Date: Sun, 23 Feb 1997 10:20:00 -0800
Message-Id: <199702231820.KAA15519@beach.silcom.com>
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To: opendos-support AT mail DOT tacoma DOT net
From: stephen AT silcom DOT com (Stephen Stone)
Subject: [opendos-support] DriveSpace and OpenDOS installation
Sender: owner-opendos AT mail DOT tacoma DOT net
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2nd posting --

I had no problems installing OpenDOS on my computer which has been run with
NovellDOS 7 since 1993.  When asked to install OpenDOS by the director of a
nonprofit on a computer running MSDOS 6.22 with DriveSpace, I found the
installation failed.  The host drive which would have become H:  remained C:
with no access possible to the compressed drive.  A message appeared asking
for the location of command.com.  I responded C:\command.com and
H:\command.com without success in getting past the challenge.  

At this point, I gave up and SYSed the MSDOS files back to the root drive
and returned  the old config and autoexec files  to operation.  A reboot
brought back MSDOS 6.22 and normal access to the DriveSpaced disk. 

Is the installation a problem because the DriveSpace driver is called by the
IO.SYS before DOS loads?  The OpenDOS installation seemed to recognize that
system files needed to reside on the uncompressed drive and utilities on the
compressed drive.  My experience with compression is limited to SuperStor
and early versions of Stacker.

Is there a workaround?  I certainly would like to replace the MSDOS product
when someone indicates a strong interest in doing so -- but to reconfigure
disk compression . . . .  a big job to uncompress, etc.  I'm also reluctant
to experiment on someone else's computer.  I don't own MSDOS 6.22 so have
rely on the knowledge of others who know the product.

Thank you for any support you can offer.

/Stephen Stone