NOVELL TECHNICAL INFORMATION DOCUMENT

DOCUMENT PROCESSING INFO:  FAX, REPLACES FYI-M-1203
TITLE:  SUPERSTOR - QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
DOCUMENT ID:  TID800026
DOCUMENT REVISION:  A
DATE:  16AUG94
AUTHOR:  SBASSIR;KBANTA
ALERT STATUS:  Yellow
DISTRIBUTION:  Public
INFORMATION TYPE:  Issue
README FOR:  NA
NOVELL PRODUCT CLASS:

Desktop Products

NOVELL PRODUCT and VERSION:

DR DOS 6.0

CATEGORY:

Compression

ABSTRACT:

N/A

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THE ORIGIN OF THIS INFORMATION MAY BE INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL TO NOVELL.  NOVELL 
MAKES EVERY EFFORT WITHIN ITS MEANS TO VERIFY THIS INFORMATION.  HOWEVER, THE 
INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS FOR YOUR INFORMATION ONLY.  NOVELL 
MAKES NO EXPLICIT OR IMPLIED CLAIMS TO THE VALIDITY OF THIS INFORMATION.
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ISSUE

SYMPTOM:  QUESTIONS REGARDING SUPERSTOR

ISSUE/PROBLEM:  COMMON QUESTIONS

SOLUTION:  ANSWERS TO COMMON SUPERSTOR QUESTIONS FOLLOW:

Q: CAN SUPERSTOR BE USED ON A NETWORK SERVER TO COMPRESS THE HARD
DISK PARTITION?

A: No, SuperStor is not designed to be used on a network server.


Q: IF A PREVIOUS VERSION OF DOS HAD A PARTITION WHICH WAS CREATED
USING SUPERSTOR, CAN IT BE USED UNDER DR DOS 6.0?

A: Possibly.  AddStor retail version 1.3 partitions will be
recognized by the DR DOS 6.0 SuperStor drivers.

Q: CAN THE VERSION OF SUPERSTOR WHICH COMES WITH DR DOS 6.0 WORK
WITH ANOTHER VERSION OF DOS?

A: ABSOLUTELY NOT!  DR DOS 6.0's version of SuperStor was designed
specifically for DR DOS 6.0 and may cause severe disk corruption if
used with any other DOS version. 

Q: WHAT IS THE LARGEST COMPRESSED PARTITION I CAN CREATE WITH
SUPERSTOR?

A: Physical partitions up to 256 MB can be compressed to create a
512 MB SuperStor partition.  Partitions larger than 256 MB have to
be divided into smaller partitions with FDISK before they can be
compressed.  NOTE:  All data MUST be backed up prior to running
FDISK.  


Q: CAN I USE A THIRD PARTY DISK OPTIMIZER ON MY SUPERSTOR
PARTITION?

A: It is not recommended to use a third party disk optimizer on a
SuperStor partition as data may be lost or corrupted.  This is
because third party optimizers might not properly recognize the
structure of the SuperStor partition.  Therefore, they can cause
more fragmentation than that which existed prior to the
optimization process.  It is recommended that you use the DR DOS
6.0 DISKOPT utility, which will properly handle the SuperStor
partition.


Q: HOW LARGE IS THE CLUSTER SIZE FOR THE SUPERSTOR PARTITION?

A: The cluster size is 512 bytes.  Therefore, 512 bytes is the
smallest size compressed file possible.


Q: WHAT IF THERE ARE 30 MB OF ALREADY COMPRESSED (ZIP'D OR ARC'D)
FILES ON A 30 MB HARD DISK PARTITION THAT HAS BEEN COMPRESSED WITH
SUPERSTOR?

A: There will be very little hard disk partition space left for
other files.  This is a very inefficient use of a compressed hard
disk partition.  The best files to compress are data, document, or
ASCII files.  The files which compress the least are .COM or .EXE
files and files that have already been compressed (eg. arc'd or
zip'd files).  The compression ratios will show using the XDIR
command or the Statistics option in the SSTOR.EXE utility.  

        
Q: HOW DOES SUPERSTOR WORK?

A: SuperStor automatically compresses and decompresses files as
they are read from or written to the partition.  On the average
system SuperStor should not cause any reduction in speed with
respect to file execution.


Q: DOES SUPERSTOR AFFECT DATA GOING TO TAPE OR FLOPPY DISKS?

A: No.  It will require that you have as much backup space as is
shown in the SuperStor partition.  For example, if the SuperStor
partition reports 45 MB used out of 60 MB, you will need 45 MB of
floppy or tape storage to backup the hard disk partition. 
SuperStor automatically uncompresses the files before they are
written to tape or floppy.  In this sense, it is compatible with
your existing backup software.



Q: CAN I TRY SUPERSTOR ON A DISKETTE BEFORE TRYING IT ON MY HARD
DISK PARTITION?

A: No.  The DR DOS 6.0 version of SuperStor will only work on media
which is considered fixed. 


ADDITIONAL REFERENCES:  DR DOS 6.0 Optimization and Configuration
Tips Guide & DR DOS 6.0 User Guide, FYI-M-1200, 1201, 1202, 1204

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