Stacker

Stacker for OS/2 & DOS - Late Breaking News This document contains important information that is not included in the Stacker for OS/2 & DOS User's Guide, the User's Guide Addendum, or in the Help. If you're using any special or unique hardware or software with your system, see the Help provided in SETUP. To get help in these situations: 1. From any SETUP screen, press F1. 2. Press ENTER to choose the Index. 3. Press TAB to select Hardware Considerations or Software Considerations and press ENTER. Contents This document contains late-breaking information on the following topics: 1.0 Changes to Stacker for OS/2 & DOS User's Guide 1.1 Which CONFIG.SYS files are updated by UNSTACK 1.2 Rebooting directly from POSTINST and POSTUP 1.3 Instructions for keeping SWAPPER.DAT uncompressed 2.0 Non-compression of SWAPPER.DAT 3.0 Error messages after UNSTACK on Dual Boot systems 4.0 If you're using a Dual Boot system with Stacker 2.0 or 3.0 5.0 Making space for UNSTACK 6.0 Formatting a Stacker drive as HPFS: don't try this! 7.0 Lost extended attribute message on CONFIG.SYS 8.0 Files not found at OS/2 startup 9.0 OS/2 autocheck on Stacker drives 10.0 HPFS boot drives 11.0 Changing where Stacker for OS/2 & DOS is installed 12.0 Avoiding the SUBST command 13.0 SDEFRAG lowers fragmentation even if you don't tell it to defragment 14.0 Creating large Stacker drives 14.1 Two Stacker drives created when one is requested 14.2 Setup running out of memory 15.0 Using CONFIG with Optical Disk Drives (OS/2 2.0 only) 16.0 For users of systems with OS/2 pre-installed 17.0 Running DOS from a disk or disk image within OS/2 18.0 GammaTech utilities 19.0 Customizing Stacker for international use 20.0 Determining free space requirements ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.0 Changes to Stacker for OS/2 & DOS User's Guide 1.1 Which CONFIG.SYS files are updated by UNSTACK The User's Guide states (on page 93) that UNSTACK updates only one OS/2 CONFIG.SYS file. Actually, when UNSTACK removes a Stacker drive it updates all the OS/2 and DOS CONFIG.SYS files it can find. It can't, however, update a CONFIG.SYS file that's on an HPFS partition or on a hidden partition. 1.2 Rebooting directly from POSTINST and POSTUP The POSTINST and POSTUP utilities both have been modified to prompt you to press Ctrl-Alt-Del to reboot when they have completed their processing. Accordingly, step 18 on page 156 and step 9 on page 160 of the User's Guide can be omitted. 1.3 Instructions for keeping SWAPPER.DAT uncompressed The directions in Appendix E of the User's Guide for telling OS/2 to use an uncompressed drive for SWAPPER.DAT no longer apply, since this is now done automatically, as described in the next section. 2.0 Non-compression of SWAPPER.DAT The OS/2 swap file SWAPPER.DAT cannot be kept on a Stacker drive in this version of Stacker for OS/2 & DOS. If SWAPPER.DAT is on a Stacker drive, SYNC2.EXE will detect this when it runs at startup and will alter the SWAPPATH directive in the OS/2 CONFIG.SYS to make sure that on subsequent reboots SWAPPER.DAT will be on an uncompressed drive. When SYNC2 has to move SWAPPER.DAT, it always tries to move it to the uncompressed drive corresponding to the OS/2 boot drive. If there is not enough uncompressed space on that drive, SYNC2 suggests making more free space available by running SDEFRAG /GP. If you have more free space on a different uncompressed drive, you may wish to edit CONFIG.SYS so that the SWAPPATH directive instead points to the uncompressed drive with more free space. As mentioned above in section 1.3 of this file, the directions in Appendix E of the User's Guide for telling OS/2 to use an uncompressed drive for SWAPPER.DAT no longer apply, since this is done automatically. 