F-Prot for DOS

[Douglas]

Just a quick question for a newbie to DOS.
I don't run F-Prot in a window, I run it under DOS.
The harddrive grinding is very intense (much more than DrWeb or NOD under windows). Is this a side effect of DOS or F-Prot?
Sorry if it's a dumb question. ::)

Tia,
Douglas

[LowWaterMark]

Since the scanning engines in various AV products work differently, I don't think you can necessarily compare how they are functioning just by the sound made by the disk drive. That said, can you explain a little more about just how you are using F-Prot...

Are you running F-Prot for DOS just in an MS-DOS box under Windows, (is this on a Windows 9x system?), or have you rebooted into MS-DOS mode (either from the hard drive or a boot floppy) and then running F-Prot from there?

On my old Windows 95 system, just running F-Prot for DOS in an MS-DOS box under Windows, the disk access sounds is pretty intensive, but not more so than AVG or other scans, I think. If I run it from a boot floppy or reboot to MS-DOS Mode, it is extremely intense (more so than above). However, if I use "smartdrv" (the built-in DOS based disk cache) it sounds a little better (more efficient on the disk drive).

[Douglas]

Hi LWM, and thanks for the response.
I reboot to MS-DOS mode. So I guess from what you said, it probably is a result of DOS mode.
This question, BTW, was certainly not a complaint. I'm just curious since I've never before used DOS.

Thanks again. :)

Regards,
Douglas

[LowWaterMark]

Since you are using MS-DOS mode, it might be interesting to try setting a large disk cache and see what effect it has. (I'm trying it on an old Win95 system myself right now.)

After entering MS-DOS mode but before you start F-Prot, try typing this:

c:\ smartdrv 20000

Smartdrv sets a disk cache up and the parameter is in KB, so that would be roughly a 20MB memory based disk cache. This utility is very useful if you are using MS-DOS mode for things that are heavy on file access, such as compressing and reloading the registry. Since an AV scan is really accessing a large portion of the disk rather than a few specific files, I'm not sure the cache would help, but it's worth trying.

At times, run at DOS is kind of fun. ;)

[JimIT]

{QUOTE-> quoting: LowWaterMark link=board=24;threadid=11913;start=0#msg76883 date=1059669039]At times, run at DOS is kind of fun. ;)
<-QUOTE}

"DOS is your friend."

--my A+ instructor

;)

[Douglas]

Well, I think the sounds were just as intensive, but I think the scan was quicker. Is that probable?
Whatever the truth, your advice made it even more fun, LWM. :D
This is a great new world for me. Time to buy a guide to DOS. :)

If I can take this opportunity to give a big thank you to tECHNODROME. His comments about a year ago led me to DrWeb, and his comments very recently led me to F-Prot.
I appreciate your insights TD!

Regards,
Douglas

[Technodrome]

Thanks Douglas! ;)



tECHNODROME

[jdong]

DOS-based AV's use a completely different subset of API's for disk I/O. That could account for the strange hard disk access noise.