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Welcome to Stacker 2.01! This file contains information not included in your User Guide. Stacker has been tested extensively with a wide variety of hardware and software products and has been found to be compatible. Check the table of contents below to see if any of the information applies to you. Also be sure to check "Chapter 8: Using Stacker With" in your User Guide. ================================================================== Table of Contents 1. Some notes on operating Stacker... 1.1 How Long Will It Take To Install Stacker? 1.2 Using INSTALL and SDEFRAG with Disk Caching Programs 1.3 Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor Users 1.4 Stacker Drive Size - Maximums 1.5 Stacker Version 1.x Users 1.6 Compression Ratios 1.7 Backing up your Stacker drive 1.8 Copying your entire Stacker drive 2. Corrections and additions to the Stacker User Guide... 2.1 Be Ready With... (page vi) 2.2 Inserting the AT/16 Coprocessor (page 20) 2.3 Preparing Your System For Stacker (page 34) 2.4 Files on the uncompressed part of your disk (page 53) 2.5 INSTALL - Advanced Options (page 55) 2.6 STAC - The Command Assistant (page 83) 2.7 SCREATE (page 91) 2.8 SDEFRAG (page 94) 2.9 SDEFRAG - Disk Space Requirements (page 96) 2.9.1 Not enough 'physical' space 2.9.2 Not enough 'logical' space 2.10 STACKER - The Device Driver: new options (page 108) 2.11 SpinRite - New procedure (page 142) 2.12 Anti-Virus Programs (page 144) 2.13 QEMM Optimize (page 148) 2.14 Eliminating extra Drive Letters (page 162) 2.15 SATTRIB - Syntax Note (page 165) 2.16 SSWAP - Example Correction (page 165) 2.17 Message Explanation Corrections (pages 183-184) 3. Operating Systems... 3.1 DOS 5 3.1.1 Upgrading before installing Stacker 3.1.2 Upgrading after installing Stacker 3.1.3 Loading Stacker high on a 386 machine 3.1.4 Loading Stacker high on a 286 machine 3.1.5 Using the Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor 3.2 DOS DISKCOPY Command 3.3 DOS FASTOPEN Command 3.4 DR DOS 5.0 and 6.0 3.4.1 Eliminating extra drive letters 3.5 Zenith DOS 3.6 Toshiba DOS 3.2 4. Microsoft Windows in 386 Enhanced Mode... 4.1 Using the Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor 4.2 Temporary Windows swap files 4.3 Permanent Windows swap files 5. Disk Utilities... 5.1 Norton FILESAVE and ERASE PROTECT, PC Tools DATA MONITOR 5.2 Disk Repair Utilities 5.3 Disk Technician 5.4 Disk Optimizer (Defragmentation) Programs 5.5 Central Point Anti-Virus 6. Disk Caching Programs... 6.1 Caching Stacker Drives 6.2 Super PC-Kwik Cache 7. Expanded Memory Managers... 7.1 Stacker's EMS Feature 7.2 QEMM-386 Optimize 7.3 Using the Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor on a 386 7.4 Netroom 1.12 7.5 Netroom 2.0 8. Networks... 8.1 Novell NetWare 8.1.1 Novell NetWare file servers 8.1.2 Novell NetWare workstations 8.1.3 Arcnet Network Adapters 8.2 Lantastic File Servers 9. Disk Controllers & Computers... 9.1 Adaptec Disk Controllers 9.2 WD 7000-FASST SCSI Controller 9.3 ALR VEISA Personal Computers 9.4 Installing Stacker on an IBM PS/1 9.5 Plus Passport Removable Hard Disks 9.6 Computers that boot from ROM 9.6.1 Toshiba 1000 series computers 9.6.2 Tandy 2500XL with ROM DOS computers 9.7 Notebook computers without floppy disk drives ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ================================================================== 1. Some notes on operating Stacker... 1.1 How Long Will It Take To Install Stacker? The amount of time required to install Stacker depends on several items: the speed of your computer, the size of your hard disk, how much data you have, and the version of Stacker you're using (software or coprocessor). Below is an example installation. The time required will depend on your particular system configuration. Computer type: 80386 Computer speed: 25 MHz Hard disk size: 80 MB Number of files: 2,000 Stacker product: AT/16 Installation time: 25 minutes 1.2 Using INSTALL and SDEFRAG with Disk Caching Programs We recommend temporarily disabling disk caching software before using INSTALL or SDEFRAG. You may re-enable it after INSTALL or SDEFRAG is finished. 1.3 Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor Users If you are using the Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor on a 386 system, please be sure to read the following sections of this file: 3.1.5 Using the Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor 4.1 Using the Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor 7.3 Using the Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor on a 386 These sections discuss using the XT/8 Coprocessor with DOS 5.0, Windows, and expanded memory managers. 1.4 Stacker Drive Size - Maximums With DOS versions 4.x and later, and COMPAQ DOS 3.31, Stacker drives can be as large as 512 MB (256 MB physical disk space). With DOS 3.x, Stacker drives can be no larger than 32 MB (16 MB physical space). 