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COMPUTER BITS BY DARREN YATES Double your disc space with DOS 6 Microsoft has just released its new DOS 6 upgrade pack­age. We take a look at some of its major features which include anti-virus & disc defragmenting utilities, plus a utility to double disc capacity. By now, most readers will have heard about the recent launch of Microsoft’s new DOS 6. If you talk to the average computer store assistant, they’ll quickly tell you that “it doubles your hard disc space”. And they’re right too but it’s much more versatile than just a glorified copy of PKZIP or LHARC. The odds are that you’re probably hanging back from buying the DOS 6 upgrade because it isn’t that long ago that DOS 5 appeared. You’d be right but these days the average life expectancy of any software package is only around 18 months or so. So to sweeten the pot, Microsoft is selling the new DOS 6 upgrade for only $99 until June 30th. From then on, you’ll have to pay $199. Either way, you will get your money’s worth. There are many features in this new version of DOS which take care of some of the little quirky jobs that use to take forever to do, as well as some major additions. For example, have you ever tried deleting a program stored on multiple sub-directories on a hard disc? In short, it’s pain­ful! You have to clear File backups can now be made from within Windows, with easy-to-follow menus to guide you every step of the way. In addition to doing complete backups, you can now also do incremental & differential backups to save time. each subdirectory before you can delete it and if you have sub-directories within sub-directories, it’s enough to make you keel over with boredom. In DOS 6, this problem has been solved with DELTREE, a simple command which deletes all files and sub-directories from a specified point. You can now also move files around your hard discs and floppies much easier as well, instead of having to copy and then delete. The MOVE command works in a similar way to the COPY command except that the files no longer exist in the origi­nal position. And for something different, DOS 6 has three utilities which can be run from either DOS or in Windows – a virus checker, a backup utility and the highly useful undelete utility. Anti-virus The risk of a virus affecting a computer system or network is now all too real. At best, a virus will be of nuisance value only. At worst, it can destroy valuable data and cost many thou­sands of dollars. Microsoft has addressed this problem by including a utility called Anti-Virus, which detects and removes over 800 different viruses. What’s more, you can run it either from the DOS prompt or from within Windows. This is a handy feature because if you’re running Windows applications, you don’t want to have to exit right out of Windows just to scan a floppy disc and then have to go all the way back in again. The same applies for DOS applications. Who wants to wait for Windows to boot up just to scan a drive? The anti-virus utility used by Micro­ soft is licensed from Central Point Software and uses dialog boxes to make it easy to follow. You can get two anti-virus updates for $67.80 by June 1993  71 some added protection to greatly improve the likelihood of recovery. It contains two extra levels of delete protection called Delete Sentry and Delete Tracker. Delete Sentry, the highest level of protection, is able to retrieve just about any file without difficulty by preventing other files from being written over the top of it. This requires some memory and hard disc space to run. Delete Tracker, the next level down, can retrieve most files but there may be the possibility that some data in the file may be lost, if you do accidentally delete it. Disc Defragmenting The front & back covers of the DOS 6 Upgrade manual feature a “road map” that illustrates many of the program’s new features. You can use the program to automatically free up memory, recover files, detect viruses, defragment the disc, double disc capacity & to easily back up data. filling in and mailing a coupon at the back of the manual. Backup Remember the less-than-helpful BACKUP command? Well, it’s now been updated it into a far more friendly utility with more features and includes both Windows and DOS versions. Instead of having to backup either the entire hard disc or just the odd-subdirectory, you can now also do incremental and differential backups. An incremental backup backs up only those files that were changed since the last full or incremental backup. This makes it a quick and easy option to save important data. A differential backup, on the other hand, saves those files that have been 72  Silicon Chip changed since your last full backup. The BACKUP utility supports any drive you can copy files to, including removable drives and “flopticals”. It also features, at last, a complete online help system to get you going in the shortest possible time. Undelete There are few feelings worse than the one you get two seconds after you’ve wiped out the last three weeks’ work. Thank­fully, DOS 5 had the life-saving UNDELETE command which made it possible to retrieve just about any file – but it wasn’t perfect. On the odd occasion, some data in files could be lost due to the fragmented nature of the file. The new UNDELETE utility contains DEFRAG is another useful utility and is based on Norton Utilities’ Speedisk program. It’s reorganises files on your hard disc so that they are no longer fragmented (ie, stored as frag­ments at different locations on the disc). This can significantly increase the speed at which your computer loads files from your hard disc since it doesn’t have to spend half its time going from one location to another to find