127 lines
6.5 KiB
Plaintext
127 lines
6.5 KiB
Plaintext
MY EXPERIENCES WITH DISK OPTIMIZER (tm)
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P. L. Olympia, Sysop Darwin I and II, 301-251-9206
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11/29/85
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Disk Optimizer is a commercial product from Softlogic Solutions that
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is intended to solve the problem of badly fragmented files on the hard
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disk. It reorganizes both disk directories and file clusters. Badly
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fragmented files cause delays in program loading or execution, and
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worse (in my opinion) unnecessary punishment on the disk drive.
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Those of us who run very active bulletin boards know the problem quite
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well. It doesn't take long for an upload subdirectory or a disk
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subdirectory containing the BBS callers and messages files to be so
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badly fragmented that it takes quite a wait for the BBS to locate the
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file you are trying to download. Next time you're on a large and
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active BBS, pull out your stopwatch and do some timing tests.
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My first experience with Disk Optimizer was nothing to write home
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about. I first tried it on one of my BBS's small hard disk (10 Meg)
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and had to abort after 1.5 hours as there was absolutely no indication
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that it was ever going to finish. The lack of a program report as to
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what it is really doing at a given time didn't help things any. After
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the abort I called up Mr. Norton and Mr. Chkdsk and found that most of
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the disk were indeed reorganized and "defragmentized". But heck, 1.5
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hours for a 10M is no joke - I could just as well backup with one of
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the fast backup programs like DSBACKUP, delete and restore within that
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time. I decided to try again. This time I tried it on the other 10M
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disk. The result was worse. Not only did it take more than an hour (I
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had to abort again), I ended up with a lot of cross-linked clusters
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and two of my subdirectories became damaged. It turned out that the
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cross-linked clusters and the resulting damage might have been my own
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doing as I had several hidden subdirectories on that disk. No matter.
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I decided to return the package. Even if the program works, I wait for
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no one.
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In the meantime, my main BBS with a 33M hard disk was taking an awful
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lot of punishment - callers who could not read and who tried to
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download files that were not even listed would inevitably throw my
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poor Tulin into a tizzy. I sat there for two weeks listening to the
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agonizing disk head as it hopped from sector to sector. And all
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because I did not have the patience to go thru a backup/delete/restore
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of a 33M disk.
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Then my friendly dealer called to say that Softlogic has issued a new
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version (1.2). I decided to give it another shot. I tried it on the
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damaged 10M (wiser now, I unhid all the subdirectories first) and
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couldn't believe that I was done in 19 minutes. Mr. Norton and Mr.
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Chkdsk bore out the results of the ANALYZE program that came with the
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package - all files were 100% contiguous. DBASE III took no time at
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all to load and PCBoard (already a speed demon of a BBS software)
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started acting like a bat out of hell. Now, this was on a 10M disk
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with only 550K free space. Still unconvinced, I tried it on an AT
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with a 32M and 5M free that has never been reorganized for 8 months.
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The program did its job in 32 minutes. So far so good.
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I decided to push my luck. I tried the program on the poor 33M Tulin
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with 2.3M left - an XT clone whose hard disk is as fragmented as one
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can ever get with 2500+ files. Before I did that, I decided to play
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it safe and backup the disk with FASTBACK. Mr. FASTBACK produced a
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"fatal error" after 23 minutes on the 37th diskette. No amount of
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coercing will make it continue. To heck with it - another software
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will get returned tomorrow. I crossed my fingers and ran DISK
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OPTIMIZER anyway - I had a few hours to kill while I work on the
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Thanksgiving turkey. You'd think I was an expectant father while the
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optimizer was running. For a long time, the machine seemed dead - the
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disk light might flash every 5 minutes or so - and this was just in
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Part One - disk directory reorganization. Many times, I came close to
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reaching for the Big Red switch but somehow resisted. I was determined
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to wait till Christmas for this one as I had absolutely no disk backup
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to speak of. After 93 minutes, the program said it was done. Indeed
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all the usual checks said I had a perfectly organized disk - no files
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lost and no fragmented files.
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And, that, is how I spent Thanksgiving '85.
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Next time you're on my BBS (before it gets fragmented again) and you
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notice that it is fast - remember these: (1) I am running two jobs at
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the same time via DoubleDos (I have thrown away MultiLink after two
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years and 4 versions, each one slower than the previous one), (2) I am
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running those on a "lowly" XT clone with absolutely nothing produced
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by Big Blue. If the board seems fast it is because of (1) PCBoard
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which is the greatest BBS software in the whole wide world today
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(thank you Fred Clark, Dave Staehlin, et. al) and (2) Disk Optimizer.
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TIPS ON USING DISK OPTIMIZER
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----------------------------
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1. Unhide all files (other than IBMDOS and IBMBIO) and
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subdirectories before you begin
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2. Do NOT run any memory-resident programs or multitasking or disk
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cache programs (Lightning is good but not now). Never, never have
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DPATH or similar data and overlay finder active.
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3. In short, run Disk Optimizer on a "Virgin" system with only PC-
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DOS working.
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4. I ran the program on the AT and XT clones under DOS 2.0, 2.1 and
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3.1 successfully but obviously cannot guarantee that it will work
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for all cheapie disks like mine. That's Softlogic's work after all.
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MY BEEF (or Turkey?)
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--------------------
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You all know that I seldom endorse a product 100% (only Borland
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products are near perfection in my opinion). Alas, I have a few
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suggestions to Softlogic. Forget about your copy-protection. A program
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should never be copy-protected, least of all a disk utility program.
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Also, why don't you tell the Turkey holding his breath while watching
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a machine that seems dead what's going on? A few dots on the screen
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once in a while should be mighty reassuring. Let me also say that I
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love the price. Thank you for that.
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CONCLUSION
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----------
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Should you buy it? I did, didn't I? You could do worse for
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$49.95. BUY IT. This program works. It ain't turkey.
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Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!
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