1.5 Stacker Version 1.x Users Stacker 2.01 Software can be used with version 1 Stacker Coprocessor cards. Except for the software drivers, the version 1 Stacker coprocessor is the same as the version 2 XT/8 coprocessor. To tell the Stacker 2.01 Software INSTALL program to run as the Stacker XT/8 INSTALL program type the following: INSTALL /XT SSWAP is now compatible with DR DOS 5.0 and 6.0. To display a map of your Stacker drives, type STACKER with no options. This replaces the SWAPMAP utility. 1.6 Compression Ratios Reference programs, such as Bibles, dictionaries, and encyclopedias are often stored compressed on non-Stacker drives. In most cases, Stacker cannot compress these files again. This results in a low compression ratio for these files and possibly for the entire Stacker drive, depending on the proportion of your Stacker drive used by these programs. 1.7 Backing up your Stacker drive The best way to back up your system with Stacker is to back up your Stacker drive(s) just like you would back up any other hard disk drive. Your host drive (the uncompressed drive that holds your Stacker drive) should also be backed up, but you should exclude the STACVOL files. You can do this with most backup utilities by excluding STACVOL.*. 1.8 Copying your entire Stacker drive Because Stacker drives actually reside in DOS files, you can copy them from one host drive to another (assuming that it will fit on the destination!). You can find out the file name for any given Stacker drive by running SCHECK or STACKER. Once you have the name of the volume you want to copy, just follow these four steps: SATTRIB -R -S -H <STACVOL file name> COPY <STACVOL file name> <destination drive> SATTRIB +R +S +H <STACVOL file name> SATTRIB +R +S +H <dest. drive>:\<STACVOL file name> For example, if your STACVOL file was named C:\STACVOL.DSK and you wanted to copy it to drive D, you would enter these commands: SATTRIB -R -S -H C:\STACVOL.DSK COPY C:\STACVOL.DSK D:\ SATTRIB +R +S +H C:\STACVOL.DSK SATTRIB +R +S +H D:\STACVOL.DSK NOTE: Stacker will only mount STACVOL files if they are in the root directory of the host drive. NOTE: You must properly configure the STACKER driver in your CONFIG.SYS file to reference the new Stacker volume. See "STACKER - The Device Driver" in the Stacker User Guide for more information. ================================================================== 2. Corrections and additions to the Stacker User Guide... 2.1 Be Ready With... (page vi) Instead of having the contents of your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files, have the contents of the file SINFO.TXT as produced by SINFO. At the DOS prompt, type: SINFO and press Enter. After the file SINFO.TXT has been produced it will automatically be loaded into SEDIT so that you can view it. After reviewing the information press the ESC key to exit SEDIT and return to DOS. NOTE: Any time you wish to view the SINFO.TXT file you may use any text editor, including SEDIT. 2.2 Inserting the AT/16 Coprocessor (page 20) The Stacker AT/16 card WILL operate in an 8-bit slot. If you have a 16 bit slot, you should use it for your Stacker AT/16 to get the maximum possible performance. However, if you have no remaining 16 bit slots, or if you have an XT with no 16 bit slots at all, your Stacker AT/16 will operate when plugged into an 8 bit slot - the only impact is that the coprocessor's performance will be slightly lower. 2.3 Preparing Your System For Stacker (page 34) If you have an anti-virus program loaded in your CONFIG.SYS file, disable it before installing Stacker. After installation is complete, you may re-enable it. Refer to Anti-Virus Programs in Chapter 8: Using Stacker With... for more information. 2.4 Files on the uncompressed part of your disk (page 53) After "Stacking an existing disk with its data" some files will be kept on the uncompressed drive (such as device drivers). These files need to be there; DO NOT delete them. Several of the screens presented during INSTALL differ from those shown in the User Guide. These changes simplify Stacker installation. 2.5 INSTALL - Advanced Options (page 55) The cluster size of a Stacker drive CANNOT be changed after the Stacker drive has been created. 2.6 STAC - The Command Assistant (page 83) If you are using STAC on a computer with a monochrome, LCD, or plasma monitor, you may have difficulty reading your monitor. If so, press F10 and then Enter to return to the DOS prompt, then restart STAC with the monochrome command. To do so, at the DOS prompt enter: STAC /M 2.7 SCREATE (page 91) The size option of SCREATE (/S) is specified in MB, where 1 MB = 1,000,000 bytes. The maximum value that can be specified with the /S option is 256 MB. 2.8 SDEFRAG (page 94) If no drive letter is specified on the command line, SDEFRAG optimizes the current drive. Remove any disk caches and disable any memory resident programs before using SDEFRAG. On the "Grow and Shrink Stacker Drive" menu of SDEFRAG, the selections now are "Change the size of the Stacker drive" and "Make more uncompressed space available." 2.9 SDEFRAG - Disk Space Requirements (page 96) If SDEFRAG does not have enough disk space to operate, it will report this condition along with the amount of space required to operate. This condition may require that you make more 'logical' or 'physical' space available. Each of these messages and the necessary procedures are described below. 