Is the DOS 'defrag' command OS/2 friendly?
hu...@sfu.ca
Hello,
I am running OS/2 on a FAT formatted drive. Can someone tell me
if the DOS 'defrag' command will screw up OS/2? Thanks...
Don Hugie
SFU
id...@absurd.dialix.com
> I am running OS/2 on a FAT formatted drive. Can someone tell me
>if the DOS 'defrag' command will screw up OS/2? Thanks...
>
> Don Hugie
Yes and no.
sometimes it won't and sometimes it will.
From my experience the only advice I can give is that you don't use
defrag unless you have dualbooted DOS. ie. make sure you use the
" x:\os2\boot /dos " command. Don't boot DOS from a floppy disk
while the OS2 is still the bootable operating system on the FAT
partition.
Nev..
st...@skyfox.usask.ca
Every DOS-only version of a disk defragger (MS-DOS, Norton Utilities,
PC-Tools) that I've seen works fine on
OS/2-bootable partitions provided that
1.) the partition was formatted as FAT
2.) no files had long file names.
3.) the system was booted from a DOS floppy or partition.
I HAVE run into problems using these kinds of programs when
1.) I ran them from a DOS session within OS/2
2.) I dualbooted DOS such as suggested above.
Note, however that it has been a long time since I have tried this.
So long in fact that I have never tried it with OS/2 Warp - only
with versions 2.x.
Rob
Pankil
In <4v8c9p$e...@morgoth.sfu.ca>, hu...@sfu.ca writes:
> I am running OS/2 on a FAT formatted drive. Can someone tell me
>if the DOS 'defrag' command will screw up OS/2? Thanks...
>
using Defrag in OS2 is NOT a good idea.
I used to use FAT as my file system on Warp. But lately I've switched
to HPFS and find it a huge improvement. The disk still may get frag-
mented under HPFS but not as much as under FAT!
smi...@ibm.net
> I am running OS/2 on a FAT formatted drive. Can someone tell me
>if the DOS 'defrag' command will screw up OS/2? Thanks...
>
-------------> YES <--------------------
DO NOT USE ANY DOS BASED DEFRAG UTILITIES ON YOUR OS/2 FAT PARTITIONS
Look for an OS/2 Defrag utility. I'm sure there are some shareware releases out there.
An old DOS shareware defrag utility, DOG<Disk OrGanizer>, was OS/2 friendly and
could be used on an OS/2 FAT partition. I haven't seen it around for a few years, but
you may be able to find it somewhere. I use the GammaTech Utilities, which has a
FAT optimization utility included. I don't use FAT, since I don't use DOS. There is
much less fragmentation of files on HPFS partitions.
Bill
Igor
In article <4v8sd3$8...@tor-nn1-hb0.netcom.ca>, p...@netcom.ca (Pankil) wrote:
>In <4v8c9p$e...@morgoth.sfu.ca>, hu...@sfu.ca writes:
>> I am running OS/2 on a FAT formatted drive. Can someone tell me
>>if the DOS 'defrag' command will screw up OS/2? Thanks...
>>
>using Defrag in OS2 is NOT a good idea.
>
>I used to use FAT as my file system on Warp. But lately I've switched
>to HPFS and find it a huge improvement. The disk still may get frag-
>mented under HPFS but not as much as under FAT!
I have been running Warp for a little over a year now and have defragged
my fat drive numerous times with no problems whatsoever.
Just make sure and run the defragger from DOS, booting with dualboot.
c:\boot /dos. You shouldn't have a problem.
Igor
Christopher Robato
> In <4v8c9p$e...@morgoth.sfu.ca>, hu...@sfu.ca writes:
> >Hello,
> > I am running OS/2 on a FAT formatted drive. Can someone tell me
> >if the DOS 'defrag' command will screw up OS/2? Thanks...
> >
>
> -------------> YES <--------------------
>
> DO NOT USE ANY DOS BASED DEFRAG UTILITIES ON YOUR OS/2 FAT PARTITIONS
>
Why? I have been dual booting and using the DOS defragger for quite a
while and I never had any problems.
