[arachne] Comprrressing ramdrives

Arachne at FreeLists---The Arachne Fan Club!

Just another speedy idea:
Use a disk compressor (not win9+ drvspace because it won't run in DOS) 
to create an empty volume, mount it, install arachne, unmount, unattrib 
it if necessary, zip it and write a batch to put it on a ramdrive.

When?  If low on XMS (if 4 / 8 MB total mem) and already using disk 
compression.

Additional questions: Which compressor would make best compressable 
empty volumes? (Dos6 drvspace volumes won't compress more than about 40% 
and that's just lousy)

Remarks: A long time ago I managed to Stacker a ramdrive, but drvspace 
won't do that because it needs a reboot which of course causes ramdrives 
to vanish.

following batch works for me (a169cmpr.zip contains a 6 MB drvspace.000, 
if mounted renders 10MB diskspace): (usage: ad.bat [drv:])

**AD.BAT**

if %1*==* ad.bat i:
xmsdsk 6300 %1 /y
%1
pkunzip d:\a169cmpr
drvspace /mount
cd arachne
call arachne.bat
echo Exit will uninstall drvspaced ramdrive with Arachne
lh %comspec%
%1
drvspace /unmount
c:
xmsdsk /u /y

**Critical warnings**
Mind lastdrive; make sure the spare (i:) is accessible for xmsdsk or 
choose another one.
Existing drvspace volumes are usually protected with attributes, but 
make sure not to overwrite one.

Arnhem, Netherlands,
Bart Buitinga

Arachne at FreeLists
-- Arachne, The Web Browser/Suite for DOS and Linux --

Other related posts: