SimulTask and huge D: file

[Tom Neff]

In article <1990Aug14.181508.10655 at cbnewsd.att.com> bamford at cbnewsd.att.com (harold.e.bamford) writes:
>Specifically, the D: DOS volume is getting too large.  I have
>deleted files such that the total size of the files (according to
>chkdsk) is about 9 megabytes.  But the D: file (in the unix dosapps
>directory) is still 15 megabytes.  How can I shrink the D: file to
>a more appropriate size?

The manual does mention (on page 3-13) that pseudo-volume fixed disk
files don't shrink.  It doesn't give a workaround, though.  For this we
will have to appeal to that rarest of resources, Common Sense(tm).

 1. Create a new pseudo-volume by copying 'cdisk' to something like 'NEWD:'.

 2. Edit your 'vpix.cnf' to point C: to your new D pseudo-volume, and D: to
your old one.

 3. Boot Simul-Task with this configuration -- if your old D: was not
bootable, you may need to boot from floppy with 'dos -b'.

 4. Use XCOPY to copy all the files from D: to C:.

 5. Quit DOS and rename NEWD: to D:, deleting the old one.

 6. Re-edit your 'vpix.cnf' to restore the settings for C: and D:.

This will do the trick.  I recommend you don't use pseudo-volumes for
applications involving a lot of file creation and deletion, because it's
a pain to garbage collect the wasted space.  Use the UNIX file system if
possible, or if the software balks use a physical DOS partition
instead.

-- 
"Nature loves a vacuum.  Digital    \O@/    Tom Neff
  doesn't." -- DEC sales letter     /@O\    tneff at bfmny0.BFM.COM