2.9.1 Not enough 'physical' space "SDEFRAG requires ## free bytes in the STACVOL file for Stacker drive x before it can operate. Remove some files and try again." Use the following procedure to determine the amount of 'physical' space that SDEFRAG requires to operate. 1. Run CHKDSK on the Stacker drive to see how much space is used by directories. Add 100,000 to this number. 2. Run SCHECK to see how many bytes free there are in the STACVOL file. This is shown in the right hand column of SCHECK's display. The number you get from step 2 must be equal to or greater than the number from step 1. If it is not, remove files from the Stacker drive until you have enough space. 2.9.2 Not enough 'logical' space "SDEFRAG requires ## free bytes on the Stacker drive x before it can operate. Remove some files and try again." Use the following procedure to determine the amount of 'logical' space (in bytes) that SDEFRAG requires to operate. 1. Note the number displayed by SDEFRAG. 2. Run SCHECK to obtain the number of bytes free on the Stacker drive. This is shown in the left hand column of SCHECK's display. 3. Remove some files from the Stacker drive and run SCHECK again. Repeat this process until enough bytes are available. 2.10 STACKER - The Device Driver: new options (page 108) There are several new options for STACKER - The Device Driver. To use one of these options, include it in the STACKER.COM line in your CONFIG.SYS file. /C Change default cluster size from 8K to 4K. Use this switch only if ALL Stacker drives have a cluster size of 4K. This switch is required to obtain the driver size reduction described in the section "STACKER - The Device Driver" of the Stacker User Guide. /NB No Buffers (Stacker software only). This parameter reduces the amount of internal buffering in the Stacker device driver. Because there's less buffering, you may see a slight decrease in disk performance. By using /NB in conjunction with Stacker's /EMS parameter you can reduce the resident size of the Stacker device driver by 8K if your Stacker drives have 8K clusters. (The driver size reduction will be 4K if all your Stacker drives have 4K clusters and you use the /C parameter described above). You cannot use /NB if you have a Stacker coprocessor. /ND No double-buffering for DR DOS 5 and 6. Use the /ND parameter if your hard disk controller is NOT a bus-master controller. If you are unsure whether your disk controller is a bus-master, it probably is not. If you DO use a bus-master disk controller and it does not support virtual DMA, DO NOT use the /ND switch to increase disk performance. The /ND parameter should not be used in conjunction with the /NW parameter. /NW No warning. Using DR DOS 5 or 6, if you configure Stacker to use EMS for its cache, or if you load the Stacker device driver into high memory, the following message is displayed by the Stacker device driver when you start your computer: "Note: In DR DOS, loading Stacker high (or using /EMS) may slow disk access. Please see the Stacker README file for help." If you do not use the /ND parameter and wish to suppress the warning message, place the /NW (no warning) parameter on the Stacker DEVICE statement in the CONFIG.SYS file. 2.11 SpinRite - New procedure (page 142) SpinRite must be used on your host drive, the drive containing your Stacker drive. It should not be run while the Stacker device driver is active. As instructed in the SpinRite manual, boot your computer with a clean, bootable floppy disk. Since a Stacker drive's data is contained within its STACVOL file on the host drive, one run of SpinRite will test both the host drive and the Stacker drive(s) contained on that host. If SpinRite detects a defective area on your hard drive and reports that the area cannot be moved because the area is contained within a STACVOL file, perform the following steps to allow SpinRite to repair your disk. 1. Exit SpinRite. 2. Remove the hidden, system, and read-only attributes of the STACVOL file by using Stacker's SATTRIB command. For example, if drive C is the Stacker drive and drive D is the uncompressed drive, type the following: SATTRIB -H -S -R D:\STACVOL.DSK 3. Run SpinRite on drive D, allowing it to repair defective areas on the disk. 4. Add the hidden, system, and read-only attributes back to the STACVOL file as shown in the example below: SATTRIB +H +S +R D:\STACVOL.DSK 5. Reboot the system. NOTE: If you are using DOS 5, you can also use ATTRIB. Prior to DOS 5, the ATTRIB command did not allow the hidden and system attributes to be changed. For more information on SATTRIB, refer to SATTRIB in Chapter 10: Advanced Topics. 2.12 Anti-Virus Programs (page 144) In general, anti-virus programs should be loaded AFTER the Stacker device driver. 2.13 QEMM Optimize (page 148) The QEMM Optimize program configures your device drivers and memory resident programs to be loaded into high memory. This process requires that your system be rebooted several times. If you have Stacked your boot drive, drive C, the Optimize program included in QEMM versions 5 and 6 operates properly. NOTE: Your system will automatically be rebooted a few extra times during the Optimize process. 