk will load in this special memory using none of the lower 640K of conventional memory. Note for Chips & Technologies computers: HyperDisk attempts to load high in the E000:0000- FFFF memory area; therefore, this area must not be used by other programs, adapters, ROMS, or EMS memory banks. Additional options that relate to more system specific settings may be selected. These options are listed below under the section, "Technical Control Options." Controlling HyperDisk via the Keyboard Press the various key combinations listed to execute the accompanying HyperDisk functions. For further explanation of each function, see above, "HyperDisk Parameters." ABORT INSTALLATION: <Ctrl><Left-Shift><Alt> When booting your computer, but before the device drivers load, pressing <Ctrl><Left-Shift><Alt> will cause HyperDisk to suspend loading and prompt you with a choice to continue or abort HyperDisk installation. HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare.....................15 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 WARM-BOOT: <Ctrl><Alt><Del> Warm-restart the computer system. HyperDisk first writes any modified data to disk. If any data must be written, you will hear two tones, and HyperDisk will begin writing to your disk. After the copying is complete, press <Ctrl><Alt><Del> again, and the system will warm-restart. If you have other resident programs (TSRs) that also monitor <Ctrl><Alt><Del>, they may restart the computer without allowing HyperDisk to update your disk. In these cases, first disable caching via <Ctrl><Alt><D> and then warm-restart the computer. If you are unsure of the behavior of other resident programs, you may test this condition by writing files to a test diskette. First, set HyperDisk to STAGED WRITE using the <Ctrl><Alt><A> sequence. Insert a newly formatted disk in Drive A: and copy a large number of files to it with "COPY *.* A:". When the copy finishes (or fails due to insufficient space), immediately issue the <Ctrl><Alt><Del> warm- restart command. If you hear two tones, and your system begins to write to the floppy, you are safe and may issue warm-restarts without fear of losing any data. If your system immediately restarts, you would have lost data, and your disk integrity would be in question. Possible remedies are to (1) remove the other offending resident program, (2) always disable HyperDisk before you warm- restart, or (3) use the WRITE THROUGH mode feature in your installation of HyperDisk (the default setting, no extra parameters required). For the following keystroke commands, the speaker will beep once to acknowledge completion of the command. If the caching process is disabled, the speaker will beep again. In other words, one beep means the command was accepted and caching is enabled, while two beeps mean the command was accepted and caching is disabled. DISABLE HYPERDISK: <Ctrl><Alt><D> Disables the caching process. Your computer operates as if HyperDisk were not present. It may be appropriate to use this command prior to loading a program from a copy- protected disk. Several copy protected programs have been tested, and no problems are known. NOTE: Always select HyperDisk DISABLED when you (1) run disk diagnostics or other system test or (2) run any program that directly accesses the disk and/or diskette adapter hardware. ENABLE/UPDATE HYPERDISK: <Ctrl><Alt><E> Enables the caching process. If HyperDisk is in the disabled state, this command will enable caching. Additionally, if caching is already enabled, any modified data will be written to the disk/diskette. HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare.....................16 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 MANUAL DISKETTE CHANGE: <Ctrl><Alt><C> Changes diskette media indication. If two diskettes have identical file allocation tables, HyperDisk cannot detect the diskette change. Use this command to force HyperDisk to recognize the media change. STAGED WRITE HARD DISK: <Ctrl><Alt><S> *** NOT IN SHAREWARE VERSION Enables the STAGED WRITE HARD drive feature. WARNING: See Appendix C before activating this option. STAGED WRITE FLOPPY DISKETTE: <Ctrl><Alt><A> ** NOT IN SHAREWARE Enables the STAGED WRITE FLOPPY drive feature. WARNING: See Appendix C before activating this option. WRITE THROUGH HARD DISK: <Ctrl><Alt><W> *** NOT IN SHAREWARE Enables the WRITE THROUGH on HARD DRIVE feature. NOTE: Always select WRITE THROUGH on HARD DRIVE when you (1) test or install new programs, (2) debug programs of uncertain integrity, or (3) perform any operation that may "crash" your computer. WRITE THROUGH FLOPPY DISKETTE: <Ctrl><Alt><Q> *** NOT IN SHAREWARE Enables the WRITE THROUGH on FLOPPY DRIVE feature. See note above for WRITE THROUGH on HARD DRIVE. FORCE UPDATE BEFORE PROGRAM LOADS: <Ctrl><Alt><F>* NOT IN SHAREWARE Updates all changes to disk/diskette before executing the next program load request. Provided for development and testing systems. RESUME STANDARD UPDATE: <Ctrl><Alt><R> *** NOT IN SHAREWARE VERSION Resume normal update conditions. Provided for