#: 15649 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    11-Feb-93  20:06:58
Sb: 3.0 & OS/2 interchgable?
Fm: STAC Electronics 75300,2755
To: Matt Nations 73417,511 (X)

Matt,

I will need to check with the OS/2 group for the answer to your questions.

re: upgrading

Check in lib:2 for details on Stacker 3;  STAC30.ZIP

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 15697 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    12-Feb-93  14:05:54
Sb: 3.0 & OS/2 interchgable?
Fm: Ed Brakus 76020,2765
To: Barry Schnur 70007,4653 (X)

I'm not sure how all that is going to work out but I think it depends on what
version of Stacker you have now.  The issue is the format of the STACVOL.  My
guess is that worst case you might have to run a utility to modify your
stacvol. (A one shot deal). This utility would be required only if you have a
prehistoric version of stacker. (like 1.0)

I am being unofficial here so don't quote me.  All these issues, I AM sure,
will be made very clear very soon.  We are coming close to our release date and
I am starting to see some promotional materials re Stacker for OS/2 floating
around.

Stand by for more.

Ed - Stacker for OS/2 development - STAC

#: 40507 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  18:39:22
Sb: Memory/Stacker/Dos6.0
Fm: Edward Nutter [Stac] 75330,2222
To: Ed. Ordaz 70404,1133

Hmmm. I see the problem, and the answer is awkward.  The trouble is that
Stacker's memory requirements are defined by its configuration file
STACKER.INI.  This is not subject to the multi-boot rule.  You can however
bypass the preload version of Stacker by pressing Alt-Ctrl-Shift just as you
see Loading MS-DOS, just like an F5 or F8 boot.

You could have a config.sys on the uncompressed boot drive with...
<memory manager>
DEVICEHIGH=C:\STACKER\STACKER.COM /-AUTO /P=0 C:\STACVOL.DSK
<mouse>

...followed by an autoexec.bat that starts up Falcon.  You could do the same
basic thing with a boot diskette.

Edward Nutter
Stac Electronics Product Support 

#: 40475 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  17:56:08
Sb: #Microsoft Diagnostics
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Mitchell F. Paine 76640,37 (X)

Mitchell,

config.sys- >DEVICE=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:2 /SIZE=44000 C:\STACKER\STACKER.COM
/B=280 >C:\STACVOL.DSK @ >DEVICE=C:\STACKER\SSWAP.COM C:\STACVOL.DSK /SYNC /EMS
add device driver for ram drive

>SHELL=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.COM /R:2 C:\COMMAND.COM /E:347 /P >STACKS=9,256

autoexec.bat-    place lines on the bottom

c:\stacker\create <drive letter of ram drive> c:\stacker\stacker <drive letter
of ram drive>

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40509 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  19:32:56
Sb: #40475-#Microsoft Diagnostics
Fm: Mitchell F. Paine 76640,37
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Keith,

I dis as you instructed and got the following ERROR MESSAGE:

        ERROR #002: DRIVE E IS NOT A DOS DISK

Here is my Config.sys and Autoexec.bat:

DEVICE=C:\QEMM\DOSDATA.SYS
DEVICE=C:\QEMM\QEMM386.SYS DBF:2 RAM ST:F X=C800-CFFF R:1
DEVICE=C:\QEMM\DOS-UP.SYS @C:\QEMM\DOS-UP.DAT
DEVICE=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:1 /SIZE=8592 C:\QEMM\QDPMI.SYS SWAPFILE=DPMI.SWP
SWAPSIZE=1024
DEVICE=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:1 /SIZE=768 C:\SECURITY\SYSLOCK.SYS
DOS=HIGH
FILES=40
BUFFERS=16
DEVICE=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:2 /SIZE=44000 C:\STACKER\STACKER.COM /B=280
C:\STACVOL.DSK @
DEVICE=C:\STACKER\SSWAP.COM C:\STACVOL.DSK /SYNC /EMS C:\WINDOWS\RAMDRIVE.SYS
SHELL=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.COM /R:2 C:\COMMAND.COM /E:347 /P
STACKS=9,256


REM THE "CHECK" LINE BELOW PROVIDES ADDITIONAL SAFETY FOR STACKER DRIVES.
REM PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE IT.
C:\STACKER\CHECK /WP
PATH
C:\;C:\QEMM;C:\CPAV;C:\SECURITY;C:\DOS;C:\PCTOOLS;C:\WINDOWS;C:\MOUSE;C:\STACKE
;C:\EZMENU
REM The line below for SMARTDRV.EXE is Prevented from
REM Loading high through optimize due to an entry in
REM OPTIMIZE.EXC 11/7/93
SMARTDRV.EXE A- B- C- 2048 2048
SET CPAV=C:\CPAV\CPAV.INI
C:\CPAV\BOOTSAFE D:
C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:1 /LO C:\CPAV\VSAFE /1+/2-/3-/4+/5+/6+/7-/8-
SET PCTOOLS=C:\PCTOOLS\DATA
SET TEMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
REM The line below for MOUSE is Prevented from
REM Loading high through optimize due to an entry in
REM OPTIMIZE.EXC 11/9/93
MOUSE
C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:1 DOSKEY
C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:2 C:\WINDOWS\AD-DOS.COM
C:\WINDOWS\AD_WRAP.COM
C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:2 C:\DOS\SHARE.EXE
DATAMON  /DATALOCK+ /low
C:\STACKER\CREATE E:
C:\STACKER\STACKER E:
PROMPT $P$G
MENU 0
SMARTDRV /C


Mitch Paine

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40742 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    29-Nov-93  20:00:14
Sb: #40509-Microsoft Diagnostics
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Mitchell F. Paine 76640,37 (X)

Mitchell,

You need the RAM drive line in the config.sys   There is one but its not
correct

>C:\WINDOWS\RAMDRIVE.SYS

Shoulds read

device=c:\dos\ramdrive.sys <parameters>

refer to your DOS manaul for the parameters which suit your needs

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40545 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    25-Nov-93  09:38:26
Sb: Files did not Compress
Fm: Len Chaston 70134,3621
To: Edward Nutter [Stac] 75330,2222 (X)

The problem was a 28 meg swap file that windows created for itself.  Thanks for
all your help I think I am back on track now!

Len Chaston

#: 40800 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  00:37:08
Sb: Does 3.1 work with Dos5?
Fm: Serge Plotkin 73474,2135
To: Edward Nutter [Stac] 75330,2222 (X)

I am currently using Stacker 3.0 with dos 5.0.
In a week I expect to upgrade to 3.1/6.2 combination.
Currently I use sswap to swap my e and d drives. None of these drives are
stacked. The reason for the swap is that the system was installed with all the
windows files on D, and afterwards I have added a SCSI disk that became D.
Instead of copying all the software to the new D, I have been using the
sswap.com.

Question: will I be able to continue using the sswap in the same fashion after
the upgrade ?


(I understand that one can copy the files, over, but in my case this is not
really an option, since the scsi drive sometimes is not connected to the
system).

Thanks in advance for your help.

-Serge Plotkin

#: 41072 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  20:00:04
Sb: Does 3.1 work with Dos5?
Fm: Serge Plotkin 73474,2135
To: Edward Nutter [Stac] 75330,2222 (X)

Ed,

I appreciate your help. Especially the suggestion to keep sswap in another
directory. I should have guessed that stacker 3.1 will try to delelte it...

-serge

#: 40543 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    25-Nov-93  08:48:03
Sb: #WFW 3.11 & Stacker
Fm: Nill Toulme 71563,2030
To: Bob Balsover 72017,2765 (X)

>>> Well Stacker, are you going to support WFWG 3.11 or is MS going to succeed
in shoving DoubleSpace down my throat?<<<

Before you jump, consider that there have been reports that on a DoubleSpaced
drive VFAT is not as fast as plain old Smartdrv.

Nill

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40558 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    25-Nov-93  15:19:08
Sb: #40543-#WFW 3.11 & Stacker
Fm: Bob Balsover 72017,2765
To: Nill Toulme 71563,2030 (X)

>>Before you jump, consider that there have been reports that on a
>>DoubleSpaced drive VFAT is not as fast as plain old Smartdrv.

Nill,

    I have heard of no such *report*.  Stacker is *also* much slower than just
plain old smartdrv and I have a 486-66.  Anyway, why are you comparing the
speed of a disk using a cache without DoubleSpace to a disk using DoubleSpace
without a disk cache?  The disk using a cache will always be faster than one
not using a cache.  BTW, smartdrv also works with VFAT in that there is no need
to jump to real mode to access the hardware.

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40562 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    25-Nov-93  18:19:02
Sb: #40558-#WFW 3.11 & Stacker
Fm: Nill Toulme 71563,2030
To: Bob Balsover 72017,2765 (X)

>>Before you jump, consider that there have been reports that on a
 >>DoubleSpaced drive VFAT is not as fast as plain old Smartdrv.

>>> I have heard of no such *report*.  <<<

Uh, are you suggesting that there have therefore been none?  I have spoken with
a WFWG 3.11 user and beta tester who has run benchmark tests on a DoubleSpaced
drive using, alternatively, Smartdrv and 32-bit file support.  He reported the
former to be slightly faster.

>>>Stacker is *also* much slower than just plain old smartdrv and I have a
486-66.<<<

Say what?  Stacker is a disk compression utility.  Smartdrv is a disk cache.
(I have a 486/66 too.  Doesn't everyone?)

>>><Anyway, why are you comparing the speed of a disk using a cache without
DoubleSpace to a disk using DoubleSpace without a disk cache? The disk using a
cache will always be faster than one not using a cache.<<<

I'm not.  I'm comparing the speed of a DoubleSpaced drive using Smartdrv with
that of a DoubleSpaced drive using VFAT, which I understand to provide a form
of 32-bit disk caching in lieu of Smartdrv.

>>>BTW, smartdrv also works with VFAT in that there is no need to jump to real
mode to access the hardware.<<<

My understanding is that VFAT bypasses Smartdrv; the two do not work in tandem.
Is my understanding incorrect?

Nill


There is 1 Reply.

#: 40806 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  02:49:57
Sb: #40562-#WFW 3.11 & Stacker
Fm: Bob Balsover 72017,2765
To: Nill Toulme 71563,2030 (X)

>> My understanding is that VFAT bypasses Smartdrv; the two do not work in >>
tandem.   Is my understanding incorrect?

Nill,

    I have heard/read several things about WFW 3.11, but I personally don't
feel comfortable commenting on rumors as facts.  I will know for certain when I
receive the WFW upgrade next week.


There is 1 Reply.

#: 40945 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  20:45:48
Sb: #40806-#WFW 3.11 & Stacker
Fm: Nill Toulme 71563,2030
To: Bob Balsover 72017,2765 (X)

>>> I have heard/read several things about WFW 3.11, but I personally don't
feel comfortable commenting on rumors as facts.  I will know for certain when I
receive the WFW upgrade next week.<<<

I will await your report with worm on tongue.

Nill

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41358 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    05-Dec-93  21:29:42
Sb: #40945-#WFW 3.11 & Stacker
Fm: Bob Balsover 72017,2765
To: Nill Toulme 71563,2030 (X)

Nill,

Well, this weekend I tried to install WFW 3.11 and DOS 6.2 with dblspace in
order to compare it to Win 3.1 DOS 5.0 and Stacker 3.0. The machine went south
when I tried to use VFAT in windows so I was not able to compare benchmarks.

After I totally reformated my drives and restored all of the old files, I
decided that I will wait for bug reports to surface before I blow another
weekend on it.  Thank God for tape backups!  Are you feeling brave?  Do you
want to try it? <G>


There is 1 Reply.

#: 41363 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    06-Dec-93  01:01:21
Sb: #41358-WFW 3.11 & Stacker
Fm: Nill Toulme 71563,2030
To: Bob Balsover 72017,2765

>>> Are you feeling brave?  Do you want to try it? <<<

Well, what I think I am willing to try is WFW 3.11 over DOS 6.2 and Stacker
3.0.  Do you think I will have any trouble with that?

Again, I haven't really figured out a good reason to install Stacker 3.1. What
did I pay for that upgrade, anyway?

Nill

#: 40498 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  18:20:08
Sb: WFW 3.11
Fm: Ian Simms 100012,3037
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Thanx for your response. I await a further posting on this subject.
The VFAT option does sound very appealing.

Ian

#: 40435 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  14:24:24
Sb: #WFW 3.11
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Nill Toulme 71563,2030 (X)

Nill,

I'am not familair with any performance issues between smartdrv and 32-bit disk
access.   If there is such information available we may find it in the MSKB
[ms knowledge base]

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There are 2 Replies.

#: 40542 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    25-Nov-93  08:48:00
Sb: #40435-WFW 3.11
Fm: Nill Toulme 71563,2030
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

>>> I'am not familair with any performance issues between smartdrv and 32-bit
disk access.   If there is such information available we may find it in the
MSKB
 [ms knowledge base]<<<

Maybe, maybe not.  If you get it working with Stacker I suggest you do some
performance benchmarking yourselves.  This info came to me from users and beta
testers of WFWG 3.11.

Nill


#: 40567 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    25-Nov-93  22:17:18
Sb: #40435-#WFW 3.11
Fm: Michael Ungerman 71326,31
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

My earlier message may have been lost by using TAPCIS, but I brought home a
copy of WFW 3.11 from the Microsoft OEM seminars, and after installing it on my
system which also has OS/2 and Stacker for OS/2 and DOS with a stacked
partition, I installed some new programs.  The next day, when I turned on my
system, Stacker updated the allocation units, and after running CHECK told me
to run CHKDSK/f, which I did.  I promply lost all the new directories on the
stacked volume.

I had installed WFW 3.11 and turned on the 32-bit file handling.  I've sinced
turned it off, and I don't have any more problems, so it looks like, on the
surface of things, that Stacker and 32-bit file handline in WFW 3.11 don't get
along.

Mike


There is 1 Reply.

#: 40768 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    29-Nov-93  20:02:52
Sb: #40567-WFW 3.11
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Michael Ungerman 71326,31 (X)

Michael,

Thats is correct.  Stacker will not work with the WGFW 3.11 Vfat system. Our
lab is looking WGW 3.11 and expect a full report real soon.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40436 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  14:24:27
Sb: Stacker Upgrade
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: James D. Parker 73523,2605 (X)

James,

Post your Stacker line from the config.sys and we can take a look. If you ran
Unstack just remove the * from the Stacker line and reboot

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40440 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  15:09:37
Sb: #Stacker and stackvol fil
Fm: Dirk de Veirman 100024,2106
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

I have downloaded the fix util, I let you know asap if I have
news from the results.

GREAT THANKS FOR SUCH A QUICK RESPONS AND HELP!

THE FOLLOWING VERSION OF STACKER SHALL BE MY NUMBER ONE ON MY
"TO BUY" LIST!

I wish we had such a support team here in Europe!


Dirk de Veirman,Belgium,Europe
 

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40732 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    29-Nov-93  19:59:27
Sb: #40440-#Stacker and stackvol fil
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Dirk de Veirman 100024,2106 (X)

Dirk,

Good, let us know the results.

As for support in Europe, we have offices in the UK and Germany.

STAC UK - England Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 7BW Phone:  011-44-344-302-900 Fax:
011-44-344-302-922

SALES MANAGER FRANCE: Work Phone: 011-33-1-30-87-4082 Work Fax:
011-33-1-30-87-40-98

Office: STAC GMBH Weltenburgerstrasse 70 D-81677, Munchen 70 Phone:
011-49-89-9240-4224 Fax: 011-49-89-9240-4200

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41332 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    05-Dec-93  10:40:21
Sb: #40732-Stacker and stackvol fil
Fm: Dirk de Veirman 100024,2106
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Hello,


I have run your util to repair my stacvol.dsk file, helas,
the pgm reports a "Boot record invalid in file stacvol.dsk"

What can I do now ?

Hopefully my data is still intact....


Best greetings and regards, and thank you for the ex. support!

Dirk de Veirman,Belgium,Europe
 

#: 40544 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    25-Nov-93  09:18:46
Sb: #V3.0 VE only upto 535M
Fm: Bob Taylor 72470,2221
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

So what is the difference from v2.0 and v3.0 VE. I thought version 3 eliminated
that barrier??

        Bob 

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40756 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    29-Nov-93  20:01:47
Sb: #40544-#V3.0 VE only upto 535M
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Bob Taylor 72470,2221 (X)

Bob,

Stacker VE was sold for a reduced price.  To do this, we didn't include certain
features that are in Stacker 3.1.  Such as support for large media.   Under
Stacker VE we support upto 256m physical per Stacker volume.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40814 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  09:10:03
Sb: #40756-#V3.0 VE only upto 535M
Fm: Bob Taylor 72470,2221
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Kieth,
        My question was... what is the difference in v2.0 and v3.0 of the full
product. I have v2.0 and assumed that v3.0VE was a trimmed down release of
v3.0.
        A co-worker of mine mentioned that v3.0 eliminated the 256Meg boundary.

        Bob       

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41002 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  15:31:54
Sb: #40814-#V3.0 VE only upto 535M
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Bob Taylor 72470,2221 (X)

Bob,

Version 3 offers many new features over version 2. Unstack utility, more robust
Sdefrag, Stacker-tuner, Windows and DOS interface, faster, compressed better,
full screen editor, compress upto 1 gig, pre-load driver with MS DOS 6, etc.

Most of these are not included in the STACKER VE product.  If you prefer the
full product with its features you can upgrade to Stacker 3.1 from VE. Just
call Stac Sales at 800-522-7822

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There are 2 Replies.

#: 41083 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  21:47:07
Sb: #41002-#V3.0 VE only upto 535M
Fm: Bob Taylor 72470,2221
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Thanks Kieth,

        As I suspected... v3VE is NOT version 3... just v2. That is REALLY a
misrepresentation of the product, Kieth! It should be re-marketed as v2VE.
Dummies like me, thinking they were going to get version 3 logic, without all
the bells & whistles, really get v2.