2.14 Eliminating extra Drive Letters (page 162) Stacker requires at least one extra drive letter. This drive letter cannot be eliminated. If you replace an uncompressed drive with a Stacker drive in order to eliminate an extra drive letter, you will not be able to cache the Stacker drive with a third- party caching utility. 2.15 SATTRIB - Syntax Note (page 165) A filename and extension MUST be specified. They are NOT optional. 2.16 SSWAP - Example Correction (page 168) The example DEVICE statement on page 168 is incorrect. It should read: DEVICE=C:\STACKER\SSWAP.COM C:\STACVOL.DSK 2.17 Message Explanation Corrections (pages 183-184) The explanation for the message "Insufficient driver memory" should read: "Increase the amount of cache specified..." NOT "Decrease the amount of cache specified..." The explanation for the message "Invalid BPB" should read: "The number of bytes per sector on the drive selected is greater than 512" NOT "... greater than 1024." ================================================================== 3. Operating Systems... 3.1 DOS 5 Stacker is compatible with DOS 5. Here are some tips for using Stacker with DOS 5. 3.1.1 Upgrading before installing Stacker If you are considering upgrading to DOS 5, we recommend that you do so BEFORE installing Stacker. This process is MUCH easier than installing Stacker first (see following). 3.1.2 Upgrading after installing Stacker If you don't have enough space to install DOS 5 on your uncompressed boot drive, we've included a batch file on this diskette to help you. It's called STACDOS5.BAT. NOTE: This procedure works for the MS-DOS 5 Upgrade. If you are using another version of DOS 5, such as IBM DOS 5, please contact Stac technical support for upgrade instructions. To use STACDOS5.BAT, do the following: 1. Make the Stacker directory your current directory (the directory containing STACDOS5.BAT). 2. Run the STACDOS5.BAT batch file by typing STACDOS5. 3. Follow the instructions presented. STACDOS5 will guide you through the entire upgrade process in as little as 10 minutes. 3.1.3 Loading Stacker high on a 386 machine You can use the DEVICEHIGH command to load the Stacker device driver into high memory on systems using 80386 and higher processors. For example, under MS-DOS 5.0 the following statements in the CONFIG.SYS file will load STACKER.COM into high memory automatically when you start your computer. DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM DOS=HIGH,UMB DEVICEHIGH=C:\STACKER\STACKER.COM C:\STACVOL.DSK NOTE: The DEVICE statement for EMM386 must have either the RAM (as shown above) or NOEMS switch in order to access the upper memory area. NOTE: The order of HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE is important and they both must be present in the CONFIG.SYS file before you can use the DEVICEHIGH command. If the NOEMS switch is used with EMM386 and the /EMS switch is specified on the Stacker DEVICE statement, Stacker will be unable to load its cache into EMS memory. To correct this, remove the NOEMS switch from the EMM386 DEVICE statement, and replace it with the RAM switch. 3.1.4 Loading Stacker high on a 286 machine You cannot use the DOS 5 DEVICEHIGH statement in the CONFIG.SYS file to load the Stacker device driver into high memory. However, you can load the Stacker device driver into high memory on a 286, if you have an expanded memory board that provides the functions of the LIM 4.0 expanded memory specification in hardware and a program such as QRAM, MOVE'EM or 386MAX. Refer to your Stacker User Guide for more information. 3.1.5 Using the Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor If you are using the Stacker XT/8 coprocessor on a 386, be sure to use the X (exclude) parameter on the EMM386.EXE DEVICE statement in the CONFIG.SYS file to keep it from using the area of memory occupied by the XT/8 coprocessor. (See section 7.3 Using the Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor on a 386 for the exclude range which corresponds to the base address of your XT/8 card.) For example, if your XT/8 coprocessor base address is cc00, EMM386.EXE should be configured as follows: DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE X=cc00-cfff 3.2 DOS DISKCOPY Command When using the DISKCOPY command with Stacked floppy disks, DO NOT mount the floppy disks. If the disks are mounted, DISKCOPY will not operate properly. Also, if you wish to DISKCOPY a Stacked floppy, the destination disk does not have to be a Stacked floppy. It will be Stacked as part of the DISKCOPY process. 3.3 DOS FASTOPEN Command The Stacker command (used to display a drive map and to mount Stacked floppy diskettes and other removable disks) cannot be used when FASTOPEN is installed. If you are using a disk caching program, FASTOPEN may be unnecessary and can be disabled. 3.4 DR DOS 5.0 and 6.0 Stacker is fully compatible with DR DOS 5.0 and 6.0. 3.4.1 Eliminating extra drive letters There is a section in your Stacker User Guide which describes a method for eliminating extra drive letters. We do not recommend its use with DR DOS 5.0; it works fine with DR DOS 6.0. 3.5 Zenith DOS Zenith DOS 3.3+ is NOT compatible with Stacker on partitions larger than 32 MB. However, Zenith DOS 4.01 IS compatible with Stacker. 