#Disk Stacker Software
11 messages in this thread
Presently I'm considering trying out some data compression software on a
new disk drive I just ordered. I'm planning on using this disk drive for
storing targa files to be laid to tape at a later date. Has anyone tried
using data compression software with compressed targa file and/or a
Diaquest controller (DQ-422)?
Roger D.
Rojer —
There are two kinds of "data compression" software: realtime and not.
Based on your subj. heading, it sounds like you're looking at realtime
compression, such as stacker, or somthing like it. I think you'll find
that depending upon what application (and thus what version of .TGA) you'll
only achieve a 10% compression at best. For the most part, I don't think
you should plan on any savings if you're only interest is storing
compressed TARGA files… The purpose of "compressed" TARGA and GIF is to
give you the "realtime" compression buit-in to the file format, rather than
external (on the disk).
Non-Realtime compression utilities such as PKZIP, LHArc, etc… Offer a
much higher compression ratio at a cost — speed. They don't run
"realtime", but if you can live with that, you can expect better
compression. Still, though, you can't expect more than say 30%, again,
depending upon the version of TARGA (and the version of the archiver,
they're constantly surpassing each other in performance and compression
ratios)…
Now, if you're looking to put "uncompressed" files on a stacker, or disk
doubler drive… I recommend it highly. I'm personally running stacker on
2/3 of a 200MB disk. I have a "partition" (quotes intended) left
"unstacked" for Windows SWAP, temp files, and yes, .ZIPs, .TGAs, and
.GIFs… I have over 400MB of files on this 200MB drive, and I still have
over 100MB reported free ! I don't suffer from any noticeable performance
loss, and swear by the reliability.
Hope this helps —
— Matt
Matt,
Yes, this helps a lot. One other question I've had is , can you perform
disk maintenance with utilities such as PCTools "compress," "diskfix," etc.
using a disk drive that's compressed with something like stacker?
Roger D.
Rojer —
Glad to help…
You canNOT use disk compression/realignment/defragment utilities on a
"stac'ed" drive — most of the newer utilities, e.g. : NORTON SpeedDisk at
version 6, won't even recognize the drive… In cases where the
defragmenter/compresser recognizes the drive, (NU @ 5.0), you may be doing
more harm than good…
The good news is that Stacker 2.0 comes with its own defragmenter (SDEFRAG)
which does a fine job, although it's a little on the slow side. BUT !
Stacker also manages storage a bit differently than a regular drive, so the
rate at which files become fragmented is SIGNIFICANTLY lower (a friend
noticed this and ran a test — after 500 iterations of switching large
files, a regular drive was 65% fragmented, and the stacker drive was only
at 15% !)… Very efficient storage…
As far as other tools, like disk maintenance, recovery, etc… They all
seem to work just fine… Personally I still don't trust CentralPoint
after the PCTools 7.0 fiasco, but I run Norton alot — NDD, UNERASE,
DISKEDIT, DirectorySort — (I should emphasise: NOT because of a problem,
but for other reasons) — and get exactly what I expect from these tools…
Oh, and to add to the "CSA" response strand of this thread, you CAN indeed
store "compressed" files (those compressed with "offline" compression
utilities) on a stacker drive (and others)… I don't do it myself as a
matter of preference… What will happen is that you won't realize any
disk space savings (1:1), and the reported free space will decrease by a
factor of two because of it… (for example, if stacker reports 10MB free,
and you write out a 2.5MB "compressed" file, you'll only have 5MB left)…
Remember, TARGA comes UNcompressed, and compressed at different levels
depending upon the tool's release level of the .TGA format.
Regards —
— Matt
Matthew,
This is exactly the information I was looking for. Thanks.
Roger D.
Roger,
I can't vouch for Stacker's performance on .TGA files, but PKZIP
will often do a good job of non-destructive (lossless) compression. It is
also possible to perform lossy compression (still looks good, but not a 1:1
pixel match) through software using Telephoto's Alice compression software
(I'd stick to about 20:1 compression, 100:1 gets a little boxy).
Kevin Krell – Computer Support Associates
Kevin,
Seeing as though I don't have a VTR I'm rendering to disk and dumping to
tape at a later date. What I'm trying to do is render targa based
animations so that when I bring the tape deck and go to tape I make the
most efficient use of the time I have with the deck. So I guess my
question is using a utility like Stacker, do you know if I will be causing
myself any problems using the disk to VTR interface of the Diaquest in 3D
Studio? Even a 10% improvement may be of some use.
Roger D.
Roger,
The files end up looking identical to the software. If you want to
save them to a Stacker partition, that's just fine – they'll just take up
less space on your disk.
Kevin Krell – Computer Support Associates
Thanks, Kevin.
Kevin,
I'd like to get in touch with Telephoto. Can you upload an address/phone
number?
Thanks,
JS