🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <93020.160100SASTPH@vm.sas.com> <SASTPH@vm.sas.com> writes:
>I'm about to install SuperStor 2.0 (not Pro!) on my Gateway 2000 386DX
>with an 80Mb IDE hard drive.  I'd like to get some advice from people
>who are using SuperStor.
>
>I'm running Windows 3.1 in Enhanced Mode with a 7Mb permanent swap file.
>I use SMARTDRV and 386MAX.  The SuperStor documentation says that I must
>keep a number of files (the Win swap file, for example) uncompressed.
>It occurs to me that I could re-format my hard disk and create 2 logical
>drives.  I would make a (say) 10Mb C: drive to contain the uncompressed
>files and a 70Mb D: drive to contain only compressed data.  Would this
>be a good idea?

Check to see if SuperStor has an option to only compress part of your
drive and allow you to access the uncompressed part as C:.  I would
think this would be a better option than reformatting your drive.  I
would keep more then 10 MB uncompressed, though.  

>
>Secondly,  I understand clearly that I must put the Windows swap file
>in an uncompressed portion of the disk.  Also I must reserve some
>(although the doc is coy about saying just exactly how much) uncompressed
>space for SMARTDRV.  The SuperStor doc also recommends that some of the
>386MAX files remain uncompressed.  My question is, exactly HOW MUCH
>space should I reserve, and what files should I keep there?

Don't know -- I've never used SuperStor.  However, I use Stacker
(which I suspect is similar), and I recommend you keep all the files
you need to boot on the uncompressed part of the drive (all the
drivers for things loaded in your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS).  That
way, even if your compressed drive gets hosed you can still boot.
What I suspect SuperStor is doing by default is to compress almost
your whole disk, keep just a few files on the uncompressed part of the
drive, and then 'swap' the uncompressed 'C:' drive out and the
'compressed' drive in as C:.  Stacker has an option to do this, and I
hate it.  You're better off keeping the uncompressed part of your
drive as C: and keeping all the files needed to boot there.  That way
there are no synchronization problems and you'll be able to boot your
machine even if the compressed volume gets screwed up.

>
>Third question:  I understand that I can't use many of the PC Tools V7
>utilities.  Can I back up the compressed files on my hard
>disk with PC Tools Backup?  If so, can I restore the backed up files to
>a disk that isn't compressed?

Yes and yes.  As far as everything but 'speed disk' sorts of
compacters are concerned, I would think the SuperStor drive would look
just like a regular drive.  I know this is true for Stacker and assume
the same applies to SuperStor.

-- 
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
 in the real world."   -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden
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Fred.McCall@dseg.ti.com - I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me.