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Stacker 3.1 for Windows and DOS - Late Breaking News This document contains important information that is not included in the Stacker for Windows & DOS User's Guide or in the Stacker 3.1 Supplement. If you're using any special or unique software with your system, such as and Super PC-Kwik Cache, see the help provided in Setup. To get help in these situations: When Setting Up Stacker for Windows: 1 From any Setup screen, press F1. 2 Click Contents. 3 Press TAB to select Software Considerations and press ENTER. When Setting Up Stacker for DOS: 1 From any Setup screen, press F1. 2 Press ENTER to choose the Index. 3 Press TAB to select Software Considerations and press ENTER. To print the contents of this file 1 Retrieve this document into any word processor 2 Use the print feature Contents This document contains late-breaking information on the following topics: 1.0 How Stacker Works 1.1 How Stacker Compression Happens 1.2 Compressing Data 1.3 Establishing Access 1.4 Compressing the Space on an Empty Disk 1.5 How Your System Works with Stacker 2.0 The STACKER.INI File 2.1 STACKER.INI Structure 2.2 STACKER.INI General Syntax rules 2.3 Editing your STACKER.INI File 2.4 STACKER.INI General Switches 2.5 Mounting Parameters 3.0 STACKER.INI Examples 3.1 Single Hard Drive Example 3.2 Multiple Hard Drive Example 4.0 Loading Stacker High 5.0 MS-DOS Command Equivalents 1.0 How Stacker Works After you set up Stacker on your computer, it works by decompressing files when you open them and compressing the files when you save them again. Stacker does its work in the background; you never notice it. Because Stacker compresses all your data, you have access to approximately twice as much disk space. How does Stacker do all this? When you set up Stacker, Setup modifies your system. This modification allows the operating system to "recognize" your Stacker drive. Prior to DOS 6, all of these changes to your system were contained in the CONFIG.SYS file. Now with DOS 6, these changes take place by "preloading" the information from two files, DBLSPACE.BIN and STACKER.INI. Stacker adds an extra drive to your system during Setup, and then compresses all your files into one large file on this new drive. DOS assigns this new drive the next available drive letter, so your data is really on the new drive (D, for example). Stacker then exchanges drive letters between your original disk (C, for example) and the new drive. So all your data is where you expect, on drive C. 1.1 How Stacker Compression Happens Setup does two things when it compresses the data on a disk. It: 1 Compresses the data and stores it more efficiently to save space. 2 Establishes access to the compressed data so your computer can use it. The compression process is the same whether you use the Express or Custom method. 1.2 Compressing Data 1 Setup compresses data by creating a hidden file, STACVOL.DSK, in the root directory of the disk. 2 Setup reads every file on the disk, one at a time. It then compresses each file and stores it efficiently in the new STACVOL.DSK file. As each file is stored and verified, Setup deletes the original uncompressed file, making more space on the disk. In the process, the STACVOL.DSK file gets larger and larger as more and more data is added to it. 3 As it stores files in STACVOL.DSK, Setup keeps track of each file's size and location. 4 Setup leaves any files the system needs for startup, as well as any files with the system attribute, outside of STACVOL. Consequently, your hard disk contains - The large STACVOL file - Some uncompressed files, including DBLSPACE.BIN and STACKER.INI - Some free space Once the files are stored, 1 Setup runs a version of Norton Speed Disk to defragment STACVOL.DSK so it is in as few pieces as possible. 2 Setup enlarges the STACVOL file to fill most of the rest of the disk, leaving a small amount of space uncompressed. All your new free space is within the STACVOL file, so it will be available on the stacked disk. 3 Setup leaves about 1 MB on the uncompressed drive your system starts from. If it is not a "boot" drive, Setup it leaves about 100 KB. If you use custom Setup, you can leave more space uncompressed. Example Suppose you want to compress the data on a 120 MB drive containing about 80 MB of data. Express Setup creates a STACVOL.DSK file and compresses all the data it can into the file. Then it enlarges the STACVOL file to about 119 MB leaving about 1 MB uncompressed. If the disk isn't used for starting up, STACVOL.DSK could be larger than 119 MB. 1.3 Establishing Access Setup has to tell your system how to access the Stacker drive, so it first copies a file, DBLSPACE.BIN, to your system. At start up, MS-DOS 6 looks for this file before it looks for any other file. When it finds this file, it loads the Stacker driver into memory. Because every system is different, the Stacker driver is configured specifically for your system. Setup creates a hidden file, STACKER.INI, to handle that configuration. Any information found in DBLSPACE.BIN and configured by STACKER.INI is loaded before any other device drivers (which are normally found in CONFIG.SYS). This is called "preloading." Before DOS 6, data compression had to compete with every other device driver to load into memory. Because DOS 6 has endorsed data compression, there is no competition. . . Stacker is loaded first! In STACKER.INI, Setup creates lines to set the compression speed, specify the Stacker directory, and define the STACVOL file as another drive so it gets a new drive letter. If these lines already exist, Setup edits them. At startup time, the operating system gives the new drive (the STACVOL file) the next available drive letter. So if you compressed the data on your only hard disk, the drive that represents the STACVOL file gets named D. Setup adds SW to the STACVOL line. This swaps the drive letters so you can refer to files on drive C, just as you always have. The new drive letter (D) now refers to the uncompressed drive. Setup arranges to keep startup files found in both Stacker drives and their uncompressed drives the same. Example Using that same, single 120 MB hard disk, the following lines are placed in the STACKER.INI file: /P=1 /DIR=C:\STACKER C:\STACVOL.DSK, SW The /P switch controls how fast Stacker compresses data when it puts it on the disk. You can tune Stacker later to change the speed to get even more compression. The second line tells DOS where to find the Stacker files. The last line loads the Stacker drive and assigns a drive letter. The SW exchanges the drive letters, so the data is still referenced by the same drive letter. 1.4 Compressing the Data on an Empty Disk Setup compresses the space on an empty disk very quickly, because it doesn't have to compress any existing data. It doesn't have to exchange drive letters either, because no current data is affected by the new drive letter. Setup lets you choose to compress only the free space if you wish. This is an excellent way to prepare an empty hard disk for use. You can compress the data on floppy disks and removables also. Either run Setup from the Stackometer in Windows or use the Stacker Toolbox to compress floppies as described in your documentation. All of the necessary statements are added to your STACKER.INI file to recognize removable drives as Stacker drives at start-up. 1.5 How Your System Works With Stacker When an application reads data from a Stacker drive, Stacker intercepts the read request and decompresses the data, then passes it on to the application. Because the data is compressed, the system doesn't have to read as much data, so in most cases you won't even notice the time it takes to decompress data. When an application writes data to the Stacker drive, Stacker again intercepts the data, compresses it, and writes it to the Stacker drive. The data is always compressed when on the disk, and is always uncompressed when in memory or in use by another application. Once Stacker has been set up on your disk, you use it as before. When you read data from the disk, Stacker decompresses the data. When you write it back to the disk, Stacker compresses it again. Normally, you don't even notice the process. 2.0 The STACKER.INI File The STACKER.INI file contains the configuration information for your Stacker device driver. It also specifies the drive letter assignments for your Stacker drive(s). This file is a hidden file located in the root directory of your boot drive. Setup creates the STACKER.INI file for you. It is updated each time you compress additional drives (except floppies). NOTE: Normally, you won't need to edit this file. Setup automatically takes care of the configuration for you. The following information details the structure of the file and the elements you may find in it. For an example of a sample STACKER.INI file, see STACKER.INI Example. For more detailed information, continue reading. 2.1 STACKER.INI Structure The structure of the STACKER.INI file is very simple. Each statement or switch is contained on an individual line. All switches are found at the beginning of the file, while all of the drive specifications are found at the end. Unlike CONFIG.SYS, this file is not processed on a line-by-line basis, so the order of the switches is not important. However, the order in which the drive specifications are found will be the order in which they are set up. 2.2 STACKER.INI General Syntax Rules A line can have a maximum of one item, except for STACVOL line mounting parameters RP, SW, and NS. These items are always the second item on a line. Spaces and tabs are allowed before or after an "=", but not after a "/". All text is not case-sensitive. You may want to modify the STACKER.INI file to change switches are cause other effects. All of the switches do not need to be included in the file. Again, Setup determines the appropriate ones. 2.3 Editing Your STACKER.INI File The STACKER.INI file is a hidden file contained in the root directory of your uncompressed boot drive. You may either change the hidden attribute and then edit it with any text editor, or use the STACKER.INI editor provided by Stac. Procedures for using this editor are outlined below. 