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Welcome to Stacker 2.0 This file contains information not included in your User Guide. Stacker has been tested extensively with a wide variety of hardware and software products and has been found to be compatible. Check the table of contents below to see if any of the information applies to you. Also be sure to check "Chapter 8: Using Stacker With" in your User Guide. 1. Stacker - Notes On Operation 1.1 How Long Will It Take To Install Stacker? 1.2 Using INSTALL and SDEFRAG with Disk Caching Programs 1.3 Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor Users 1.4 Stacker Drive Size - Maximums 1.5 Stacker Version 1.x Users 1.6 Compression Ratios 2. Corrections/Additions to the Stacker User Guide 2.1 INSTALL - Files on the Uncompressed Part of Your Disk 2.2 SCREATE - Syntax Note 2.3 SDEFRAG - Syntax Note 2.4 SDEFRAG - Disk Space Requirements 2.4.1 Not Enough 'Physical' Space 2.4.1 Not Enough 'Logical' Space 2.5 STACKER - The Device Driver - New Options 3. Operating Systems 3.1 DOS 5 3.1.1 Upgrading Before Installing Stacker 3.1.2 Upgrading After Installing Stacker 3.1.3 Loading Stacker Into High Memory on a 386 3.1.4 Loading Stacker Into High Memory on a 286 3.1.5 Using the Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor 3.2 DOS DISKCOPY Command 3.3 DOS FASTOPEN Command 3.4 DR DOS 5.0 and 6.0 3.4.1 Eliminating Extra Drive Letters 3.5 Zenith DOS 4. Microsoft Windows 4.1 386 Enhanced Mode 4.1.1 Using the Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor 4.1.2 Temporary Windows Swap Files 5. Disk Utilities 5.1 Norton Filesave and Erase Protect 5.2 Disk Repair Utilities 5.3 Disk Technician 5.4 Disk Optimizer/Degragmentation Programs 6. Disk Caching Programs 6.1 Caching Stacker Drives 6.2 Super PC-Kwik Cache 7. Expanded Memory Managers 7.1 Stacker's EMS Feature 7.2 QEMM-386 Optimize 7.3 Using the Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor on a 386 7.4 Netroom 1.12 8. Networks 8.1 Novell Netware 8.2 Lantastic File Servers 8.3 Arcnet Network Adapters 9. Disk Controllers & Computers 9.1 Adaptec Disk Controllers 9.2 WD 7000-FASST SCSI Controller 9.3 ALR VEISA Personal Computers 9.4 Using Stacker on an IBM PS/1 9.5 Plus Passport Removable Hard Disks ================================================================= 1. STACKER - NOTES ON OPERATION ============================ 1.1 How Long Will It Take To Install Stacker? ----------------------------------------- The amount of time required to install Stacker depends on several items: the speed of your computer, the size of your hard disk, how much data you have, the speed of your computer, and the version of Stacker you're using (software or coprocessor). Below is an example installation. The time required will depend on your particular system configuration. Computer type: 80386 Computer speed: 25 MHz Hard disk size: 80 MB Number of files: 2,000 Stacker product: AT/16 Installation time: 20 minutes 1.2 Using INSTALL and SDEFRAG with Disk Caching Programs ---------------------------------------------------- We recommend temporarily disabling disk caching software before using INSTALL or SDEFRAG. You may re-enable it after INSTALL or SDEFRAG is finished. 1.3 Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor Users ------------------------------ If you are using the Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor on a 386 system, there are several sections of the README file which may apply to you. If you use... See section... -------------------------- -------------- DOS 5 3.1.5 Microsoft Windows 4.1.1 An expanded memory manager 7.3 1.4 Stacker Drive Size - Maximums ----------------------------- With DOS versions 4.x and later, and COMPAQ DOS 3.31, Stacker drives can be as large as 512 MB (256 MB phsyical disk space). With DOS 3.x, Stacker drives can be no larger than 32 MB (16 MB physical space). 1.5 Stacker Version 1.x Users ------------------------- Stacker 2.0 Software can be used with version 1 Stacker Coprocessor cards. SSWAP is now compatible with DR DOS 5.0 (and 6.0). To display a map of your Stacker drives, type STACKER with no options. This replaces the SWAPMAP utility. 1.6 Compression Ratios ------------------ Reference programs, such as Bibles, dictionaries, and encyclopedias, are often stored compressed on non-Stacker drives. Stacker will not compress these files again. This results in a low compression ratio for the files and possibly for the entire Stacker drive, depending on the proportion of your Stacker drive used by the reference program. 2. CORRECTIONS/ADDITIONS TO THE STACKER USER GUIDE =============================================== 2.1 INSTALL - Files on the Uncompressed Part of Your Disk ----------------------------------------------------- After "Stacking an existing disk with its data," some files will be kept on the uncompressed drive (e.g, device drivers). These files need to be there; DO NOT delete them. Several of the screens presented during INSTALL differ from those shown in the User Guide. These changes simplify Stacker installation. 