3.6 Toshiba DOS 3.2 If you plan on installing Stacker on a system that is running Toshiba DOS 3.2 please call Stac's Technical Support department first. Our support staff has developed special procedures that will assist you in installing Stacker under Toshiba DOS 3.2. Later versions of Toshiba DOS require no such special assistance. ================================================================== 4. Microsoft Windows in 386 Enhanced Mode... Stacker is fully compatible with the 386 Enhanced mode of Windows. 4.1 Using the Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor If you are using the Stacker XT/8 coprocessor on a 386 and plan to run Windows in 386 Enhanced Mode, you'll need to add an EMMExclude statement to the SYSTEM.INI file in your Windows directory. (See section 7.3 Using the Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor on a 386 for the exclude range which corresponds to the base address of your XT/8 card.) For example, if your XT/8 coprocessor base address is cc00, in the SYSTEM.INI file, add the following statement under the heading [386Enh]: EMMExclude=cc00-cfff 4.2 Temporary Windows swap files If you are using temporary Windows swap files, you can place swap files on an uncompressed portion of your disk to reduce fragmentation of your Stacker drive. Do this by adding the following line to the SYSTEM.INI file, located in your Windows directory, under the heading [386Enh]: PagingDrive=<drive-letter> where <drive-letter> is an uncompressed drive with more than 2 MB of available disk space. If the drive does not have this amount available, Windows will not operate properly. If your uncompressed drive has less than 2 MB of available disk space, you can use SDEFRAG /G to make more uncompressed space available. For example, if drive C was your only drive before Stacker, installing Stacker creates drive D, which then becomes the uncompressed portion of your disk. Use the following PagingDrive parameter. PagingDrive=D NOTE: If you built your Stacker drive by building an empty Stacker drive, or if you have manually removed the SSWAP command, then your uncompressed drive may have a different letter. 4.3 Permanent Windows swap files If you decide to use a permanent swap file (which must be on an uncompressed drive) after you've already created your Stacker drives, you may discover that you don't have enough room. You can make more uncompressed space available by using SDEFRAG /G. ================================================================== 5. Disk Utilities... 5.1 Norton FILESAVE and ERASE PROTECT, PC Tools DATA MONITOR Programs such as Norton FILESAVE, ERASE PROTECT, or PC Tools DATA MONITOR affect the amount of available disk space that DOS reports to you. When you delete files from your disk, these programs save them in a special place so you can recover from accidental deletions. These programs tell DOS that the space is available to be used even though they are still storing the deleted files. This can cause DOS to report an artificially high amount of available disk space. This amount may differ from the Projected Bytes Free reported by Stacker's SCHECK command or by the DOS CHKDSK command. 5.2 Disk Repair Utilities Stacker is fully compatible with all the popular Disk Repair Utilities. Before using a disk repair utility (e.g., Norton Disk Doctor or PC Tools DiskFix), run SCHECK to check for errors on the Stacker drive. After using a disk repair utility to mark bad clusters on a disk drive which hosts one or more Stacker drives, you must reboot your system, or unmount and remount the Stacker drives. 5.3 Disk Technician Disk Technician requires unused uncompressed space in order to run. It needs approximately 2% of the drive you are Stacking. For example, if you Stack a 40 MB drive, Disk Technician needs approximately 800 K of available uncompressed space. When you "Stack an existing disk with its data" using INSTALL, you can specify an amount of space to keep uncompressed. This amount defaults to 1.0 MB if you Stack the boot drive, and 100 K for all other hard disks. Use the Advanced Options feature of INSTALL to change this setting. If you need to make more uncompressed space available after creating the Stacker drive, you can use the Stacker disk optimizer, SDEFRAG, with the /G (grow/shrink) option to do this. 5.4 Disk Optimizer (Defragmentation) Programs Use Stacker's disk optimizer, SDEFRAG, to optimize your Stacker drives when they become fragmented. Other disk optimizers, such as Norton Speed Disk or PC Tools Compress, are not effective on Stacker drives. NOTE: If you use a disk caching program, temporarily disable it before using SDEFRAG. You may re- enable it after SDEFRAG is finished. 5.5 Central Point Anti-Virus If you have Stacked your boot drive and you're using the BOOTSAFE anti-virus program, you must tell it to check your host (uncompressed) drive. Run STACKER to see which drive was drive C: at boot time. Then make sure your AUTOEXEC.BAT file has a line like this: BOOTSAFE X: where X: is the drive that was drive C: at boot time. ================================================================== 6. Disk Caching Programs... 