        Bob 

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41151 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  18:59:00
Sb: #41083-V3.0 VE only upto 535M
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Bob Taylor 72470,2221 (X)

Bob,

That is not correct.  Stacker 3 VE is  Stacker 3.0 without all the extras. Ver
3 VE is faster, compress's better and has more robust utilities than Stacker 2

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 41084 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  22:28:23
Sb: #41002-#V3.0 VE only upto 535M
Fm: Bob Taylor 72470,2221
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Hi again Kieth,
        Just browsed the v3VE manual.... you may want to follow with me:

Page 2: "What's in the Stacker 3.0 Value Edition?"

        Dot-1. "Uses the same compression engine as the standard version of
Stacker 3.0 for Windows and DOS. You get the same (...'same'?...) compression
benefits at a fraction of the cost!"
        Dot-7. "Two-gigabyte Stacker drives. Stacker lets you stack disk drives
as large as one gigabyte, giving you a Stacker drive up to two gigabytes in
capacity."

        You're telling me that what is stated in the user's guide is completely
NOT TRUE! Dots 1 and 7 are exactly what I opted to this release.

        I'll call customer service to discuss this with them. Thanks for your
help, Kieth.

        Bob

  

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41152 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  18:59:03
Sb: #41084-#V3.0 VE only upto 535M
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Bob Taylor 72470,2221 (X)

Bob,

Those features are included in Stacker 3 VE.  I was wrong about the 2 gig
Stacker drive.  I thought it was not part of VE.    During install you should
have the choose in advanced options to select large clusters for drives upto 1
gig.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41336 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    05-Dec-93  11:54:01
Sb: #41152-V3.0 VE only upto 535M
Fm: Bob Taylor 72470,2221
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

But Keith,
        The 2-gig drive IS part of VE; at least the documentation says so.
That's why I purchased this version and didn't go through an upgrade for the
version 2- I originally had.
        There are no "advanced" options on the setup. You run SETUP and it does
its own thing!
        I called "tech support" Friday and was told that I had to specify "EMS"
memory during setup. This way it could use this area to expand the sectoring
requirements to go above 512.
        So I spent all day Sat trying to get space down so I could UNSTACK and
DEFRAG and then go through SETUP again. Well, here I am, Sunday AM, with a
535Meg C, 109Meg E as before.
        I had set EMM386 to RAM and 6000 for EMS allocation.
        Does this product do what it says it will do or NOT?

        Bob  

#: 40583 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    26-Nov-93  14:15:05
Sb: #Lost Drives?
Fm: Atlas Randolph 74116,3713
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

The new drive was not compressed by ZEOS.  When I try to run UNSTACK again, I
get a message indicating that no STACKER drives are present.  Also, I am now
getting an INVALID COMMAND.COM message and a message that says that the C: and
F: drive sizes are different (this comes from SSWAP).  The main thing that I
would like to do is retrieve 4 or five files that I created after receiving the
new drive.  I can recover the rest from the tape backup.  Unfortunately,  the
directory that these files were in is one of those that disappeared.
    P.S.  I can only boot from a floppy now.  Then I have to switch to the C:
drive manually.  It seems that the C: drive is the only one that exists now.  I
used to have C: D: E: and F:  Stacker used to swap the C: and F: drives.  I
think the D: drive was not stacked and that is where the STACKER files used to
be.  I tried to call your office today but I kept getting caught in a loop.
The message said to dial 0 for an operator.  When I dialed 0 I got a message
that said dial 0 for an operator.        

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40862 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  18:46:55
Sb: #40583-Lost Drives?
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Atlas Randolph 74116,3713

Atlas,

The problem is with an invalid "command.com".  to work around boot from the
floppy the copy the config.sys from C: to A: Use Sedit to edit the config.sys
on A:

C:\stacker\sedit a:\config.sys

and remove any reference to SHELL=  .  This way the command.com will be read
from A.

Reboot from A:  and copy command.com to C:\ C:\DOS plus to the Stacker drive
which sswaped with C.  This should allow you to boot from the hard drive.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40439 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  14:25:30
Sb: #install error #2103
Fm: Steve Shamberg 76150,451
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support:

Thanks for the prompt response. Nothing came up from using attrib but "A" so I
copied the necessary files from another computer.

Now, I have Stacker installed but, in the wee hours of last night, I couldn't
figure out how to swap the drive letter for the boot, drive C: and the
preciously stacked drive. I'm sure there's some simple mistake I made in my
Config.sys. These lines are in Config.sys:

DEVICE=\STACKER\STACKER.COM /EMS /P=1 E:\STACVOL.DSK C:\STACVOL.000
DEVICE=\STACKER\SSWAP.COM C:\STACVOL.DSK /SYNC DEVICE=\STACKER\SSWAP.COM
E:\STACKVOL.DSK

After booting, SWAPMAP gives me: A: and B: same Drive C: was drive C: at boot
time Drive D: was drive D: at boot time Drive E: was drive F: at boot time
[F:\STACVOL.DSK = 99.7MB (physical)] Drive F was drive E: at boot time Drive G:
was drive G: at boot time [ C:\STACVOL.000 = 30.5 MB (physical)]

30.5 MB is the 40 MEG original C: drive, which was partitioned -pre stacker-
into C: and D: - only C: was stacked. 99.7MB is newly installed hard card.

I appreciate the help. STEVE


There is 1 Reply.

#: 40731 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    29-Nov-93  19:59:19
Sb: #40439-install error #2103
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Steve Shamberg 76150,451 (X)

Steve,

>DEVICE=\STACKER\STACKER.COM /EMS /P=1 E:\STACVOL.DSK C:\STACVOL.000
>>>>>DEVICE=\STACKER\SSWAP.COM C:\STACVOL.DSK /SYNC >DEVICE=\STACKER\SSWAP.COM
E:\STACKVOL.DSK

You need to sswap C:\Stacvol.000 instead of .DSK ie: DEVICE=\STACKER\SSWAP.COM
C:\STACVOL.000 /SYNC

Also, make sure drive G contains command.com in the root and \DOS directory

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40433 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  14:24:16
Sb: #Stacker 3.1setup query
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Richard Feigen 100135,214 (X)

Richard,

Remove the * from the Stacker.ini file.  This is creating an additional drive
letter.  Next, in order to have one large Stacvol file on D you shold UNSTACK
the volumes, re-run setup and select 16k clusters in advanced options.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40464 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  17:44:29
Sb: #40433-#Stacker 3.1setup query
Fm: Richard Feigen 100135,214
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Keith,

Thanks for the reply. I will remove the 8 and then rerun setup, having
unstackedfirst.  However If I choose 16k clusters won't that result in lots of
small files wasting space? I am thinking of icons say which are all under 1k

Richard

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40739 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    29-Nov-93  19:59:56
Sb: #40464-Stacker 3.1setup query
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Richard Feigen 100135,214 (X)

Richard,

Stacker stores by sector [512 bytes] regarldess of cluster size.  this helps
reduce slack space.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40476 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  17:56:11
Sb: #SDEFRAG WON'T WORK!
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Grahame N. Taylor 72212,1102 (X)

Grahame.

Why are you running Sdefrag2.  This is not a valid utility, just a subset if
Sdefrag,

Run Sdefrag to defrag the drive.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40678 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    28-Nov-93  14:13:12
Sb: #40476-#SDEFRAG WON'T WORK!
Fm: Grahame N. Taylor 72212,1102
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Keith, Sorry to be a bit dense, I downloaded STACUD.EXE (downloaded from the
Library as you had told me). As a precaution (is this where I messed up?) I
copied STACUD.EXE into a subdirectory of my \stacker directory called \down.
When I executed the STACUD.EXE file I got three files:- UNSTAC2.EXE
SDEFRAG2.EXE README.NOW all dated 1993. Hence the only new Defrager file I have
is SFRAG2.EXE Where is the new SDEFRAG.EXE file to come from? Hence my
confusion about SDEFRAG2.EXE and SDFRAG.EXE. Does the SDEFRAG.EXE file use
SDEFRAG2.EXE in its execution so that now I, in fact, do have the updated
utility if I copy the new SDEFRAG2.EXE file into my main stacker directory and
over write the old SDEFRAG2.EXE. Thanks for your help




There is 1 Reply.

#: 40899 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  18:49:01
Sb: #40678-#SDEFRAG WON'T WORK!
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Grahame N. Taylor 72212,1102 (X)

Grahme,

Did you read README.NOW ?   You need to copy sdefrag2 and unstack2 into
\Stacker.  These files are subsets of Sdefrag and Unstack

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41107 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  08:25:53
Sb: #40899-#SDEFRAG WON'T WORK!
Fm: Grahame N. Taylor 72212,1102
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Keith, Just after I posted that message the "penny dropped" and I see exactly
what I need to do. Yes I understand now that the two new files are subsets of
SDEFRAG, I have copied them into the Stacker directory and run SDEFRAG. It runs
just fine and has the new colour format etc. I SDEFRAGed as a precaution after
you told me that COMPRESS, though frreing me form Error 4 on the old SDEFRAG
may have increased the Stacker drive fragmentation. It ran just fine. Thanks
for your help. p.s. One final thought. Norton's Desktop for Windows 3.0 claims
to be able to Defrag a Stacker drive. I still think that your's should be used
rather than Norton's. What are your thoughts?


There is 1 Reply.

#: 41153 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  18:59:08
Sb: #41107-SDEFRAG WON'T WORK!
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Grahame N. Taylor 72212,1102 (X)

Grahame,

> Norton's Desktop for Windows 3.0 claims >to be able to Defrag a Stacker
drive. I still think that >your's should be used rather than Norton's. What are
your thoughts?

It would be fine to use NDW3 Speed disk with Stacker.  They use the Stacker
tool kit which allows them to work with compressed data. Sdefrag should be used
as well since it can -grow/shrink drive -recompress data

these can not be done with Speed Disk

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40423 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  11:25:23
Sb: GREATER THAN 1 GIG SUPP.
Fm: Don Mayberry [cbm.inc] 70334,15
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Thanks for the info

Don


#: 40477 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  17:56:13
Sb: #Remove old drive letter
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Michael Croft 71451,270 (X)

Michael,

Unstack leaves a * on the Stacker.com line resereve the drive letter. Just
remove it and reboot

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40551 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    25-Nov-93  12:39:23
Sb: #40477-Remove old drive letter
Fm: Michael Croft 71451,270
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Thanks. Michael

#: 40478 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  17:56:17
Sb: Coprocessor
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: jim murchison 73527,2631 (X)

Jim,

On a 486 machine the software will run faster then the hardware.  You'll be
fine without the card.

Yes, DOS 6.x will work fine with Stacker 3.0.  When your ready upgrade to 3.1
as it provides additional features for MS DOS 6.x

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40479 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  17:56:21
Sb: 4th try at gettin answer
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: errol segall 70740,3076 (X)

Errol.

Space reporting on a Stacker drive depends on your drive compression ratio.
During install the drive is created with an expected compression of 2.0-1.  If
the data stored on the drive has an overall compression ratio of less than
2.0-1 it will occupy more compressed space than originally anticipated.  Use
CHECK and DIR to accuratley report fee space.

see TECH NOTE 2602.txt in lib:3 for more details



What report are using running from STAC ?  If using CHECK or REPORT refer to
projected bytes free.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40480 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  17:56:25
Sb: stacvol file too fragm.
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: M.McNaughton 72157,3172 (X)

M,

from the Stacker install diskette type sattrib -h -r -s c:\stacvol.dsk to
unhide the file.  then type create c:\stacvol.dsk /p this will rerun the defrag
utility for the host drive. upon completion reboot the machine.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40481 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  17:56:28
Sb: Stacker error messages
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Stuart Karlsruher 71431,3167 (X)

Stuart,

Download STACUD.EXE from lib:1. This self extracting file contains an update to
sdefrag to correct sdefrag error #4. Just copy the extracted files into your
\STACKER directory and retry Sdefrag.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40482 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  17:56:31
Sb: File Transfer
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: James E. Ulmer 72712,1112

James,

as the data is read from the compressed drive its decompressed. therefore
Stacker is not needed on the other machine in order to use the files. Just
Laplink as you normally would.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40424 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  11:50:45
Sb: #Use of "@" character
Fm: Walt Smith 72466,3706
To: All

I'm totally blind and so don't have access to the printed documentation. Can
somebody please explain to me the use of the "@" character in the call to
STACKER.COM -- how, why, an example, etc?  I'm curious because when I try to
designate my second floppy drive as a Stacker drive, I receive the message
about adding the "@" in CONFIG.SYS and rebooting.  My basic Stacker
configuration is that I have one physical hard drive with 4 stacked logical
partitions.  I can then make my A-drive (floppy) a stacked drive by typing
"STACKER A:", but then if I want my second floppy also to be a stacked drive
and type "STACKER B:", I receive the message mentioned above.  Thanks for any
help.

Walt Smith - Raleigh, NC

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40483 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  17:56:34
Sb: #40424-Use of "@" character
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Walt Smith 72466,3706 (X)

Walt,

the "@" ampersand reserves a drive letter for a replaced drive like a
compressed floppy.  Just add "@" to the end of your Stacker.com line in the
config.sys and reboot.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40430 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  13:16:22
Sb: #Eliminating extra drive
Fm: Rudy Kok 100103,2631
To: sysop (X)

A question from Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

I have Stacker version 3.0 for DOS & Windows and encountered a small problem.
My system configuration currently is; drive C (unstacked C), drive D (fully
stacked D), drive E (90 % stacked C), drive F (unstacked drive D, swapped) and
drive G (CD-Rom).
As described in the manual, starting at page 239, I wanted to eliminate drive F
to make that available for the CD-Rom. When I follow the instructions in the
manual, drive D becomes unaccesable with the following DOS error message:
"INVALID UNIT READING DRIVE D", whenever I try to access drive D. At that time
the CD-rom is still at G.
Allthough this problem is not severe in my case, I want to know what's wrong
with what I am doing or what information is missing in the manual.
I am using DOS version 6.0.

Please let me know and thanks,

Rudy.

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40484 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  17:56:37
Sb: #40430-#Eliminating extra drive
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Rudy Kok 100103,2631 (X)

Rudy,

What changes did you make ?  Post your Stacker line from the config.sys.


it should look similiar too device=c:\stacker\stacker.com c:\stacvol.dsk d:

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41308 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    04-Dec-93  12:59:40
Sb: #40484-Eliminating extra drive
Fm: Rudy Kok 100103,2631
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Keith,

Sorry that it took so long for me to reply, but I had to be abroad unexpectedly
for a week.
Anyway, here is the full content of my config.sys file:

DEVICE=C:\DRIVERS\QEMM386.SYS R:2 RAM ROM=CC00 X=B000-B7FF XST=C000 ST:M
DOS = HIGH,UMB

DEVICE=C:\DRIVERS\LOADHI.SYS /R:1 C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE

REM SCANNER
DEVICE=C:\DRIVERS\LOADHI.SYS /R:1 C:\DRIVERS\MTC.SYS /D3 /I5 /A200

REM stacker
DEVICE=C:\DRIVERS\LOADHI.SYS /R:1 C:\STACKER\STACKER.COM /P=1 C:\STACVOL.000 D:
rem DEVICE=C:\STACKER\SSWAP.COM D:\STACVOL.DSK

REM NEC CDROM
DEVICE=C:\DRIVERS\LOADHI.SYS /R:1 C:\NEC\NECCDR.SYS /D:NECCD
DEVICE=C:\DRIVERS\LOADHI.SYS /R:2 C:\NEC\MVSOUND.SYS D:1 Q:7

REM rem this when doing optimize; sndbk12 doesn't work HI
DEVICE=C:\NEC\SNDBK12.SYS 1 7 220 2

FILES=30
BUFFERS=10
STACKS=9,256
LASTDRIVE=T
SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS\ /e:512 /p

- end of config.sys -

As you can see, the stacker line looks like it should. The only difference is
that it gets loaded into high memory with the QEMM LOADHI tool and that the
stacker volume on drive C has a 000 extention instead of DSK.
I hope this information helps.

Best regards, Rudy Kok.



#: 40447 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  16:37:49
Sb: #STACKER DEFRAG TROUBLE
Fm: John Waldrop 76460,1030
To: Sysop (X)


I installed Stacker/Win on my PC several months ago.  It worked fine until I
defragged my disk using
the Stacker furnished defragger about two weeks ago.  I used the full optimize
option.

I immediately lost all my TrueType fonts, WinWord started giving me trouble
when I do a grammar check, and in general I'm experiencing two or three GPFs
PER WEEK rather than ONE a MONTH.

I could add several more problems, but the above should be enough. This is
getting to be pesky.
I really hate the thought of going to MS/Double Space.

What can I do?

Thanks.



There is 1 Reply.

#: 40736 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    29-Nov-93  19:59:46
Sb: #40447-STACKER DEFRAG TROUBLE
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: John Waldrop 76460,1030

John,

To start make sure you have the latest version of Sdefrag.  If your Stacker
file are dated before Jan-93 download STACUD.EXE from lib:1  This self
extracting file contains an update to sdefrag. Next run a disk utility plus
CHECK /F on the compressed drive to check for errors.  The GPF's could be from
a problem with the application your running or a memory conflict.  Try
re-optimizing your memory as well.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40516 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  21:15:20
Sb: #DOS 6.2 Scandisk W/Stac
Fm: WG  NORMAN 72163,2245
To: STAC TECH SUP

Has anyone tried running DOS 6.2 on a Stac drive yet?  I've used the DOS 6.2 on
two Stac drives wothout any problems at all, but I only run CHKDSK and answered
No each time 6.2 prompts to run Scandisk.  I ran Scandisk on a double spaced
drive and also uncompressed the Doublespaced drive with no problems.  ANy
comments or suggestions?

There are 2 Replies.

#: 40614 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    27-Nov-93  03:02:02
Sb: #40516-DOS 6.2 Scandisk W/Stac
Fm: Edward Nutter [Stac] 75330,2222
To: WG  NORMAN 72163,2245 (X)

SCANDISK will run on a Stacker drive, but will recognize that it's compressed
and that it's not DblSpace.  If it finds any problems, even strictly DOS
problems such as crosslinks or lost sectors, it won't attempt to fix them.  For
the time being, DOS level errors that CHKDSK /F can't handle you'll have to use
NDD or DISKFIX to repair.