development and testing systems. Technical Control Options Parameter Definition U EXPANDED MEMORY BUFFERING If you are using an EMS Emulator that does not support Direct Memory Access (DMA) to the EMS Memory Page Frame, or you are using a product that accesses the EMS memory asynchronously (some Networking products, some Print Spoolers, etc.), do not alter the default configuration. However, if you are sure that no other products access EMS asynchronously and do not wish to use the Advance Update mode (XI), you can save some conventional memory (normally 8.5K) by deselecting this option U:-. Default is enabled, installation only. HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare.....................17 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 EH:n:.. ENABLE SPECIFIC HARD DRIVES Allows you to enable only specified hard drives. n refers to the physical drive number starting with 0. You may specify as many drives as needed, each delimited by a colon. EF:n:.. ENABLE SPECIFIC FLOPPY DRIVES Same as above, for floppy drives. DH:n:.. DISABLE SPECIFIC HARD DRIVES Allows you to disable the specified hard drives. n refers to the physical drive number starting with 0. You may specify as many drives as needed, each delimited by a colon. DF:n:.. DISABLE SPECIFIC FLOPPY DRIVES Same as above, for floppy drives. OH:nn HOTKEY VECTOR METHOD Provides direct control of the Hotkey Vector method. If your machine is an AT type machine, you may select either interrupt 09 or 15. Interrupt 15 is compatible with foreign keyboard support. If your application has conflicting key assignments, you may disable HyperDisk hotkeys by selecting K:-. OB:nn BYPASS SECTOR SIZE Allows you to fine tune performance when using a small (32K) to medium (384K) cache size. Normally, this value is disabled by HyperDisk. Specify nn, in sectors, range: 0 to 128, to restrict the maximum sized block to be stored in the cache. For example, if you set ob:10, all transfer requests greater than 10 sectors will be passed on to the system BIOS and will not be stored in the cache. This option is useful if you are moving a large amount of data through a small cache, which would immediately be flooded with new data before the previous data could be reused. Setting ob:0 will disable this option (default). OC MEDIA CHANGE SIGNAL Allows you to disable the diskette drive media change signal test. All diskette drives, other than 160/320/360K types, support a media change detection function. Basically, a signal from the drive indicates that the media latch has been opened or the diskette has been removed from the drive. By default, HyperDisk uses this signal to detect when a diskette has been changed. Use this option if you suspect that your diskette drive has HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare.....................18 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 an unreliable media change signal. OC or OC:+ will disable Change Media signal testing; OC:- enables it. Y DIAGNOSTIC DUMP Creates a diagnostic file on the current disk and directory of the resident HyperDisk program memory. The function is to aid in problem determination. Advanced Models Only: HYPER286.EXE or HYPER386.EXE The following parameters are only available on 80286/80386 based machines using the Advanced 286/386 Extended Memory Models of HyperDisk: Parameter Definition G:n ADVANCED A20 GATE TYPE Installation only. In order for HyperDisk to access extended memory in the most effective way, a system address control signal, A20 Gate, must be controlled. The IBM AT used the 8042 keyboard processor for this task, but this method proved to be interminably slow. Consequently, several computer manufacturers (including IBM when they introduced the PS/2 line) developed other methods to control the A20 Gate signal. Normally, HyperDisk will automatically search your system to determine the A20 Gate control method. If for some reason HyperDisk cannot recognize the system, you may use this parameter to tell HyperDisk what type of computer you have. Specifying G:0 will disable the search and use the system BIOS transfer routines. Normally, these values are auto-selected by searching the machine for identifying features. If the identity is unclear, a system hang may result. If you encounter such problems, first try method G:2 (FastA20). If this method fails, use G:0, or switch to the Extended model HYPERDKX.EXE. The following table of values is applicable: 0 None, use BIOS 1 Standard AT-8042 method 2 Fast A20-8042, usable on most machines 3 PS/2 series 4 Dell 300 series, and others 5 Chips and Technologies Neat 212 Chip Set 6 QuadramXT 7 Inboard 386/PC HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare.....................19 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 8 AT Micro-Channel Model 6 9 HP Vectra Methods are searched automatically from high (9) to low (0). See READTHIS file for additions. OG OVERRIDE A20 GATE EXIT (only for types 2 and 9, above) Specifies that HyperDisk should only open the A20 Gate when it is being used. OG:+ selects open A20 on demand, close on exit; OG:- selects open on demand, leave open. If your application "Wraps 1 Megabyte" you should select OG:+. This parameter is used with CP/M applications. Default is to leave A20 Gate open. XM XMS MEMORY ALLOCATION MODE Requests HyperDisk to use the Extended Memory Manager for allocating extended memory buffers. If your system uses HIMEM.SYS (an XMS of Lotus-Intel- Microsoft-AST), HyperDisk will allocate and deallocate memory using XMS. However, the memory transfer method itself will not use XMS unless you select the XT parameter as well. XM:- will deselect XMS memory allocation and return HyperDisk to the default method, INT 15h Function 88. XT XMS MEMORY TRANSFER MODE Requests HyperDisk to use the Extended Memory Manager (XMS) allocation and memory transfer method. See the XM parameter, above. Recommended for AT&T PCs. Notes for Extended Model HyperDisk: HYPERDKX.EXE Extended memory is only available in 80286 (IBM-AT) and 80386 computers. This memory is above 1 megabyte and is normally not accessible from MS-DOS (Real Mode) applications. HyperDisk uses special BIOS functions (INT 15, Extended Memory Block Move) to access this memory. The Extended Memory BIOS functions have some side effects that should be considered: 1) Interrupts may be lost. Interrupt processing is suspended while the Extended memory is being accessed. High speed communications programs are the most likely to encounter HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare.....................20 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 problems. Should you require both caching and high speed interrupt processing simultaneously, switch to the Advanced 286/386 model, the Expanded model, or the Conventional model. 2) Pfix and Pfix-Plus (possibly others) may hang when using INT 15 Extended Memory Block Move functions with the Intel Inboard 386/AT. This problem is related to the PC-AT ROM BIOS. Test your system carefully. (Intel's Inboard 386 Utility Software Version 1.2 corrects this problem.) Disable caching (via <Ctrl><Alt><D>) while these products are being used. HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare.....................21 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 HyperDisk Limitations HyperDisk supports disk and diskette drives accessed by BIOS INT 13 services. Up to 16 drives may be cached, 8 hard disks and 8 floppies. To be cached, disk and diskette media must be formatted as 512 bytes per sector with 8 to 63 sectors per track. HyperDisk supports hard drives with up to 256 heads and 1024 cylinders maximum (or 64 heads maximum and 4,096 cylinders, accessible with special software such as SpeedStor, Disk Manager, or AMI/OMTI BIOS compatible controllers). Supported diskette systems include: 5.25-inch single and double sided, double and high density (8, 9 and 15 sectors per track); 3.5-inch drives single and double sided; double and high density formats (9 and 18 sectors per track). HyperDisk supports partitioned hard disk systems (multiple logical drives per physical drive) and should be installed AFTER the device driver provided by the disk supplier. PC-DOS Version 3.30 and greater directly support multiple logical drives. No additional device drivers are required. If a diskette is removed from a drive and placed in another computer where it is changed slightly (no change in the File Allocation Table) and then returned, HyperDisk may not detect the media change and fail to update the buffers to reflect the new changes. Therefore, if you remove, alter, and replace a diskette, take notice if HyperDisk issues a media change tone. If no tone is heard, issue the manual change via the hotkey sequence <Ctrl><Alt><C>. See the section above, "Controlling HyperDisk via the Keyboard." Some products that use copy-protected media may require that the caching function be disabled during the media verification period. NEVER install HyperDisk while operating under one of the DOS enhancement or extender type software packages, e.g., Microsoft Windows, Desqview, Double DOS, PCMOS, etc. HyperDisk is compatible with these systems but must be installed BEFORE these systems are invoked. HyperDisk operates by intercepting a number of system interrupts (8, 9, 10, 13, 15, 19, 21, and 28) and redirecting their actions accordingly. DOS enhancement packages such as those above often change the system interrupts on a per task basis and create a situation in which a disk cache cannot maintain a coherent image of the system's disk and diskette devices. HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare.....................22 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 Chapter 4 Caches Explained In recent years the technology of "caching" has become a common buzz word in the PC industry. The origins of caching techniques are ancient. However, old or new, caching does the same thing: it keeps often-used items readily accessible. Surprisingly, the science of caching is quite recent, with most of the fundamental work dating in the 1960's. The