This is a special and IMPORTANT note for users of 4DOS version 2.0a.


If you use 4DOS's disk swappping option, you will find that problems
occur if you run a disk "defragmenter" such as PCTools COMPRESS,
Vopt, etc., from 4DOS.  


Returning to 4DOS and executing other programs after defragmentation 
of your boot drive is complete can write information in the wrong 
place on your hard disk and destroy other files, because 4DOS will 
still have its swap file open while defragmentation is going on, 
and will not know that the file has been moved once defragmentation 
is complete.


This problem only occurs when you are defragmenting your boot disk,
and running 4DOS in disk swapping mode.  If you are defragmenting
another drive, or running 4DOS in memory resident or EMS swapping
mode, you should not have any trouble with defragmentation.


There are some simple workarounds for this problem, as follows:

(1) If you already modify your system configuration and reboot before 
running your defragmenter, just switch back to COMMAND.COM at the
same time, and run the defragmenter that way.  When you're done and
you are resetting the original configuration, switch back to 4DOS.
You may wish to keep two different copies of CONFIG.SYS for this
purpose, and switch between them with RENAME or COPY.

(2) You can also run your defragmenter under COMMAND.COM as follows:

        (a) At the 4DOS prompt enter:

                command

        this will start COMMAND.COM (a copy of COMMAND.COM must be in
        a directory that is on your PATH, or in the current directory).

        (b) Run your defragmenter from COMMAND.COM.  If you have
        multiple drives to defragment you can do all of them from
        COMMAND.COM.

        (c) When finished, reboot your system WITHOUT exiting from
        COMMAND.COM back to 4DOS.  This will prevent the 4DOS swapper
        from attempting to access its disk swap file after
        defragmentation is complete.

(3) Approach (2) above can also be used with a secondary, memory-
resident copy of 4DOS; that is instead of typing "command" you
can type "4dos" to run 4DOS again, and then run the defragmenter
under the secondary copy of 4DOS, and reboot when finished.


This problem will be addressed in the next release of 4DOS, either by
providing documentation of the best workaround or through a method
which forces 4DOS to close and re-open its swap file when defragmentation
is complete.