I suppose SCANDISK may be useful to indicate the need for repair, but we
haven't tested it enough to be certain of even that.

Ed Nutter
Stac Product Support

#: 40745 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    29-Nov-93  20:00:30
Sb: #40516-DOS 6.2 Scandisk W/Stac
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: WG  NORMAN 72163,2245 (X)

WG,

Stacker works fine with DOS 6.2   As for the Scandisk, it will not fix any
reported errors on the compressed drive.  Instead use CHECK /F to make
corrects.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40527 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  22:15:13
Sb: #Stac Disappear on Syques
Fm: Jay Schonberger 73220,2322
To: Sysop (X)

I have been using Stacker for quite a while on my hard drive and Syquest drive.
When I added a new hard drive, I stopped stacking the hard drive but continued
with the Syquest.  No change in strategy when I installed Stac 3.1.  I only use
the Syquest about once a week.  Last time I tried to use it Xtree showed 41.78
Meg drives instead of the normal Stac size of about 82 meg.  I don't know what
happened to cause the problem but need to get back my lost files.  They were
backed but Murphy struck and the backups were accidently wiped out.

System is as follows:

config.sys DEVICE=C:\QEMM\DOSDATA.SYS DEVICE=C:\QEMM\QEMM386.SYS DBF:2
FRAME=D000 RAM ROM ST:M R:2 X=A000-B1FF X=C000-C7FF DEVICE=C:\QEMM\DOS-UP.SYS
@C:\QEMM\DOS-UP.DAT DEVICE=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:3 C:\QEMM\QDPMI.SYS
SWAPFILE=DPMI.SWP SWAPSIZE=2048 DOS=HIGH BUFFERS=10 FILES=50
DEVICE=c:\qemm\loadhi.sys /r:2 c:\dos\SETVER.EXE DEVICE=c:\qemm\loadhi.sys /r:3
 c:\syq\sqdriver.sys /o DEVICE=c:\qemm\loadhi.sys /r:3 c:\dos\ansi.sys
DEVICE=c:\qemm\loadhi.sys /r:3 c:\dos\ramdrive.sys 512 512 128 /e
DEVICE=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:3 C:\STAC\STACHIGH.SYS SHELL=c:\qemm\loadhi.com
/r:3 c:\dos\command.com c:\dos\ /e:1024 /p /f stacks=9,256

autoexec.bat @echo off REM  THE CHECK LINE BELOW PROVIDES ADDITIONAL SAFETY FOR
STACKER DRIVES. REM  PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE IT. C:\STAC\CHECK /WP
PATH=H:\;C:\DOS;C:\;E:\WIN;C:\BAT;C:\XT;C:\FILE;C:\UTIL;C:\QEMM;C:\PCM;C:\ARC;F
\GMK;C:\PCT;C:\NU;E:\ODAPI;C:\STAC;E:\GMKW set mouse=C:\MSMOUSE c:\qemm\loadhi
/r:1 /lo C:\MSMOUSE\mouse.exe prompt $p$g$e[30;46m c:\qemm\loadhi /r:3
c:\dos\smartdrv.exe a b c d e f g h 2048 1024 C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:2 /LO
C:\PRINTQ\PRINTQ c:\pcm\numoff

stacker.ini /DIR=C:\STAC\ /RP=1 /EMS/ND/P=1/AUTO=Z

The syquest drive is on an Always IN-2000 SCSI adapter.  I recently installed a
new BIOS for the adapter but it gave problems with the syquest and I
re-installed the old BIOS.  Don't really know whether that has anything to do
with the problem.  Only one of my six cartridges was used with the new BIOS.
Again, I don't know whether that is significant or not.

Jay



There is 1 Reply.

#: 40749 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    29-Nov-93  20:00:59
Sb: #40527-#Stac Disappear on Syques
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Jay Schonberger 73220,2322 (X)

Jay,

Since you don't have automount active. type STACKER <drive letter> to mount the
compressed drive,.

to set automount add the following to your Stacker.ini file

<drive letter of syquest>:\stacvol.dsk,rp

see Stacker 3.1 readme for more details

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40794 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    29-Nov-93  23:39:32
Sb: #40749-#Stac Disappear on Syques
Fm: Jay Schonberger 73220,2322
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Keith,

Thanks for your suggestions.  I was doing a Stacker G: before accessing the
stacked syquest.  However, I also tried your suggestion of adding
G:\stacvol.dsk,rp to my stacker.ini. There was no change. The syquest still
shows 44 meg available instead of the 88 meg which was there a month ago. When
I boot without stacker, the syquest drive directory shows a stacvol.dsk in the
root directory. So it's there.

FYI, I just upgraded to DOS 6.2 from 6.0.  I had the problem under DOS 6.0 and
it's the same under 6.2.  I did keep the old dblspace.bin in the c:\ directory.

I need a safe way to restore the carts to 88 meg without loosing their
contents.  Please give me some more things to try.

Thanks again.

Jay


There is 1 Reply.

#: 41003 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  15:31:58
Sb: #40794-#Stac Disappear on Syques
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Jay Schonberger 73220,2322 (X)

Jay,

Add  /RP=1  to your Stacker.ini file.  This will reserve a driver letter. The
type STACKER G: to mount.

Also, if the compressed cart is in place at boot time are you able to access
the drive ?  Any error messages ?  Try booting with the cart in place and hold
F5 to bypass config/autoexec/   Does this help ?

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41081 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  21:11:54
Sb: #41003-#Stac Disappear on Syques
Fm: Jay Schonberger 73220,2322
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Keith,

>>>>Add  /RP=1  to your Stacker.ini file.  This will reserve a driver letter.
The type STACKER G: to mount.

No change.

>>>>Also, if the compressed cart is in place at boot time are you able to
access the drive ? Any error messages ?

Can access the drive with no error messages but it shows as 44 meg in Xtree

>>>>Try booting with the cart in place and hold F5 to bypass config/autoexec/
Does this help ?

No...cannot access the drive.

I ran some tests which may help you figure out what's wrong.

1. With the syquest driver and stacker active, I can access the G: drive and
get 3 files in root (but no stackvol.dsk) and 83 on the disk.  6,686,637 used
and 35,094,528 available.

2. With the syquest driver but without stacker, I can access the G: drive and
get 8 files in root (including stacvol.dsk) and 8 on the disk. 43,903,504 used
and 0 available.

3. Without the syquest or stacker, I can access the G: drive and get 0 files in
root and 0 on the disk.  13,312 available.

So the stacvol.dsk is there but for some reason I am not showing any
compression.

Jay


There is 1 Reply.

#: 41270 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  19:02:03
Sb: #41081-Stac Disappear on Syques
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Jay Schonberger 73220,2322

Jay,

Not sure what is going on here.  If you send EMAIL with your phone # and a
convient time to call we can take a look.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40530 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  22:59:39
Sb: #Stac 3 & QEMM & DOS 6
Fm: Wayne B. Hunter 72351,1635
To: SYSOP 75300,2755 (X)

I have just installed Stac 3 on my system. I'm a little paranoid about doing
this again, because it caused me nothing but problems before. I removed Stac 3
some months ago. I recently upgraded to DOS 6 and experienced similar problems,
and subsequently removed Doublespace. Since installing Stac 3 last evening, my
system has hung up a couple of times, my Logitech mouse seems unresponsive at
times, and my program system sounds have hung once. In all cases I rebooted and
the problem went away.

In order to assure myself that my installation was proper, I would like your
opinion on the state of my Autoexec.bat and Config.sys. Prior to choosing the
express setup of the Stac 3, my system was running fine, (except my HD was
nearly full and I was prompted to get some more room for the installation) and
my system consists of the following hardware and software.

CPU 486-33 with 8 megs of RAM, 120 Meg HD, DOS 6, WIN 3.1, Norton Desktop,
QEMM386 V.7. My installation of DOS 6 excluded Memmaker and Doublespace. The
anti-virus programs on DOS 6 and NDW were activated. I also had a permanent
swap file, with 256 cache running. I loaded Stac 3 and I now have the following
Autoexec.Bat and Config.Sys.

AutoExec.Bat
        REM THE "CHECK" LINE BELOW PROVIDES ADDITIONAL SAFETY   FOR STACKER
DRIVES.
        REM PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE IT.
        C:\STACKER\CHECK /WP
        SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T4
        SET GSFONTS=C:\GSFONTS
        C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:2 C:\LINKS386\VESA\ATI\VVESA.COM
        C:\NDW\IMAGE
        C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:2 C:\DOS\SMARTDRV E 1024 512
        @ECHO OFF
        SET PKZIP.CFG=C:\PKWARE
        PATH C:\DOS;C:\;C:\BAT;C:\UTIL;C:\MACH32
        PROMPT $P$G
        PATH
C:\DOS;C:\;C:\NBWIN;C:\MACH32;C:\NDW;C:\PKWARE;C:\EXCEL;C:
        \WINWORD;C:\QEMM;C:\CCWIN\FAX;\C:\WINDOWS;C:\NAV;
        C:\MOUSE;%PATH%
        SET LMOUSE=C:\MOUSE
        C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:1 FILES +42
        C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:2 C:\MOUSE\MOUSE
        SET TEMP=D:\
        SET TMP=D:\
        C:\CCWIN\FAX\CPCKNL
        C:\CCWIN\FAX\TM
        C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:2 C:\CCWIN\VOICE\VOICE
        C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:2 C:\CCWIN\FAX\SR
        C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:1 C:\CCWIN\FAX\CFPI
        SET SOUND=C:\SBPRO
        C:\SBPRO\SBP-SET /M:12 /VOC:12 /CD:12 /FM:12
        NAV C:\

Config.Sys.
        DEVICE=C:\QEMM\DOSDATA.SYS
  DEVICE=C:\QEMM\QEMM386.SYS DBF:2 RAM ST:F R:1
        DEVICE=C:\QEMM\DOS-UP.SYS @C:\QEMM\DOS-UP.DAT
        DEVICE=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:2 C:\MACH32\VANSI.SYS
        DEVICE=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
        DEVICE=C:\QEMM\QDPMI.SYS SWAPFILE=DPMI.SWP              SWAPSIZE=1024
        DEVICE=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:2 C:\DOS\RAMDRIVE.SYS 1024 /
        E
        BUFFERS=24
        STACKS=9,256
        DOS=HIGH
        SHELL=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.COM /R:2 C:\COMMAND.COM C:\ /P
  DEVICE=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:1 C:\NDW\NAV&.SYS /B
        DEVICE=C:\STACKER\STACKER.COM C:\STACVOL.DSK
        DEVICE=C:\STACKER\SSWAP.COM C:\STACVOL.DSK /SYNC+

Any of your assistance would be greatly appreciated. I'm sure there's something
wrong with my setup, that if corrected would allow me to compress my drive like
millions of others!

Wayne Hunter,   Vancouver, B.C.

         

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40750 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    29-Nov-93  20:01:04
Sb: #40530-Stac 3 & QEMM & DOS 6
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Wayne B. Hunter 72351,1635

Wayne,

Your setup of Stacker looks fine.    To test for a tsr conflict start be
disabling smartdrv.exe in the autoexec.bat

REM     C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:2 C:\DOS\SMARTDRV E 1024 512

If this doesn't help try booting with just Stacker and himem.sys loaded to run
Windows.  Does this make any difference ?   If so, add your device drivers back
in one-by-one until you fine the culprit.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40532 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    24-Nov-93  23:41:55
Sb: #Create error #89
Fm: Brent J. Craig 70602,150
To: sysop (X)

Hi,

I'm trying to install Stacker 3.0 on my machine and it's not working. I managed
to stack drive E which is a logical partition of my hard drive C, but when
attempting to stack drive C I get:

  CREATE ERROR 89:
       Internal error, possible unterminated chain.

I have checked the drive with two versions of Central Point Diskfix, and
CHKDSK, and it is fine.

I am running MS DOS 5.0 on a 386dx-33 machine. 8 Megs of RAM. Maxtor 345 Meg
hardrive model 7345A with a generic Western Digital 1003 compatible caching IDE
controller (I've also tried with caching disabled.)

Any Ideas?

Brent

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40751 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    29-Nov-93  20:01:10
Sb: #40532-Create error #89
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Brent J. Craig 70602,150 (X)

Brent,

There is a file/directory near the end of the drive which is causing the error.
The install is unable to read past it.  To correct, run your defrag utility,
full optimization with a file sort.  This will help and should allow your to
install Stacker

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40548 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    25-Nov-93  10:52:16
Sb: #Stacking a second drive
Fm: Donald Belcher 72723,105
To: sysop (X)

We have a scsi 1.3 giga drive stacked no problem, second drive 1.3 giga byte,
completed stacking but then would not mount, the drive has nothing on it so
starting over is not a problem. Where should I start. 

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40758 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    29-Nov-93  20:01:56
Sb: #40548-Stacking a second drive
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Donald Belcher 72723,105

Donald,

Why doesn't the second Stacker drive mount ?  Any error messages ? If the drive
is empty Stacker will create an "empty Stacker volume" and mount to a new drive
letter.  It may be mounted on F.   To setup the sswap you need to select
"compress drive with existing data".

Else, delete all file on D and rerun the SETUP to compress drive D.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40561 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    25-Nov-93  18:11:10
Sb: #Lost drive
Fm: Michael Croft 71451,270
To: Sysop (X)

I seem to be in deep doodoo again.  I cannot read from my D: drive even though
I can read the E: (swapped) drive. Looking in the config.sys and comparing it
to the sample on page 236 of the manual I find virtually identical statements
other than the Stacker.com on my system is located on drive D:

And continuing to look in the system I cannot find SSWAP.CFG Since Stacker is
located on my D: drive which is the one I can't read I seem to be stuck. Since
this drive holds about 200MG of files, I am panicked. HELP! Thanks, Michael

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40764 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    29-Nov-93  20:02:29
Sb: #40561-Lost drive
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Michael Croft 71451,270 (X)

Michael,

What happens when you read drive D ?  Any error messages ? I'll assume drive D
was compressed and now sswap with drive E.   What happened prior to this ?

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40568 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    25-Nov-93  22:17:38
Sb: #follow up
Fm: Michael Croft 71451,270
To: SYSOP (X)

I just realized that you probably needed more information on my little problem.
I'm using DOS 6.2 and Stac 3.0  My config.sys includes the following lines:

DEVICEHIGH /L:1,43712 =D:\STACKER\STACKER.COM /EMS /P=1 D:\STACVOL.DSK
 C:\STACVOL.DSK

DEVICE=D:\STACKER\SSWAP.COM C:\STACVOL.DSK /SYNC+ DEVICE=D:\STACKER\SSWAP.COM
D:\STACVOL.DSK

To repeat my problem - C: and F: swap out just fine, but D: and E: do not. As a
result, what was originally D: is now E:, D: just has the Stacker files and
Stacker.log, F: has the few necessary DOS files etc. In effect, I cannot access
about 200MG of what used to be E: (now D:)  I have tried quite an array of
configurations, but can't seem to beat this.  I KNOW I'm overlooking something
simple and obvious, but am rreally frustrated' not to mention bewildered as to
how I managed to screw this up in the first place.

Thanks again, Michael/exit

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40769 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    29-Nov-93  20:02:58
Sb: #40568-follow up
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Michael Croft 71451,270 (X)

Michael,

To get a better understanding of your problem post all error messages at boot
time and include your Stacker drive map, TYPE STACKER

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40575 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    26-Nov-93  10:26:42
Sb: #Transplanting a drive
Fm: Loren Omoto 73407,3110
To: Sysop (X)

I'm trying to move a stacked drive from one machine to another.  But I can't
get it to boot the new machine.

Assuming that I get the CMOS setting correct for the drive, is there anything
else that's hardware-dependent with Stacker that needs to be changed?  In other
words, can I move the drive without un-stacking it first?

Thanks for the help...



                                        --LO

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40774 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    29-Nov-93  20:03:22
Sb: #40575-#Transplanting a drive
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Loren Omoto 73407,3110 (X)

Loren,

No hardware changes are needed for Stacker, espically in the CMOS. If you
copied the Stacvol file to another drive you must include. 1.  the STacker
software, Stacker.com and sswap.com 2.  the appropiate Stacker lines in the
config.sys  If running Stacker 3.x
   run \Stacker\Config C:  to rebuild the Stacker entry in the config.sys

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40782 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    29-Nov-93  20:44:39
Sb: #40774-Transplanting a drive
Fm: Loren Omoto 73407,3110
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Thanks, Keith.

After I sent my original message, I figured out my problems go deeper than
Stacker.  No surprise, eh?

Anyway, I'm working on another problem (?) with Stacker now -- it's in a
separate message on this forum.

Thanks again for the help!


                                --LO

#: 40577 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    26-Nov-93  11:08:21
Sb: #follow-up #2
Fm: Michael Croft 71451,270
To: SYSOP (X)

Oops.  I think a left out an important part of the problem. Initially my D:
drive was only partly stacked (meaning I left about half of it unstacked).
This broke into D: and E: - E: being the stacked portion.  I added a lot of
stuff to the unstacked D: drive before finally deciding to stack that too.
That's where the problem lies.  I can only manage to access D: or E:, not both.

Thanks for your patience. Michael

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40775 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    29-Nov-93  20:03:28
Sb: #40577-follow-up #2
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Michael Croft 71451,270 (X)

Michael,

create a boot floppy

SYS A:

reboot from A:  then change to drive D:  and type DIR /AH     What Stacvol
files are listed.  Make sure they are listed in the config.sys on drive C.
Reboot from the hard drive and check the config.sys

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40590 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    26-Nov-93  18:28:05
Sb: #STack 3.1 on dos 6.2
Fm: Mike Porter 73105,434
To: All

I'm running Stacker 3.0 with Dos 6.2 and everything seems to be OK.  I only use
Stacker on my MO (SCSI) drive. It really improves perrformance.

