fzcapit@MIZAR.UCDAVIS.EDU (John Capitanio) (05/08/91)
I hope someone can help me with a strange problem, which has cropped up while running the statistical package SPSS on my PC (Zenith 386/20). The system: Zenith 386/20, 4 meg RAM with 2 configured as a RAMDRIVE (using MS-RAMDRIVE) Zenith 386/20, 4 meg RAM with 2 configured as a RAMDRIVE (using MS-RAMDRIVE, from Windows, though I'm not running in Windows), math coprocessor, etc etc. The problem: SPSS allows you to specify a drive to be used as a workdevice; all temp files, system files, etc. which are created during a statistical analysis are put there. Obviously , using a RAMDRIVE speeds up the whole process, as access time is much faster. In fact, SPSS encourages use of ramdrives. The problem comes in when one analysis is done, and SPSS is exited. Running a second analysis can result in gibberish (even with the same data set and the same procedure). If you then get out of SPSS and do a directory of the ramdrive, no files are listed, but the amount of free space is reduced. Attempting to run a third analysis results in an "out of disk space" error. The solution: What works *every time* is, after the first analysis, re-booting the machine. Obviously, this is a pain in the behind; nevertheless, it does suggest that the problem is that the RAMDRIVE is not being cleared out after each run -- miscellaneous stuff left in memory is seeping into the file which is being written over it for the second (or third) runs. Does this make sense? What I need is A better solution: Is there any utility out there that can be incorporated into a .bat file, so that when I run spss.bat, the ramdrive will have its memory cleared? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Please EMAIL me at jpcapitanio@ucdavis.edu or .bitnet Thanks, John