the next section of the file. While running, the program provides an on-screen display of what is happening to your hard disc, as files are shuffled from one place to another. It’s quite fascinating to watch as frag­ments of the hard disc are removed at random and shifted to sequentially fill the disc space, leaving an unfilled block as the remainder. And even if it doesn’t make a big difference to the speed at which your system works, it’s a nice feeling to know that your hard disc is “all neat and tidy”. DoubleSpace By far the most interesting feature of DOS 6 is its ability to double your disc storage space. But it doesn’t just work with hard discs – you can also use it with floppy discs (not 360Kb). DoubleSpace is a feature-packed program which can not only double the size of your entire disc drive but can be also create logical compressed drives from the space you have left. For example, say you have 30Mb of space left on your hard drive. You can select the program to create a new drive and leave you 10Mb of space on that drive. It will then create a drive I: As with Backup, the Undelete utility can be run from within Windows to make file recovery a convenient point & click operation. This utility has also been upgraded to greatly improve the likelihood of data recovery by including two extra levels of delete protection. from the 20Mb remaining and this will have 40Mb of storage space. It can also compress an entire drive, even if it already has files on it. The beauty of the system is that once compression has taken place, you can use the drive as normal. You don’t have to go through the DoubleSpace program each time you wish to access the drive. Once installed, DoubleSpace becomes part of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file and automatically loads each time you boot up. You can then copy to and take files from the compressed drive as normal – it all takes place in the background. A custom set-up procedure allows you to set up DoubleSpace as you wish, including changing the compression ratio of a disc. You can go from 1:1 up to a compression ratio of 16 times. DoubleSpace will try to compress all files at your desired ratio but will ultimately compress files at its own maximum rate. The only trick is that the space available on a compressed drive is only an estimate. DoubleSpace cannot detect how much memory a file takes until it compresses it and since all files compress differently, it cannot really know the exact amount of space remaining. On-line help If you’re not used to computers at all, the worst thing is sitting in front of a PC with the cursor madly blinking at the DOS prompt. The first instinctive action many people try to take is to frantically bash out “HELP” on the keyboard. In earlier versions of DOS, all you would end up with is the old “Bad command or file name”. By contrast DOS 6 comes with an on-line help system which gives clues and information on over 120 related DOS commands. So even if you’re not exactly sure what it is you’re looking for, you’ll probably find it without too much effort. You can also find help on any topic by just typing “HELP <command>”. For example, if you want to know more about DELTREE, you just type HELP DELTREE <enter> at the DOS prompt. What could be easier? Laptops With the ever-growing laptop computer market, DOS 6 also provides a couple of useful and unusual utilities to benefit these machines. First, Inter­ link provides a simple and effective way of transferring data from one computer to another. You no longer need floppy discs to transfer files (many of which won’t fit on one floppy disc anyway). You can use either parallel or serial ports to transfer data, but they must be the same on each comp­ut­er. You can even run a program on one machine and access data on the other. Using a client-server technique, a “client” laptop computer can be configured so that it can look not only at its own drives but instantly access those of the “server” desktop machine as well. The other useful utility is called POWER. This unusual program can actually save you up to 25% in power usage when applications and hardware devices are in idle mode, by closing then down. The only catch is that the hardware devices must match the Advanced Power Management (APM) specifications. If they don’t, you can still get about a 5% benefit out of it. The program is loaded as part of your CONFIG.SYS file as a driver which can be loaded into either high or low memory. MemMaker If you’re finding that you’re running out of conventional memory space for some of your programs, then MemMaker will be a welcome utility. It checks through your system and determines what device drivers can be loaded into the high memory area. It does everything automatically without you having to know any technical details at all. After it’s completed, it automatically sets up your machine to boot up with these new settings. We tried it on a workhorse 386 and it managed to boost the free conventional memory space from 601Kb to 626Kb. This may not sound like much but many programs fail to run because of a lack of conventional memory and anything that helps to create more space is worthwhile. At the end, it even gives you a table to show what the memory situation was before and after you ran MemMaker. If you’re not happy with what it’s done, you can easily abandon any changes made and return to your old configuration. Conclusion Well, there are still more features such as enhanced SMART­drive drivers and diagnostic programs but we may look at these another time. DOS 6 is well worth getting and at the bargain price of only $99, you would be silly to wait until after June 30th. You can buy it at virtually any softSC ware supplier. June 1993  73