On the other hand, OS/2 tends to lock some clusters so even a DOS
defragger can't defrag these clusters.
Rgds,
Chris
--
*** Sailor Moon Joins Team OS/2 ***
Evil falls on the city. "Hurry before Windows 95 takes over
the world." Serena and friends shout, "OS/2 Warp Power, Transform!"
The Sailor Scouts crash the Red Moon Palace.
Sailor Moon confronts the evil Queen Beryl Gates and
her Windowsverse forces, and says,
"In the Name of I-B-Moon, I shall right FUD and that means you!"
*** cro...@kuentos.guam.net ***
me...@electriciti.com
In <crobato-2508...@hagi-60.kuentos.guam.net>, cro...@kuentos.guam.net (Christopher Robato) writes:
>In article <4vcjgr$2n...@news-s01.ny.us.ibm.net>, smi...@ibm.net wrote:
>
>> In <4v8c9p$e...@morgoth.sfu.ca>, hu...@sfu.ca writes:
>> >Hello,
>> > I am running OS/2 on a FAT formatted drive. Can someone tell me
>> >if the DOS 'defrag' command will screw up OS/2? Thanks...
>> >
>Why? I have been dual booting and using the DOS defragger for quite a
>while and I never had any problems.
Ditto here
73 ted
n6trf
Patrik Schork
In article <crobato-2508...@hagi-60.kuentos.guam.net>,
cro...@kuentos.guam.net (Christopher Robato) wrote:
>In article <4vcjgr$2n...@news-s01.ny.us.ibm.net>, smi...@ibm.net wrote:
>
>> In <4v8c9p$e...@morgoth.sfu.ca>, hu...@sfu.ca writes:
>> >Hello,
>> > I am running OS/2 on a FAT formatted drive. Can someone tell me
>> >if the DOS 'defrag' command will screw up OS/2? Thanks...
>> >
>>
>> -------------> YES <--------------------
>>
>> DO NOT USE ANY DOS BASED DEFRAG UTILITIES ON YOUR OS/2 FAT PARTITIONS
>>
>
>Why? I have been dual booting and using the DOS defragger for quite a
>while and I never had any problems.
>
>On the other hand, OS/2 tends to lock some clusters so even a DOS
>defragger can't defrag these clusters.
>
>Rgds,
>
>Chris
>
>...
I agree with Chris:
At least once a month I defrag even OS/2 *ini and *?sf files with the
use of a 'save directory' on a second partition, 'attrib', 'move', and
'defrag' under *plain* DOS 6.2. The OS/2 fat partition was never messed
up after doing those weird operations.
On the other hand I once tried PC-Tool's compress utility, something
went totally wrong and I had to reinstall OS/2.
Nevertheless you ought to know what you are doing if you try this at
home, or your system might get hurt.
Patrik
--
Patrik Schork
<mailto:pat...@t-online.de>
AFN Frankfurt - Rockin' you back to the stone age
Timothy S. Campbell
smi...@ibm.net wrote:
>
> In <4v8c9p$e...@morgoth.sfu.ca>, hu...@sfu.ca writes:
> >Hello,
> > I am running OS/2 on a FAT formatted drive. Can someone tell me
> >if the DOS 'defrag' command will screw up OS/2? Thanks...
> >
>
> -------------> YES <--------------------
>
> DO NOT USE ANY DOS BASED DEFRAG UTILITIES ON YOUR OS/2 FAT
> PARTITIONS
>
Actually, I've been using DOS 'defrag' for as long as I've been running
Warp and I've yet to have a problem. I do boot DOS before running defrag
(I wouldn't attempt to run defrag in an OS/2 "DOS" window -- that could
be very dangerous) -- but there's absolutely no reason why one couldn't
use dual-boot or boot manager to start DOS and run defrag.
While Gammatech makes good products and it's always nice to have native
OS/2 utilities, using DOS defrag (when boot in DOS mode) is safe.