Is there any advantage to installing Stacker 3.1, and is there something that I
should watch out for in doing so?

Thanks,

map





There is 1 Reply.

#: 40864 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  18:47:02
Sb: #40590-#STack 3.1 on dos 6.2
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Mike Porter 73105,434 (X)

Mike,

Stacker 3.1 offers some new features for MS DOS 6 like the pre-load driver.
However, if you just use Stacker to compress the removable MO drive you would
be fine with your current version. For more details on Stacker 3.1 see
STAC31.REL in lib:2

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40965 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  00:50:28
Sb: #40864-#STack 3.1 on dos 6.2
Fm: Mike Porter 73105,434
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Keith,

Thanks for the reply.  I think that I will leave the copy on that machine
alone.  I have some others that I will be upgrading to DOS 6.2 (they are
currently at 5.0).  They are currently on Stacker 3.0, most of them have
stacked drives.  Should I do the DOS upgrade first and then Stacker 3.1?  Is
this explained in the STAC31.rel?  Thanks for the info.

map



There is 1 Reply.

#: 41154 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  18:59:11
Sb: #40965-STack 3.1 on dos 6.2
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Mike Porter 73105,434 (X)

Mike,

If running Stacker 3.0 upgrade to DOS 6.2 first then Stacker 3.1

This is not explained in the Stac31.rel which is our press-release

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40607 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    27-Nov-93  00:58:21
Sb: #Virtual Memory problem
Fm: Ron Espinosa 72157,2107
To: Tech Support

I have a 486, DOS 5, Stacker 3.0, Win 3.1 running in 386 mode.  I recently
added 16 MB of RAM, I originally had 4 MB RAM and Windowns was running Virtual
memory around 15 MB.  I took whatever was standard for Stakcer installation.
 After I installed the additional memory, I wnated to make a virtual drive and
use it for Windows virtual memory, for speed.

 Windows would not let me change the virtual drive setup to a temporary file on
the new virtual drive running from RAM.  What can I do?
 I don't remember why, it's been a while since I tried it, but I got the
distinct impression that it was Stacker not letting me change it.
 Ron

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40615 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    27-Nov-93  03:07:33
Sb: #40607-Virtual Memory problem
Fm: Edward Nutter [Stac] 75330,2222
To: Ron Espinosa 72157,2107 (X)

Ron,

Windows itself won't allow you to use a RAM disk as virtual memory.  It's
pointless to add the DOS overhead anyway.  Just use the RAM as RAM for Windows
and ditch virtual memory altogether.

It is possible to use a Stacked RAM drive to hold a temporary swap file.
Windows sees it as a small hard disk then, and you can usually get 3:1
compression out of the data.  This has to be set up by editing SYSTEM.INI by
hand.  With 16Mb of RAM I wouldn't bother.

Ed Nutter
Stac Product Support

#: 40628 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    27-Nov-93  13:06:36
Sb: follow-up 3
Fm: Michael Croft 71451,270
To: sysop (X)

Well, I'm gaining on it.  Below is latest Config.sys file:

DEVICEHIGH /L:1,43712 =D:\STACKER\STACKER.COM /EMS /P=1 D:\STACVOL.000
  C:\STACVOL.DSK D:\STACVOL.DSK

DEVICE=D:\STACKER\SSWAP.COM D:\STACVOL.DSK DEVICE=D:\STACKER\SSWAP.COM
C:\STACVOL.DSK /SYNC+

Only problem remaining is that the Stacker files are now transferred to the
G:(!?) drive and Windows insists that that is the only place it will allow a
permanent swapfile.  My recollection is that there should be NO G: drive and
the Stacker files should also be on the F: drive along with the duplicate
startup files, the permanent swap file should be on Drive D: and Mikey would be
a very happy boy.

Thanks again. Michael

#: 40647 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    27-Nov-93  20:59:52
Sb: #Defrag
Fm: Ron Jeffries (MI) 70150,503
To: sysop (X)

Hi ...

I am running Stacker 3.0, Win 3.1, MS-DOS 5.00.  I have a 500 megabyte drive
stacked into one 1-gig partition.

When I have run defrag (in the past) it runs for ages and then gives up with
some kind of message about running out of memory.  (I'm sorry I don't have the
exact message, but until I complete a tape backup I'm reluctant to run defrag.)
My SDEFRAG2.EXE is dated 10-26-92.

Is this a known problem with Version 3.0?  Is there a fix?  Is it in STACUD.EXE
in the library?

Thanks,

Ron

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40882 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  18:48:01
Sb: #40647-#Defrag
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Ron Jeffries (MI) 70150,503 (X)

Ron,

You should download STACUD.EXE  This self extracting file contains an update to
Sdefrag. This will not help with running out of memory.  This is caused by not
having enough free conventional memory.  Such is the case when running disk
utilities on a large drive; compressed or not compressed.

next time you run Sdefrag reboot with just Stacker loaded, himem.sys and
DOS=HIGH,UMB    This should leave 600k of free ram.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41041 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  18:48:42
Sb: #40882-#Defrag
Fm: Ron Jeffries (MI) 70150,503
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Keith ...

I suppose I can run defrag on a clean boot ... but if I do, will it then be
able to defrag a 500 meg normal / 1 gig stacked disk?

Thanks,

Ron

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41185 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  20:06:13
Sb: #41041-#Defrag
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Ron Jeffries (MI) 70150,503 (X)

Ron,

Should be no problem with Sdefrag.  IT can handle upto 8192 directory enteries
and 2048 files per directory.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41190 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  21:28:02
Sb: #41185-Defrag
Fm: Ron Jeffries (MI) 70150,503
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Keith ...

Thanks for the good word on SDEFRAG ... I will see what I can do about making
more memory for it.

Note that if I try to do something like change my compression ratio, or even
just defrag UNDER WINDOWS, I have little control over how much memory is
available, and it seems nearly a sure thing that SDEFRAG is going to barf.

It is an intense pain to have to go out of Windows to do anything with Stacker.
Be nice if you had a better defragger.  Would also be nice if you didn't
force-defrag even when the fragmentation ratio is super low...

Thanks ...

R

#: 40654 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    27-Nov-93  23:24:49
Sb: #Disk changes
Fm: Chris Neil/Nicholson 76020,730
To: Sysop (X)

Greetings Sysop, hope you had a good holiday,
        I have a holiday question.  I am trying to give myself a present of the
most efficient system I can have.  That is not my question, of course.
        I have two HDDs, both Stac'd.  I have an old, slow, small HD-C/E with
all of my system files (DOS, Win, Stacker) and a new, fast, large HD-D/F with
my applications (W4W, XL,Approach).  I want to remove my old master (C) and
make my current slave (D) my new master (wirh a new slave).
        What is the best way to do this from Stacker's viewpoint?  Can I copy
the old C files to D (and E to F) and change the .ini & .cfg, etc., files?
Will Stacker be able to handle the change when I boot up (revise the FAT,
etc.)?  Or do I have to reformat and reload/restore everything (yuck)?  Or
somewhere in between?  With the disk Stac'd I can't see any problem with DOS
looking for files in a certain location, but....
        I have Stacker 3.1 with DOS 6.0 (no upgrade) on a 386SX-25 with 8M.
Please lend me a little of your upfront expertise in this endevour.  I will be
most appreciative <<Kiss up, Kiss up>>  Thanks for your help, Chris N.

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40887 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  18:48:19
Sb: #40654-#Disk changes
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Chris Neil/Nicholson 76020,730 (X)

Chris,


Switch the hard drives and make C bootable.  Type SYS C: from a boot floppy.
Then, from the Stacker install DISKETTE from the \TOOLS directory run REDBL C:
to rebuild the dblspace.bin file and then CONFIG C:  to rebuild the Stacker.ini
file.

Thats it for Stacker.

As for your applciations, you probably need to update them to reflect the drive
change.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40966 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  00:58:42
Sb: #40887-#Disk changes
Fm: Chris Neil/Nicholson 76020,730
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Keith,
        Thanks for your advice.  One point I'm not sure I understand: When you
say to make C bootable do you mean switching the jumpers to make it the master,
or do you mean to load command.com, io.sys, and ms.dos on the host and/or
stacked drive?                                          Thanks again,   Chris
N.

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41155 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  18:59:13
Sb: #40966-Disk changes
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Chris Neil/Nicholson 76020,730 (X)

Chirs,

>say to make C bootable

Just reminding you that the boot files must be transferred to C.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40658 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    28-Nov-93  06:18:21
Sb: #DOS62 upgrade & Stac 3.1
Fm: Steven Uran 100015,3224
To: SYSOP & ALL (X)

I am a little confused about the correct procedure to follow:

After an initial abortive attempt at using Stacker 3.0 on my Notebook PC with
DOS 5.0 I reformatted the drive (left unstacked) and reinstalled my
applications & data.

It seems that the move to DOS 6.2 and Stacker 3.1 is a "good thing" but what is
the correct procedure:

I have DOS 6.0 and will obtain the MS stepup to 6.2; I also have Stacker 3.1.

(Among other things does one have to run the 62stac.exe files if Stacker is not
yet installed?)

Many thanks
Steve Uran

There are 2 Replies.

#: 40890 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  18:48:31
Sb: #40658-DOS62 upgrade & Stac 3.1
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Steven Uran 100015,3224 (X)

Steve,

In your case install DOS 6.2 then Stacker 3.1.  Once 6.2 is in place the
STAC62.EXE util is not needed

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 41040 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  18:18:05
Sb: #40658-DOS62 upgrade & Stac 3.1
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Steven Uran 100015,3224 (X)

Steve,

>(Among other things does one have to run the 62stac.exe files if Stacker is
>not yet installed?)

Thats correct.  62STAC,EXE  is for Stacker 3.1 only.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40660 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    28-Nov-93  09:32:33
Sb: Stacker, dos 6.2 &cdrom
Fm: marian jasper 72673,464
To: all

HELP!  I installed Stacker 3.0, then upgraded to DOS 6.2- now my cd-rom is
lost.  When I try to access the cd-my system is frozen and I can't unstick
unless I hit the reset button-ctrl-alt-delete won't even reboot.  I'm assuming
that Dos can't find drive E (that's where my cd rom is now) and I can't figure
out how to fix it.  I would appreciate a quick reply from anyone as I have some
work to get out using Corel-Draw and I need to access my CD-Rom!
Thanks, Marian

#: 40663 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    28-Nov-93  10:45:54
Sb: Emergency with Stacker
Fm: DANIEL KATZ 71773,3571
To: Sysop (X)

THIS IS NOT A DRILL, THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!!!!!!! Yesterday I ran stacker on my
340MB HD.  After it finished I pressed esc on the defragmentation thinking I
could do it later.  When it rebooted stacvol.dsk was not mounted because of to
much fragmentation. I have put some files from disks onto the root which was
left with 1.5MB free, like a dumb communication program, to speak to somone. It
is the only thing I have access to right now.  I do not know what to do. I
cannot run Sdefrag or Norton SD because my stack disk isn't mounted and stacvol
is all in hidden sectors. I am right now outside the US traveling in Israel,
but I really need my computer, if you think you can help leave me your number
and I'll call you. Again Stacvol.dsk is in perfect condition but to fragmented
to be mounted. Please get back to me ASAP.  Thank's for reading this.

         --Daniel

#: 40670 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    28-Nov-93  13:28:47
Sb: #error 109/110, stac 3.0
Fm: Stephen Ermann 100111,1007
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Hi,

After having used Stacker for years (1.02 to 3.0), I have run into my first
serious problem this weekend.

While running SDEFRAG, I got error message 109 and 110 (read and write error),
and followed the instructions provided:

- rebooted clean
- ran SCANDISK on the  unstacked drive.  Found 4 bad sectors (first ever!)
- let scandisk flag them as bad
- restarted my system, enabling stacker
- ran CHECK /F: found errors and fixed them.
- ran SDEFRAG: same errors.
- rerun SCANDISK after clean boot: new bad sectors.

- tried the /R, slowdown and /C=32 /F=512 actions described in tech note 3405,
but always got the same  problem.

- once during the testing, CHECK /F started reallocating corrupted blocks, and
I had to reboot after about 2 1/2 hours.  I still don't know if it was actually
doing something or not...

In any case, what can I do to gain confidence in my system again?

Regards,

Stephen Ermann
Switzerland

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40897 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  18:48:54
Sb: #40670-#error 109/110, stac 3.0
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Stephen Ermann 100111,1007 (X)

Stephen,

It seems you followed the correct steps.  have you tried a different utility
than Scandisk ?   ie: Norton or PC Tools ?  This may work better.  Also whats
the time/date stamp on your Sdefrag file. If they are befoer Jan-93 download
the latest from lib:1 STACUD.EXE  which is a self-extracting file

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41000 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  15:27:40
Sb: #40897-#error 109/110, stac 3.0
Fm: Stephen Ermann 100111,1007
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Keith,

Thank you for your suggestions.  I thought I had the latest version of SDEFRAG
(done the download a while ago), but the datestamp on SDEFRAG.COM is 12-3-92,
while SDEFRAG2.EXE is 2-04-93.  Would this be correct?

I tried running PC Tools on the uncompressed drive, and it gives me the same
symptoms as scandisk.  I have not tried it on the compressed drive.

Any suggestions?

Regards,

Stephen Ermann
Switzerland

There are 2 Replies.

#: 41059 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  19:02:11
Sb: #41000-#error 109/110, stac 3.0
Fm: Roger Hicks 74250,1407
To: Stephen Ermann 100111,1007 (X)

Stephen;

Yes sdefrag2.exe dated 2-04-93 is correct.

Try to run the surface scan on the compressed drive.

Thanks,

Keith Moon
STAC Product Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41212 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  08:00:46
Sb: #41059-error 109/110, stac 3.0
Fm: Stephen Ermann 100111,1007
To: Roger Hicks 74250,1407 (X)

Keith,

I will try running PC Tools suface scan on the compressed drive.

#: 41156 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  18:59:17
Sb: #41000-#error 109/110, stac 3.0
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Stephen Ermann 100111,1007 (X)

Stephen,

The file which gets updated is Sdefrag2.exe which you have the latest. Next,
does PC Tools mark them bad or just report them ?  You may try running a
Pattern test as it would be mor thorough. If none of this helps. download
TECHSP.FRM from lib:1, fill it out and upload to lib:1  This is our engineering
report.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41211 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  07:59:47
Sb: #41156-error 109/110, stac 3.0
Fm: Stephen Ermann 100111,1007
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

PC Tools marks the sectors as bad, and will not find any new unless I run
SDEFRAG.

I'll try again over the weekend, and if the problem still exists, will copy all
the data onto my home machine, and reformat the disk.  In any case, I'll fill
in a report.

Thanks for your assistance.

Regards,

Stephen Ermann
Switzerland

#: 40677 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    28-Nov-93  14:02:40
Sb: #32-bit DISK access
Fm: Jessie J. Herr 73232,3301
To: 76711,744

We have an application that makes use of 32-bit DISK access in Windows 3.1 (it
isn't just permanent swap space that uses this feature).  It doesn't appear to
work with Stacker (can't read the disk) -- is this what you would expect?

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40898 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  18:48:57
Sb: #40677-#32-bit DISK access
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Jessie J. Herr 73232,3301 (X)

Jessie.

ANy 32-bit disk access program will not work on a compressed drive.  Either
disable the option or move to a non-compressed drive.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There are 2 Replies.

#: 41100 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  02:45:47
Sb: #40898-32-bit DISK access
Fm: Jessie J. Herr 73232,3301
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Ken,

Thanks for the quick and definitive answer.

... Jessie

#: 41199 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  23:13:38
Sb: #40898-#32-bit DISK access
Fm: Nill Toulme 71563,2030
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

>>We support the 32-bit DISK access. We are investigating the VFAT option
 >>at this time.
 >>Thanks,
 >>Keith Moon
 >>STAC Product Support

 >>ANy 32-bit disk access program will not work on a compressed drive.
 >>Either disable the option or move to a non-compressed drive.
 >>Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

C'mon, guys, straighten it out.   We really want to know.  I am waiting on this
to decide whether to go with WFW 3.11 or not.

Nill

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41236 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  13:41:48
Sb: #41199-#32-bit DISK access
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Nill Toulme 71563,2030 (X)

Nill,

Here's the bottom line:

1.  Stacker works with 32-bit disk access.  This is part of Windows 3.1 and
probably 3.11 and makes use of the perm swap file

2,  The new VFAT 32 file system with WFWG 3.11  does not appear to work on a
Stacker drive.  We are looking into this and should have a report from the lab
shortly.

3.  IF you run WGFW 3.11 on a Stacker drive do not activate the VFAT file
system.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There are 2 Replies.

#: 41286 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  21:01:04
Sb: #41236-32-bit DISK access
Fm: Nill Toulme 71563,2030
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

OK, thanks Keith.  I am holding off on WFW 3.11 till this is resolved.

Nill

#: 41288 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  21:58:53
Sb: #41236-#32-bit DISK access
Fm: Nill Toulme 71563,2030
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Keith, further to the WFW 3.11 question, here FWIW is a recent exchange from
the WUGNET forum:

 [Msg#] 35681
 [From] Jim Blakely/WUGNET 75665,436
 [To  ] valda hilley 76711,1205 (X)
 [Date] 02-Dec-93 23:20:24
 [Subj] #WFW 3.11 & Stacker
 [Sect] 4/System Configure

Well, I finally got my hands on a release copy of Windows for Workgroups 3.11.

The first thing I tested was 32-bit file access & Stacker.

So, here's the deal:

Windows for Workgroups 3.11 *does* support 32-bit file access for Stacker
drives, *if a STACKER.COM version of Stacker* (Such as Stacker 3.0). This is
the source of the mix-up about Stacker support ... since Stac used a
reverse-engineered MS-DOS 6.0 DBLSPACE.BIN to create their "Stacker 3.1 for
MS-DOS 6.0" product, Stacker 3.1, like MS-DOS 6.0 DoubleSpace, will not work
with VFAT.