6.1 Caching Stacker Drives When using disk caching programs (such as Norton Cache, Hyperdisk Cache, and PCP Fast) with Stacker you must configure the cache to cache ONLY the host drive (the uncompressed portion of your drive). This has the effect of caching the Stacker drive because the Stacker drive is built from a file on the host drive. Configure your system to exclude all Stacker drives from the list of cached drives. There are two ways to do this: 1. Arrange your CONFIG.SYS to load your disk caching program BEFORE Stacker. 2. If your disk caching program must be loaded from the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, configure it to cache the host drive, not the Stacker drive. NOTE: We recommend temporarily disabling any disk caching software before using SDEFRAG or INSTALL. You may re-enable it after SDEFRAG or INSTALL is finished. 6.2 Super PC-Kwik Cache If you have an older version of Super PC-Kwik, and you have Stacked your boot drive (drive C), you may see a warning message from Super PC-Kwik about a boot sector mis-match. If you get this message, ignore it. To suppress the pause after the message appears, use the /K- option on the Super PC-Kwik line in your CONFIG.SYS file. ================================================================== 7. Expanded Memory Managers... 7.1 Stacker's EMS Feature Some programs do not use EMS memory correctly. They may interfere with Stacker's use of EMS and cause EMM exception errors. If this happens to you, try disabling Stacker's EMS feature by removing the /EMS switch from the Stacker DEVICE statement in the CONFIG.SYS file. 7.2 QEMM-386 Optimize Stacker 2.01 is fully compatible with QEMM-386 Optimize. If, however, you are using QEMM 6.00 or 6.01 and Stacker's /EMS switch, and if your boot drive has been compressed, you should create a file named OPTIMIZE.EXC in the QEMM directories on both the compressed and uncompressed boot drives before running OPTIMIZE. This text file should contain the single line that follows: SSWAP.COM This will tell OPTIMIZE not to attempt to load SSWAP into high memory, working around a LOADHI.SYS bug which has been fixed in QEMM 6.02. If you do not create this file before running OPTIMIZE, SSWAP will create it for you, but the first attempt to run OPTIMIZE may hang your PC. In this case do the following: 1. Reboot your PC. 2. Run UNOPT.BAT from the QEMM directory to restore your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. 3. Run OPTIMIZE again now that the OPTIMIZE.EXC file exists. 7.3 Using the Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor on a 386 If you are using the Stacker XT/8 coprocessor on a 386 system, and you are using a memory manager, add an EXCLUDE parameter to the memory manager DEVICE statement in the CONFIG.SYS file. Be sure to do this so the memory manager doesn't use the memory area required by the XT/8 coprocessor card. The range of memory addresses depends on the base address of the Stacker XT/8 card. The base address is found on the Stacker DEVICE statement in the CONFIG.SYS file and is identified by the /B parameter. The exclude parameter format depends on the memory manager. The following table lists the formats for the "EXCLUDE" parameters for several popular memory managers: Product EMM Driver Format -------- ----------- ------------------- QEMM-386 QEMM386.SYS EXCLUDE=<range> 386MAX 386MAX.SYS EXCLUDE=<range> DR DOS EMM386.SYS EXCLUDE=<range> DOS 5 EMM386.EXE X=<range> WINDOWS EMM386.EXE X=<range> The following table lists the seven possible memory ranges, based on the base address of the XT/8 coprocessor card: Base Address <range> to Exclude ------------ ------------------ c400 c400-c7ff c800 c800-cbff cc00 cc00-cfff d000 d000-d3ff d400 d400-d7ff d800 d800-dbff dc00 dc00-dfff For example, if you are using QEMM-386 and the Stacker XT/8 coprocessor base address is d000, add this line to the QEMM386 DEVICE statement in the CONFIG.SYS file: EXCLUDE=d000-d3ff 7.4 Netroom 1.12 Netroom version 1.12 does not properly retain the device attributes of the drivers it loads into high memory. Stacker should not be loaded into high memory using Netroom 1.12. 7.5 Netroom 2.0 If you have an AT/16 coprocessor board and you're using Netroom 2.0, you must include the HIGH_IO command in the RM386.SYS line of your CONFIG.SYS file. ================================================================== 8. Networks... 8.1 Novell NetWare 8.1.1 Novell NetWare file servers Stacker cannot be installed on a Novell network file server. However, Stacker can be installed on the local hard disk of a Novell network workstation. 8.1.2 Novell NetWare workstations If you try to run one of the Stacker utilities and you get a "Bad command or file name" message, your workstation is probably configured to ignore the PATH statement in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. To fix this problem, use the Netware MAP utility to map one of your Novell search drives to the directory containing the Stacker software. See your network administrator if you need assistance. 