[comp.sys.ibm.pc] Questions concerning disk spoolers, H.D. backup, PCTools, EMS on XT.

kev@voder.nsc.com (Kevin Hoskins) (01/24/90)

Greetings,

I have a few questions that I am sure many of you in NET land can answer.

1.) Disk spoolers. Do such programs exist? Such a program would intercept any
file that is sent to a printer, either through COMx or LPTx. It "prints" the
intercepted file to a hard disk (or alternatively, a floppy). After the file
transfer is completed, the program would then print the file, in the background
on a printer. (For those familiar with the TOPS spooler, I am looking for 
something that performs just like it.) Something in the shareware market place
would be just fine. (I do not have unlimited funds.)

2.) Does anyone know of any hard drive backup programs (retail or shareware)
that can also compress the files in the manner of PKZIP? Can PKZIP be used for
this purpose?

3.) This one should draw some discussion. PCTools and Norton. How does one 
decide which of these to buy? From users of each (or both), I would sure
like to hear from you. Norton does have the Norton Disk Doctor. PCTools seems
to be such a memory glutten (both RAM and disk). On a friends system (XT)
with 640K tring to run Wordstar 5 with PC-Cache resident (set to 64K), I cannot
print a one page document (3.8K). Wordstar kicks back a message that there 
is not enough memory.

4.) Can an XT clone use extended or expanded memory? If so, which should
I use? What is the criteria for making a selection between the two?

Thank in advance for any and all of your help. Post a reply or email to me
directly.

Kevin Hoskins