Hyperdisk Vs Super PC-Kwik (Was: DR-DOS 6.0 does everything?)
Goh Yang Chong
3) Is the disk cache program faster than Hyperdisk?
Jeffrey Grilles wrote:
>Yeah, this is the best caching program I've ever seen.
>Lends out upper memory, and according to an article I've
>read recently, competes on the level of hardware caching
>controllers.
Let me ask you, did you actually use both Hyperdisk and the diskcaching
(Super PC-Kwik) that came with DRDOS 6.0 when doing the comparision, or
did you just read it from somewhere.
I was using Hyperdisk 4.2 before I bought DRDOS 6.0. Without doing any
former test between Hyperdisk and Super PC-Kwik, the difference is
already noticeable. Hyperdisk is a more efficient diskcaching program,
With that I meant that Hyperdisk allows you to fiddle around with its
original configuration using either hotkeys or command line without
having to unload and reload the cache. To do most of the configuration
changes in Super PC-Kwik, it is required that it be unloaded from memory
and then reload with the new parameters setting. Very troublesome
indeed.
BTW, the diskcaching program that came with DRDOS 6.0 does not do
hardware caching, but there's an offer with the package for the
full-blown version, PC-Kwik PowerPak ($59), that does that.
Anyway, if you don't want to spend the money on Hyperdisk or had nothing
to compare with, Super PC-Kwik makes a good diskcaching program (at
least in the eyes of PC Magazine, PC World, and Software Digest). Don't
base your decision on the cache program to buy DRDOS 6.0. It must say
it's a much better OS when compared to MS-DOS 5.0. I've already put
aside my upgrade version of MS-DOS 5.0.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Doug Azzarito wrote:
>No, SuperPCKWIK isn't quite as fast as Hyper, and uses a little more
>RAM than Hyper. It makes me wonder why I spent money to buy Super
PCKWIK
See, even he thinks Hyperdisk is faster. Couldn't agree better,
especially when you do stag write.
Yang Chong Goh
Computer Science Department
Michigan State University
Email : g...@cps.msu.edu (Internet)
Stephen M Smith
>
>I was using Hyperdisk 4.2 before I bought DRDOS 6.0. Without doing any
>former test between Hyperdisk and Super PC-Kwik, the difference is
>already noticeable. Hyperdisk is a more efficient diskcaching program,
>With that I meant that Hyperdisk allows you to fiddle around with its
>original configuration using either hotkeys or command line without
>having to unload and reload the cache.
I must say I'm amazed at how compatible Hyperdisk is. I just put
in on my system a week ago to try it out and so far it hasn't
skipped a beat. Goh Yang Chong is right in saying that you can
fiddle around with it to change the configuration on the fly.
Here are some of the neat things I've noticed:
--turn it off and on with a single keystroke, from the command line,
or from a batch file.
--enable write delays on hard drives or floppy drives on the fly with
time specified for delay (I run it with Wing Commander and set the
delay for 10 minutes so I don't have to worry about disk writes
slowing up battles)
--enable SPECIFIC drives to be cached (i.e., if your drive is partitioned
into C:, D:, and E:, you can choose which ones will be cached)
--it gives an audible beep (you can turn it off if you want) when
it detects a change of media (swapping of floppy disks, for instance).
--reduces its size to whatever size you want when it detects a
multitasking environment. I was amazed that it not only did this
for Windows 3.0 (like the docs state) but it does it for
Desqview too! I had three intensive disk apps running under
Desqview just to test it, and as long as the total of the three
apps' disk requirements were less than the cache the disk light
never came on.
--you can reduce its size to whatever you want on the fly
--you can uninstall it on the fly, and if it was the last TSR installed
it will even give you back not only the cached area but the
area in high ram where the TSR was! Plus it doesn't lock up your
system when you try this and it fails--it just informs you that
it is now uninstalled and that it can't give you back that 20k
or so high ram space.
--you can turn off the keyboard's hotkeys for Hyperdisk in case you
have keyboard conflicts with those key combinations with other apps.
Then you can turn them back on if you want from the command line!
Believe, this just skims the surface. There are PAGES of special
commands to use with Hyperdisk so that you can tailor it to your
specific needs. I guess what amazes me the most is that it works
so smoothly on my system, because I run all kinds of potentially
conflicting apps: Windows 3.0 in all modes, Desqview, plus
Windows 3.0 in standard mode under Desqview at the same time that
I'm multitasking other DOS apps and testing other software. The
ONLY incompatibility I've found is that my QAPlus diagnostics for
disk won't work with Hyperdisk installed, but even then it just
tells me it can't run the disk diagnostic and exits gracefully.
All I have to do to run it is press CTRL-ALT-d (which disables
Hyperdisk), then run that particular QAPlus diagnostic. No
problem. (All the other non-disk diagnostics of QAPlus of course
work just fine).
Oh yeah...when you change Hyperdisk's configuration it shows a
very informative screen of exactly how it is configured at that
point. It also shows what the disk cache hit % has been. You
can turn off the screen if you want to, etc. etc.
Stephen M. Smith \ + /
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