8.1.3 Arcnet Network Adapters Arcnet network cards often use a base address of 2E0. To avoid a conflict with the Stacker AT/16 coprocessor card, determine the base address of the network card before installing Stacker. Do this by running the Arcnet Netware IPX program with the I option. During Stacker's INSTALL, do not use the base address of the network card for the Stacker AT/16 card. 8.2 Lantastic File Servers Stacker can be used on DOS-based networks such as Lantastic. Lantastic file server drives can be Stacked. All of the necessary Lantastic files will be put on the new Stacker drive. Stacker drives on a Lantastic network file server can be accessed by network workstations that do not have Stacker. NOTE: Reports of available disk space will not accurately reflect the projected amount of space available on the server's Stacker drives, but will instead match the amount reported as available by the DOS CHKDSK command. ================================================================== 9. Disk Controllers & Computers... 9.1 Adaptec Disk Controllers If you are using Windows 3.0 in 386 enhanced mode, and you are having problems using your Stacker drives, your disk controller might require the following setting in your SYSTEM.INI file in order for disk drive interrupts to be processed correctly. Add the following setting under the heading [386enh]: VirtualHDIrq=off 9.2 WD 7000-FASST SCSI Controller If you are using the Western Digital 7000-FASST SCSI controller and you wish to load STACKER.COM into high memory, you must use the /W option on the WD device driver statement, 'DEVICE=SSTBIO.SYS' in the CONFIG.SYS file. This will enable the necessary support for expanded or extended memory environments within the SCSI controller device driver. 9.3 ALR VEISA Personal Computers Early versions of ALR VEISA computers may require an update to the motherboard circuitry to reliably execute certain valid instruction sequences used by the Stacker device driver. Contact ALR technical support at 714/458- 0863 to find out if this is necessary. 9.4 Installing Stacker on an IBM PS/1 1. Start IBM DOS from the fourth quadrant screen. Click on "Backup and Restore Your Fixed Disk" and press Enter. Follow the prompts that you are given to backup all of the files on your fixed disk. NOTE: The number of diskettes will vary depending on the amount of data on your hard drive. 2. From the fourth quadrant screen choose "Customize How System Starts". 3. The third line from the bottom of the screen says "Read Config.sys:". Click on "From Disk". 4. The next line down says "Read Autoexec.bat:". Click on "From Disk". 5. The last line says "Disk to read from:". Click on "C:". 6. Press Enter to save the changes and exit. 7. Restart your system by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del. NOTE: You may get an "Error in CONFIG.SYS" message when the computer boots. Ignore it. 8. If you boot into the built-in menu, instead of booting to the DOS prompt, press Shift+F9 to get to the DOS prompt. 9. You can now install Stacker by inserting the Stacker diskette and typing A:INSTALL /B=C and then pressing the Enter key. NOTE: If you have a black and white system you must also add a /M parameter to the above line before pressing the Enter key. CAUTION: Do not choose the default of "Reboot to remove resident programs". This could cause the computer to boot directly into the built-in menu instead of completing the Stacker installation. All other defaults are fine. At the end of the Stacker installation program let Stacker reboot to access the Stacker Drive. 10. If you boot into the built-in menu, instead of booting to the DOS prompt, press Shift+F9 to get to the DOS prompt. 11. Insert the Stacker diskette in drive A: and enter the following: A:SEDIT C:\CONFIG.SYS 12. At the end of the CONFIG.SYS file add the line: INSTALL=D:\SHELLSTB.COM 13. If you have an "INSTALL=D:\SHELLSTB.COM" line before the STACKER device lines, disable it by moving the cursor to the beginning of the line and typing REM followed by a space. 14. Press Ctrl+Z to save the CONFIG.SYS file. 15. Restart you system by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del for the changes to take effect. 16. As your computer restarts Stacker's SSWAP utility will inform you that the CONFIG.SYS file on your system's boot drive needs to be updated. It will also ask if it is OK to perform the update. Press F9 and then Enter to allow it to do the update. Your system will restart one last time and the installation of Stacker will be complete. 9.5 Plus Passport Removable Hard Disks DOS does not recognize Plus Passport drives as removable drives. If you have Stacked a Plus Passport hard disk, be sure to MOUNT it before using it. For example, if your Stacked Plus Passport drive is drive J, type the following at the DOS prompt to access the Stacker drive. STACKER J: Be sure to UNMOUNT it before removing it from the base housing. For example, if your Stacked Plus Passport drive is drive J, type the following at the DOS prompt. STACKER -J: 9.6 Computers that boot from ROM If you have a computer that boots from ROM and you're having trouble installing Stacker, try the following: 1. Configure your system to read the CONFIG.SYS file and AUTOEXEC.BAT file from your C drive. Your system will have a special setup program to do this - read your computer system's user's manual. 