3.0 Error messages after UNSTACK on Dual Boot systems On a Dual Boot system, UNSTACK may not update the OS/2 CONFIG.SYS file; when you reboot OS/2 you will get a message that the drive you removed cannot be mounted. Running CONFIG under OS/2 updates the CONFIG.SYS file. 4.0 If you're using a Dual Boot system with Stacker 2.0 or 3.0 A number of users of Stacker 2.0 or Stacker 3.0 for Windows and DOS who couldn't wait for Stacker for OS/2 & DOS have set up Dual Boot systems on which the C drive is a Stacker drive. They've done this by installing OS/2 in the C drive's uncompressed space. On such a system, rebooting from DOS to OS/2 would normally be a problem because the physical C drive is swapped with a different drive, which throws off IBM's BOOT.COM. However, these ingenious folks have solved this problem by rerunning SSWAP.COM before BOOT /OS2 (for example, if C: is swapped with E:, they would enter SSWAP C: E:). That way, C: is what the IBM BOOT.COM expects it to be, namely the physical C drive. If you're not one of these users, you can ignore the rest of this section. If you are one of these users, your preferred course of action is to run UNSTACK on your existing C drive, then install Stacker for OS/2 & DOS and turn the whole drive, including OS/2, into a new Stacker drive. That way, you'll be able to see all your data under both OS/2 and DOS. If you're currently using Stacker 2.0, in which case you don't have UNSTACK, you can use the Stacker for OS/2 & DOS UNSTACK as follows: 1. Boot with the Stacker for OS/2 & DOS Disk 1 in the A drive 2. Update A:\CONFIG.SYS by running CONFIG. 3. Reboot with Disk 1 still in the A drive. 4. Run UNSTACK to remove Stacker drive C. After you've run UNSTACK, you can run the Stacker for OS/2 & DOS SETUP. If for some reason you don't run UNSTACK before the Stacker for OS/2 & DOS SETUP, you need to be aware of two issues: 1. If you run SETUP with the Stacker drive C mounted and swapped (the way you normally run your system), SETUP will not modify the OS/2 CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, which are stashed away as C:\OS2\SYSTEM\CONFIG.OS2 and C:\OS2\SYSTEM\AUTOEXEC.OS2 when you're running DOS. The next time you reboot to OS/2, you'll need to do two things: (i) Run CONFIG to update your OS/2 CONFIG.SYS (ii) Edit the OS/2 AUTOEXEC.BAT to put the Stacker for OS/2 & DOS path (which is C:\STACKER\OS2 if you accepted the default) in the PATH command. 2. If you run SETUP without the Stacker drive C mounted, it will not install Stacker for OS/2 & DOS on the C drive. However, if you have another drive that isn't compressed, you can install Stacker for OS/2 & DOS there. In that case, SETUP will update your OS/2 CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, unlike the preceding case. 5.0 Making space for UNSTACK UNSTACK may tell you that you must make more space on the uncompressed drive. If you're unstacking an OS/2 boot drive, the easiest way to make lots of space may be to delete the SWAPPER.DAT file, which normally will be in the \OS2\SYSTEM directory on the uncompressed drive. (If you're not sure which drive is the uncompressed one, run SWAPMAP. For example, if you're about to unstack drive D, look for the drive that SWAPMAP says was drive D at boot time.) If you decide to make more space by deleting other files, it's best to boot OS/2 and delete the files, so that the extended attributes of files you delete aren't left dangling. Then run CHECK (in a DOS session) and the OS/2 CHKDSK to make sure the Stacker drive is clean, and reboot into DOS. If CHECK reported any errors, run CHECK /F, and finally run UNSTACK again. 6.0 Formatting a Stacker drive as HPFS: don't try this! If you try to reformat a Stacker drive as an HPFS drive, the format operation may "succeed" but the Stacker drive will be rendered useless. Of course, all the data on the drive will be lost, as in any formatting operation. 7.0 Lost extended attribute message on CONFIG.SYS The OS/2 CHKDSK may give you a "lost extended attribute" message after you run SETUP, UNSTACK, or REMOVDRV if your OS/2 CONFIG.SYS had an extended attribute. Those programs do not preserve the extended attribute of CONFIG.SYS. By default, CONFIG.SYS has no extended attribute; when it does have one, it's generally just a file type whose loss does no harm. Just run CHKDSK /F to fix the problem. 