The reasons for this apparently have to do with the fact that VFAT uses some
new DoubleSpace features to determine, among other things, actual free space in
the CVF, and to use some of the DoubleGuard features.

I don't run Stacker 3.1 on this system, due to the fact that it is not
backward-compatible with some features of previous versions, most notably,
flexibility in assigning swapped drive letters. In fact, now that this test is
done, I will probably go ahead & order the Stacker->DoubleSpace conversion
disk, and be done with it.

--Jim Blakely, Microsoft Certified Product Specialist, Windows for Workgroups

* Replies:       35695, 35723

 [Msg#] 35695
 [From] John W. Albino 72347,2770
 [To  ] Jim Blakely/WUGNET 75665,436 (X)
 [Date] 03-Dec-93 10:10:13
 [Subj] #35681-#WFW 3.11 & Stacker
 [Sect] 4/System Configure

 >> Stacker 3.1, like MS-DOS 6.0 DoubleSpace, will not work with VFAT.

Interesting. I've still got the October Beta (the supposedly "gold" one which
went to manufacturing for the release version) on two Stacker 3.1 machines -- a
Dell 486 and a Compaq LTE 4/25c 486. VFAT works on both machines.

Wonder if they made a final re-jigger in the release version?

* Reply:       35697

 [Msg#] 35697

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41289 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  21:58:57
Sb: #41288-32-bit DISK access
Fm: Nill Toulme 71563,2030
To: Nill Toulme 71563,2030 (X)

[<<< Message: 41288  Continued >>>]

 [From] Jim Blakely/WUGNET 75665,436
 [To  ] John W. Albino 72347,2770 (X)
 [Date] 03-Dec-93 11:08:21
 [Subj] #35695-WFW 3.11 & Stacker
 [Sect] 4/System Configure

John,

They did. The October release candidate I had is not identical to the GA
version. I haven't checked on just what's different, but there were a couple
differences.

--Jim


#: 40682 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    28-Nov-93  15:59:43
Sb: #Stacker and OS2
Fm: David K. Sinha 71214,3531
To: tech support

Dear Tech Support and anyone,
I recently bought the OS2 for Windows promotion package but before I open the
box, I need to get some answers. I currently use DOS 6.2 and Windows 3.1 with
the majority of my hard disk (roughly 450 MB) compressed with Stacker 3.1 for
Windows/DOS on a 486 dx2 machine.  I want to use the OS2 but can I with my
stacked disk?  I  know there is a Stacker for OS2 but I'd rather not go to that
expense if OS2 can handle my current setup.  My machine is not a file server,
just a home/end user.  Would appreciate the advice.

Dave

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40901 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  18:49:08
Sb: #40682-Stacker and OS2
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: David K. Sinha 71214,3531 (X)

David,

to use OS/2 with Stacker you would need Stacker for OS/2.   See Lib:2 for
product information, Order.frm provides upgrade prices and section 5 is setup
for OS/2 support

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40684 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    28-Nov-93  16:31:50
Sb: #Stacker 3.0
Fm: Carl E Thomas 72602,251
To: All

At boot up drive c: is not mounted; drive d: is mounted, these are the only
drives that are stacked.  At boot up I get the message, "Not a Stacker STACVOL
file-NOT MOUNTED."

When I use the file SFIXCTL2.EXE to fix the stacvol.dsk file, I get this
message, "Error clearing file atttributes of Stacvol file c:stacvol.dsk." And
"Unable to open stacvol file c:stacvol.dsk for repair." Does any body out there
know how to fix this.  

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40902 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  18:49:12
Sb: #40684-Stacker 3.0
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Carl E Thomas 72602,251

Carl,

Try unhiding the Stacvol file on C. type C:\DOS\Attrib -h -r -s c:\stacvol.dsk
then type sfixctl.exe c:\stacvol.dsk

if this doesn't help run c:\dos\chkdsk to check for errors on the drive.   let
me know the results

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40686 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    28-Nov-93  17:59:48
Sb: Stacking Quicken
Fm: MICHAEL F. RAIBLE 75210,1104
To: sysop (X)

I am running Stacker 3.0 Value Edition.  I was having trouble with Quicken 7.0
data file showing some corrupt data.  Both the program and the data files were
Stacked.  Intuit's technical support said that Quicken and data should not be
stacked.  ???????  I never saw anything from STAC about program
incompatibilities.  Are there programs or data which should not be compressed
using Stacker?  I found that the corrupted data was a bad category, deleted it
and continued.   I have moved Quicken to an uncompressed drive.  I would like
the disk space back.  Have you heard of any problems like this?  Thanks. 

#: 41090 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  23:31:01
Sb: Stacking Quicken
Fm: MICHAEL F. RAIBLE 75210,1104
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

I think this problem described in my previous message was operator error.   IT
BOTHERS me when other manufacturers state that their software has problems with
Stacker.  Just wanted to check if you were aware of any problems or if there
were any programs which should not be compressed using Stacker.

Thanks. 

#: 40695 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    28-Nov-93  23:21:23
Sb: #HELP! Stacking RAM disk
Fm: Loren Omoto 73407,3110
To: Sysop (X)

I'm having a problem with Stacker not recognizing the change in location of the
pointer for the Windows swap file when I try to add a stacked RAM disk to my
setup.

Everything purrs along great as long as I'm using just one stacked drive (C:).
But when I add the DEVICE=RAMDRIVE line to my CONFIG.SYS, followed by SCREATE
(as instructed in Stacker 3.0 docs), everything goes to you-know-where.

Even though the drive gets created and stacked successfully, I keep getting the
SSWAP error message:  "A permanent Windows swap file was detected on a drive to
be swapped, but unable to find SPART.PAR..."  I even added the /W= and /W+
switches to the SSWAP line in CONFIG.SYS (one at a time, of course).  No
combination of switches and/or default directories could get rid of the error
message.

What am I doing wrong?


                                --LO

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40907 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  18:49:32
Sb: #40695-#HELP! Stacking RAM disk
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Loren Omoto 73407,3110 (X)

Loren,

try using tech note 31202.txt in lib:3  it should help

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41322 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    04-Dec-93  21:36:18
Sb: #40907-HELP! Stacking RAM disk
Fm: Loren Omoto 73407,3110
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Keith,

Hi again...

I downloaded the tech note you suggested, and it certainly seems to apply to my
problem (can't find the Windows file pointing to the swap file).

Unfortunately, the solution seems to apply only to Stacker ver. 3.1 -- I'm
using 3.0.  Is there any way that I can get my system to recognize the changed
location of SPART.PAR?

(FYI, I'm also using DOS 5.0, if that makes any difference in the answer.)

Thanks in advance for the help...



                                --LO

#: 40697 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    28-Nov-93  23:31:23
Sb: #Dumping partitions???
Fm: Robert J. Eves 70242,3175
To: Keith Dunlea: Stac Tech 75300,2755 (X)

Keith:

I have removed Stacker 3.1 from one computer so that I can use it on another.
I tried today to install DOS 6.2 on the computer from which Stacker was removed
and got this message:  "Your hard disk contains one or more unformatted
partitions."  DOS 6.2 would not install.  Is there a way that I can get rid of
the partitions without formatting the hard disk?  The computer is working fine.

Thanks.

Rob

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40908 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  18:49:36
Sb: #40697-Dumping partitions???
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Robert J. Eves 70242,3175 (X)

Robert,

Stacker make no physcial changes.  If Stacker was removed then the error
message maybe valid.  Check with MS for more details on this one.

thanks.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40702 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    29-Nov-93  08:27:33
Sb: #WINFAX & STACKER
Fm: PAUL A JACKSON 100026,2256
To: SYSOP (X)

Is there any problems with stacker and WinFax Pro 3 ?  I'm having reception
problems with this Fax software and I am trying to narrow down the culprit.

Regards
        Paul Jackson

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40912 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  18:49:50
Sb: #40702-WINFAX & STACKER
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: PAUL A JACKSON 100026,2256 (X)

Paul,

No reports of problems with WinFax and Stacker.  If you leave more details we
can offer suggestions

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40726 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    29-Nov-93  19:40:44
Sb: #DOS 6.2
Fm: Mitch Smith 71066,520
To: ALL

I have DOS 6.0 on my PC running with Stacker 3.1 right now. I just picked up a
copy of the "Step-Up" to DOS 6.2.

Before I run the upgrade, what considerations should I make for Stacker? (which
I want to keep using)  Will I have to reload Stacker after running the upgrade?

Thanks in advance for the info.


There is 1 Reply.

#: 40917 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  18:50:07
Sb: #40726-DOS 6.2
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Mitch Smith 71066,520 (X)

Mitch,

see forum News Flash.   It suggests download 62STAC.EXE [self extracting] to
help you install dos 6.2 with stacker 3.1

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40778 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    29-Nov-93  20:04:08
Sb: #Changed Password
Fm: Michael Nash-Hunt 100060,201
To: All

I just changed my password on a stacked drive using the stac shell password
system from a 6 letter name and just put in return twice instead of the space
and dot to remove it (must remember to read manual first). I can now no longer
access the drive, I tried, Old Password, return,ALT13, and the keys around
return. HELP. PLEASE ANYBODY HELP ME.  

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41004 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  15:32:02
Sb: #40778-Changed Password
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Michael Nash-Hunt 100060,201 (X)

Michael.

If your having a problem with the password you need to call Stac Product
Support.  They will have to assist you by phone after validating ownership

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40791 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    29-Nov-93  22:56:16
Sb: # WRONG DRIVE IN WINDOWS
Fm: John Gennaria 72302,1770
To: STAC ELECTRONICS 75300,2755 (X)

DEAR STAC ELECTRONICS,

When  I boot my computer in windows in 386 enh mode and then run file manager,
my A and B drives both read as the D drive and are unaccessible.
If I boot windows in standard mode however, A and B drives are accessible and
read as they are supposed to.  A is my 1.2 mb 5.25 in drive and B is my 1.44 mb
3.5 in drive. My hard disk is partioned and both partions are stacked.  C is my
primary partion and is controlled from the unstacked drive F. D is the
secondary partion and is controlled from the unstacked drive E. When you access
file manager or a browse function in 386 enh mode the A drive is called
Astacvol instead of A, and the B drive is called Bstacvol instead of B and as I
mentioned before when I access either one of the drives I get the same tree as
drive
D. Can you please tell me what is wrong.

Thank you in advance for your help.

John Gennaria

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41005 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  15:32:06
Sb: #40791-# WRONG DRIVE IN WINDOWS
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: John Gennaria 72302,1770 (X)

John,

Post your config/autoexec and we can take a look

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41029 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  17:26:09
Sb: #41005-# WRONG DRIVE IN WINDOWS
Fm: John Gennaria 72302,1770
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Keith,

Since I sent my original message I have done some more checking in my system to
narrow down the problem. I have discovered that the problem I originally
described to you occurs in windows enh or standard and in dos depending on my
boot up configuration. I use a menu booting program that I obtained as
shareware called multiconfig.  This program requires an autoexec.bat file that
is set up as a goto file for each configuration. In the interest of brevity I
will only include the configuration used when the problem occurs and one where
it does not. The problem occurs when I use the <WINDOWS> configuration that
follows and does not when I use the <GAMES> configuration that will follow
that:

C:\MCFG
GOTO %MCFG%

:WINDOWS
REM THE "CHECK" LINE BELOW PROVIDES ADDITIONAL SAFETY FOR STACKER DRIVES.
REM PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE IT.
C:\STACKER\CHECK /WP
@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $P$G
PATH=D:\TNTIT;C:\;D:\;C:\PROAUDIO;C:\BIN;C:\PCTOOLS;C:\QEMM;C:\BITCOM;C:\BITFAX;
:\WINDOWS;C:\DOS;C:\STACKER;C:\ENCORE;C:\TRAX;C:\PCKWIK;%PATH%
SET GMKW5=C:\GMKW
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4
MIRROR C: D:
SET CPAV=C:\PCTOOLS\DATA\CPAV.INI
SET PCTOOLS=C:\PCTOOLS\DATA
SET BITCOM=C:\BITCOM
SET BITFAX=C:\BITFAX
SET TMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
SET DLCDFG=C:\TURBODELUXE
SET RCPADI=C:\TURBODELUXE\RCTURBO.EXP
C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:1 C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV.EXE E F
C:24XMODE MONITOR
LOX -N
C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:1 C:\DOS\SHARE.EXE /L:500
C:\PCKWIK\PCKSCRN
C:\WINDOWS\WIN.COM
GOTO END

The next part of the AE.bat is the same except for the following changes. (This
configuration works with no problem.)

:GAMES
PATH=D:\TNTIT;C:\;D:\;C:\PROAUDIO;C:\QEMM;D:\SIERRA;C:\DOS;C:\STACKER;D:\BIN;D:
FALCON3;D:\DYNAMIX;D:\WOLF3D;D:\SPEAR;C:\CONNER\BA;D:\LD2;C:\PCKWIK;%PATH%
C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:2 C:\DOS\MOUSE
C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:2 C:24XMODE MONITOR
D:\
D:\BIN\MENUG.BAT
BADOS/AUTO
GOTO END

Next comes the config.sys. Each  <> contains another configuration. The file
only runs the items in <> selected from the menu on start up and the items with
no bracketed name at the beginning.

DEVICE=C:\MCFG.SYS DEFAULT=WINDOWS DELAY=6 PASS
DEVICE=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
DEVICE=<TURBOCAD><LINKS>C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=<GAMES><CDGAMES>C:\QEMM\QEMM386.SYS RAM
DEVICE=<WINDOWS><CDWINDOWS>C:\QEMM\QEMM363.SYS X=B000-B7FF RAM
LASTDRIVE=I
DOS=HIGH
DEVICE=<LINKS><TURBOCAD>C:\EMM386.EXE 7168 RAM FRAME=E000 I=CE00-EFFF
SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM /E:384 /P
DEVICE=C:\EISA\DTC2290.SYS
DEVICE=C:\EISA\DTCDISK.SYS
BUFFERS=44
FILES=50
STACKS=9,256
DEVICE=<GAMES><CDGAMES>C:\QEMM LOADHI.SYS /R:1 C:\PROAUDIO\MVSOUND.SYS D:3 Q:2
DEVICE=<WINDOWS><CDWINDOWS>C:\PROAUDIO\MVSOUND.SYS D:3 Q:2
DEVICE=<CDGAMES>C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:2 C:\DEV\SLCD.SYS /D:MSCD001
DEVICE=<CDWINDOWS>C:\DEV\SLCD.SYS /D:MSCD001
DOS=UMB
DEVICEHIGH=<TURBOCAD><LINKS>C:\PROAUDIO\MVSOUND.SYS D:3 Q:2
DEVICEHIGH=<TURBOCAD><LINKS>C:\STACKER\STACKER.COM /p=9 D:\STACVOL.DSK
C:\STACVOL.DSK b:  /EMS A:
DEICE=<CDWINDOWS><WINDOWS>C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:1 C:\STACKER\STACKER.COM
D:\STACVOL.DSK  C:\STACVOL.DSK b: /p=9 /EMS A:
DEVICE=<CDGAMES><GAMES>C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:2 C:\STACKER\STACKER.COM
D:\STACVOL.DSK  C:\STACVOL.DSK b: /p=9 /EMS A:
DEVICE=C:\STACKER\SSWAP.COM D:\STACVOL.DSK
DEVICE=C:\STACKER\SSWAP.COM C:\STACVOL.DSK /SYNC+
DEVICE=C:\MCFG.SYS

I realize these multiconfig programs can be confusing but I hope you
understand.
Thank you for your help.

John Gennaria


There is 1 Reply.

#: 41158 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  18:59:23
Sb: #41029-# WRONG DRIVE IN WINDOWS
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: John Gennaria 72302,1770 (X)

John,

To help us help you determine what is different from the configuration that
works and the one which doesn;t.

thanks!

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There are 2 Replies.

#: 41215 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  08:36:37
Sb: #41158- WRONG DRIVE IN WINDOWS
Fm: John Gennaria 72302,1770
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Keith,

Your last message did not come through complete. Therefore, I don't know what
else you need to help you determine my system configuration. Please let me know
again.

Thanks

John Gennaria

#: 41220 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  10:40:00
Sb: #41158-# WRONG DRIVE IN WINDOWS
Fm: John Gennaria 72302,1770
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Keith,

The only difference I could see in the two different configurations is that the
one that did not work loaded stacker high through QEMM. I loaded stacker
without using QEMM into conventional memory and the problem is solved. I still
don't know howerver why an errow wasn't reported by QEMM or another problem did
not occur. Another mystery to me is when the problem actually started since I
just discovered it when trying to install a windows program last week and my
configuration hasn't changed for windows for at least three months. I have
installed several programs in that three months without difficulty. I guess
it's time to question my boy's a little more thoroughly to find who the culprit
is.

Thank you for patience

John Gennaria

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41237 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  13:41:51
Sb: #41220-# WRONG DRIVE IN WINDOWS
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: John Gennaria 72302,1770 (X)

John,

Ok, we are getting somewhere.  Next, try disabling smartdrv.exe from the
autoexec.bat and lets see if that makes a difference.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41258 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  17:01:46
Sb: #41237-# WRONG DRIVE IN WINDOWS
Fm: John Gennaria 72302,1770
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Keith,

The problem was solved by loading the stacker statement in conventional memory
instead of loading it in high memory with QEMM. Why do you want me to disable
smartdrive.exe?

Thanks

John Gennaria

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41269 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  19:01:59
Sb: #41258- WRONG DRIVE IN WINDOWS
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: John Gennaria 72302,1770 (X)

John,

1.  Ok, so your config.sys / autoexec.bat shows Stachigh.sys loaded low. This
was not claer in your message. When loading Stachigh.sys into upper memory make
sure you run MemMaker or Qemm optimize.  Using a manual load may not work.
Also, we would like to see a config.sys when it doesn't work.

2.  re: disable smartdrv.exe In other words, don't loads smartdrv.exe  Place a
REM string infront of the line.