2. Install Stacker with this command: A:INSTALL /B=C This command tells Stacker's installation program that the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files are on drive C instead of in the ROM. 9.6.1 Toshiba 1000 series computers Toshiba 1000 series computers boot from ROM. Before you install Stacker, run the Toshiba setup program (SETUP10) and configure the boot priority to read the CONFIG.SYS file from your hard disk. 9.6.2 Tandy 2500XL with ROM DOS computers Tandy 2500XL computers with ROM DOS boot from ROM. Before you install Stacker, run the Tandy setup program (SETUPXL) and configure the boot priority to read the CONFIG.SYS file from your hard disk. 9.7 Notebook computers without floppy disk drives Use the following procedure to compress the boot partition of the hard disk in your notebook computer: NOTE: We suggest that you consult the documentation for your notebook computer and learn how to boot it from ROM before proceeding with these instructions. 1. Use the following steps to run Stacker's INSTALL program on another PC and personalize the files on your Stacker diskettes: A. Insert the Stacker Program Disk into a floppy drive. Switch to the floppy drive, type INSTALL, and press Enter. B. The first screen will present you with the option to view this README file. Press C to "Continue with Installation". C. The next screen will ask you to enter your name and company's name to personalize your copy of Stacker. Enter the requested information. Once your name and company are entered you will be asked if the information is correct. If it is correct press Y. Otherwise press N, correct the information and then press Y. After you press Y the files on your Stacker diskettes will be personalized. D. The next screen will ask you where to copy the Stacker files. The title of the screen is "Copying Files From The Diskette(s) To Your Hard Disk". At this point press Esc and then Y to exit Stacker's installation program. 2. Create a Stacker directory on the C drive of the notebook. 3. Laplink the Stacker files from the Stacker floppies to the Stacker directory of the notebook. 4. Use SEDIT or another text editor to add the following line to the end of the CONFIG.SYS file on the notebook. DEVICE=C:\STACKER\STACKER.COM C:\STACVOL.DSK 5. Use SEDIT or another text editor to add the following to the end of the PATH statement in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file on the notebook: ;C:\STACKER 6. Change to the Stacker directory on the C drive of the notebook. 7. Enter the following command to create a temporary 1 MB empty Stacker drive: SCREATE C:\STACVOL.DSK /S=1 NOTE: This step requires that the notebook's C drive has at least 1 MB of free disk space. If your notebook has no other drives after drive C then the new drive will be drive D. Otherwise it will assume the next available drive letter. The remainder of these instructions assume that the new drive is drive D. 8. Reboot the notebook to load the Stacker device driver and mount the empty D drive. 9. Enter the following command to copy the Stacker files to the new drive: COPY C:\STACKER D:\ 10. Use SEDIT or another text editor to add the following to the end of the Stacker DEVICE statement in the CONFIG.SYS file on the C drive: C:\STACVOL.000 11. Change to the D drive. 12. Enter the following command to compress the C drive: SCREATE C:\STACVOL.000 /I /C=C /=P 13. Reboot the notebook to mount the compressed drive C as drive E. 14. Change to the Stacker directory on drive E. 15. Enter the following to remove the temporary D drive. SREMOVE D: NOTE: SREMOVE will warn you that there is data on the drive. Do not worry about this. Type YES and press Enter. SREMOVE will ask you again to make sure you want to remove drive D, the temporary drive. Again you should type YES and press Enter. 16. Use SEDIT or another text editor to remove the reference to STACVOL.DSK from the Stacker device statement in the CONFIG.SYS file on the C drive. After this modification the line should appear as follows: DEVICE=C:\STACKER\STACKER.COM C:\STACVOL.000 17. You will probably want to add the following line to the end of the CONFIG.SYS file on drive C to make the new compressed drive appear as drive C. This prevents you from having to modify your path statement and batch files to account for the new drive letter. DEVICE=C:\STACKER\SSWAP.COM C:\STACVOL.000 /SYNC 18. Reboot the notebook. If you added the line from step 17 to the CONFIG.SYS file, then as your computer restarts Stacker's SSWAP utility will inform you that the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files on the compressed drive need to be updated. It will also ask if it is OK to perform the update. Press F9 and then Enter to allow it to do the update. Your system will restart one last time and the installation of Stacker will be complete. ================================================================== ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (c) Copyright 1990-92, Stac Electronics, Carlsbad, CA. U.S. patents 5,016,009 and 5,003,307. Other patents pending. Stacker is a trademark of Stac Electronics. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.