2.2 SCREATE - Syntax Note --------------------- The size option of SCREATE (/S) is specified in MB, where 1 MB = 1000*1000. 2.3 SDEFRAG - Syntax Note --------------------- If no drive letter is specified on the command line, SDEFRAG optimizes the current drive. 2.4 SDEFRAG - Disk Space Requirements --------------------------------- If SDEFRAG does not have enough disk space to operate, it will report this condition along with the amount of space required to operate. This condition may require that you make more 'logical' or 'physical' space available. Each of these messages and the necessary procedures is described below. 2.4.1 NOT ENOUGH 'PHYSICAL' SPACE "SDEFRAG requires xx available bytes before it can operate. Remove some files and try again. Use the following procedure to determine the amount of 'physical' space that SDEFRAG requires to operate. 1. Run CHKDSK on the Stacker drive to see how much space is used by directories. Add 90 K to this number. 2. Run SCHECK to see how much free space there is in the STACVOL file. The number you get from step 2 must be equal to or greater than the number from step 1. If it is not, remove files from the Stacker drive until you have enough space. 2.4.2 NOT ENOUGH 'LOGICAL' SPACE "SDEFRAG requires xx available clusters on the Stacker drive before it can operate. Remove some files and try again." Use the following procedure to determine the amount of 'logical' space (clusters) that SDEFRAG requires to operate. 1. Note the number displayed by SDEFRAG. 2. Run CHKDSK to obtain the number of available allocation units. 3. Remove some files from the Stacker drive and run CHKDSK again. Repeat this process until enough allocation units are available. 2.5 STACKER - The Device Driver - New Options ----------------------------------------- There are three new options for STACKER - The Device Driver. They are described below. /NB No Buffers (Stacker software only) Placing this parameter on the Stacker DEVICE statement in the CONFIG.SYS file lets you reduce the resident size of the Stacker device driver by an additional 8 Kbytes. When using /EMS, the software device driver uses as little as 18 Kbytes of resident memory. Using this parameter will cause a slight decrease in disk performance. /ND No Double-buffering for DR DOS 5 and 6 /NW No Warning Using DR DOS 5 or 6, if you configure Stacker to use EMS for its cache, or if you load the Stacker device driver into high memory, the following message is displayed by the Stacker device driver when you start your computer: "Note: In DR DOS, loading Stacker high (or using /EMS) may slow disk access. Please see the Stacker README file for help." Use the /ND parameter if your hard disk controller is NOT a bus-master controller. (If you are unsure of whether your disk controller is a bus-master, it probably isn't.) If you DO use a bus-master disk controller and it does not support virtual DMA, DO NOT use the /ND switch to increase disk performance. If you do not use the /ND parameter and wish to suppress the warning message, place the /NW (no warning) parameter on the Stacker DEVICE statement in the CONFIG.SYS file. 3. OPERATING SYSTEMS ================= 3.1 DOS 5 ----- Stacker works great with DOS 5. Here are some tips for using Stacker with DOS 5. 3.1.1 UPGRADING BEFORE INSTALLING STACKER If you are considering upgrading to DOS 5, we recommend that you do so BEFORE installing Stacker. 3.1.2 UPGRADING AFTER INSTALLING STACKER If you don't have enough space to install DOS 5 on your uncompressed boot drive, we've included a batch file on this diskette to help you. It's called STACDOS5.BAT. NOTE: This procedure works for the MS-DOS 5 Upgrade. If you are using another version of DOS 5, such as IBM DOS 5, please contact Stac technical support for upgrade instructions. To use STACDOS5.BAT, do the following: 1. Make the Stacker directory your current directory. 2. Run the STACDOS5.BAT batch file by typing STACDOS5. 3. Follow the instructions presented. STACDOS5 will guide you through the entire upgrade process in as little as 10 minutes. 3.1.3 LOADING STACKER INTO HIGH MEMORY ON A 386 You can use the DEVICEHIGH command to load the Stacker device driver into high memory on systems using 80386 and higher processors. For example, the following statements in the CONFIG.SYS file will load STACKER.COM into high memory automatically when you start your computer. DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE (*) DOS=HIGH,UMB DEVICEHIGH=C:\STACKER\STACKER.COM C:\STACVOL.DSK (*) The DEVICE statement for EMM386 must have either the RAM or NOEMS switch in order to access the upper memory area. Note that the order of HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE is important and they both must be present in the CONFIG.SYS file before you can use the DEVICEHIGH command. If the NOEMS switch is used with EMM386 and the /EMS switch is specified on the Stacker DEVICE statement, Stacker will be unable to load its cache into EMS memory. To correct this, remove the NOEMS switch from the EMM386 DEVICE statement. 