Document 1200 SUPERSTOR - INSTALLATION & OPERATION JD/RS 6/5/92 Description: INSTALLATION A full installation and usage of the SuperStor disk compression utility consists of several user steps. First, the user should prepare their drive in order to ensure a smooth compression process. Second, the user will compress the drive using the SSTOR.EXE compression utility. Finally, the user will observe and maintain their compressed partitions using DR DOS utilities. SuperStor requires that a Config.sys file be present in the root directory on a bootable drive to run properly. If you do not have a Config.sys file, you can create one using the DR DOS 6.0 EDITOR. Use the DR DOS "DEVICE=" statement to load the SSTORDRV.SYS and DEVSWAP.COM drivers. STEP #1: Preparation of Drive The preperation of a prospective compressed drive is the most vital step in order to ensure a smooth compression process and smoothly operating compressed partition. Backup It is HIGHLY recommended that the user backup their hard disk drive previous to running the SSTOR program. This is done for two reasons. First, BACKUP is done to ensure that a user is able to recover from any error which may occur with the disk compression. Second, if the user wanted to return their compressed drive to a non-compressed state, they would have to remove their SuperStor partition, thus loosing all their data on that partition. Note: There is no uncompress feature which restores a currently compressed drive back to its previous uncompressed state. Remove Copy Protected Software Generally copy protected software cannot reside on a SuperStor drive. This is because copy protected software will generally put its copy protection at a specific location on the drive. As soon as SuperStor is used, the copy protection will be moved and the application will not work. Copy protected software may be reinstalled after a drive has been compressed with SuperStor. Free Up Disk Space SuperStor requires a minimum of 1.5 MB of drive space. Make sure that you have at least 1.5 MB prior to running SSTOR. Please see the Delwatch/Delpurge section for further information regarding freeing up drive space. Delwatch/Delpurge Often the DR DOS 6.0 SETUP will install a delete tracking utility called DELWATCH. DELWATCH then becomes active as a TSR which loads from the Autoexec.bat. As files are deleted from DOS they are marked by DELWATCH as Pending Deletes. These files no longer show in a directory, but still exist on the disk until they are purged with a second utility called DELPURGE. It is recommended that all files which have been deleted, with DELWATCH active, be DELPURGEd from the soon to be compressed drive prior to compressing the drive with SuperStor. Please see the DR DOS 6.0 User Guide for additional information about DELWATCH and DELPURGE. NOTE: The 12/6/91 DR DOS 6.0 Business Update will allow users to use DELWATCH and DELPURGE on a SuperStor compressed partition. The DR DOS 6.0 Business Update is currently being shipped to all registered DR DOS 6.0 users. CHKDSK It is recommended that a user use CHKDSK on a drive prior to using SuperStor. CHKDSK is helpful in order to verify the current integrity of your hard disk. Any errors reported by CHKDSK may be fixed using the CHKDSK /F command. Please see the DR DOS 6.0 User Guide for additional information regarding the CHKDSK and CHKDSK /F commands. DISKOPT DISKOPT is a DR DOS utility which helps to optimize the performance of a hard disk drive. It is recommended to run DISKOPT on a drive prior to using the SuperStor compress utility on the drive. Please see the DR DOS 6.0 User Guide for additional information about the DISKOPT utility. Third Party Surface Analysis As a third and final aid to ensure a smooth compression, a surface analysis of your hard disk is recommended. There are several third party surface scanning utilities on the market. These utilities will further verify the integrity of your hard disk's low level formatting. Virus Programs and SuperStor Many of todays viral detection software report viruses on the basis of the changes the viral program detects within various system structures. These viral programs may incorrectly report a virus on a SuperStor drive if the program was installed prior to the compression of the drive. This is due to the virus program suddenly seeing vast changes to the drive structure after the drive has been compressed. It is recommended that virus protection software be removed prior to compression by SuperStor and then reinstalled once compression is complete. This will allow the virus program to accept the SuperStor structures as normal DOS structures. STEP #2: Compression of Partition Once a user is confident that their drive is void of any hardware or software level defects, they may continue to the compression of a particular partition. This particular phase is described in the DR DOS 6.0 User Guide. However, key areas of interest are outlined in additional detail below. Choosing Amount of Uncompressed Area (in k) The