----------------------------------------------------------------- STACKER NOTE STACKER NOTE MAKING A COMPRESSED STARTUP DISK (Applies to Stacker 4.0) STAC FAX 4304 (05-04-1994) ----------------------------------------------------------------- BACKGROUND You may create a Startup disk that is compressed with Stacker. The disk can be a floppy disk, Bernoulli or Syquest cartridge, just so long as it starts from drive A. Due to the overhead associated with the boot files, it is recommended that a floppy disk be at least 720K. Stacker must be installed on the system used to create this disk. Note that the examples below assume that you are creating the Startup disk in drive A. You may create the disk on another drive, but it will only start a system where the disk can be inserted into drive A. SOLUTION - Procedures for DOS versions that preload compression drivers. - Procedures for other DOS versions. Procedures for DOS versions that preload compression drivers MS-DOS 6.x, Novell DOS 7, and PC-DOS version 6.x with file dates 9-30-93 or later, support preloading compression drivers such as Stacker. 1. Insert a blank formatted disk into drive A. From the DOS prompt type: SYS A: . 2. In order to provide additional speed when booting from this disk, also copy the hidden file STACKER2.BIN from the root directory of the uncompressed drive to the root directory of the disk in the A drive. You may use the Windows File Manager or another third-party utility to copy the file. If these are not available, do the following: a. Go to the Stacker directory and type STACKER . Locate the line that shows drive C. It will look something like this: Drive C was drive C at boot time [ D:\STACVOL.DSK = 123.4MB] b. Note the drive letter in brackets, in this case drive D. c. From the DOS directory, type: ATTRIB -S -H -R DRIVE:\STACKER2.BIN where drive: is the drive letter you noted above. d. Copy STACKER2.BIN to the A drive. e. From the DOS directory, type: ATTRIB +S +H +R DRIVE:\STACKER2.BIN 2. Type: STAC . This will bring up the Stacker Toolbox. 3. Select Compress Floppy, then choose Drive A. The free space on the disk will be compressed. 4. After the disk is compressed, exit the Stacker Toolbox and go to drive A. Type: STACKER A: 5. You will now be on the compressed disk. It has no files at this point. Type: COPY C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM 6. You may now copy any other files to the disk that you desire. When you are finished, test the disk by inserting it into drive A and restarting the system. Procedures for other DOS versions 1. Insert a blank formatted disk into drive A. From the DOS prompt type: SYS A: . 2. Type: ED A:\AUTOEXEC.BAT When the editor comes up, type: PROMPT $P$G STACKER A: Press Ctrl-Z to save the file. When prompted, save the file as A:\AUTOEXEC.BAT. 3. Type: STAC . 4. Select Compress Floppy, then choose Drive A. The free space on the disk will be compressed. 5. Go to the STACKER directory and type: STACKER A: 6. Go to the A drive. It is compressed, but has no files at this point. Type: COPY C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM 7. You may now copy any other files to the disk that you desire. Test the disk by restarting your system with the disk still in its drive. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1994 Stac Electronics