Subj : Re: Merging files... To : Laurent Jumet From : Steve Date : Fri Dec 07 2001 03:32 am From: "E. S. (Steve) Fabian" Laurent Jumet wrote: > 4DOS 5,52A (Win95) DOS 7,10 > 4DOS Revision A (62) DOS Revision A > > TOUCH came in next version of 4dos > I didn't upgrade because my needs were matched with 5.52, and newer > versions do not correctly detect free space on StackerDrive, because Rex > dropped the support for what it calls "that old software"...:-) You can get a free TOUCH from the web - I don't have a URL - it was referenced in either this forum or on JPSOFT's support forum not too long ago. You don't need it to create empty files anyway, it was just an alternate suggestion. I used to use Stacker (2.0 through 4.0), but with its price being higher than that of todays monster capacity disks the performance hit is no longer worth it. Anyway, because compression ratio is data dependent, not even Stacker itself can report freespace perfectly. Accurate reporting in the compressed domain is easy, but if Stacker report 10**6 bytes free (as its estimate of uncompressed space based on free compressed space) you would not be able to store a 10**6 byte file which was already compressed by PKZIP, LHA, ARJ, or any other method. NB, in those days I used an uncompressed partition for all my compressed files, eliminating both the space availability problems and the time overhead of the futile Stacker compression/expansion. If you are using Win95, I am curious how Stacker's performance compares with DRVSPACE, both in compression ratios and in compression/expansion times. My biggest disk space waste (40%) was the 32768-byte cluster size in FAT16. You seem to be using Win95 OSR2, which has VFAT/FAT32 support. That might by itself eliminate the need for Stacker. Of course, I made the prsumption that you are using the all-software version, and not the hardware compression. If the latter, most of my comments are not applicable... -- E. S. "Steve" Fabian ESFabian@BellAtlantic.net POB 1540, Cherry Hill, NJ 08034 Telephone: 856-354-1752 EMPIRE Consultants, Inc. Director, Software Development ------------------------------------------------------------------- --- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-2 * Origin: Mach2 Systems (1:342/3) .