SST - THE SEEK STOPPER
       Copyright 1986,1988
       Alfred J. Heyman

       Version 2.01C

       This version of SST is functionally identical to version 2.01.
       Version 2.01 was released as  a  shareware  product  in  1986.
       However,  2.01C is  a  commercial  version  that  may  NOT  be
       duplicated  or  distributed  without  written  permission from
       Alfred J. Heyman.

       The purchaser of this version is granted a license  to use SST
       2.01C on a single system.  SST 2.01C may not be placed on  any
       type of retrieval system or BBS.  Owership of this software is
       retained  by  Alfred J. Heyman.    The  license  to  use  this
       software may be revoked if any of the above terms are violated.
       Use of this software is an acceptance of the above provisions.
                                                                     
       Alfred J. Heyman
       P.O. Box 172101
       Memphis, TN
       38187-2101

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       WHAT IS SST?

       SST is a program that is designed to reorganize a DOS disk 
       so that it will run "Faster".   Normal daily use of a disk
       will  produce  a  disk  with  many  fragmented  files  and 
       subdirectories.   Simply put, these are files that are not 
       completely contiguous or together,  but are spread out all 
       over the disk.   These fragmented files and subdirectories 
       slow disk access down because DOS must tell the Disk  Head 
       to  Seek to other parts of the disk to pick up other parts 
       of the same file.  For example, your disk might have three 
       files on it that we will call A,B,and C.   Different parts 
       might be arranged as follows....

       AAAAAAABBBBBBBBAAAC CCAAABBBB     CCC 

       SST  would reorganize the three files so that all of their 
       parts would be contiguous....

       AAAAAAAAAAAAABBBBBBBBBBBBCCCCCC

       This change would shorten the amount of time that it takes 
       DOS to read in the file.  If a subdirectory is fragmented,
       fixing  it  will  speed  up disk  access  time  even  more 
       noticeably!
       __________________________________________________________  

       
       
       Syntax: SST [d:] [ TEST] [ CLEAR]

       TEST   - will  run  SST in  a  READ-ONLY  mode.   No 
                alterations will be made to the disk.
       CLEAR  - will  Clear  move  all  erased  entries  in   all 
                directories to the ends of those directories.

       __________________________________________________________

       SO WHATS SO GREAT ABOUT SST?

       The main difference between SST and other Disk  Optimizing 
       programs is the way that SST achieves the end result.  SST 
       was designed to be FAST.   SST is also NOT  copy-protected 
       and never will be.  
       
       SST  reads in all of the data that it will need during the
       run   session  and  Keeps  this  information  in   memory.  
       Specifically,  SST uses DOS Interrupts 25h and 26h to look 
       at   the  boot  track  and  other  parts  of   the   disk.  
       Information  about  the disks' characteristics are  stored
       there.   SST makes a quick comparison of the data it  gets 
       here  with  what DOS thinks about the disk.  If these  two 
       sets of data agree with each other,  SST will read in  the 
       disks  File  Allocation  Table,  Root  Directory  and  All 
       subdirectories.  ALL of this information is kept in memory 
       during the SST session.  

       SST  then decides on the best way to reorganize the disk's 
       clusters.  When this is finished,  the user is prompted (Y 
       or N) to continue or not.  

       A  "Y" response to the above question will start the  File 
       Cluster Swapping procedure.  Here, the actual file data is 
       physically  moved.   All data is buffered IN MEMORY.  When 
       SST  is  finished  SWAPPING,  it  then  updates  the  File 
       Allocation table on the disk, and all directories.

       Some  disk optimization programs use the slower and  safer 
       method  of  buffering file data to the disk.   While  this
       practically eliminates the chances of data losses  because 
       of accidents such as power failures,  it makes the program 
       run incredibly slow on a nearly full disk.  


       
       SST DISADVANTAGES: 

       WARNING:  It is strongly advised that the user back up his 
       disk  before  using  SST.   Since SST  buffers  all  Data, 
       Tables, and Directories to Memory, 

       IF  A  POWER FAILURE OCCURS WHILE CLUSTER SWAPPING  IS  IN         
                 ACTION... ALL DATA WILL BE LOST.  

