🚀 go-pugleaf

ecg@controls.ccd.harris.com (Eric Graves) writes:

> I was wondering if anybody was familiar with both
> Stacker and Xtra Drive (by Integrated Information 
> Technology).

I can only answer for Stacker, since that's all I have.

> 1) What is the performance hit with either of these
> two products and how do they compare to each other?

I have not noticed any reduction in performance on my 20 MHz 386.

> 2) How well do these products perform under Windows?

Works very well.  Compression is about 2:1 for most Windows files.

> 3) Are there compatibiliy problems with memory managers?

I was unable to get Stacker to use EMS generated by EMM386 or QEMM, so I
do not use that option.  It will run properly without using EMS.

> 4) Do these programs really double the amount of
> data/programs stored on the hard disk or is this dependent
> upon the type of data/programs?

It depends on the data, but 2:1 is about what you get if you don't try
to compress any data (using ZIP or GIF or LZH or whatever scheme).

> 5) Both of these programs offer hardware versions. How do
> these compare to the software versions?

I can't say.

> 6)  What type of preparation is necessary before installation.  I know
> Stacker requires that you reformat your drives that will be stacked,
> but what does Xtra Drive require?

This is not true.  Stacker will stack an existing drive with its data,
through the INSTALL program.  I did this and it works.  It is, of
course, advisable to back up everything first, in case a power failure
interrupts the process.  It takes quite some time, depending on how much
data you have.

> 7)  How much memory do the drivers consume?

Stacker takes about 40K.

> 8)  Can the drivers be loaded into high memory under Dos5?

Yes.

> 9)  What are potential dangers of using each system.  For instance,
> is there a single configuration file which if lost, will cause
> me to lose data on all drives which are compressed?

Stacker does a good job of trying to recover when its files are damaged.
However, a bad write to the wrong place can render everything unreadable,
but DOS has this problem, too.  I've had data destroyed while using
Stacker, and I've had data destroyed while NOT using Stacker.  That's
the way MS-DOS is.

In short, Stacker is no better or worse than DOS as to performance or
resistance to errors.  It takes 40K for the driver, and it gives you
twice the hard disk space in most cases.  If you load the driver high,
you'll never notice it, most likely.

-- 
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#define  TRUE   0   | a.k.a. David DeSimone      an207@cleveland.freenet.edu
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