REM smartdrv.exe

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40804 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  01:38:28
Sb: #Stacking Floppies
Fm: Brian W. Kwong 71514,707
To: ALL

When I stack a floppy and run CHKDSK, the disk space says it is double.
However, DIR does not show the same bytes free.  I run out of space, but the
CHKDSK bytes available on disk still shows around 1 meg of space left.  What is
going on here?  Thanks. 

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41006 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  15:32:10
Sb: #40804-Stacking Floppies
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Brian W. Kwong 71514,707

Brian,

Space reporting on a Stacker drive depends on your drive compression ratio.
During install the drive is created with an expected compression of 2.0-1.  If
the data stored on the drive has an overall compression ratio of less than
2.0-1 it will occupy more compressed space than originally anticipated.  Use
CHECK or SCHECK and DIR to accuratley report fee space.

see TECH NOTE 2602.txt in lib:3 for more details

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40810 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  06:04:37
Sb: #Drive reassignment
Fm: Tony Tanzillo 71241,2067
To: Stacker support

I installed Stacker 3.0 on a 486 with two hard drives.
I stacked only the second drive, which is 330 mb.
Stacker created two virtual drives, D and F, and placed the
compressed volume files
on drive E:
I want to change the configuration so that:
Drive D:  = Stacked drive 1
Drive E:  = Stacked drive 2
Drive F:   = Physical disk 2 (containing the compressed STACKVOL.???
volume files).
Q: How can I do this?
Thanks,
Leonard F. Tanzillo
PS:  Here are excerpts from SYSINFO.TXT:
==================================================================
======================================================================
====
SYSINFO.TXT - Version 3.00, Stac Technical Support Info Extractor
======================================================================
====
Tue Nov 30 05:11:44 1993
0-502310-40732-S000
Stacker Version Number: 3.00
======================================================================
====
SOFTWARE INFORMATION
======================================================================
====
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----
***** DOS VERSION
4DOS 4.0   DOS 5.02
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----
***** C:\CONFIG.SYS
DEVICE=C:\QEMM\QEMM386.SYS R:1 RAM X=B000-B7FF ST:M
DEVICE=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:1 C:\STACKER\STACKER.COM /P=1
D:\STACVOL.DSK D:\STACVOL.000
DEVICEHIGH=C:\STACKER\SSWAP.COM D:\STACVOL.DSK
DEVICE=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:1 C:\DOS\INTERLNK.EXE /DRIVES:1
DOS=HIGH
SHELL=C:\4DOS.COM /p /f
FILES=40
BUFFERS=40
REM STACKS=9,256
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----
***** C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
@ECHO OFF
SET COMSPEC=C:\4DOS.COM
C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:1 C:\ANSI.COM
C:\QEMM\LOADHI /R:1 C:\4DOS\KSTACK.COM
PROMPT [%%@diskfree[%%_disk,m] Mb] $p $g
rem FASTOPEN C:
C:\TOOLS\SETKEY
C:\STACKER\CHECK /WP
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----
***** DOS PROGRAMS LOADED
PRINT.EXE loaded       :   NO
ASSIGN.COM/EXE loaded  :   NO
SHARE.EXE loaded       :   NO
NET REDIRECTOR loaded  :   NO
NLSFUNC loaded         :   NO
ANSI.SYS loaded        :   NO
DOSKEY.COM loaded      :   NO
GRAFTABL.COM loaded    :   NO
APPEND.EXE loaded      :   NO
IPX loaded             :   NO
KEYB.COM loaded        :   NO
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----
***** Drivers as listed in CONFIG.SYS
Date == 0 indicates that the file was not found.
# indicates Host Mode.
@ indicates Replaceable drive.
----DATE---TIME----SIZE--FILENAME-------------------------------------
----
11-13-91  6:02a   89831  C:\QEMM\QEMM386.SYS
11-13-91  6:02a   18652  C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS
09-19-93  1:29p   43727  C:\STACKER\STACKER.COM
06-03-93  3:05a   58624  C:\STACKER\SSWAP.COM
09-01-92 12:00a   17133  C:\DOS\INTERLNK.EXE
11-18-91  4:00a  106346  C:\4DOS.COM
======================================================================
====
ERRORS FROM STACKER.LOG FILES
======================================================================
====
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----
***** ERRORS FROM E:\STACKER.LOG
CREATE 3.00  Mon Nov 29 17:00:08 1993
Stack of Existing Drive
Filename:  D:\STACVOL.DSK
0 files were too large and were not copied (from E:\STACKER.LOG)
***** List of files with READ errors (from E:\STACKER.LOG)
0 file(s) listed
***** List of HIDDEN files not copied (from E:\STACKER.LOG)
0 file(s) listed
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----
***** ERRORS FROM E:\STACKER.LOG
Unable to retrieve log information from 'E:\STACKER.LOG' (Stacker
Drive F:).
======================================================================
====
HARDWARE INFORMATION
======================================================================
====
Current CPU type       : 80486 or higher
Numeric coprocessor    : YES
Computer Model ID      : 0xFC
BIOS ROM Date          : 11/05/91
First Hard Drive Type  : 48
Second Hard Drive Type : 49
Net BIOS active        :  NO
Primary display        : VGA (PS/2 Color)
Secondary display      : NONE
Mouse installed        :  NO
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----
***** MEMORY INFORMATION
Total DOS Memory       : 655360 bytes
Available DOS Memory   : 324928 bytes
Total Ext. Mem.        :  7340032 bytes
Available Ext. Mem.    :        0 bytes
XMS Driver Present     : YES
XMS Version Number     : 3.0
XMS Revision Number    : 6.2
XMS Total free         :  6815744 bytes
XMS Largest free       :  6815744 bytes
UMB Largest free       :    57536 bytes
EMS Present            : YES
EMS Version            : 4.0
EMS Page Frame         : C000h
EMS Total Memory       :  7585792 bytes
EMS Available Memory   :  6815744 bytes
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----
***** ENVIRONMENT INFO
COMSPEC=C:\4DOS.COM
CMDLINE=sysinfo
SHELLDIR=c:\
WD=C:\WINDOWS
PATH=C:\WINDOWS\EXCEL;C:\QEMM;C:\DOS;C:\;C:\TOOLS;C:\WINDOWS
PROMPT=[%@diskfree[%_disk,m] Mb] $p $g
BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T4
SOUND=C:\SBPRO
     855 bytes of memory are currently used by the DOS environment.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----
***** PHYSICAL DRIVE INFORMATION
Drive Type      Local/LAN  Total (K)    Free (K)     S/C  Version  RWD
----- -------   ---------  -----------  -----------  ---  -------  ---
 A:   1.2MB     Local
 B:   1.44MB    Local
 C:   Fixed     Local        121829376     20424704
 D:   Fixed     Local        534749184    509116416   16     3.00  ___
 E:   Fixed     Local        345169920      1048576
 F:   Fixed     Local        150323200    137281536   16     3.00  ___
 G:   Fixed     Local
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----
***** STACVOL FILE INFO
Drive C:
   None found!
Drive D:
   None found!
Drive E:
   STACVOL.DSK      268,435,456  Sys Hid R/O
   STACVOL.000       75,674,624  Sys Hid R/O
Drive F:
   None found!
Drive G:
   Drive not mounted!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----
***** STACKER COMMAND INFO
Stacker hardware information :  Software only
Stacker using EMS            :   NO
Stacker loaded high          :  YES
Available replaceable drives :  1
Number of unmounted drives   :  0 (excluding removable drives)
Number of replaced drives    :  0
Number of read-only drives   :  0
Number of damaged drives     :  0
Stacker drive map:
   Drive A: was drive A: at boot time
   Drive B: was drive B: at boot time
   Drive C: was drive C: at boot time
   Drive D: was drive E: at boot time  [ E:\STACVOL.DSK = 256.0MB  ]
   Drive E: was drive D: at boot time
   Drive F: was drive F: at boot time  [ E:\STACVOL.000 = 72.1MB  ]
   Drive G: was drive G: at boot time

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41007 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  15:32:14
Sb: #40810-#Drive reassignment
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Tony Tanzillo 71241,2067 (X)

Tony,

you have two options.

1.  Unstack both drives and rerun SETUP and select 16k clusters in advanced
options. This will compressed the entire D: drive

2.  If you prefer two Stacker volumes then change the load order from:
>DEVICE=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:1 C:\STACKER\STACKER.COM /P=1 >D:\STACVOL.DSK
D:\STACVOL.000 to: >>>DEVICE=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:1 C:\STACKER\STACKER.COM
/P=1 >>>D:\STACVOL.000 D:\STACVOL.DSK

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41043 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  19:00:53
Sb: #41007-#Drive reassignment
Fm: Tony Tanzillo 71241,2067
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Keith - Thanks for the help.

I restacked the drive with 16-k clusters.

One additional question.

I'd like to make the drive containing the compressed volume as unaccessable as
possible.

Is there a way to make it so that DOS doesn't reconize the drive (and for
example, it would not appear on the drive bar in WinFile)?

Thanks again,

Tony


There is 1 Reply.

#: 41159 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  18:59:26
Sb: #41043-#Drive reassignment
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Tony Tanzillo 71241,2067 (X)

Tony,

You want to have access to the host boot drive.  It contains information that
is needed to boot machine and create boot floppies.  Also, block device
drivers, such a Stacker, must claim at least one drive letter

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41221 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  10:52:21
Sb: #41159-#Drive reassignment
Fm: Tony Tanzillo 71241,2067
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Keith - Thanks for the reply.

This is not the boot drive (which is not stacked at all).

The second hard drive is stacked, and currently it is assigned to D:

I'm trying to keep DOS from seeing E: which is where the compressed D: drive
is.

-TonyT.

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41238 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  13:41:54
Sb: #41221-Drive reassignment
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Tony Tanzillo 71241,2067

Tony,

Ok, but my reply still applies.  Since Stacker is a block device driver is must
be assigned one drive letter.  All other drives can be setup "replaced".

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40812 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  07:50:16
Sb: #write error drive d
Fm: NICHOLAS SPAGNOLA 76645,1132
To: sysop (X)

Dear Sysop I have a problem with a stacked drive.  DTK 386SX system, C: drive
un- compressed,  D: drive compressed, 240-meg connor drive; Stacvol file of
approx. 200 meg.  When we try to do a tape restore, to this drive, or even use
one of the programs on th is D: drive, we get an intermittent "WRITE error
drive D:".  I tried the integrity check, but no luck. What gives, to make this
intermittent?  When doing the tape restore, I get about 2% of the tape done,
and then I get the tape's message of "general failure, drive D, writing".  If I
select the tape's option of "continue" instead of "abort", it works again for a
couple files to restore, and then crashes again. Any suggestions? Thanks for
info

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41008 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  15:32:18
Sb: #40812-write error drive d
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: NICHOLAS SPAGNOLA 76645,1132 (X)

Nicholas,

What else is loaded ?   Does booting with just Stacker loaded make any
difference ?

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40813 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  08:47:46
Sb: #No working drive
Fm: Morton Glantz 76550,2212
To: Stac Expert

My s/n SE31A339796. I'm very worried.  I have two separate drives C and D.
Stacker created a working drive E for C, the stacker drive, and a working drive
D for D, the stacker drive.  I would have expected stacker to create a working
drive F for the D Drive.  Because of this Smartdrive caching status shows drive
E is recognized O.K with both read and write cache BUT smartdrive does not
recognize Drive D and will not cach. Stacker drive map shows Drive C: was drive
C at boot time [E:/stacvol.dsk = 218.7 mg] Drive D: was drive D at boot time
[D:\stacvol.dsk = 116.9 bm] Drive E: was drive E: at boot time; Drive F: was
drive F at boot time [D;\stacvol.000 = 1.6 mb] my question is is my D drive in
danger? Should I reinstall stacker/

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41009 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  15:32:22
Sb: #40813-No working drive
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Morton Glantz 76550,2212

Morton,

You have drive D: setup as a "replaced drive"   Your Stacker line in the
config.sys should read

device=c:\stacker\stacker.com c:\stacvol.dsk d:\stacvol.dsk
device=c:\stacker\sswap.com c:\stacvol.dsk /sync device=c:\stacker\sswap.com
d:\stacvol.dsk

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40820 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  10:34:14
Sb: #Tape Backup?
Fm: robert diefenbach 76703,4045
To: ALL

I am considering buying a tape backup device, but have been warned that some
don't work on machines with Stacker installed.  Can/would you comment on this,
and perhaps recommend a moderately-priced tape backup unit that _will_ work
with Stacker installed?

I am using Stacker 3 on two computers: a 486/33 running MS-DOS 6.00, and a
Compaq Contura 386 laptop running Compaq's own DOS.  The harddrive on the 486
("Stacked") has a total of about 496MB, of which about 107MB are now in use.
The Compaq's harddrive is "Stacked" to about 170KB.

Thank you. Robert Diefenbach Atlanta, Georgia

There are 2 Replies.

#: 40962 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  00:07:11
Sb: #40820-#Tape Backup?
Fm: Art Masson 73105,672
To: robert diefenbach 76703,4045 (X)

I'm using a Colorado 250 meg drive with their Windows software & no
problems backing up two stacked drives on my 486DX2/66.  One of my
stacked drives is over 400 meg....the backup software simply asks for
a second tape at about the 240Meg point...no problems.
Good luck.
Art Masson

There is 1 Reply.

#: 40982 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  10:36:42
Sb: #40962-#Tape Backup?
Fm: robert diefenbach 76703,4045
To: Art Masson 73105,672 (X)

Many thanks.  Although I have Windows 5.1 on my 486, I use it very little, and
the vast majority of files (program and data) are in DOS.  Will I have any
problem?

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41085 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  22:29:42
Sb: #40982-#Tape Backup?
Fm: Art Masson 73105,672
To: robert diefenbach 76703,4045 (X)

No...the Colorado drives come with a DOS application which manages the
backup process, allows you to select backup type, compression, etc.......
I bought the Windows version becuse I'm in Windows alot...and the backup
can proceed while I'm working with another Windows application.

Ive not had any problems with either version (DOS or Windows).

Art Masson

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41110 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  09:11:52
Sb: #41085-#Tape Backup?
Fm: robert diefenbach 76703,4045
To: Art Masson 73105,672 (X)

Thanks again, Art.  I'll be on the line to CompUSA or someone within the hour
to check prices on a Colorado.  I guess I'll pop over to ZIF first for a
look-see.  Your fast response to my question has been very helpful.

Rob Diefenbach

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41187 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  20:53:40
Sb: #41110-#Tape Backup?
Fm: Art Masson 73105,672
To: robert diefenbach 76703,4045 (X)

Prices have recently been reduced.  I paid about $199 for my internal tape
backup drive....going prices seem to be now around $175 for the 250Meg.....
I definately recommend the 250Meg model.....

By the way your next challange will be to find a place with 2120 tapes at a
reasonable cost.  I've seen prices as high as $22/tape (unformated).  I've
also found places (advertized in Computer Shopper) where you can get
unformated tapes for around $12.  If you'd like specific names/sources
let me know.

Art

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41216 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  08:53:39
Sb: #41187-Tape Backup?
Fm: robert diefenbach 76703,4045
To: Art Masson 73105,672 (X)

I'll probably need to buy a self-standing unit to be able to back up both a 486
desk unit and a 386 laptop.  CompUSA asks $399 for the Colorado 250.  I'll look
around.  I am VERY leery about using the Computer Shopper, having been neatly
taken for $300+ by a former big advertiser there (Santron) which -- according
to the District Attorney of their head- quarters county in California -- took a
LOT of people before going out of business.  Computer Shopper was of
absoulutely no help ... didn't even express any regret.  (Okay.  Off the soap
box.)  Many thanks again.

#: 41010 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  15:32:26
Sb: #40820-#Tape Backup?
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: robert diefenbach 76703,4045 (X)

Robert,

We have no report incompatibilities with any tape backup software. Whomever you
spoke with was incorrect.   As the data is read from the drive its already
decomrpessed, therefore you would have have any problems with backup.

Select the backup software which is best for your machine,

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41109 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  09:09:01
Sb: #41010-Tape Backup?
Fm: robert diefenbach 76703,4045
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Thank you.  I'll pass this information on to the "expert" who raised the issue.

#: 40823 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  11:57:30
Sb: #Problem
Fm: Elliott Fein 70724,1516
To: SYSOP (X)

I entered the following message a week ago and received no response.


THE FOLLOWING IS WHAT I TOLD YOU PREVIOUSLY: I have STACKER 3.0 and I am having
a problem with my stacked harddisk.  I am getting read errors on certain files.
Only certain files seem to get the errors.  That is, if I rename the file, and
copy it again from diskette to hardisk, I still get errors reading the file.
 I have run STAC-CHECK and no errors are reported, although it never seems to
finish its checking, i.e., after showing "sector 177000 for 560000" it will say
no errors found and it doesn't seem to continue checking the rest of the
sectors.  This applies to most of the tests CHECK runs, including the surface
scan.
 When CHECK is about finished(?), it displays "Suface Scan - no error,
Projected Bytes Free = 266,420,224 and hangs the machine.  I have to hit RESET
to recover, consistently.
 I have also run PCTOOL's Read Entire Disk and it finds no errors.
 Would appreciate any help/suggestions. END OF OLD
 THE FOLLOWING IS NEW: I downloaded 3404.txt and followed the instructions. I
ran PCTOOL's Surface Scan: "No errors were found". I ran PCTOOL's DISKFIX with
80-Pattern.  It took ten hours to run: "No errors were detected".
 I increased the size of the uncompressed space on the drive and copied the
programs I was having trouble with to that new space.  They work fine there.
Seems to me the trouble is in STACKER. Do you have any fixes I might apply to
Stacker? Thanks in advance.


There is 1 Reply.

#: 41011 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  15:32:29
Sb: #40823-Problem
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Elliott Fein 70724,1516

Elliot,

Thanks for the information.   Not sure what would be cuasing the read errors.
Try adding /NB "no buffers" to your Stacker.com line and let me know if that
helps.    If it doesn't post your config/autoexec.bat and we can take a look.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40854 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  15:23:13
Sb: #SET Temp Directory
Fm: Bob Abrams - Sacramento 73547,1552
To: Stac Electronics

Windows needs a temporary directory. Does one SET the environment variable to a
temporary directory to the compressed drive or the uncompressed drive. Word
Perfect advise me that it needs to be set to the uncompressed drive. I would
like to hear what you have to say about that.