3.1.4 LOADING STACKER INTO HIGH MEMORY ON A 286 You cannot use the DOS 5 DEVICEHIGH statement in the CONFIG.SYS file to load the Stacker device driver into high memory. However, you can load the Stacker device driver into high memory on a 286, if you have an expanded memory board that provides the functions of the LIM 4.0 expanded memory specification in hardware and a program such as QRAM or MOVE'EM. Refer to your Stacker User Guide for more information. 3.1.5 USING THE STACKER XT/8 COPROCESSOR If you are using the Stacker XT/8 coprocessor on a 386 and you're using Microsoft Windows 3.0, be sure to use the X (exclude) parameter on the EMM386.EXE DEVICE statement in the CONFIG.SYS file to keep it from using the area of memory occupied by the XT/8 coprocessor. You'll also need to add an EMMExclude statement to the SYSTEM.INI file in your Windows directory. See section 7.3, "Using the Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor on a 386" for the exclude range which corresponds to the base address of your XT/8 card. For example, if your XT/8 coprocessor base address is cc00, EMM386.EXE should be configured as follows: DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE X=cc00-cfff and in SYSTEM.INI, add the following statement under the heading [386enh]: EMMExclude=cc00-cfff 3.2 DOS DISKCOPY Command -------------------- When using the DISKCOPY command with Stacked floppy disks, DO NOT mount the floppy disks. If the disks are mounted, DISKCOPY will not operate properly. Also, if you wish to DISKCOPY a Stacked floppy, the destination disk does not have to be a Stacked floppy. 3.3 DOS FASTOPEN Command -------------------- The Stacker command, used to display a drive map and to mount Stacked floppy diskettes and other removable disks, cannot be used when FASTOPEN is installed. If you are using a disk caching program, FASTOPEN may be unncessary and can be disabled. 3.4 DR DOS 5.0 and 6.0 ------------------ Stacker is fully compatible with DR DOS 5.0 and 6.0. Stacker's SSWAP is now compatible with DR DOS. 3.4.1 ELIMINATING EXTRA DRIVE LETTERS There is a section in your Stacker User Guide which describes a method for eliminating extra drive letters. We do not recommend its use with DR DOS 5.0. 3.5 Zenith DOS ---------- Zenith DOS 3.3+ is not compatible with Stacker on partitions larger than 32 MB. However, Zenith DOS 4.01 is compatible with Stacker. 4. MICROSOFT WINDOWS ================= 4.1 386 Enhanced Mode ----------------- Stacker is fully compatible with the 386 Enhanced mode of Windows. 4.1.1 USING THE STACKER XT/8 COPROCESSOR ---------------------------------- If you are using the Stacker XT/8 coprocessor on a 386, you'll need to add an EMMExclude statement to the SYSTEM.INI file in your Windows directory. See section 7.3, "Using the Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor on a 386" for the exclude range which corresponds to the base address of your XT/8 card. For example, if your XT/8 coprocessor base address is cc00, in the SYSTEM.INI file, add the following statement under the heading [386enh]: EMMExclude=cc00-cfff 4.1.2 TEMPORARY WINDOWS SWAP FILES ---------------------------- If you are using temporary Windows swap files, you can place swap files on an uncompressed portion of your disk to reduce fragmentation of your Stacker drive. Do this by adding the following line to the SYSTEM.INI file, located in your Windows directory, under the heading [386Enh]. PagingDrive=<drive-letter> where <drive-letter> is an uncompressed drive with more than 2 MB of available disk space. If the drive does not have this amount available, Windows will not operate properly. For example, if drive C was your only drive before Stacker, installing Stacker creates drive D, which then becomes the uncompressed portion of your disk. Use the following PagingDrive parameter. PagingDrive=D If drive D does not have 2 MB available, use SDEFRAG with the /G option to make more uncompressed space available. 5. DISK UTILITIES ============== 5.1 Norton FILESAVE and ERASE PROTECT --------------------------------- Programs such as Norton FILESAVE, ERASE PROTECT, or PC Tools MIRROR affect the amount of available disk space that DOS reports to you. When you delete files from your disk, these programs save them in a special place so you can recover from accidental deletions. These programs tell DOS that the space is available to be used even though they are still storing the deleted files. This can cause DOS to report an artificially high amount of available disk space. This amount may differ from the Projected Bytes Free reported by Stacker's SCHECK command or by the DOS CHKDSK command. 