1 Insert Stacker Disk 1 into drive A or B 2 Change to the floppy disk drive by typing its letter followed by a colon, for example, A: and press ENTER. 3 From the DOS prompt, type STACKER and press ENTER. 4 Note the drive letter of the uncompressed drive. 5 From the DOS prompt, type \TOOLS\STACINI drive: where drive: is the letter of the uncompressed drive. 6 When the lines of the file appear, edit as required (see the switches in the following section). 7 Press Ctrl-Z to save the file. 8 Restart your computer to put these changes into effect. 2.4 STACKER.INI General Switches The following section details each of the switches which may be found in the STACKER.INI file. * Reserves a drive letter. /-AUTO Turns off automounting for all replaceable drives. This saves about 2.7 KB in the driver. /BD=x Specifies the base drive letter (x) from which to start Stacker drives. For example, if the first Stacker drive should be assigned to drive letter F, this statement would read /BD=F /C or /C=n Specifies the cluster size, if necessary. These count as the same switch, so only one should be found. /DIR=<stacker path> Specifies the path where the Stacker software is located. This switch generally occurs at the top of the STACKER.INI file. /EMS Indicates that Stacker's disk cache (up to 64 KB) should be stored in expanded memory, if there is any available. /M=nnn Sets the cache memory size to nn KB. Use any value between 1 and 64. The amount of driver memory required increases by whatever you specify up to a maximum of 64 KB for the cache (The /M switch has no effect if you use it with /EMS.) /P=n Sets the compression tuning. Use any value between 0 and 9. 0 turns compression tuning off; it decreases memory requirements by 4.4 KB. You'll have to restart your system to take advantage of any change in tuning if you change between 0 and any other value. If no /P switch is included, Stacker uses /P=1 for everyday usage. Values 0 and 1 are the fastest, with standard compression. 9 gets the best compression but takes a bit longer. Setup uses level 9 to get the best possible compression while setting up your Stacker drive. /RP=n Sets the number of replaceable drives to reserve. /W- Disables Windows permanent swap file pointer updating. By default, if Stacker detects a Windows permanent swap file on a disk that was swapped, Stacker searches through its preset pattern for the Windows directory and places the full path of the Windows permanent swap file in SPART.PAR in the Windows directory. Once this is done (the first time you restart your system after compressing the disks that contain the permanent swap file), it really doesn't have to be done again unless you make drastic changes to your system. If you add this switch to the STACKER.INI file, the search won't take place and you'll save a bit of time at startup. NOTE: Stacker checks for a Windows permanent swap file every time you restart your system. You can include the /W- switch to shorten startup time even if you don't have Windows. /W=<directory> Names the directory that contains your permanent swap file pointer (SPART.PAR). Use this switch if your directory has an unusual name or isn't on the default path that Stacker searches. If Windows can't find its permanent swap file after you compress a disk, add this switch and restart your system. This switch tells Stacker exactly where to find the SPART.PAR file, saving a bit of time on startup. Replace it with /W- after Windows finds its swap file. /W+<directory> Names the directory that contains your permanent swap file. Use it if your directory has an unusual name or isn't on the default path that Stacker searches. It causes Stacker to search its regular default path and find this one too, just in case you have multiple swap files. This switch actually lengthens the search, but ensures that it finds all the files. 2.5 Mounting Parameters The following parameters appear after a STACVOL statement. These parameters specify the mounting method for the Stacker drive. They are preceded by a comma ",". RP Mount replaced. NS Mount un-swapped, using the next available drive letter. SW Mount swapped, using the next available drive letter. Multiple Swapping. /SW = jk mn xy After mounting all drives, swap drive pairs J: with K:, M: with N:, X: with Y:, and so on. You may have no more than 26 swaps. This option is rarely used since the mounting parameter "sw" on the STACVOL line handles standard swapping. The /SW = switch appears at the TOP of the file along with the other switches, however, swapping will not happen until all the drives have been mounted. For examples of a sample STACKER.INI files, see STACKER.INI Examples. 