Bob Abrams

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41012 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  15:32:32
Sb: #40854-SET Temp Directory
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Bob Abrams - Sacramento 73547,1552

Bob,

Set the temp directory to the uncompressed drive.  WP may not remove the temp
file correctly. So, its best to leave it uncompressed.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40931 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  19:24:45
Sb: #Stacker 3 w/Win & EMS
Fm: Thomas B. Simpson 70373,2735
To: SYSOP (X)

Is is possible to use the EMS setting of Stacker 3.0 (/EMS) with Windows 3.1?
I didn't know if you could use EMS memory prior to running Windows (in 386
enhanced mode).  Using the /EMS setting would help free some of my high memory
for use, but I don't want to mess up my Windows.

Thanks in advance.

        /Tom

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41160 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  18:59:29
Sb: #40931-Stacker 3 w/Win & EMS
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Thomas B. Simpson 70373,2735

Thomas,

/EMS move part of the Stacker driver  [buffers] into a page frame. This will
not free up the upper memory as the page frame will need 64k.  Your best option
is to load Stacker into upper memory using a memory manager.  If your short of
upper memory blocks then you may need to remove some tsr's or try to reorganize
your memory

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40937 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    30-Nov-93  19:31:37
Sb: #unwanted drive
Fm: Michael Croft 71451,270
To: SYSOP Keith 75300,2755 (X)

Keith, Thanks for your help.  I followed all your instructions and found no
reported errors.  Also dir /ah reports Stacvol.dsk and Stacvol.000 as expected
on drve d:.  I guess I should emphasize that everything is working just fine,
it's just that I have this "extra" drive that I never had before and which only
containes the Stacker.log and some Stacker files with about 18megs free.  My
confusion is that this is a "new" drive.  I can live with it, I guess, but
would like to get rid of it as before my crash if that is possible.  I wonder
if I move the Stacker files out of the (original) D: drive to the (original) C:
drive if this would do it.  If I'm stuck with this drive, just tell me.

Thanks again, Michael

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41161 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  18:59:33
Sb: #40937-#unwanted drive
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Michael Croft 71451,270 (X)

Michael.

Just UNSTACK the drive and remove the * left on the Stacker.com line and
reboot.  The extra drive was probably created from free space on the
uncompressed host.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41273 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  19:15:21
Sb: #41161-unwanted drive
Fm: Michael Croft 71451,270
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

There is no * on the line.  It ain't that simple. Michael

#: 40964 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  00:44:05
Sb: #Password Changes
Fm: Michael Nash-Hunt 100060,201
To: all

I recently tried to change the password on a stacker volume. I used the Stac
shell password program. It accepted the old password and I then just typed
return and return in the new password and verify password boxes. This seemed to
be O.K but on rebooting it asked for a password but it would not accept return
as the new password and would not mount the drive. Any ideas on how to access
the drive as there is now 80megs I cannot access

HELP
Thanks in anticipation
M.Nash-Hunt  

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41060 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  19:02:15
Sb: #40964-Password Changes
Fm: Roger Hicks 74250,1407
To: Michael Nash-Hunt 100060,201 (X)

M.Nash-Hunt;

Some other embedded character is in the password file. Call our tech support
line at (619)431-6712.

Thanks,

Keith Moon
STAC Product Support

#: 40980 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  10:10:42
Sb: #IBM V6.1 & Stacker 3.0
Fm: Scott Quimby 75360,1433
To: all

I have a machine with IBM  DOS V6.1.  I read a note explaining how IBM DOS
doesn't support that DBLSPACE.BIN pre-loading that makes Stacker V3.1 so nice
with MS-DOS V6.x.  However, can one still use Stacker V3.0 with IBM DOS 6.1
just like we did with IBM DOS V5.0.x ?

Thanks for your assistance

Scott

There are 3 Replies.

#: 40998 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  15:19:33
Sb: #40980-IBM V6.1 & Stacker 3.0
Fm: Robert G. Gourley 70233,2300
To: Scott Quimby 75360,1433 (X)

Scott,

I am running IBM's PC DOS 6.1, disk compression release, with Stacker 3.1 and
preloading disk compression - it works pretty much like 3.1 on another machine
I have running MS DOS 6.2.  My greatest difficulties have been with 386MAX, and
those have been with both OS.

Prior to the release of 6.1's disk compression version (file dates 30Sep93) I
was using Stacker 3.0 - yes it worked just like it did with my copy of 5.02.

Robert

#: 41113 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  10:04:53
Sb: #40980-IBM V6.1 & Stacker 3.0
Fm: Alan Schreiner 71414,244
To: Scott Quimby 75360,1433 (X)

Scott,

FYI, I'm running Stacker 3.0 with IBM DOS 6.1 with no problems at all.

        Alan

#: 41162 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  18:59:36
Sb: #40980-#IBM V6.1 & Stacker 3.0
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Scott Quimby 75360,1433 (X)

Scoot,


Stacker 3.0 will work fine with IBM DOS v6.1

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41257 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  16:25:31
Sb: #41162-#IBM V6.1 & Stacker 3.0
Fm: Edward I. Biskind 76556,17
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Did you use the PC-DOS 6.1 compression first and then convert to Stacker, or
did you just use Stacker from an uncompressed PC-DOS 6.1 Disk?

Thanks.

Ed.


There are 2 Replies.

#: 41268 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  19:01:55
Sb: #41257-IBM V6.1 & Stacker 3.0
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Edward I. Biskind 76556,17 (X)

Ed,

Whom was this message intended for ?  Its addressed to STAC.

Stacker 3.0 will work fine with IBM PC DOS 6.1.  As for 3.1 it should not work
but some people have reported it does

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 41290 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  22:20:18
Sb: #41257-IBM V6.1 & Stacker 3.0
Fm: Robert G. Gourley 70233,2300
To: Edward I. Biskind 76556,17 (X)

Ed,

I've used Stacker 3.1 with the disk compression release of IBM's PC DOS 6.1,
and have reported that experience here.

Briefly I tried to get SuperStor/DS to work, but had a number of problems.  I
also have a machine with MS DOS 6.x on it, and have been a long time user of
Stacker, so I gave up on SuperStor/DS and ordered another copy of Stacker 3.1.

Stacker 3.1 works with PC DOS pretty much Like MS DOS, except there's no
conversion capability in the copy I have.  Since PC DOS also uses dblspace.bin
as the file name for this function, once installed Stacker works the same under
both OS.  You must sstor.exe to initialize disk compression which will require
you to reboot before compressing.  Then rename sstore.exe dblspace.exe, or
create a dummy file of the same name, and install Stacker 3.1.

Good luck, Robert

#: 40981 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  10:28:34
Sb: #Dos 6.0 and Stacker 3.0
Fm: James  M. Jontz  71756,1042
To: all

I would like to stack my new laptop which came loaded with DOS 6.0 but not
compressed. Do I have to upgrade to version 3.1 of stacker?

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41061 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  19:02:20
Sb: #40981-Dos 6.0 and Stacker 3.0
Fm: Roger Hicks 74250,1407
To: James  M. Jontz 71756,1042 (X)

James;

I would strongly recommend upgrading. You would be able to enjoy the new
features like pre-loading before execution of config.sys and autoexec.bat.

Thanks,

Keith Moon
STAC Product Support

#: 40984 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  10:47:04
Sb: #can't use stac drive
Fm: NICHOLAS SPAGNOLA 76645,1132
To: sysop (X)

Dear Sysop, I have a problem.  I have DTK 386SX, PEER 1630, turbo mode, QEMM
v.7.0, Stacker 3.0, five meg memory (4 1-meg boards and 2 banks of 256-k
chips), and IDE 240-meg drive.  BIOS = 1988/1990 # 96120590N, Datatech
Enterprises (ALL wednesday, Dec. 5 1990) Problem - I CANNOT use a stacked drive
on this system. I can create a drive C:, and restore from tape (100+ megs,
Colorado Trakker), and it works fine.  I can CREATE a stacked drive D:, and
Norton and Stacker work well to diagnose and create this drive D:.  However, I
CANNOT restore from tape, to this drive D:.  (both with Colorado, and Archive
portables).  I start the restore, and get a couple files transferred, and then
I get an error
   WRITE ERROR - DRIVE D
    GENERAL FAILURE         AREA - DATA I can restore data to the drive D:,
with Laplink (I did 20+ megs).  BUT, with this data, when I try to run a
program, (on the D: drive)  the program starts, but soon into it, I get an
error
    GENERAL FAILURE WRITING DRIVE D
      Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail I've tried MS DOS 5.0, and IBM DOS 5.0; I've
tried slowing machine down from turbo to standard mode; I've tried one wait
state instead of zero; all to no avail. Can anyone give me any suggestions?

Again, Thanks for assistance, Sincerely, Nicholas J Spagnola

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41062 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  19:02:25
Sb: #40984-#can't use stac drive
Fm: Roger Hicks 74250,1407
To: NICHOLAS SPAGNOLA 76645,1132 (X)

Nicholas;

It sounds like there is something hardware wise happening. If you can stack
drive C: and restore to it, then stacker is not
going to be involved. If we were, you would not be able to stack drive C:.


Thanks,

Keith Moon
STAC Product Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41104 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  06:09:41
Sb: #41062-#can't use stac drive
Fm: NICHOLAS SPAGNOLA 76645,1132
To: Roger Hicks 74250,1407 (X)

I use drive C: (uncompressed) and create a stacked file on it (stacvol.000)
which becomes my compressed drive D:.  I can restore to drive C: uncompressed,
but not to the drive D: compressed.

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41163 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  18:59:40
Sb: #41104-can't use stac drive
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: NICHOLAS SPAGNOLA 76645,1132

Nicholas,

Any disk errors on D  ?  Run Check /F and a disk repair utility. To test for a
TSR conflcit reboot with just Stacker loaded and retry the restore

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 40986 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  11:22:03
Sb: #Stacker Problems..
Fm: Brian Brakke 72437,1120
To: sysop (X)

Hello,

  I'm having a wierd problem with Stacker 3.0 at home and was wondering if you
could give me some assistance...   When trying to restack or optimize my hard
drive it reports ERROR #4 while doing the cluster integrity check...  It
informs me to exit and run CHECK /F.... When I run Check, I get NO errors????
So I'm confused..  My hardware setup is as follows....  Packard Bell 486 20Mhz
SX,  107M HD... I'm running DOS 5.0, have 8M of RAM, I am loading stacker high,
and I also use QEMM version 6.0....   If there's anything else you need to
know, please Email me either here or at   bwb00@hplvec.lvld.hp.com

Thanks in advance!!! Brian Brakke

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41063 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  19:02:29
Sb: #40986-Stacker Problems..
Fm: Roger Hicks 74250,1407
To: Brian Brakke 72437,1120 (X)

Brian;


You need to download the file STACUD.EXE and copy it into your stacker
subdirectory. This is a self-extracting zip file which
will give you a new sdefrag & unstack.

Thanks,

Keith Moon
STAC Product Support

#: 41026 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  16:25:45
Sb: #Windows File Manager
Fm: Randall P. Bruce 71762,3002
To: SYSOP (X)

I currently have two floppy drives (A and B) and two hard drives (C and D) in
my computer. The uncompressed portions of C and D are listed as E and I. With
MS Doublespace, file manager would indicate the following drives: A,B,C,D,E,I
and L(CD-ROM). When I installed Stacker 3.1, my file manager changed to
indicate the following drives: A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I and L(CD-ROM). Drives F,G and
H do not exist. Please advise me how I can change my file manager to indicate
only those drives that do exist.

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41164 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  18:59:43
Sb: #41026-Windows File Manager
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Randall P. Bruce 71762,3002

Randall.

File Manager must be reading something.  What does Stacker report, type STACKER
to display your drive map.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 41087 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    01-Dec-93  22:38:45
Sb: #Stacker 3.1
Fm: Ellis Whitehead 74007,1163
To: Sysop (X)

Currently I'm running Stacker 3.0 under MS-DOS 6.2.  Two questions :

1)  What are the differences between Stacker 3.0 and 3.1?
2)  Are there advantages to Stacker 3.1 over DoubleSpace for MS-DOS 6.2?

Thanks,
-Ellis

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41165 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  18:59:47
Sb: #41087-#Stacker 3.1
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Ellis Whitehead 74007,1163 (X)

Ellis,

1.   Stacker 3.1 over 3.0 offers some new features, ie: pre-load driver,
additional safety features and extensions to file manager. see STAC31.REL in
lib:2 for more details

2/   See STAC31.ADV in lib:2 for competitive analysis

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41188 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  21:10:44
Sb: #41165-Stacker 3.1
Fm: Ellis Whitehead 74007,1163
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Thanks for the reference, Keith.

#: 41117 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  11:29:45
Sb: #Read Errors Stacker 3.0
Fm: Mark Muse 70313,446
To: Mark Muse

We are running stacker 3.0 with DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1.  We also have several
programs written in Clipper that are reporting "READ ERROR" quite consistently.
If we copy the program to another directory the problem will go away, except
with occasional cases.

These are all running on Toshiba T1800 386/20's with 10M RAM and 60M Hard
drives.

Any Ideas of how to correct or troublesheet these "READ ERRORS"?

Thanks .. Mark

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41137 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  18:29:10
Sb: #41117-Read Errors Stacker 3.0
Fm: Roger Hicks 74250,1407
To: Mark Muse 70313,446

Mark;


Run check /f on the drive to make sure there aren't any bad sectors or cluster
inside of the container file that
data is being written directly to.

Thanks,

Keith Moon
STAC Product Support

#: 41197 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  22:44:32
Sb: Drive D: Failure
Fm: Sean P O'Brien 70162,1260
To: Sysop (X)

I have this problem, I have stacked all of drive C: and since have tried to
install a new drive
a Maxtor 7120 A (120 meg drive). If I set  my CMOS settings correct for drive
D: and the drive is set as a slave
I have a problem when I boot up, it does not recognize the drive. Norton says
it could be patitioning software fooling the system.
Is it stacker fooling the system ? MSD does not recognize D for a drive it
recognizes (A:,B:,C:,H:.I:). By the way I'm running Dos 6.0 that had previously
been doublspaced.

#: 41198 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    02-Dec-93  22:44:56
Sb: #Is Error 110 Real?
Fm: WILLIAM BLANEY 74220,1622
To:  75300,2755 (X)

To:  Keith Dunlea...

  Browsing the forum I see that 3.0 users get error 110 from using the Sdefrag
program, even the updated (Feb '93) version. I got the same the other day, and
after working through it, I wondered if the errors were real.  Here's what
happened ...

  IBM XT, 640KB, 20MB unstacked, version 5.0 of PC-DOS, PFS:Professional File,
Word Perfect 5.1, Sidekick 1.56, Lotus 2.01, MM Adv 2, etc. ... Ran Sdefrag
several times, getting a little further each time. Ran 1st 2 attempts with
Sidekick in memory. 1st time failed around 43%, ran Gibson Spinrite and then
Norton Disk Doctor with no flaws. 2nd time failed at 47.6%, ran Stacker's Check
/F and surfaced scanned with no flaws.  Unloaded Sidekick this time.  3rd time
failed at 53.8%, ran Check /F and surfaced scanned with no flaws. 4th time
specifying /SU it was successful and ran to conclusion.

  Just before each of the failures would occur, the disk activity would stop
and just seem to wait, then after a couple of minutes with no perceptible
activity, you would hear the "flutter" sound you get when you boot.  Then the
error message. Hadn't run Sdefrag since March but only 6% fragmentation was
reported.  This went up a point after each failed attempt, BTW. After watching
all the jumping around during unfragmenting, 6% seems quite low.

  Question, Keith:  If Sdefrag is working away but runs out of resources (a lot
of fragmentation, directories to sort), could it just be "timing out" and
quitting, instead of experiencing a real write error as documented?

  Thanks for listening, Bill Blaney

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41240 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  13:42:01
Sb: #41198-Is Error 110 Real?
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: WILLIAM BLANEY 74220,1622

William,

>If Sdefrag is working away but runs out of resources (a lot >of fragmentation,
directories to sort), could it just be "timing out" and >quitting, instead of
experiencing a real write erro*[Zq-s{YW^j&
ThisB;+
3ol be the case. Error 110 is a write error.  Generally caused by a
bad spot on the hard drive.  IF no bad spots exist it could be a combination of
things.  For instance, on your system Sdefrag is "sluggish",. This should not
be happening and we would suspect a TSR conflict.   You may tru booting with
just Stacker loaded and retry Sdefrag.  Then again, your on a XT which is slow
compared to the AT machines.

We have a tech note which offers additional suggestions.  Download 3405.txt
from lib:3 and try using /R.

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 41214 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  08:28:06
Sb: #Stacker & WfW 3.11
Fm: Christopher Taylor-Davie 100016,1164
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

Hello

I am a registered user of Stacker 3.0, currently using Windows 3.10 with DOS
5.0. I am just about to install Windows for Workgroups 3.11, but I would like
to be sure that doing so will not "break" Stacker.

Has anyone got any experience of using Stacker 3.0 with WfW 3.11?

Is there anything I should watch out for?

Regards

Christopher Taylor-Davies

There is 1 Reply.

#: 41241 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  13:42:08
Sb: #41214-Stacker & WfW 3.11
Fm: Stac Electronics 75300,2755
To: Christopher Taylor-Davie 100016,1164 (X)

Christopher,

      -----------------------------------------------------------------
      STACKER NOTE                                         STACKER NOTE
                         WINDOWS FOR WORKGROUPS 3.11
              (Applies to Stacker 3.0 & 3.1 for Windows & DOS)
      STAC FAX  31204 (12-02-1993)
      -----------------------------------------------------------------



      BACKGROUND

      Stacker has been found to be compatible with Windows for
      Workgroups version 3.11 (WFWG) operating in 16-bit File Access
      mode.  Stac Electronics and Microsoft are investigating
      compatibility issues with WFWG's 32-bit File Access.  Problems
      have been identified with two Stacker utilities, Stackometer and
      the Stacker File Manager extension:

          All Stacker (3.1) File Manager extension selections report
          "Stacker not installed."