5.2 Disk Repair Utilities --------------------- Stacker is fully compatible with all the popular Disk Repair Utilities. Before using a disk repair utility (e.g., Norton Disk Doctor or PC Tools DiskFix), run SCHECK and CHKDSK to check for errors on the Stacker drive. After using a disk repair utility to mark bad clusters on a disk drive which hosts a Stacker drive, we recommend that you reboot your system to remount the Stacker drive. 5.3 Disk Technician --------------- Disk Technician requires unused uncompressed space in order to run. It needs approximately 2% of the drive you are Stacking. For example, if you Stack a 40 MB drive, Disk Technician needs approximately 800 K of available uncompressed space. When you "Stack and existing disk with its data" using INSTALL, you can specify an amount of space to keep uncompressed. This amount defaults to 1.0 MB if you Stack the boot drive, and 100 K for all other hard disks. Use the Advanced Options feature of INSTALL to change this setting. If you need to make more uncompressed space available after creating the Stacker drive, you can use the Stacker disk optimizer, SDEFRAG, with the /G (grow/shrink) option to do this. 5.4 Disk Optimizer/Defragmentation Programs --------------------------------------- Use Stacker's disk optimizer, SDEFRAG, to optimize your Stacker drives when they become fragmented. If you use a disk caching program, temporarily disable it before using SDEFRAG. You may re-enable it after SDEFRAG is finished. Other disk optimizers, such as Norton Speed Disk or PC Tools Compress, are not effective on Stacker drives. 6. DISK CACHING PROGRAMS ===================== 6.1 Caching Stacker Drives ---------------------- When using disk caching programs, such as Norton Cache, Hyperdisk Cache, and PCP Fast, with Stacker you must configure the cache to ONLY cache the host drive, the uncompressed portion of your drive. This has the effect of caching the Stacker drive. Where possible, configure the caching program to exclude all Stacker drives from the list of cached drives. Be sure the disk cache is loaded in the CONFIG.SYS file BEFORE Stacker. If your disk caching program must be loaded from the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, configure it to cache the host drive, not the Stacker drive. We recommend temporarily disabling any disk caching software before using SDEFRAG or INSTALL. You may re-enable it after SDEFRAG or INSTALL is finished. 6.2 Super PC-Kwik Cache ------------------- If you have Stacked your boot drive, drive C, use the /K- option when installing the Super PC-Kwik Cache to eliminate the pause that occurs when it is installed. 7. EXPANDED MEMORY MANAGERS ======================== 7.1 Stacker's EMS Feature --------------------- If you are using Stacker's EMS feature, some programs may not use EMS memory correctly and interfere with Stacker's use of it, causing EMM exception errors. Try disabling Stacker's EMS feature by removing the /EMS switch from the Stacker DEVICE statement in the CONFIG.SYS file to correct this. 7.2 QEMM-386 Optimize ----------------- For instructions on how to use the QEMM-386 Optimize program on a Stacker drive, see the file OPTIMIZE.DOC on your Stacker diskette (3.5") or Stacker Utilities Disk (5.25"). 7.3 Using the Stacker XT/8 Coprocessor on a 386 ------------------------------------------- If you are using the Stacker XT/8 coprocessor on a 386 system, and are using a memory manager, add an EXCLUDE parameter to the memory manager DEVICE statement in the CONFIG.SYS file. Be sure to do this so the memory manager doesn't use the memory area required by the XT/8 coprocessor card. The range of memory addresses depends on the base address of the Stacker XT/8 card. The base address is found on the Stacker DEVICE statement in the CONFIG.SYS file and is identified by the /B parameter. The exclude parameter format depends on the memory manager. See the tables below. The following table lists the formats for the "EXCLUDE" parameters for several popular memory managers. "EXCLUDE" Parameter Product EMM Driver Format -------- ----------- ------------------- QEMM-386 QEMM386.SYS EXCLUDE=<range> 386MAX 386MAX.SYS EXCLUDE=<range> DR DOS EMM386.SYS EXCLUDE=<range> DOS 5 EMM386.EXE X=<range> WINDOWS EMM386.EXE X=<range> The following table lists the seven possible memory ranges, based on the base address of the XT/8 coprocessor card. Base Address <range> to Exclude ------------ ------------------ c400 c400-c7ff c800 c800-cbff cc00 cc00-cfff d000 d000-d3ff d400 d400-d7ff d800 d800-dbff dc00 dc00-dfff For example, if you are using QEMM-386 and the Stacker XT/8 coprocessor base address is d000, add "EXCLUDE=d000-d3ff" to the QEMM386 DEVICE statement in the CONFIG.SYS file. 7.4 Netroom 1.12 ------------ Netroom version 1.12 does not properly retain the device attributes of the drivers it loads into high memory. Stacker should not be loaded into high memory using Netroom. 