Belady replacement algorithm, published in 1967, provides the baseline by which all caching techniques may be measured and compared. This algorithm, known as "The Greatest Forward Distance," is not realizable due to its non-causal nature (It requires perfect knowledge of the future!). Consequently, the Belady algorithm may only be applied to systems that have already completed operations or are perfectly cyclic in behavior (Not very useful in an applications environment!). Once a realizable algorithm is implemented, Belady's algorithm may be applied to the request list (or reference string) history to access how close to optimum the test algorithm performs. It is this comparison on which the fundamental science of caching rests. Many caching algorithms have been published and compared to Belady's baseline performance. Leading are the Least Frequently Used (LFU) algorithms, followed closely by the Least Recently Used (LRU) algorithms. Differences in performance are less than 8% on the average. However, LFU algorithms are more complex to implement, and most systems yield better performance using LRU (executing complex algorithms requires time and space). Common algorithms for CPU instruction caches are: Direct, Two-Way Associative, and Four- Way Associative. Programming systems that support overlay loading commonly use Least Recently Loaded (LRL). For more information on caching in computing systems, see the journals of the Association for Computer Machinery or The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. HyperDisk uses a modified LRU algorithm, which is simple and fast to execute. Simply: when new data needs to be copied to the buffer and no space is available, the Least Recently Used data is removed, and the new data is moved to this space. Weak points in LRU performance appear when data is retrieved from the disk in such a fashion that the data is replaced after only being used once. This type of behavior, which occurs in disk caching, is termed over- commitment or thrashing. To avoid over-commitment, HyperDisk uses a proprietary combination of linear and random access predictors to identify the onset of the condition. HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare.....................23 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 Disk Controller Caches Many manufacturers now offer disk controllers that feature onboard caching functions. These controllers generally provide excellent performance. However, due to cost and space limitations, most controllers provide only a small buffer to hold the buffered data (typically less than 512K bytes). In addition, access to the controller buffer is slower than normal system RAM memory. If your system is a 386 or 486 32-bit system, the IO-channel speed is very slow when compared to system RAM. Buffer memory on the controller is dedicated and cannot be used in any other way. For maximum system performance when using a caching disk controller, we recommend a modest buffer size on the controller (16K to 128K bytes). Install HyperDisk as you would with a normal controller, using either extended or expanded memory. The combination of HyperDisk and a caching controller will provide unbeatable performance. Disk Caching vs. Other Caching Systems Caching techniques were invented long before the use of computers. Mainframe computer systems have been implementing caching techniques for some time, and now caching is used in the PC marketplace. There are many types of caches, all unique and different. Memory caches usually allow the use of slower memory chips on new high speed machines. Many 386 and 486 machines on the market today implement a memory cache design. They place a small amount of high speed memory (usually 64K of static RAM), and then use that to cache up to 16 megabytes of slower dynamic RAM chips. This allows the machine to use the full speed of the processor but maintain a very economic memory system. CPU caches are implemented to allow the "stacking" of instructions waiting for the processor, thus increasing the computing speed of the system. Print spoolers are another type of cache. In a print spooler you are using memory or disk to cache the information being sent to the printer, freeing the machine to continue with other work. None of these types of caches is the same as disk caching. Often people assume that if they have one type of cache in a system they don't need any other. In fact, the best system performance is obtained by having a cache built into every area of the machine, maximizing its performance. HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare.....................24 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 Appendix A Installation of Near Compatibles Procedures for installation testing on near compatibles: 1. Make a complete backup of your hard disk, if you have one. 2. Put a copy of hyp???.exe (where ? is cache model to test) on a newly formatted diskette. 3. If testing the EMS version, make sure the EMS Driver supplied with the EMS board has been installed. (See EMS user instal-lation guide supplied with EMS product). 