_________________________________________________________________ STACKER NOTE STACKER NOTE CHECK I/O ACCESS DENIED ERROR 27 (Applies to Stacker 2.x and Stacker 3.x for Windows & DOS ) STAC FAX 3702 (08/19/93) _________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND If you received this error while checking your Stacker drives, you may have corrupt data in the File Allocation Table (FAT). The errors could be caused by: Bad sectors on the underlying uncompressed drive An errant program that writes data incorrectly and destroys part of the File Allocation Table (FAT) A program that incorrectly uses Expanded Memory Specification (EMS) SOLUTION To correct this error: Determine which areas of your hard drive have been damaged Correct the damaged, unreadable areas First, remove STACVOL attributes The first step is to clean boot your system and remove the hidden, system, and read-only attributes from the STACVOL file. Determine which version of Stacker you have installed on your computer. Then select the appropriate procedure from the following chart. FOR STACKER 3.1 AND MS-DOS 6 1. Hold down the F5 key while you restart the system on drive C. 2. From the prompt, type: ATTRIB -H -R -S drive:\STACVOL.* where drive is the letter of the drive you are repairing. FOR STACKER 1.X, 2.X, AND 3.0 (NO MS-DOS 6) 1. Copy ATTRIB.EXE from the \DOS directory to the uncompressed portion (host drive) of the Stacker drive. 2. Restart the computer using a system disk in drive A. 3. Change to drive C. 4. From the prompt, type: ATTRIB -H -R -S drive:\STACVOL.* where drive is the letter of the drive you are repairing. Second, run the surface scan Standard disk repair utilities such as Norton Utilities Norton Disk Doctor, PC Tools DiskFix, or SpinRite, can detect the damaged areas and correct them. This procedure works with all standard disk repair utilities. Run the disk repair utility's surface scan on the physical drive containing the STACVOL file. Eliminate other device drivers resident from memory before running the surface scan. 1. Run the disk repair utility on the damaged drive. Allow it to repair any defective areas on the disk. 2. Remove all disks from the floppy drives and restart the computer. 3. Run the Stacker command CHECK /F (for version 3.0 or greater) or SCHECK /F (for version 2) on the compressed drive. If there are no errors, the drive is repaired, and you can resume normal use of the drive. IF YOU STILL HAVE ERRORS If you still cannot repair the Stacker drive, there are two additional procedures you can try before resorting to removing the damaged drive and starting over: removing write protection, and removing the /EMS parameter. Removing write protection To remove write protection, determine which version of Stacker you have installed on your computer. Then follow the appropriate procedure below, where "x:" indicates the drive letter of the compressed drive: FOR STACKER 3.0 OR 3.1 FOR STACKER 2.X Type: Type: check /=w x: scheck /=w x: Warning: This command produces a message stating that the read-only status of this drive has been cleared. Do not interpret this to mean that you can resume normal use of the drive; doing so prematurely will result in data loss. Instead, you must complete the steps outlined below. Never use (S)CHECK /=w to remedy other write-protect situations. Complete the following steps in order: 1. Run a disk repair utility, such as Norton Disk Doctor or PC- Tools DiskFix, to repair as much of the drive as possible. 2. Run CHECK /F (or SCHECK /F) again. Follow the instructions to repair the drive. When prompted to perform a disk surface test, respond "yes," and delete the damaged files. When CHECK (or SCHECK) and the disk repair utility report no more errors, the drive should be fully repaired. If errors persist, disable Stacker's use of EMS. Removing the /EMS parameter Persistent errors indicate that the drive's FAT is damaged. Some programs use expanded memory improperly. A program's undisciplined use of the EMS page frame can corrupt the FAT. If this is the case, you can prevent further corruption by disabling Stacker's use of EMS memory. Determine which version of Stacker you have installed on your computer. Then select the appropriate procedure from the following chart to disable Stacker's use of EMS memory. FOR STACKER 3.1 AND MS-DOS 6 1. From the DOS prompt, type: STACINI x: where x is the uncompressed boot drive. 2. Use the arrow keys to move the cursor to a line containing /EMS. 3. Use the DEL key to remove the switch. 4. Press CTRL + Z to save the change. 5. Restart your computer. FOR STACKER 1.X, 2.X, AND 3.0 (NO MS-DOS 6) Use any text editor to open your CONFIG.SYS file and delete /EMS from the STACKER.COM device driver line. If errors persist, the drive's FAT may be damaged beyond repair. The only solution is to delete the drive with the damaged FAT and start over. Deleting the damaged drive and starting over 1. Back up the data on the drive. 2. Use the Stacker command REMOVDRV (for version 3.0 or greater) or SREMOVE (for version 2.0) to delete the damaged drive. 3. Restart the computer. _________________________________________________________________ Copyright 1993, Stac Electronics