       The  Same thing goes for ANY interruption during the  SWAP 
       procedure.  Simply LEAVE SST alone after pressing "Y" when 
       prompted!

       SST  assumes  that  all disk sectors that are bad  are  so 
       marked  in the File Allocation Table.  If you have a  Hard 
       disk  that  causes  you  problems...   I.E.   it  develops 
       unexpected  bad  Sectors regularly,  Don't use SST  on  it 
       unless  you  have verified that the disk is currently  OK. 
       One  way  of  doing this is with Peter  Norton's  DiskTest 
       Program in his Norton Utilities Package.  (Copyright Peter
       Norton).

       THE SST USER:

       SST is intended for Computer users who have the ability to 
       quickly back up their disk and who don't have the time  to 
       waste   for  a  simple  disk  optimization.   Other   disk 
       optimizers  can  take many hours to work on  a  LARGE/FULL 
       disk.   SST  can usually handle these more  quickly.   For 
       Example,  SST has reorganized a 32 MEG Hard disk on an  AT 
       compatible   in   under  30   minutes.   This   particular
       Optimization  moved over 20 Meg of data.  Zero Bytes  were
       free on the disk.

       SST LIMITATIONS:

       SST is  designed to  run only in a single user, non-multi-
       tasking  system without  stay resident programs installed.
       SST can perform an optimization on almost any standard DOS
       disk up to 32 Megabytes in size as long as sectors are 512
       bytes long.   However, it should be noted that SST needs a
       lot of memory to work with Bigger disks.   If SST runs out
       of memory,  a runtime error FF will halt the program. This
       error  typically  occurs  while  SST  is  reading  in  the
       Subdirectories and before anything is moved or changed  on
       the  disk.   SST's Memory allocation routines will look to
       see if enough memory is available when the "BIG BYTES" are
       needed.  A lack of memory returns a message along with the
       Runtime  Error  FF message.   The Smaller  Dynamic  Memory
       allocations are not PreChecked.  These routines are called
       many  times...  (Thousands of times on Hard disks) and  it
       would  slow  things  up  a great deal to  do  a  bunch  of
       calculations  every  time  that  16  bytes  were   needed,
       especially  since  SST's  Library  Routines  AUTOMATICALLY
       check  on  Stack/Heap  memory  availability  in  order  to
       generate this Runtime Error.       

       If SST just can't quite make it to the SWAPPING  procedure
       with the memory that you have,  you can do a few things to
       try and get it to run.

       Simply  do a cold boot without any unneeded device drivers
       like  ANSI.SYS  in the  system.  Temporarily  rename  your 
       CONFIG.SYS  file to something else and boot up without any 
       of the other DOS parameters that you may specify that  eat 
       up memory (BUFFERS=##). SST does not use Dos' DISK buffers 
       to move any disk cluster data. Don't run ANY Stay Resident 
       programs  before  SST.  The extra 1 or 2K of  free  memory 
       gained with these methods has proven to be enough before!
        

       MEMORY USAGE SPELLED OUT: 

       SST uses 16 bytes of memory for every used cluster on  the 
       disk.  This translates to 262k for a completely full 32Meg 
       Hard  disk.   SST uses 32 bytes of memory for every active 
       directory entry on the disk.  One thousand files would use 
       up 32000 bytes of RAM.   SST will buffer out one  complete 
       copy  of  the  File allocation Table.  This would  use  up
       another  32K of ram on a 32Meg Hard  Drive.   The  program
       also needs another 64k for dynamic variables when run on a
       32Meg drive.....
       As  you can see,  this all adds up very quickly.   If  you
       plan  to run SST on a 32Meg drive,  you will need at LEAST
       512K,  If  you  have  640K,  you should  not  have  memory
       problems with SST and a 32 Meg Drive.

       For smaller drives such as 20 Meg and 10 Meg,  The  memory
       requirements are much lower.

       __________________________________________________________

                          * DISCLAIMER *

       The  author  makes no claims or guarantees about  the  use
       misuse,  or  suitability of SST on a particular  computer.
       It  is  the  users duty to take  adequate  precautions  to
       prevent  and recover from any accidental data loss because
       of power failure or any other cause.