4. With a copy of the HyperDisk floppy in Drive A:, enter the file name of the HyperDisk model under test at the DOS prompt. 5. Try DOS operations (DIR, COPY) on the floppy diskette first, followed by the hard disk. 6. If you have an EMS emulator program that allows extended memory to be used as expanded memory, and HyperDisk fails to operate (i.e., disk or diskette is not cached; system crashes or hangs), try the HyperDisk /U option. Normally this will work for any EMS emulation method. 7. Enable STAGED FLOPPY WRITE (via d:>HYPERDK a) and test modifying the floppy diskette as follows: A:\>copy A:*.* A:test <ENTER> 8. Immediately, using type-ahead, type "DIR" and <ENTER> to display the diskette directory. If after the directory is displayed, the drive continues to update, the STAGED WRITE feature is funct-ioning. 9. Next test the reboot control by repeating Step 7, followed momentarily by a warm-boot (<Ctrl><Alt><Del>). You should hear two tones indicating the cache is shutdown, and the diskette should continue to update. However, if the system begins rebooting, you may not use STAGED WRITE reliably. Some EMS emulators currently fail this test. Additionally, if you use any program to reboot your PC other than the above keys, disable HyperDisk BEFORE executing the reboot program. 10. When the diskette drive becomes inactive, remove the diskette from the drive and again issue the warm-boot key sequence <Ctrl><Alt><Del>. The computer should immediately begin the reboot sequence. HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare.....................25 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 11. After the computer has rebooted, replace the test diskette and run "CHKDSK A:" to be sure the diskette has been updated correctly. 12. If no problems were encountered, return to the section "Installing HyperDisk" and follow the instructions. HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare.....................26 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 Appendix B HyperDisk Error Messages Already Installed! HyperDisk has already been installed. The program type and version of the resident program is displayed, followed by the above error message. Invalid Parameter HyperDisk found an invalid command line parameter. Check your command line parameters against the definitions in the section above, "HyperDisk Parameters." Inserting a delimiter (/,:,-, etc.) between parameters will insure that only the invalid character is chopped; other following valid parameters will be installed. Extended Memory not Supported (INT 15) HyperDisk could not find the Extended Memory BIOS software (INT 15). Your computer does not support INT 15 extended memory functions. You should use either the Expanded model or the Conventional model. No Extended Available HyperDisk could not find any free memory in the Extended memory manager. You should use either the Expanded model or the Conventional model. Insufficient Extended Memory HyperDisk could not find enough free memory in the Extended memory manager. A minimum of 128K bytes is required to use HyperDisk. Expanded Memory Manager not Found HyperDisk could not find the EMS memory manager software. Either you omitted the EMS device driver statement in your CONFIG.SYS file, or you placed the HyperDisk device driver statement before the EMS device driver statement in your CONFIG.SYS file. No Expanded Memory Available HyperDisk could not find any memory in the EMS memory manager. Insufficient Expanded Memory HyperDisk could not find enough free memory in the EMS memory manager. A minimum of 128K bytes is required to use HyperDisk. Insufficient Conventional Memory HyperDisk could not find enough free memory in the DOS memory manager. HyperDisk requires a least 400K bytes free HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare.....................27 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 before installation begins. A minimum of 144K bytes is required by HyperDisk. Incorrect DOS Version An incorrect version of DOS is loaded. HyperDisk requires DOS version 2.0 or later. Error [drive]#:n: - [text]: Retry, Skip or Abort: An error was detected during a disk write operation. The error code will be either an Extended, EMS or BIOS error. If the error code is "ABxx" then "xx" is the EMS error code in hexadecimal (see your EMS manual error definitions). For an EMS error ("ABxx"), the EMS software has been corrupted and the "Retry" option will most likely continue to fail. If the error code is "EDxx" then "xx" is the extended memory error code in hexadecimal (see the IBM- AT Technical Reference [1502243] BIOS Listing, Section: BIOS 1, Error Code Definitions). For an extended memory error, the memory has been corrupted and the "Retry" option will most likely continue to fail. If the error is a disk BIOS error on a diskette drive, the error condition usually indicates that the diskette latch is open. If this is the case, replace the diskette and/or close the diskette latch before giving