Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!linac!midway!ellis.uchicago.edu!lair From: lair@ellis.uchicago.edu (Scott A. Laird) Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms Subject: Re: HYPERDISK... Message-ID: <1991Mar1.082544.19567@midway.uchicago.edu> Date: 1 Mar 91 08:25:44 GMT References: <1991Mar1.050636.4410@wam.umd.edu> Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator) Organization: University of Chicago Lines: 76 In article <1991Mar1.050636.4410@wam.umd.edu> einstein@wam.umd.edu (Daniel J. Levine) writes: >I have seen some writeups in public domain catalogues >about a SMARTDRIVE replacement called HYPERDISK. >Can anyone place it on cica? And is it safer than >SMARTDRIVE on hard drives using the DMDRVR.SYS from >ONTRACK? Is it worth using with windows? Right now >I'm afraid to use ANY disk cache with WINDOWS 3.0. > >Thanks for your help. > >Emc2 > >-- >_______________________________________________________________________ >Joe Sample - University of Merryland, College Park >jsample@wam.umd.edu (This is a sample signature file) Hyperdisk 4.20 can be found on simtel in the pd1: directory with the name hydk420.zip. Generally, the easiest way to get a file on simtel is to use a mirror site, such as wuarchive.wustl.edu at Washington University in St. Louis. It's found there in the /mirrors/msdos/dskutl directory. There is also a mirror site in Australia, but I don't have its name handy at the moment. While you're getting Hyperdisk, get the file simibm.arc, in the filedocs directory. It contains a list of all the files there, and runs about 530k at the moment. It'll save you some effort in the future when trying to find software. I've used Hyperdisk, and yes, it works with Disk Manager. The manual claims that it with work with Disk Manager, Speedstor, and possibly Everex's own utility that accomplishes the same thing. Smartdrive won't work on my system because of Disk Manager, but I've compared Hyperdisk to the ncache-s utility that comes with Norton 5.0, and Hyperdisk is significantly faster. I'm not sure which version of Hyperdisk you know about, but one of the new features of version 4.20 is the ability to reduce cache size when using Windows, just like Smartdrive, to free up more memory for windows. It seems to work, but I haven't done any tests on performance on my system. The staged write feature of Hyperdisk is really nice when dealing with floppy disks, because it allows you to write a file to the disk and immediatly return to the command line, while the cache program continues writing the file to the disk. It flies, but can be a bit hazardous the health if your computer is prone to crashing, because the cache can be set to wait a while before writing, to allow any reads to procede as without delay. Hyperdisk is full of options, with several methods for doing just about everything, from the fastest to the safest, usually with several options in the middle. With extended memory, for instance, it can use XMS, the BIOS call, or a method of its own, for speed. When I did a little test, using a disk speed test called disktest that I found on simtel, it actually claimed better disk transfer speeds that Microsoft's XMS test program. Of course, the disk speed test program seems to be actually cache-optimized to help sell whatever the authors were trying to sell, but it still says something about Hyperdisk. Just to save myself from flames, this wasn't by any means a real world test, as I had just about every speed option on the cache set, and I don't think it acessed the disk until the test was over... All together, it seems to do a pretty good job as a cache, and if I had the memory to spare for a cache, it'd be the one I'd use. Maybe when we get DOS 5.0 I'll have room... I hope this helps you. BTW, I have no connection with any of the authors of any of the programs discussed above. -- Scott A. Laird | Any semblance of the above to anything is purely lair@midway.uchicago.edu | coincidental, as it was the result of an infinite The University of Chicago | number of monkeys sneaking in to use my computer | for the afternoon.