From: gfrajkor AT rideau DOT carleton DOT ca (George Frajkor)
Newsgroups: comp.archives.msdos.d,comp.os.msdos.4dos,comp.os.msdos.djgpp,comp.os.msdos.mail-news,comp.os.msdos.misc
Subject: Re: DoubleSpace problem, OpenDOS
Date: 14 Mar 1997 01:54:11 GMT
Organization: Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 80
Distribution: inet
Expires: April 15, 1997
Message-ID: <5gab43$ic@bertrand.ccs.carleton.ca>
References: <01bc2d3c$e5989100$d8cbae83 AT thermopane DOT studs DOT sci DOT kun DOT nl> <1997Mar11 DOT 090007 DOT 5757 AT news>
NNTP-Posting-Host: rideau.carleton.ca
NNTP-Posting-User: gfrajkor
Summary: Stacker with 6.22 problems, OpenDOS
To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp

In article <1997Mar11 DOT 090007 DOT 5757 AT news>,
Gautier <Gautier DOT deMontmollin AT Maths DOT UniNe DOT CH> wrote:
>In article <01bc2d3c$e5989100$d8cbae83 AT thermopane DOT studs DOT sci DOT kun DOT nl>, 
>"mckao" <mckao AT sci DOT kun DOT nl> writes:

>> I hope I'm on the right spot for the following question (otherwise I'm
>> sorry I've put this in this newsgroup):
>> A friend of mine tried to install doublespace (from Dos 6.2) on his

.....

     Stacker 4 is much better than DoubleSpace, but I would not say
that earlier versions of stacker have any advantage over DS.  What's
the problem with having to install DS from Dos 6.2??  My understanding
is that it is automatically present in that program.


>Try Stacker (the original program) - it's offered with the FREE
>OpenDOS 7.01 (http://www.caldera.com) ! It will work better !

     Unless OpenDOS 7.01 differs significantly from Novell Dos 7, from
which OpenDOS is derived, the version of Stacker built into it is 3,
and there was no way to make 4 work with Novell Dos 7.   I tried that,
and despite advice from STAC and from Novell that they had patches to
make it work, it didn't.  I had to de-install Novell 7 and reluctantly
go back to MessyDos 6.22.
    Not that Stacker 3 is bad, mind you.  Just that 4 gives more
compression and operates faster and has fewer problems.


   Now some questions and a hint:

   I posted questions to several groups asking for a workaround to the
insoluable loop problem that Stacker 4 has with lost clusters,
probably because of an alligator Microsoft built into MSdos 6.22
deliberately to screw up Stac.  

   The problem arises when Stacker's CHECK program discovers some lost
clusters and tells you it cannot repair them.  It tells you to use
CHKDSK, the usual DOS program.  CHKDSK tells you that you have to use
SCANDISK, which is allegedly better, more reliable, etc..  SCANDISK
tells you it cannot repair the problems while Stacker is running and
that you should use the utility that came with Stacker, namely, CHECK.
Bingo. Full circle with no repairs and no hope of ever making them.
      
     By trial and error, and remembering my old Novell DOS 7
experience, I managed to work around this.   The CHKDSK program in ND7
is different from CHKDSK in MessyDos.  It is even physically much
larger (about four times as big).  So I dug out my old ND7 disks,
dumped CHKDSK from MSDOS and copied in CHKDSK from ND7.  It worked
fine.  It  is obvious that Novell had no interest in breaking Stacker
whereas Microsoft did.  One more reason I will try my best never to
use Microsoft products.  
     
    I presume that OpenDOS uses much the same CHKDSK as ND7, so this
workaround may be of some use to others.  
       
  I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has worked with OPenDOS
and can compare it with ND7 (which some say was a downgrade from DR
Dos 6).  

  gfrajkor AT ccs DOT carleton DOT ca