8.0 Files not found at OS/2 startup Installation of some OS/2 software packages may insert DEVICE= lines at the top of the OS/2 CONFIG.SYS file, before the STACKER.SYS and SSWAP2.SYS lines. The next time you reboot OS/2, these new drivers may display error messages saying they can't find certain files; the reason is that those files are on a Stacker drive which, because the Stacker driver hasn't been loaded yet, can't be accessed yet. The solution is to edit the OS/2 CONFIG.SYS and move the Stacker-related lines (the ones that mention STACKER.SYS, SSWAP2.SYS, FATMGR.EXE, and SYNC2.EXE) to the top of CONFIG.SYS, making sure to keep them in their original order. 9.0 OS/2 autocheck on Stacker drives If a drive is found in an inconsistant state during startup (caused by such events as a system crash or power failure), OS/2 can run a FAT autocheck on startup; the /AC switch on the DISKCACHE line in CONFIG.SYS causes it to happen. It doesn't run on Stacker drives, however. If you see the Stacker message "Updating allocation map..." during startup, run Chkdsk on your Stacker drive. If any problems are reported, boot from floppy and repair it as usual. 10.0 HPFS boot drives If you have an OS/2 boot drive formatted as an HPFS drive, the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files on that drive will not be updated by SETUP, UNSTACK, and REMOVDRV, since these programs run under DOS and therefore cannot access HPFS drives. To bring this drive up to date, boot from it and run CONFIG to update the CONFIG.SYS file. You may also wish to use a text editor to insert the path where you've installed Stacker for OS/2 & DOS in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file's PATH statement, so that the Stacker utilities will be directly available. For example, if you've installed Stacker for OS/2 & DOS in C:\STACKER\OS2, you would change the PATH statement from PATH D:\OS2;D:\OS2\MDOS to PATH D:\OS2;D:\OS2\MDOS;c:\stacker\os2 11.0 Changing where Stacker for OS/2 & DOS is installed After you've installed Stacker for OS/2 & DOS, it's inadvisable to try to move it to a different directory or to give the directory that it's in a new name (for example, to install in \STACKER\OS2 and then by renaming directories change it to \ST\O2). If you absolutely must change the path of the Stacker files, you need to replace the old Stacker path with the new one every time it occurs in the following files: (i) All OS/2 and DOS CONFIG.SYS files containing Stacker commands. This includes the CONFIG.SYS on the second diskette in the set of Stacker- aware OS/2 boot diskettes you made with STACBOOT. It also includes C:\OS2\SYSTEM\CONFIG.DOS on a Dual Boot system where you're currently running OS/2. (ii) All OS/2 and DOS AUTOEXEC.BAT files. This includes C:\OS2\SYSTEM\AUTOEXEC.DOS on a Dual Boot system where you're currently running OS/2. (iii) \OS2\SYSTEM\CONFIG.OS2 and \OS2\SYSTEM\AUTOEXEC.OS2 on a Dual Boot system where you're currently running DOS. (iv) INSTPATH.TXT on Stacker for OS/2 & DOS Disk 1 and Disk 2 and in the directory to which you've moved Stacker. If you have HPFS drives on your system, the path may be different under DOS than it is under OS/2 because DOS skips over HPFS drives. The DOS CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files (including CONFIG.DOS and AUTOEXEC.DOS) should use the DOS drive letter. The OS/2 CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files (including CONFIG.OS2 and AUTOEXEC.OS2), plus all the INSTPATH.TXT files, should use the OS/2 drive letter. 12.0 Avoiding the SUBST command Avoid using SUBST to assign a new drive letter to a directory on a Stacker drive. If you must do this, it is advisable to remove the mounted drive before running any Stacker utilities, such as CHECK. If x: is the drive letter of the mounted drive, SUBST x: /D will remove it. 13.0 SDEFRAG lowers fragmentation even if you don't tell it to defragment SDEFRAG performs certain kinds of cleanup even if you decline to actually defragment the drive, so it and the other utilities that report on the fragmentation level (CHECK and REPORT) may display a lower number than before. 14.0 Creating large Stacker drives This section covers some situations you may run into when creating Stacker drives larger than 512 megabytes. 