3.0 STACKER.INI Examples 3.1 Single Hard Drive Example In this example, the original system configuration has just one hard drive. EMS is available. The STACKER.INI file created by Express Setup would look like the following: /DIR=C:\STACKER /P=1 /EMS C:\STACVOL.DSK,sw The first line specifies the directory where the Stacker files are located. The second line sets up the default compression tuning for the fastest speed with standard compression. /EMS tells Stacker to use expanded memory. The last line specifies the location of the Stacker drive. It then swaps the drive letter references so that all of the compressed data is found on drive C, and the uncompressed drive is referenced by D. 3.2 Multiple Hard Drive Example In this second example, the system is a bit more complex. This system also has expanded memory. It also has a combination of five hard drives (including removable drives). The STACKER.INI file for this configuration might look like: /DIR=C:\STACKER /P=5 /EMS /RP=2 /BD=I /SW FM C:\STACVOL.DSK,sw D:\STACVOL.000,ns * E:\STACVOL.DSK,sw F:\STACVOL.000,ns G:\STACVOL.DSK,rp Again, the first line gives the location of the Stacker files while the second provides the compression tuning information. In this case, the user modified the tuning (from the Stacker Tuner) to the setting "More compression and a bit less speed." This returns a value of /P=5. /EMS tells Stacker to use expanded memory. /RP=2 reserves two replaceable drive letters, while /BD=I specifies that the first Stacker drive letter assignment is 'I". The next line, /SW=FM swaps drive F with drive M after all of the drives are mounted. The next section sets up the Stacker drives and the drive letter assignments. Note that Stacker always takes the next available drive letter. Remember that there were five drives originally (C-G). This means that H is the next logical drive letter assignment. However, since the switch /BD=I is present, the first drive letter assignment has to be I. The following explains the drives and their assignments. C:\STACVOL.DSK, sw The Stacker drive becomes drive C, and the uncompressed drive (originally C) becomes the next available drive letter, I. D:\STACVOL.000,ns Because of the "ns" mounting parameter, the Stacker drive is not swapped and is assigned drive letter J, while the uncompressed drive remains D. * Reserves the next drive letter, K. E:\STACVOL.DSK,sw Again swaps the drive assignments. The Stacker drive remains E, while the uncompressed drive becomes L. F:\STACVOL.000, ns Because of the "ns" mounting parameter, the Stacker drive is not swapped and is assigned drive letter M, while the uncompressed drive remains D. Note: after all of the drives are mounted, F and M will be switched due to the line /SW FM. G:\STACVOL.DSK, rp RP specifies that the drive letter of the uncompressed drive is assigned to the Stacker drive (G). There is no drive letter assigned to the uncompressed drive. Any data on it becomes unavailable after mounting. After completing all of the assignments in STACKER.INI, here are all of the drives and their types: C Stacker drive D Uncompressed drive containing the STACVOL file for Stacker drive J E Stacker drive F Stacker drive (note that it is only switched once the line /SW FM is executed) G Stacker drive H DOES NOT EXIST I Uncompressed drive containing the STACVOL file for Stacker drive C J Stacker drive K Reserved by the * (no data can be found here) L Uncompressed drive containing the STACVOL file for Stacker drive E M Uncompressed drive containing the STACVOL file for Stacker drive F (note that it is only switched once the line /SW FM is executed) 4.0 Loading Stacker High Stacker provides a device driver, STACHIGH.SYS, which loads the Stacker device driver into either the high end of DOS memory, or to the Upper Memory Blocks (UMB). To load Stacker high with MS-DOS 6 1 Edit your CONFIG.SYS file 2 Place the following line in the file DEVICEHIGH=STACHIGH.SYS 3 Save your CONFIG.SYS file 4 Restart your system for the changes to take effect. STACHIGH.SYS obtains its configuration information (for the Stacker device driver) from STACKER.INI, so there are no switches. To load Stacker high with other memory managers, consult your memory manager's documentation. Use STACHIGH.SYS as the specified device driver. 5.0 MS-DOS Command Equivalents If you type in a compression-related DOS command on a Stacker drive, the command is automatically run. There is no need to know both the DOS and Stacker commands. However, some users want to know the equivalents, so this section is provided. DOS Command Stacker Equivalent CHKDSK (and all parameters) CHECK (and same parameters) DBLSPACE/CHK CHECK DBLSPACE/DEF SDEFRAG DBLSPACE/LIST STACKER DBLSPACE/MO drive: STACKER drive: DBLSPACE/U drive: STACKER -drive: DIR/C SDIR DIR/C/P SDIR/P DIR/C/H SDIR/H DIR/C/W SDIR/W DEFRAG SDEFRAG DEFRAG/F SDEFRAG DEFRAG/U SDEFRAG/Q DEFRAG/B SDEFRAG DEFRAG/SN SDEFRAG/SN DEFRAG/SE SDEFRAG/SE DEFRAG/SD SDEFRAG/SD DEFRAG/SS SDEFRAG/SS DEFRAG/LCD SDEFRAG/M DEFRAG/BW SDEFRAG/M DEFRAG/CO SDEFRAG DEFRAG/SKIPHIGH SDEFRAG FORMAT/S Stacker-Aware copy of DBLSPACE.BIN is placed on formatted disk. SYS Stacker-Aware copy of DBLSPACE.BIN is placed on formatted disk.