🚀 go-pugleaf

colin@callisto.pas.rochester.edu (Colin Roald) writes:


>Does anyone have any opinions of TimesTwo, and any comparative 
>experience with, say, SpaceSaver? My hard drives are starting to 
>run low on space (which means I ought to get ruthless with the 
>crap...), but I figure I might as well look into software
>solutions.

>So, how's the reliability of these suckers?  I really hate crashes...
>I'm running a IIsi--is speed a concern?  Would an fpu help any? 
>What are the compression ratios like?  Would I do just as well to
>use compact pro (which i've already paid for) on the stuff I never 
>use, but don't really want to get rid of?

I've used Times Two for two months now, and haven't had any crashes.
The advert says that it doesn't compress data, but increases disk size.
Of course, this is complete bo***cks. It just doesnt *look* like anything
is compressed. It also *looks* like the compression ratio is 2::1, according
to the disk size in the finder.

HOWEVER:
The compression ratio is probably at best 1.5:1. Any gifs, quicktime movies
and archives will worsen this ratio. It has no "intelligence" about file
type (since it's a driver) so compresses everything (compared to autodoubler,
which doesn't attempt to compress gifs (i think)).

SPEED:
Using version 1.0, my hard disk speed (with speedometer) went from 1.3 (before)
to 0.6 (after). Note that 1 is the classic speed. That's on a 50Mhz '030
(IIcx w/daystar) CPU speed will affect this - the cpu is doing the compression.
I would think a IIsi would manage (on my drive) about 0.4 or 0.5.

SIZE:
I mentioned before that after installing times two fools the finder into
thinking that the disk has doubled, but that the compression ratio is only
1.5:1. Why this inconsistency?

When you install times two, it will create an invisible file which makes up
any of the space which it can't compress. So on my 105MB quantum, it looks
like I have 198MB, but there is also a whopping invisible file taking up
space.

Also, I just put something on my disk the other day, bringing the total used
to 130MB (out of 198, apparently) and times two brought up a dialog saying
there was only 3MB free!!!! and not to put anything else on the disk.

I updated at this point to the 1.01 driver (my space used increased to 150MB
immediately) and it hasn't said this again.

INCOMPATIBILITIES:
Two of my friends used times two and had drive crashes. Tech support helped, 
but they couldn't recover data. Previous to this they had had numerous 
drive full messages etc. Also they were running on LC's so it was murderously
slow. They re-formatted (with apple driver) and reinstalled from backup
(lucky they had it).

My drive hasn't crashed (yet??) but i'm keeping it backed up in case.

- Chris