8. NETWORKS ======== 8.1 Novell Netware -------------- Stacker cannot be installed on a Novell network file server. However, Stacker can be installed on the local hard disk of a Novell network workstation. When installing Stacker on the local hard disk of a Novell network workstation, you will be given the option of letting the installation program modify the PATH statement in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Since the Novell MAP utility, equivalent to the PATH statement, is used to set up your drive letter assignments and search drives, we recommend that you do not let the installation program make these modifications. If you wish to have the Stacker utilities in your network search path, use the Netware map utility to map one of your Novell search drives to the directory containing the Stacker software. See your network administrator if you need assistance. 8.2 Lantastic File Servers ---------------------- Stacker can be used on DOS-based networks such as Lantastic. Lantastic file server drives can be Stacked. All of the necessary Lantastic files will be put on the new Stacker drive. Stacker drives on a Lantastic network file server can be accessed by network workstations that do not have Stacker. This is a new feature of Stacker 2.0. Note that reports of available disk space will not accurately reflect the projected amount of space available on the server's Stacker drives, but will instead match the amount reported as available by the DOS CHKDSK command. 8.3 Arcnet Network Adapters ----------------------- Arcnet network cards often use a base address of 2E0. To avoid a conflict with the Stacker AT/16 coprocessor card, determine the base address of the network card before installing Stacker. Do this by running the Arcnet Netware IPX program with the I option. During Stacker's INSTALL, do not use the base address of the network card for the Stacker AT/16 card. 9. DISK CONTROLLERS & COMPUTERS ============================ 9.1 Adaptec Disk Controllers ------------------------ If you are using Windows 3.0 in 386 enhanced mode, and you are having problems using your Stacker drives, your disk controller might require the following setting in your SYSTEM.INI file in order for disk drive interrupts to be processed correctly. Add the following setting under the heading [386enh]: VirtualHDIrq=off 9.2 WD 7000-FASST SCSI Controller ----------------------------- If you are using the Western Digital 7000-FASST SCSI controller and you wish to load STACKER.COM into high memory, you must use the /W option on the WD device driver statement, 'DEVICE=SSTBIO.SYS' in the CONFIG.SYS file. This will enable the necessary support for expanded or extended memory environments within the SCSI controller device driver. 9.3 ALR VEISA Personal Computers ---------------------------- Early versions of ALR VEISA computer may require an update to the motherboard circuitry to reliably execute certain valid instruction sequences used by the Stacker device driver. Contact ALR technical support at (714) 458-0863 to find out if this is necessary. 9.4 Using Stacker on an IBM PS/1 ---------------------------- After installing Stacker, reboot your system. Then do the following. 1. Click on the DOS tile to get a DOS command prompt. 2. Insert the Stacker diskette, type A: and press Enter. 3. Type COPY D:\SHELLSTB.COM C: and press Enter. 4. Type SEDIT C:\CONFIG.SYS and press Enter. 5. Use the arrow keys to move to the line following the last statement in the file. 6. Type INSTALL=SHELLSTB.COM 7. Save the CONFIG.SYS file by pressing the Ctrl and Z keys at the same time. 8. Reboot your system. 9.5 Plus Passport Removable Hard Disks ---------------------------------- DOS does not recognize Plus Passport drives as removable drives. If you have Stacked a Plus Passport hard disk, be sure to MOUNT it before using it. For example, if your Stacked Plus Passport drive is drive J, type the following at the DOS prompt to access the Stacker drive. STACKER J: Be sure to UNMOUNT it before removing it from the base housing. For example, if your Stacked Plus Passport drive is drive J, type the following at the DOS prompt. STACKER -J: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ---------------- (c) Copyright 1990-91, Stac Electronics, Carlsbad, CA. U.S. patents 5,016,009 and 5,003,307. Other patents pending. Stacker is a trademark of Stac Electronics. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.