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Timothy S. Campbell - EDS Client Server Infrastructure Development
Internet: timothy....@eng.eds.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Wiegand
"Timothy S. Campbell" <tcam...@eng.eds.com> writes:
>Actually, I've been using DOS 'defrag' for as long as I've been running
>Warp and I've yet to have a problem. I do boot DOS before running defrag
>(I wouldn't attempt to run defrag in an OS/2 "DOS" window -- that could
>be very dangerous) -- but there's absolutely no reason why one couldn't
>use dual-boot or boot manager to start DOS and run defrag.
While you aren't damaging your system you aren't helping it either.
DOS defragment programs don't organize the extended atribute file
properly. You might actually *slow down* your drive by using a
DOS program.
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob Wiegand | Education makes a people easy to lead, but
Motorola Inc. | difficult to drive; easy to govern, but
bwie...@sesd.cig.mot.com | impossible to enslave - Henery Peter Brougham
Yvan Loranger
Patrik Schork (pat...@t-online.de) writes:
> I agree with Chris:
> At least once a month I defrag even OS/2 *ini and *?sf files with the
> use of a 'save directory' on a second partition, 'attrib', 'move', and
> 'defrag' under *plain* DOS 6.2. The OS/2 fat partition was never messed
> up after doing those weird operations.
> On the other hand I once tried PC-Tool's compress utility, something
> went totally wrong and I had to reinstall OS/2.
> Nevertheless you ought to know what you are doing if you try this at
> home, or your system might get hurt.
Same here; & you know what? It works even though dual-boot stores in the
partition to be defragged the boot sector for the dormant (os2) op. sys.!
Look for c:\os2\system\boot.os2 The fact that it's only 1 sector long
helps (psychologically at least!).
--
Merci.......................Yvan If at first you DO succeed,
Internet: bq...@freenet.carleton.ca try to hide your astonishment.
Yvan Loranger
Robert Wiegand (wie...@woodcock.cig.mot.com) writes:
> "Timothy S. Campbell" <tcam...@eng.eds.com> writes:
>>Actually, I've been using DOS 'defrag' for as long as I've been running
>>Warp and I've yet to have a problem. I do boot DOS before running defrag
>>(I wouldn't attempt to run defrag in an OS/2 "DOS" window -- that could
>>be very dangerous) -- but there's absolutely no reason why one couldn't
>>use dual-boot or boot manager to start DOS and run defrag.
>
> While you aren't damaging your system you aren't helping it either.
> DOS defragment programs don't organize the extended atribute file
> properly. You might actually *slow down* your drive by using a
> DOS program.
What pray tell are you talking about? What do you mean by organization of
the EA file? Firstly the byte at offset 1000 should remain at offset
1000. Secondly there must be something I don't know. (BTW some ms-dos
defragmenters declare EA DATA. SF unmoveable/static on account of its
"hidden"/"system" attribute.)
Michael Raiteri
In article <32246A...@eng.eds.com>,
"Timothy S. Campbell" <tcam...@eng.eds.com> wrote:
>smi...@ibm.net wrote:
>>
>> In <4v8c9p$e...@morgoth.sfu.ca>, hu...@sfu.ca writes:
>> >Hello,
>> > I am running OS/2 on a FAT formatted drive. Can someone tell me
>> >if the DOS 'defrag' command will screw up OS/2? Thanks...
>> >
>>
>> -------------> YES <--------------------
>>
>> DO NOT USE ANY DOS BASED DEFRAG UTILITIES ON YOUR OS/2 FAT
>> PARTITIONS
>>
>> Look for an OS/2 Defrag utility.
>
>Warp and I've yet to have a problem. I do boot DOS before running defrag
>(I wouldn't attempt to run defrag in an OS/2 "DOS" window -- that could
>be very dangerous) -- but there's absolutely no reason why one couldn't
>use dual-boot or boot manager to start DOS and run defrag.
>
>OS/2 utilities, using DOS defrag (when boot in DOS mode) is safe.
True there is nothing wrong with using some DOS defrag utilities on a
Warp FAT partition proided you boot from REAL dos to use it.