          Stackometer reports "Error calculating fragmentation," then
          continues on when you click "OK."

      SOLUTION

      Disable 32-bit File Access to restore full compatibility with
      Stacker.
      -----------------------------------------------------------------
      Copyright 1993 Stac Electronics

Keith Dunlea, Stac Tech Support

#: 41275 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  19:32:27
Sb: "extra drive"
Fm: Michael Croft 71451,270
To: Keith 75300,2755 (X)

Keith, Drive directories read as follows:
  C: splits into C: (with stacked files) and F: ( with DOS file on uncompressed
space from original C:)
  D: splits into D: (stacked) and E: (stacked), and then there is G: with
STACVOL.000 and STACVOL.DSK as BIG hidden files ONLY.

My query is that I never had a G: drive before the crash and wonder why I have
one now and whether it can be eliminated or combined with some other drive.

I guess I can live with it since everything seems to be working fine, it just
seems unnecessary. Michael

#: 41277 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  19:53:14
Sb: urgent help
Fm: ian  clark 73727,2342
To: h

URGENT HELP

I have tried 3 attempts to contact STAC this evening only to get voice mail and
put on a list. From Uk this is expensive. If somebody has an answer it would be
appreciated.

I am running my business on a desk top, using a notebook as a back up.

Problem:- have been running Stacker with no problem at all. Using DOS 5, I am a
legit user. This evening I ran "Quick Optomise" which worked ok leaving me to
use windows applications with no problems. On exit from windows I could  not
get any response from the keyboard.

Switched off the machine and rebooted. Start up routine via STACKER ok until
the "Installation complete" message was displayed. Machine left me hanging with
no response from keyboard.

Swiched off, inserted MS-DOS3.3 system disc in A:\ drive and was able to access
directory of A:\ drive. entered c:\ and got the prompt. c:. On keying in
commands to access an application on the c drive - response was that it did not
recognise the drive.

I am locked out, on a friday evening, with no access to support until monday,
having listened to about $80-$100 of tunes and recorded messages and activating
tone keys to get "you are on a ans list" and more tunes - I am on top of this
world!<g>.

I need access to the machine to continue business this weekend. Can any folk in
USA or anywhere help. Given the opportunity I will buy you a pint!

thanks in anticipation.

Ian clark. compuserve 73727,2342

#: 41280 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  20:00:56
Sb: 3.0 to 3.1
Fm: Stuart Sands 71754,1500
To: all

Hello all,

How does one upgrade from 3.0 (Dos/Win) to 3.1?  Are there files to download
here or is it necessary to mail something to STAC?

Thanks in advance, Stu



#: 41281 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    03-Dec-93  20:05:17
Sb: AVAILABLE FREE BYTES
Fm: HAROLD EINHORN 70474,1622
To: ANYONE VERSED IN STAC

WOULD SOMEONE ADVISE WHY I ONLY HAVE LESS THAN 2 MEG OF BYTES FREE WHEN I HAVE
STACKED A 40 MEG HARD DRIVE (EQUAL TO ABOUT 80 MEG AFTER STACKING) AND HAVE
ONLY ABOUT 38MEG OF  PROGRAMS AND DATA ENTERED ON MY COMPUTER. C DRIVE SHOWS
THE 38 MEG (ON FILE MANAGER PER WINDOWS) OF PROGRAMS. d DRIVE CONTAINS STACKER
STACVOL-DSK SHOWING ABOUT 40M BEING STORED ON IT. MY PROBLEM IS THAT I THINK I
AM MISSING 40MEG OF MEMORY. THE TECHNICIAN AT STAC SAYS THAT FIEL MANAGER IS
NOT READING THE AMOUNT USED CORRECTLY.  I DISAGREE IN THAT THE AMOUNT PER
PROGRAM AND DATA APPEARS TO BE WITHIN NORMAL RANGE. I LOOK FORWARD TO ANY HELP.
I AM VERY NON-TECHNICAL.
THANK YOU.
 

#: 41295 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    04-Dec-93  02:11:03
Sb: stacker drive problems
Fm: Gene De Libero 70550,3373
To: all

I'm having a little problem with Stacker and hope someone can set me in the
right direction.

Here's the scenario:

Two Hard Drives, C: and D:.  Used Stacker on C: and it created the Stacker
Drive on E:.  Great.  I decided to install LINUX (UNIX) on my D: drive and this
is where the problems began.

After installing LINUX on D:, the drive becomes invisible to DOS.  Stacker now
takes D: to be it's Stacker Drive.  This is not a good thing!  I need E: to be
the Stacker Drive.  I can't for the life of me figure out how to specify the
drive name so this problem goes away.

Of course, the manual would be of great help.  It's buried somewhere in my
office along with all the other important documents I should be filing!

Any help is greatly appreciated.


        Gene

        03-Dec-93 at 11:06p PST

#: 41297 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    04-Dec-93  03:29:56
Sb: HARD DRIVE/2nd
Fm: Ron Headford 100042,1011
To: Keith Dunlea 75300,2755 (X)

Keith,

I have been using STAC Vers. 2 with one physical stacked Hard Drive (C: and
E:), and DOS 5, and have recently installed a second hard drive 425Mb (D:). The
new drive D: is the slave and is not stacked.

I've purchased STAC Vers. 3.1 and would like to ask if there are any special
precautions I should be aware of before installing STAC 3.1?

How do I stack the new D: drive?

Thanks

Ron


#: 41302 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    04-Dec-93  08:38:20
Sb: Stacker for NT
Fm: Rick Gates 71736,75
To: sysop (X)

I am an avid user of Windows NT and I am waiting for Stacker for Windows NT.
When it comes out I will BUY it.

Thanks

Rick Gates

#: 41309 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    04-Dec-93  13:33:04
Sb: Stacker Weird Error Msg.
Fm: James D. Cottle 73043,1276
To: All

While attempting to stack my new Maxtor 345 SCSI hard drive I received the
following error message/system hang-up at the "TAGGING FILES" prompt during the
Stack Entire Drive command:

        PANIC:rqm:Req Done( ): We are in-sane! Request not on list.

I was at that point completely blocked out of my system (386/DOS 5.0/Stacker
3.0/running Always SCSI controller on new E: drive. Stacker currently running
on C:.). Rebooting from C: I was block out of the system by an "Unable to read
drive E:" prompt even while addressing the C: drive.  Rebooting from A:, I was
able to regain access to C: by removing Stacker references to the E: drive in
my C: & D: config.sys files.

After some consideration (apparently not enough) I decided to to attemp a stack
of E: again, figuring if the problem reoccurred I would be alble to repeat the
above recovery procedure.

This time the stacking of the E: drive continued all the way to the Norton
Speed Disk check when the EXACT SAME error message appeared again.  Now,
however, removing references to the non-accessible E: drive only makes it more
non-accessible.  NOW I have a real problem!  Any help would be much
appreciated.

J.C.

#: 41312 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    04-Dec-93  14:41:16
Sb: Can't SDEFRAG
Fm: Ron Jeffries (MI) 70150,503
To: sysop (X)

I'm still having difficulty running SDEFRAG because of the out of memory error.
This means I pretty much can't do anything with Stacker by way of adjustment,
as you know.

Config.sys:


DOS=HIGH,UMB
FILES = 45
BUFFERS=20

DEVICE=C:\STACKER\STACKER.COM /P=1 C:\STACVOL.DSK
STACKS=9,256
Lastdrive=F
DEVICE=C:\STACKER\SSWAP.COM C:\STACVOL.DSK /SYNC+

I have nothing in autoexec.  I'm using the updated SDEFRAG2 from the library.

With this configuration I get 532688 bytes memory.

I have 508 directories, 11,776 files, for total disk space of 947,503,104
bytes.

I run SDEFRAG /GL from the DOS prompt and still get the out of memory error.
What do you suggest next?

Thanks,

Ron


#: 41316 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    04-Dec-93  16:49:17
Sb: #Can't Read from C:
Fm: Doug Wilson 71055,1117
To: all

I'm having continued problems under Windows 3.1 with my system being unable to
read from my C: (Stacked) drive.

I'm running Norton Desktop for Windows 2.0 as my Windows 3.1 default shell on
my 486-33 clone.  I've got 8MB RAM, a 240MB HDD (running Stacker 3.0), and
that's pretty much it.  Nothing too esoteric or wild going on with my system.
EMM386 and SmartDrive are on.

There doesn't seem to be anything in particular that causes it, but all the
sudden I'll get a dialog telling me that my system "Can't read from drive C:".

I've got about 90MB free on my Stacked drive at present, but I've been getting
these annoying things since I first installed Stacker.  Is this a common
problem?  Would Stacker 3.1 solve it? What gives?


Doug


There is 1 Reply.

#: 41370 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    06-Dec-93  08:33:21
Sb: #41316-Can't Read from C:
Fm: Ken Lifton 70760,1117
To: Doug Wilson 71055,1117

I have a similar problem.  My Windows is mounted on stacked Drive D and NDW on
Drive E.  Recently, I have been having an intermittant Can't Read from Drive E
and D.

I have attempted to "fix" my hard disk by following the #120 bad clusters
message. -- But I have been unable to restack Drive E.  I am running DOS
6.0/Stacker 3.1.

Please help.  Provide a solution path.

Ken Lifton


#: 41330 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    05-Dec-93  09:05:28
Sb: Disk reorganization
Fm: Martin Reddington [D] 100016,131
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

I have just upgraded from Stacker 2.0 to 3.0 and would like to make some
changes in the way I organize my hard disk. Even after consulting the manual
I'm uncertain how best to proceed. I'm especially worried about causing havoc
with drive designations and would appreciate some advice.

My current system is: DOS 5.0, Stacker 3.0. I have one 110MB hard disk (c:) and
a Syquest removable drive (d:). I set up my hard drive so that 70 MB were
stackered. This means I now have 40 MB unstackered space and the rest
compressed and appearing as e:. The uncompressed partition contains DOS,
Stacker and Windows, including the permanent swap file. All my applications are
on the compressed drive, e:. Since I am now running out of space I would like
to compress the remaining space on c:. As far as I can see I have two
alternatives: (1) to set up a further compressed drive by compressing the
unstackered space on c: (2) or expanding e: to include the uncompressed space.
In the first case, what would happen to the drive designations? Presumably
since e: already exists, the remaining space would appear after swapping as c:
and f:. Is that correct? In the second case, I would presumably end up (before
swapping) with a small uncompressed c: and a larger e:. But would this be
bootable? Or must I swap, so that the bulk of the disk is c: and e: is the
Stacker maintenance and Windows swap file partition? If I just extend e: to
include Windows, I will presumably have to reinstall Windows but not my
applications. But if I have to swap drive letters, I'll end up with everything
on c: requiring reinstallation of everything that is now on e: How do you
suggest I proceed?

I also have a further question about possibly upgrading to DOS 6.x and Stacker
3.1. Can I upgrade to from DOS 5.0 to DOS 6.0 (or 6.2?) while Stacker is
installed? Will the fact that Stacker is then installed before config.sys is
read lead to changes in the drive designations (my Syquest drive uses the ASPI
SCSI drivers that appear first in the config.sys file, i.e. they would be
loaded *after* the Stacker driver)? Should I install DOS 6.2 rather than 3.0?

I'd appreciate advice on these things since I am *very* confused!

Martin

#: 41333 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    05-Dec-93  11:03:58
Sb: DOS UPGRADE
Fm: DENNIS KUOK 73422,2435
To: SYSOPS (X)

HI

I am currently using stacker 3.0 with MSDOS 5.0. What should I do, or whether I
can upgrade my computer to MSDOS 6.02 without reformating my harddisk? Do I
need to upgrade my stacker to 3.1?

Thanks.

#: 41334 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    05-Dec-93  11:23:54
Sb: SDEFRAG crash
Fm: Ed Pfromer 71163,1343
To: all

Whenever I invoke SDEFRAG, QEMM informs me that it has intercepted an exception
13 @ 0000:FFFF, error code: 0000, and my options are to terminate the app or
reboot.  I thought there might be a conflict with QEMM, so I booted without it,
invoked SDEFRAG and the system just hung.

I've got Stacker 3.0, and I've applied the STACUD patch distributed in the
libraries.  I wonder what's going on?

Thanks, ed


#: 41335 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    05-Dec-93  11:48:28
Sb: Stacking RAM drives
Fm: Roy Brocklebank 73064,1615
To: Stac Electronics 75300,2755 (X)

I sent this on 14 Nov but could not find the thread when next I looked. Can you
answer it again?

Thank I've tried your fix. Again it works: sort of. Apart from my second
observation it has an undesirable feature.
        During execution of the Autoexec.BTM file it mounts the drive, runs
Norton Defrag, then proudly tells me that Stacker has mounted the drive
successfully. Great but I don't want to know that I want it to get on with my
Boot up sequence rather than wait for a key press.
        Now the crippler. I get a message 4DOS Swap File Corrupt and the
computer locks up. I have moved the Stacker lines up and down the Autoexec file
to no effect. It always returns the same failure.
        At the end of the Config.SYS load 4DOS is swapped out the the RAM
drive. The Autoexec.BTM (and AUTOEXEC.BAT I tried that too) loads then crashes
when it finds the 4DOS Serve File Corrupt.
        Smallest problem first, it there anyway to Stack the RAM drive then
carry on the boot sequence without having to press ENTER. Second problem any
ideas?

Yours Roy   

#: 41350 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    05-Dec-93  19:59:45
Sb: Unanswered message
Fm: Bob Garsson 72667,3166
To: Keith Dunlea 75300,2755 (X)

Keith:

Following is the text of a message sent to you Nov. 16 and to which I have had
no reply. Your help would be appreciated!

#: 769049 S0/Outbox File
    16-Nov-93  17:29:00 Sb: Stacker free upgrade Fm: STACKER To: Keith Dunlea
75300,2755

Keith:

Took me a while to get around to ordering the free Stacker upgrade because I
had lost the packing slip on the copies I purchased directly from Stac. Finally
solved the problem in late October and ordered. When I called NY today to
check, I was told the upgrade is backordered and they have no idea when it will
be coming in.

Can you provide any info on this?

Thanks





#: 41359 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    05-Dec-93  22:22:54
Sb: Back-ups
Fm: Duane L. Ross 71652,2322
To: All

I recently suffered a total system crash, prompting me to become more
consistent with my back-ups.  I recently purchased a Colorado tape back-up and
am using it daily.  My first back-up was simple.  But then I re-installed
Stacker and thought that my next full back-up should include both C and D
drives.  The C drive backs up normally, but I can't get the D drive backed up.
Do I even need to back-up the uncompressed drive?  If I crash again and restore
the C drive alone, will a D drive be created?  I am also contacting Colorado,
of course.  Any thought appreciated.

                                         Duane

#: 41362 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    06-Dec-93  00:04:46
Sb: MB Free > MB Total !
Fm: David B. Rossetter 76364,1251
To: Tech Support

I have been using Stacker for about three years.  I thought I could figure out
any problem.  But this one has me stumped.

My Stac drive, C: , shows 226MB Total (120MB hard drive) and 387MB free!  My e:
drive (which holds C:) shows a more normal 115MB total, 3.32 MB free.  I have
tried running all the Stacker utilities I could find.  I have redone the
expected compression ratio (including defragging), run scheck, chkdsk, and
others with no effect.

I really like the numbers but I have a funny feeling that they might not be
right! <G>  The numbers show up in DOS and Windows (PCTools 4 Win).  The
Stacker diskcheck program does show the right numbers when it is run, though.
The drive appears to be working fine, otherwise.

Any suggestions?

-David in Boulder


#: 41372 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    06-Dec-93  09:32:29
Sb: U hav CMS TAPE Prbs 2?
Fm: David Arnold 72137,355
To: ALL

I have had more than a reasonable amount of trouble with a CMS Trakker Tape
Backup.  I wonder if you have too?

Please respond if you have.

I have had no luck getting Drive C (80 MB) and drive D (381 MB) to backup
without  a hitch. Each backup stalls with a drive D read fault error. This is
DOS 5.0a and Stacker 3.0 only. Nothing else is loaded! And then when I try to
compare it dies with an 88 program error and automatic Abort after I put the
continuation tape in.

I have another machine that reported error 81 on 3M XiFormat tapes. I doubt
that there is a bad enough sector that it should  die on a preformatted tape!

I have struggled with Tech support for weeks. I am looking forward to
collecting the experiance of many other Trakker users.

Jumbo systems my  clients have seem to  have problems as well. responses  from
Jumbo users are welcome too.

Thanks, in advance, for your response.

#: 41388 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    06-Dec-93  18:09:16
Sb: STACKER PROBLEMS
Fm: STEPHEN T. MICUCCI 71643,20
To: ALL

MOUSE WILL NOT WORK WITH STACKER INSTALLED. "HELP"
COMMUNACATIONS SOFTWARE QUICKLINK II LOADS AND NOT MY MENU GOLD MENU
PROGRAM. "HELP"
 

#: 41390 S3/Stacker 3 Win/DOS
    06-Dec-93  19:27:07
Sb: Ghost Compression
Fm: Miguel C. Jardine 73203,3337
To: Stac Electonics

Dear Knowledgable Forum,

I'm using Stacker 3.0 for Windows and DOS.  According to the documentation,
there is suppose to be a line in the config.sys that loads stacker.com into
memory so that disk compression can happen.

I didn't have that line, instead, I had a line that read,
"DEVICEHIGH=C:\STACKER\STACHIGH.SYS" -- a file I can find no information about
in the book.  So, I disabled it, DID NOT add the stacker.com statement, but
still got my drives (C: and D:) to uncompress.  Is there some undocumented
thing going on here?

It's my understanding that without the stacker.com device driver, the
compressed drives cannot be uncompressed.  Is this wrong?