14.1 Two Stacker drives created when one is requested When you compress a large drive, you may find that you end up with two Stacker drives instead of just one. The reason is that we avoid using 16K clusters (the units in which space is allocated to files) if we can use 8K ones, and avoid using 32K ones if we can use 16K. Smaller clusters can allow more data to be stored on a drive, but they limit the size of the drive; 8K clusters allow up to a 512 megabyte drive, and 16K clusters allow up to a 1 gigabyte drive. When you compress an entire drive, the existing data on the drive always goes onto a single drive, regardless of the cluster size that requires. You can enforce a given cluster size when creating a new Stacker drive by going into SETUP's Advanced Options (during a Custom Setup) and selecting that cluster size. 14.2 SETUP running out of memory If you attempt to create a Stacker drive with 16K or 32K clusters by compressing a drive that has 32K clusters and has extended attributes on it, you will probably get an "insufficient memory" error message and the Stacker drive will not be created. The workaround is to remove enough data from the drive you wish to compress so that it has less than 1,024,000,000 bytes of data on it, and rerun SETUP to compress the drive. SETUP will now create two Stacker drives with 16K clusters, as described above in section 14.1. 15.0 Using CONFIG with Optical Disk Drives (OS/2 2.0 only) If you run CONFIG in a DOS session under OS/2 2.0 with an optical drive mounted that has no disk in it, OS/2 will display a SYS0039 error, saying the drive is not ready. If this happens, select "Return error code to application" and CONFIG will continue normally. 16.0 For users of systems with OS/2 pre-installed If your system was preloaded with OS/2, then it probably didn't come with OS/2 installation diskettes. In that case, you need to make your own OS/2 utility diskettes and use copies of those diskettes whenever the Stacker for OS/2 & DOS User's Guide asks you to use copies of the OS/2 installation diskettes. With at least some systems, the procedure for making the utility diskettes is documented in a manual called "Using the Welcome Folder," in a section called "Creating Utility Diskettes." The procedure for creating utility diskettes results in three diskettes, which are supposed to be labeled Utility Diskette 1, 2, and 3. Use Utility Diskette 1 whenever the Stacker for OS/2 & DOS User's Guide tells you to use the OS/2 Installation Diskette, and use Utility Diskette 2 whenever the User's Guide tells you to use OS/2 Diskette 1. You'll need copies of the first two Utility Diskettes in order to run STACBOOT, which will turn them into "Stacker-aware" OS/2 boot diskettes that can be used to repair errors on drives that might otherwise be locked if you booted in the usual way. 17.0 Running DOS from a disk or disk image within OS/2 The information in this section applies to running a specific version of DOS from within OS/2. For example, you can start up an MS-DOS 4.0 session by inserting an MS-DOS 4.0 boot diskette in the A drive and double-clicking on the "DOS from Drive A:" icon in the Command Prompts folder. In general, you can start up such a DOS session from a diskette, from a hard drive (normally C:), or from a disk image created by VMDISK. This section does not apply to regular DOS Window or DOS Full-screen sessions within OS/2, nor does it apply to rebooting from OS/2 to DOS on a Dual Boot system via the BOOT /DOS command or the Dual Boot icon. When running a specific version of DOS within OS/2, you can access all the Stacker drives in that session that you can normally access in OS/2, provided the CONFIG.SYS used by that session contains a DEVICE=FSFILTER.SYS line. OS/2's on-line help contains further information on FSFILTER.SYS. The results are unpredictable if you run DOS in this manner from a disk or disk image that itself mounts Stacker drives or runs Stacker utilities. You should make sure the disk's CONFIG.SYS doesn't load STACKER.COM or SSWAP.COM and that its AUTOEXEC.BAT doesn't run CHECK, before booting DOS from it within OS/2. 18.0 GammaTech utilities The current version of Stacker for OS/2 & DOS is fully compatible with the maintenance release of the GammaTech Utilities (1.02). With earlier versions, a trap 000E with possible data corruption may occur if you try to run the GammaTech Analyze, Sector-Edit, or Sentry utilities on a Stacker drive. The utilities themselves may be stored a Stacker drive, but you should not tell them to operate on a Stacker drive. 