🚀 go-pugleaf

Gordon.Edwards@AtlantaGA.NCR.COM (Gordon Edwards) writes:
>What are people's opinions on Stacker?
>
>Are there many horror stories or is it generally pretty stable software?

I don't have any horror stories.  Stacker 2.02 has worked very well for me.

It compresses very well (even some .GIFs and other compressed files can be
compressed further by their algorithm).  I don't notice any performance 
degradation; in fact, Stacker speeds up some drive access since twice as much 
data fits in the on-board cache.

I did have some compatibility problems with a game: Wing Commander uses
expanded memory.  Stacker can also use expanded memory to reduce the amount of
conventional RAM it uses.  If both Wing Commander and Stacker are using EMS
then Wing Commander does not work properly.  The solution: don't let Stacker 
use EMS.  I have it loaded high anyways, so I don't gain any conventional RAM
by giving it EMS.  Besides, Wing Commander is only a game.  I wouldn't throw 
out Stacker because a game didn't work.

Once I got the 'Write protected' problem.  I was using my computer when a power
failure occured.  When I was next able to boot, I ran scheck (Stacker's disk
check program) and chkdsk.  The drive was write protected, so chkdsk was not
able to make changes that scheck said I had to make before it would remove the
write protection.  Sounds like a catch-22?  Well it would be except that you
can force scheck to remove the write protection with the command "scheck /=w".
After that I ran chkdsk and scheck and all was well.  No data lost.  No
problem.

If this sounds like a horror story, then Stacker may not be for you.  I run two
operating systems on my machine so Stacker gave me back the DOS disk space that
I had lost (from 42.5MB regular to 85MB stacked).  I run a unix compatible OS
on the other half of my drive so I am used to doctoring my drives after power 
failures.  I really should get a UPS one of these days...

Harry

-- 
         hcp@csx.cciw.ca           | This message    | It takes all kinds,
   hcpiv@grumpy.cis.uoguelph.ca    | released to the | and to each his own.
-----------------------------------| PUBLIC DOMAIN.  | This thought in mind,
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