🚀 go-pugleaf

jnomina@andy.bgsu.edu (A.P.K.) writes:

>(or rather ... LARGE) problem with my HDD.  I'm new to the DOS
>world (being a hard-core Apple ][er), and have no idea what's
>going on with this machine, but...  I'm running Windows 3.1 and
>DOS 5.0, and bouncing back and forth between the two, and having
>a few system crashes.  It seems that my 130Meg HDD is filling
>up in and of itself, with no help from me.  Is this a known
>problem?  Am I doing something tragically wrong?

Possibly.  There are three rules you should follow when shutting down
the computer:

1.  Always exit all applications, exit Windows, exit everything, and get
back to a DOS prompt if you are about to shut down the machine.

2.  If you run SmartDrive disk cache, further wait about 5 seconds
before you turn off the machine, to allow the write buffers to be
flushed to disk.

3.  If the unthinkable happens and your machine crashes and you must
reboot without being able to get to a DOS prompt, then:

When the machine comes back up, type CHKDSK/F to check the hard disk
for errors.  You will often find some "lost clusters" which come about
when files are open and not closed.  These cause no damage, but they DO
take disk space away.  Over time they can build up.  When asked whether
to save the clusters as files, you should usually answer "No", which
tells DOS to simply forget about the lost clusters.  If the number of
lost clusters is small, you might consider answering "Yes", but then you
will have to look through the FILExxxx.CHK files which are created as a
result, and either rename or delete the resulting file fragments
yourself.

If you just turn the machine off while it is running Windows or other
things, you will likely kill your machine eventually.  Always go back to
DOS and let the computer update itself before your stop it.

If you've been doing these things already and you still have trouble...
well, it must be something else.  But this is a common thing for new DOS
users to do.

-- 
#ifdef TRUE        | Fuzzy Fox (a.k.a. David DeSimone)       fuzzy@netcom.com
#define  TRUE   0  |
#define  FALSE  1  |         "S-O-C-K-S ?   Wow, Spanish *is* easy!!"
#endif             |