Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!know!theep!wildcat!steve From: steve@wildcat.UUCP (Steve Holland) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc Subject: Re: Boot disk optimizer? Message-ID: Date: 15 Apr 91 22:53:28 GMT References: <41207@cup.portal.com> Reply-To: wildcat!steve@alphalpha.com Lines: 54 >In article <41207@cup.portal.com> Chris_F_Chiesa@cup.portal.com writes: >Hello All. > > Had to edit the mountlist on the floppy-I-boot-from, last night, and >now the disk seems to "grind" back and forth a lot more than it used to, >and take longer to boot. (Well, it did last night when I first DID this >editing; this morning it seemed okay. Is my mind playing tricks on me?) > > I don't really KNOW for sure why the disk might grind more after I >edited the mountlist file, but it's extremely full (no room even for a >backup copy of the mountlist) and I remember reading somewhere a few >years ago that the disk could get "fragmented" causing the head to have >to jump all over the disk to pick up pieces of the file, and I am hoping >THAT is the plain explanation. > > If you know/think otherwise, please let me know. If I am correct, >then I have two questions. > > 1) I remember also reading (on this Net) a few years ago, about a PD > "boot-floopy optimizer" utility that you could run, which would > reorganize the boot disk to eliminate/minimize the back-and-forth > "grinding" effect at boottime. Does anyone else know of this utility, > and can you point me at a copy of it? > > 2) If there is no such animal as (1), can anyone suggest a workaround > for (cringe, cringe) HAND reorganization of the disk? Or other so- > lutions to the problem? (Example: on the old Atari 800 you could > recover certain disk-space wastage by copying all the files, one at > a time, to another disk. Is there an equivalent strategy here?) This happens all the time when you have REALLY full disks. What seems to happen is that when AmigaDos fills up the disk, to get a TINY amount of extra space, it removes some disk-validation stuff normally run whenever you put the disk into the drive. When this happens, it causes a big increase in the time taken to validate a disk and also it causes grinding when you boot. If it is not your boot disk you will also have to swap in your boot disk WHENEVER you insert it into your drive. To solve this problem, remove one of the more useless files and type: Install df0: If your disk is not a boot disk, type: Install df0: NOBOOT Do this to any disk which (according to info) is 100% full. >Please e-mail as well as posting, as I have a devil of a time even GETTING >AT these groups, much less reading them with any regularity. Thanks! > > Chris Chiesa > Chris_F_Chiesa@cup.portal.com > "Trying to become a knowledgeable Amigan!" -- ----------->Steve Holland<----------- Internet: wildcat!steve@alphalpha.com| "I never let my schooling get in the USENET: ...!alphalpha!wildcat!steve | way of my education" -Mark Twain