I've been using a program called Safepack since OS/2 2.1 without any
problems - think it called SAFPAK15.ZIP - states in the docs that its
OS/2 aware. It works _very_ well.
Cheers
Mike
--
Internet: mrai...@dyson.brisnet.org.au <Michael Raiteri>
Fidonet: 3:640/305@fidonet
Brisbane Queensland Australia
Doug Azzarito
In message <Q4DMycHf...@dyson.brisnet.org.au> -
mrai...@dyson.brisnet.org.au (Michael Raiteri)Fri, 06 Sep 1996 11:06:56 -0400
writes:
>
>True there is nothing wrong with using some DOS defrag utilities on a
>Warp FAT partition proided you boot from REAL dos to use it.
>
>I've been using a program called Safepack since OS/2 2.1 without any
>problems - think it called SAFPAK15.ZIP - states in the docs that its
>OS/2 aware. It works _very_ well.
This is one of the oldest of the "old wives tales" about OS/2. DOS
defrag utilities really have to go out of their way to upset an OS/2
FAT drive. I have yet to find one that causes damage (unless the
damage is caused by a plain-old bug that has nothing to do with
the OS/2-added FAT features).
I regularly defrag my FAT drives WHILE OS/2 IS RUNNING, and I use
DOS DEFRAG and Norton's SPEED DISK (same code, actually). To do
this, I run LOCKDRV, which is a utility I wrote specifically for
this purpose. If you want LOCKDRV, go to any FTP site where you can
find EWS (IBM Employee written software).
-- Doug Azzarito
"The OS/2 Guy"
Base
In message <50qpct$l...@ausnews.austin.ibm.com> - Azza...@austin.ibm.com (Doug
Azzarito)7 Sep 1996 03:15:41 GMT writes:
:>
:>In message <Q4DMycHf...@dyson.brisnet.org.au> -
:>
:>
:>
Everything that I have ever read or seen says to NOT use Dos defrag with OS/2
because it will destroy the extended attributes that OS/2 puts on a file. Dos
cannot read those extended attributes, or something like that.
base
\\*************************************************************************//
"We are the music makers, and We are the dreamers of the dreams."
- Willie Wonka -
//*************************************************************************\\
Ben A
Well Base,
You are wrong in this case. Doug A. knows what he is talking about.
PC DOS' Defrag utility can and does defrag OS/2 partitions (of the FAT
kind) without a hitch. No problem. It's safe. Extended attributes are not
damaged.
Of course, you should only defrag a partition that passes OS/2's CHKDSK
without errors first.
--
Ben Antanaitis
IBM Senior Engineer/Scientist, retired.
Hans Kamp
And I think, OS/2 does even not *permit* to use it. I guess, defrag
programs want direct access to the hard disk, and OS/2 tolerates that in
no way.
Hans Kamp.
Doug Azzarito
In message <51ejiv$r...@dfw-ixnews3.ix.netcom.com> - ba...@ix.netcom.com (Base)
writes:
>Everything that I have ever read or seen says to NOT use Dos defrag with OS/2
>because it will destroy the extended attributes that OS/2 puts on a file. Dos
>cannot read those extended attributes, or something like that.
Did you read my last post? If so, you can't say "everything that I..."
Hey, I don't care if you want to believe the misinformation being spread by
people who don't know the truth. My post was just an opinion, and the fact
that I've been involved with OS/2 filesystem development for the past 6 years
has nothing to do with it.
Yvan Loranger
Base (ba...@ix.netcom.com) writes:
> Everything that I have ever read or seen says to NOT use Dos defrag with OS/2
> because it will destroy the extended attributes that OS/2 puts on a file. Dos
> cannot read those extended attributes, or something like that.
I'll add my experiences to those who say yes DOS defragmenters work on
partitions with OS/2 EAs (provided you reboot under DOS). DOS doesn't
have to understand the EAs; it simply has to recopy directory entries *in
their entirety* (which is where the backup pgms. fail BTW) and maintain
the integrity of EA DATA. SF should you request its defragmentation.
The latter is also easy - just treat it as a sequential file.