    DSKWASTE 1.01 (c) Copyright 1998, Irving Maron. All Rights Reserved
                            
                            DISK WASTE EVALUATOR

(1) System Requirements.
DSKWASTE is a DOS program, requiring MS-DOS 5 or 6.
DSKWASTE results are valid only for FAT16 hard disks/partitions.

(2) Functional Overview.
DSKWASTE measures the waste of hard disk space that results from the 
allocation of space to files in units of FAT16 clusters. The FAT16 cluster 
size depends upon hard disk partition size in the relationship shown below:

             Partition (Mbytes)          Cluster (bytes) 
                16 to < 128                   2048
               128 to < 256                   4096
               256 to < 512                   8192
               512 to < 1024                  16384
              1024 to < 2048                  32768
    (Note: 1 Mbyte = 1,048,576 bytes)

DSKWASTE can be used to measure the wasted space for a complete drive 
(partition) or for any directory or subdirectory in the drive. Wasted space
computations are based upon all the files actually present in a selected 
drive or directory, and can be performed for the actual cluster size or for
any other FAT16 cluster size.

DSKWASTE will also support the measurement and evaluation of directories and 
files on disks in CD-ROM drives. These measurements can be useful for 
determining the hard disk occupancy to expect when copying CD-ROM files or 
directories to a hard disk.

(3) Program Operation Overview.
To run the program, enter "[drive:][path]dskwaste" (without the quotes) at a 
DOS prompt, where [drive:] and [path] point to the location of the file 
DSKWASTE.EXE. This will cause the DSKWASTE program to load, which will then 
ask you to select a drive and/or directory and a cluster size. The program 
then makes its measurements, does its computations and presents its results. 
The results are provided separately for short files and for long files, where 
short files are files that can fit within one cluster, and long files are 
files that require more than one cluster. 

To measure a directory and all its subdirectories rather than a drive or
partition, accept the "Define Directory" option when prompted to select a 
"drive:\directory". Then enter the name of the directory, but be sure to
precede the directory name with the complete path to the directory.

(4) Typical Results.
The following is a typical printout of results for a 813 Mbyte (one partition)
drive with a cluster size of 16384 bytes:

                Bytes Allocated     Bytes Wasted   % Wasted     No. Files
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Short files:      79,806,464       64,909,184        81.3        4871 
  Long files:     248,070,144       17,662,088         7.1        2017 
=============================================================================
   All files:     327,876,608       82,571,272        25.2        6888 

The first data column above, "Bytes Allocated", shows the bytes that have been
assigned to each category of file. Each file does not necessarily use its full
allocation; the unused portion is given in the second data column, "Bytes 
Wasted". The third column shows the wasted space as a percentage of the 
allocation. The fourth column shows the number of files involved in each 
category.

A repeat computation on the 813 Mbyte drive measured above, but with a cluster 
size of 8192 bytes, results in the following:

                Bytes Allocated     Bytes Wasted   % Wasted     No. Files
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Short files:      35,184,640       27,234,276        77.4        4295 
  Long files:     248,471,552       11,174,305         4.5        2593 
=============================================================================
   All files:     283,656,192       38,408,580        13.5        6888 

By comparing the two sets of results, it is possible to obtain a measure of
the improvement that can be achieved for this case by moving all the direct-
ories in the 813 Mbyte partition to a partition which is smaller than 512 
Mbytes. (The Bytes Allocated would decrease by 44,220,416 and the Bytes
Wasted would decrease by 44,163,692. Note that almost all the savings in 
Bytes Allocated occurs with the Short files.)

(5) Advanced Program Capabilities.
In order to facilitate comparisons of the type described above, the results of
each session with DSKWASTE are written to a log file (called DSKWASTE.LOG), 
which can be found in the root directory of the drive that is the current 
drive when DSKWASTE is running (providing that the current drive is accessible 
for writing). You can view this file from within DSKWASTE if the DOS EDIT 
program is in a directory included in the autoexec.bat PATH statement. If so, 
then load DSKWASTE with the command "dskwaste/v" and exercise the "view Log" 
menu choice shown at the bottom of the screen when results are presented. If 
you prefer to use a DOS text file viewer other than DOS EDIT, then load 
DSKWASTE with the command "dskwaste/v [drive:][path]viewername", where 
"viewername" is the name of the text viewer that you want to use.

If DSKWASTE is loaded without the "/v" switch, the "view Log" menu item will
be replaced by "DOS Shell" on DSKWASTE's bottom-of-screen menu. "DOS Shell" 
permits you to SHELL to DOS, perform DOS commands, and then resume the 
DSKWASTE session. It is possible to switch from "DOS Shell" to "view Log" (and 
toggle back again) by pressing the Alt+V key combination. If "view Log" is 
enabled in this manner (without having employed the "/v" switch when loading), 
the text reader employed will be the default DOS EDIT.

NOTE: The "view Log" menu item will not be presented in response to the "/v" 
switch or the Alt+V keys if the log file cannot be opened for any reason 
(e.g., if the current drive is a CD-ROM drive).

(6) Changing Screen Colors.
Press Alt+C at any program pause to step through the eleven screen color 
combinations that are available, or load DSKWASTE with the screen-color 
switch, "/nn", where "nn" is a 2-digit number in the range 01 to 11. (The
program defaults to 01 when the screen-color switch is not used.)

NOTE: If the "/v" switch is also to be used, it must follow the "/nn" switch.

(7) Syntax:
           [drive:][path]dskwaste [/nn] [/v [[drive:][path]viewer]
   /nn - screen-color selector (nn in range 01 to 11)
         Monochrome screen switch is /02 or /m
   /v [[drive:][path]viewer] - view log file from within DSKWASTE
      If no viewer is specified, defaults to DOS EDIT
   /? - help
                             
                             * * * * * *

DSKWASTE 1.01 is freeware. Permission is granted for unrestricted
noncommercial use. Permission (and payment) for commercial use can be 
arranged by e-mailing to irvmaron@compuserve.com.

Irving Maron
July 21, 1998