19.0 Customizing Stacker for international use By default, Stacker uses a standard United States keyboard and conventions for date, time, and characters. You can tell Stacker that you use a different keyboard layout and request country-specific conventions for date, time, and characters if necessary. The \INTL directory on Stacker for OS/2 & DOS Disk 1 includes new files for use in these countries: Code Country DE Deutsch (German) ES Espa±ol (Spanish) FR Franþais (French) IT Italiano (Italian) JA Japanese NL Nederlands (Dutch) PO PortuguÛs (Portuguese) SV Svenska (Swedish) UK United Kingdom US US/Canada (To revert to the standard version after changing it) BEFORE RUNNING SETUP FOR THE FIRST TIME: Modify Stacker for OS/2 & DOS to suit your computer following these steps: 1. Start your computer as usual. 2. Get to a DOS command line; a DOS session within OS/2 is fine. 3. Insert Stacker for OS/2 & DOS Disk 1 into drive A. 4. Type A:\INTL\LANGUAGE code where code is one of the choices in the table above (for example, A:\INTL\LANGUAGE DE for Deutsch) and press ENTER. 5. Restart your computer using this disk to run SETUP. Whenever your computer restarts into DOS from this disk, it will use the appropriate keyboard and country settings. The LANGUAGE batch file runs the KEYB and COUNTRY commands to make your computer respond appropriately. KEYB specifies the keyboard layout in use, while COUNTRY determines the appropriate date, time, currency, character sort, and filename validity for the computer. Using any keyboard other than the standard United States English layout uses a bit more memory. If you find that you run out of memory after customizing it for your language, use A:\INTL\LANGUAGE US to restore it to the default settings. You'll be able to use it, but the keyboard and displayed values will be in their default state. 20.0 Determining free space requirements Currently Setup allows you to compress an entire drive as long as you have at least 1% plus 45K free, or compress free space if you have at least 100K free. However, if you are trying to compress a drive that has particularly large clusters, you may receive an error message indicating that Setup cannot continue because the disk is full. If this happens to you, you can use the following procedure to determine the free space requirements. 1. Determine the Number of Sub-Directories using the CHKDSK command. This is the "Number of Directories" (not the bytes). Write that number here._________________________________ 2. Determine Stacker's Working Drive Size using the CHKDSK command. This is the "Bytes Total Disk Space." Write the number of bytes here._________________________ 3. Determine the amount of data you have on your disk using the CHKDSK command. This is: Bytes determined in #2 _____________________________ - "Bytes Available on Disk"_____________________________ = _____________________________ 4. Determine the STACVOL cluster size on your drive in bytes using the following table. Locate your drive size (the number of bytes determined in #2) in the first column. Locate your data size (the number of bytes determined in #3) underneath the Data Size heading. The cluster size for your drive is displayed in the column beneath the range in which your data size falls. Write the number of bytes here.________________________ Drive Size | Data Size |0 - 1,023,999,999 |1,024,000,000 - 2,147,483,648 | STACVOL Cluster Size ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 - 460,799,999| 8,192 | N/A 460,800,000 - 921,599,999| 16,384 | N/A 921,600,000 - 2,147,483,648| 16,384 | 32,768 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Multiply the number from #1 by the number of bytes from #4. Write that value here.________________________ 6. Multiply .006 by the number of bytes from #2. Write that value here.________________________ 7. Add the two values calculated in #5 and #6. This is the free space requirement for compressing the drive. Write that value here.________________________ 8. Remove data from your drive until the amount of free space you have on your disk (see #3) is at least this size.