the "r" response. Retry: "r" will retry the same disk request. Skip: "s" will skip this disk write and continue with the next write. Abort: "a" will remove the active drive data from the HyperDisk buffers without updating the disk. Warning: This response should be used only for floppies you are going to discard due to defective and unacceptable media. (This response is not the same as multiple "Skips.") HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare.....................28 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 Appendix C STAGED WRITE Feature When HyperDisk accepts data to be written to the disk, it stores that data in a buffer. Later when the system is idle (no disk, keyboard, or mouse activity), the modified data is written to the disk. This feature increases your computer's performance, since disks are updated only when your computer is not being used by you for other tasks. For removable media, you should wait until the diskette has completely updated before removing it. If you remove the diskette before the update has completed, HyperDisk will interrupt your current foreground process and indicate that an error has occurred. Just replace the diskette in the drive and press "r" for retry. *** W A R N I N G *** STAGED WRITE IS NOT FOR EVERYONE. NEVER power off or hit Reset Switch without first disabling HyperDisk! If your computer is operated under any of the following conditions do NOT use the STAGED WRITE feature: 1) Do NOT activate STAGED WRITE if the computer user is not familiar with the HyperDisk STAGED WRITE feature. An example is if the computer is shared by several people who expect "standard" system behavior. With STAGED WRITE, your disks will not be updated immediately, and an unfamiliar user may become confused. After all users are aware of STAGED WRITE and the changed behavior of the computer, STAGED WRITE may be selected. 2) Do NOT use if the computer "crashes" frequently due to poor software and/or hardware. 3) Do NOT use if the power system fails frequently and unpredictably. For example, bad weather or an overloaded power network may cause intermittent power failures. Most users in this category should purchase an Uninterruptable Power System (UPS). 4) Do NOT use if new software is being tested or developed that may "crash" the system. 5) Do NOT use if you use a software package that does not support the "warm-boot" <Ctrl><Alt><Del> function correctly. Qualitas' 386Max version 4.04 and earlier and several other public domain programs fail this test. HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare.....................29 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 Additionally, if you use any program to reboot your PC other than the above keys sequence be sure to disable HyperDisk before executing the reboot program. See the Appendix A for testing procedures. The STAGED WRITE feature may be enabled or disabled easily with the keyboard HOTKEY commands. HyperDisk has separate controls for hard and floppy drives. When in doubt, use the WRITE THROUGH modes. HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare.....................30 HyperDisk Shareware Version 4.01 July 11, 1990 Appendix D Microsoft Windows and The Keyboard Windows 2.0 or greater: When Microsoft Windows is active, keystrokes cannot be intercepted in the normal manner. Therefore, a different method must be used while in the Windows environment. If you are using Windows 2.0 or greater, first, select the Keyboard Pause state by entering either <PAUSE> or <Ctrl><Num-Lock>; then, enter the desired HyperDisk Hotkey sequence. Appendix E Borland's Reflex Package *** W A R N I N G *** Reflex provides an asynchronous update mode for disk and diskettes. You must disable this function via the command line switch "-a" before operating with HyperDisk. Due to special considerations necessary for Desqview operation, Reflex and HyperDisk are incompatible if the Asynchronous option is selected. Appendix F Hard Disk Integration Packages Users of Everex's EverDisk package: Hyperdisk has no known operating problems in this environment. Users of OnTrack's Disk Manager and Storage Dimensions' SpeedStor packages: Currently Hyperdisk directly supports Disk Manager versions 3.10 to 4.03 and SpeedStor versions 5.14 to 6.0.3. If you have prior versions installed with DOS 2.0 to DOS 3.2, you should have no problems, but for DOS 3.30+ systems you must have one of the above specified version if your hard drive geometry does not match your system's pre-configured ROM types (commonly referred to as the CMOS Drive type). Specifically, the number of heads and the number of sectors per track must be the same as the CMOS type; the actual number of cylinders does not matter. If you have a non-standard disk configuration for which HyperDisk cannot determine the method of integration, the STAGED WRITE functions will be disabled for that drive. Note: Commonly, a non-standard disk will have a very small C: partition ( <2 megabytes). HyperDisk the Disk Accelerator by HyperWare.....................31