SSTOR compression utility allows the user to define an amount of space to be left uncompressed by SuperStor. Certain applications such as a programming compiler may perform better if on an uncompressed portion of a drive. Note: that a Windows 3.0 permanent swap file cannot reside on a compressed volume. Also, applications which create fixed length data files should also be stored on an uncompressed volume. The actual amount left uncompressed will depend on the data compression ratio and the disk space available before the compression was done (in other words, SuperStor will use as much space as necessary to compress all of your files). Uncompressed space should be entered in K. For instance, if a user wants to set aside 4mb of a 20mb drive as uncompressed, the number entered would be 4000. Verify, Compress, and Defragment Verify, Compress, and Defragment are the three phases of actual disk compression which are performed by SuperStor. Verify further analyzes the chosen SuperStor drive for its integrity. Compress, the longest of the three phases, actually does the compression of the files on the drive. Defragment reorders the compressed files so that they are in a contiguous order. Operation STEP #3: Understanding and Maintenance of a SuperStor Drive The results of compression on a drive can be difficult to understand. There are two particular scenarios which can occur. That is, one can compress their primary Boot Partition or a Secondary Non-Boot Partition. Installation to a Boot Partition (scenario #1) On default, a 512k uncompressed boot partition will be created when SuperStor is utilized on the Entire Boot Partition of a hard disk. As the user you have the option to increase the size of this partition as explained above in "Choosing Amount of Uncompressed Area (in k)." This uncompressed boot partition is needed to accommodate system files which must remain in an uncompressed state in order to boot the system. During the booting process the SuperStor driver will load from this uncompressed boot partition and mount all of the compressed partitions found. Then, the uncompressed boot partition will swap drive letters with the original boot partition where the remaining of the DR DOS operating files exist. The following is a list of files which MUST be in the root directory on the uncompressed boot drive in order for SuperStor to operate properly. IBMBIO.COM - Hidden system file used in booting process IBMDOS.COM - Hidden system file used in booting process COMMAND.COM - DR DOS Command Processor DCONFIG.SYS - Your computer's boot configuration file DEVSWAP.COM - Device swap allows for the swapping of drive letters. SSTORDRV.SYS - SuperStor driver which mounts all presently compressed drives. SSPARTSS.* - This is the SuperStor compressed drive. It is marked read-only, system, and hidden so it is not harmed. ANY MANIPULATION OF THIS FILE COULD LEAD TO THE LOSS OF ALL DATA ON THE COMPRESSED PARTITION. Additional files may be needed in the root directory such as a device driver for an additional I/O device or for a Memory Manager. The DR DOS memory manager should also exist in the DRDOS subdirectory on this uncompressed boot partition. DCONFIG.SYS The DCONFIG.SYS file is the acting boot configuration file which will be created on the uncompressed boot drive after SuperStor has been used on the boot partition of a hard disk. The basic contents of this file, in the proper order, are as follows: MEMORY MANAGER - A DR DOS or 3rd party memory manager which creates Upper Memory Blocks (UMBs) should begin the DCONFIG.SYS file. This will allow SUPERSTOR.DRV to put a portion of itself into the available Upper Memory Blocks created. For further information about SuperStor and memory management see DR DOS Tip #1202. ADDITIONAL I/O DEVICE DRIVER - If a driver is needed on your system to access a certain drive, (disk partitioning utility) it should be placed here (before SSTORDRV.SYS). Drivers such as Disk Manager's DMDRVR.BIN or a CD ROM driver should be loaded prior to SuperStor so that their existence is properly recognized by the SuperStor driver. SSTORDRV.SYS - The SuperStor device driver DEVSWAP.COM - Device Swap device driver. ADDITIONAL I/O DEVICE DRIVER - It is possible that an additional I/O device driver will be loaded after loading the SuperStor drivers. CHAIN STATEMENT - Chains or jumps to execute the CONFIG.SYS which exists on the now compressed old boot partition. EXAMPLE (Compression of a Bootable Drive): Prior to using the SuperStor compression utility a user has one C: drive partition. The user decides to compress this entire boot partition. Once the SSTOR compression utility has done its job the user reboots and watches the booting messages display. The machine now boots and activates the DCONFIG.SYS which exists on what now is the 512k uncompressed C: boot partition. The first SuperStor message to display is: SuperStor fixed disk drive C: mounted as drive D: The above message is displayed by the SSTORDRV.SYS device driver as it mounts the newly compressed C: drive as D:. Drives C: and D: swapped The above message is displayed by the DEVSWAP.COM device driver as it swaps drive letters so that the newly compressed C: drive shows once again as C:. REMEMBER, the drive letter used for the uncompressed boot partition will vary depending on the next available drive letter. Installation to a Non-Bootable Drive (scenerio #2) Installation of SuperStor to a Non-Bootable Drive is a much simpler process than to that of the boot partition. As with the Bootable Partition, the full Non-Bootable Drive may be compressed entirely or uncompressed space may be set aside as another drive letter (see "Choosing Amount of Uncompressed Area (in k)" above). The following is a list of the files seen on a Non-Bootable Drive having booted without the SuperStor driver installed. SSPARTSS.* - This is the SuperStor compressed drive. It is marked read-only, system, and hidden so it is not harmed. ANY MANIPULATION OF THIS FILE COULD LEAD TO THE LOSS OF ALL DATA ON THE COMPRESSED PARTITION. EXAMPLE (compression of a Non-Bootable Drive): Prior to using the SuperStor compression utility a user has one C: partition and a D: partition. The user decides to compress the entire D: partition. Once the SSTOR compression utility has done its job the user reboots and watches the booting messages display. The machine now boots and activates the CONFIG.SYS which exists on the C: drive. The first SuperStor message to display is: SuperStor fixed disk drive D: attached The above message is displayed by the SSTORDRV.SYS device driver as it mounts the newly compressed D:. Note: DEVSWAP.COM is not needed as a device driver if Non-Bootable Drives are the only to be compressed. Common Questions Q: Can SuperStor be used on a network server to compress the drive? A: No, SuperStor is not designed to be used on a network server. Q: If a previous version of DOS had a partition which was created using SuperStor, can it be used under DR DOS 6.0? A: Possibly. The AddStor retail version 1.3 partitions will be recognized using DR DOS 6.0's SuperStor drivers. Q: Can the version of SuperStor which comes with DR DOS 6.0 work with another version of DOS? A: ABSOLUTLEY NOT! DR DOS 6.0's version of SuperStor was designed specifically for DR DOS 6.0 and may cause severe disk corruption if used with any other DOS version. Q: What is the largest SuperStor compressed partition I can create with SuperStor? A: You can compress physical partitions of up to 256 Mbytes to create a 512 Mbyte SuperStor partition. If you have a larger than 256 Mbyte partitions you will have to back up your hard disk and use FDISK to create a smaller partition size before using SuperStor to compress the partition. Q: Can I use a third party disk optimizer on my SuperStor partition? A: It is not recommended to use a third party disk optimizer on a SuperStor partition as data may be lost or corrupted. This is because third party optimizers might not properly recognize the structure of the SuperStor partition and will therefore cause worse fragmentation than that which existed prior to the optimization process. Therefore, we recommend that you use the DR DOS 6.0 DISKOPT utility, which will properly handle the SuperStor partition. Q: How large is the cluster size for the SuperStor partition? A: The cluster size is 512 bytes. Therefore, 512 bytes is the smallest size compressed file possible. Q: What if there are 30Mb of compressed (zip'd or Arc'd) files on a 30Mb drive that has been SuperStor'd? A: There will be very little drive space left for other files. This is a very inefficient use of a SuperStor'd drive. The best files to compress will be data, document, or ASCII files. The files which compress the least will be .COM or .EXE files as well as files which have already been compressed (eg. arc'd or zip'd files). The compression ratios will show using the XDIR command or the statistics option in the SSTOR.EXE utility. Q: How does SuperStor Work? A: It works transparent to the person using it. Once the driver has been installed and the SuperStor utility has created the partition, it is completely unnoticeable to the user. It provides the compression and decompression activity to the files as they are read or written to the partition. Also, a user who has compressed a drive using SuperStor shouldn't notice any reduction in speed with respect to file execution on average systems. Q: Does it effect data going to tape of floppy drives? A: No. It will require that you have as much backup space as is shown in the SuperStor partition. For example, if the SuperStor partition reports 45Mb used out of 60Mb, you will need 45Mb of floppy or tape storage to backup the drive. In this sense, it is compatible with your existing backup software. Q: Can I try SuperStor on a diskette before trying it on my hard drive? A: No. The DR DOS 6.0 version of SuperStor will only work on media which is considered fixed. Sources: DR DOS 6.0 Optimization and Configuration Tips Guide DR DOS 6.0 User Guide