Q1. What is Virtual Drive?
Ans: Virtual Drive is a CD emulation tool that comes free with your AZZA mainboard.
This award-winning hardware utility tools allows you
(a) To be productive by allowing you to copy and compress CD Data into your HDD with your normal CD ROM Drive without having the need to buy additional CDR.
(b) To protect your CD Disks by minimizing the chance of damage to your CD Disks as no physical CD Disk is required when playing or accessing the CD application.
(c) To have the convenience of playing or accessing different CD applications without the need to change and swap the disks.
(d) To have the speed of accessing
your CD data up to a 500X.
Q2. How can I copy & compress the CD titles into my Hard Drive?
Ans: There is a button, "Build CD" in the Virtual Drive manager program.
Just insert the original CD, then press the "Build CD" button, and choose the
default CD-ROM drive; the Virtual Drive will copy and compress the CD data automatically.
Q3. How can I copy & compress the CD titles into my Hard Drive?
Ans: You can go the the File Manager to check the CD profile right after you have copied
the CD data into your hard drive.
Q4. If I have copied &
compressed the CD data into my Hard Drive, do I still need a physical CD disk to be
inserted into the CD-ROM Drive whenever I access the disk data?
Ans: No. Once you had copied the CD application into your Hard Drive, there will be a CD
image icon in the Virtual Drive manager. To ply the CD, you just simply have to
double click on the CD icon. There is no need to insert to find the orginal CD to
finish the uninstall process.
Q5. Could I easily remove the CD
data after I have copied the CD inforamtion into my Hard Drive?
Ans: Yes. There is an option, "delete CD", in the Virtual Drive manager.
To remove the CD data, just simply go to the manager program to choose that option.
There is no need to find the original CD to finish the uninstall process.
Q6. How many virtual CD-ROM
drives can the Virtual Drive create?
Ans: Virtual Drive can create up to 22 virtual CD-ROM drives.
Q7. How many CD disks can I copy
and compress in the hard disk?
Ans: There is no limit. The only limitaion is the size of your hard disk.
Q8. What kind of compression
rate can I have by using Virtual Drive?
Ans: That depends. If it's a text file, then the compression rate can be higher than 90%.
If the file had not been compressed before, then the rate can be around 50%. However, most
CD-ROMs had already been compressed. Thus the compression rate will be only around 15% ~
30%. If there is still enough space in your hard disk, for the CD-ROM with data
compressed, we don't suggest you to use compression function Virtual Drive.
Q9. Does Virtual Drive partiton
my Hard Drive after installation?
Ans: No, it doesn't. Virtual Drive will only virtually create drive icons that can
be viewed by Windows Explorer. It does not physicaly partiton the HDD into 22
drive sectors.
Q10. Can Virtual Drive support CDI/Video CD?
Ans: We suggest that you play CDI/Video CD on the CD-ROM drive. Most Video CDs are very
large. It is not a good idea to use much hard drive space for Video CD-ROMs.
Q11. Why can't my system find the real CD-ROM drive after installing Virtual
Drive?
Ans: Please add "lastdrive=z" to the config.sys file. The drive numbers you have
are more than the available drive letters.
Q12. Why did the setup program fail after I clicked on "Continue"
for the welcome screen?
Ans: You are using old MS-DOS compatible mode driver (16-bit) for CD-ROM drive. Remove the
CD-ROM driver command from CONFIG.SYS file, and then use the "Add new hardware"
from the "Control Panel", let Windows find the 32-bit driver for your CD-ROM
drive. If you still failed to upgrade to a new 32-bit driver, you may need to contact your
hardware dealer for the Windows 95 driver.
Q13. Why was my physical CD-ROM drive letter changed?
Ans: You can assign a specific drive letter to a CD-ROM drive by the following steps: (1)
Click on "System" in "Control Panel" Window. (2) Select "Device
Manager" in "System" Window (3) Click on "CD-ROM" item, then
double click the physical CD-ROM drive (4) Select "Settings", and then set the
drive letter.
Q14. The CD-ROM application still asks me to insert the CD-ROM into the
real CD-ROM drive?
Ans: That was because you had installed the CD-ROM application from real CD-ROM drive.
Most CD-ROM application will run from the CD-ROM drive that it was installed. Please
uninstall the CD-ROM application, and then install the CD-ROM application under the
Virtual Drive's environment.
Q15. There was a message "Some files are using" when I was
installing the Virtual Drive?
Ans: Please close all application and retry
(especially the anti-virus application).
Q16. Why I receive the message that
"Virtual Drive is not loaded", after I did install the Virtual Drive?
Ans: Please add "lastdrive=z" to the config.sys file. The drive numbers you have
are more than the available drive letters.
Q17. What kind of compression rate can I have by usng Virtual Drive?
Ans: That depends. If it's a text file, then the compression rate can be higher than 90%.
If the file had not been compressed before, then the rate can be around 50%. However, most
CD-ROMs had already been compressed. Thus the compression rate will be only around 15% ~
30%. If there is still enough space in your hard disk, for the CD-ROM with data
compressed, we don't suggest you to use compression function Virtual Drive.
Q18. Should I disable the Windows 95 "Read ahead" function?
Ans: Virtual Drive setup program will disable the "Read ahead" function.
However, some applications will enable it again. For these cases, please follow the next
steps to disable read-ahead function: (1) Select "System" icon from Control
Panel (2) Click "performance" in System Properties Window (3) Click "File
System" and then Click on "CD-ROM" (4) Select "No read-ahead" for
"Optimize access pattern for" (5) Click on OK
Q19. Is Rapid Cache still running after I close the monitor program?
Ans: Yes, Rapid Cache is loaded when Windows 95 starts. You can uninstall it by clicking
the Uninstall Rapid Cache icon in Rapid Cache 95 program group.
Q20. Does Rapid Cache support multiple CD drives on my system?
Ans: Yes, Rapid Cache improves all of your CD drives installed. Rapid Cache lists all of
your CD drives on left size of the monitor program window.
Q22. Can Virtual Drive support command interface program?
Ans: Yes.
(1) with VDRIVE.EXE file, Virtual Drive allows you to insert a Virtual CD file into Virtual Drive ( by drive letter or ordinary number 1-9 ).
(2) On a network environment, Virtual Drive allows the administrator to setup each CD titles with a VDRIVE command batch file and dluble-click it from clients to start the CD-ROM.
Q23. How much memory does Virtual Drive take?
Ans: Virtual Drive takes 64MB memory to cache the most recently used data.
Q24. Why can't I build VCD ( Virtual CD) from CDAudio?
Ans: Please select the CDAudio on " Recording Control " windows, and check
the " Recording Input Monitor " on " Advance Controls for Recording Control
" Window. If that doesn't work, then try to use " Sound Recorder
" to record from CDAudio. ( It it fails again, that means your sound card is
not installed properly. Please refer to your sound card manual, or contact the
hardware manufacturer. )
Procedures to execute the " Recording Control "
(1) Click on the icon " Build VCD from CDAudio ". (2) Choose " Volume Control ". (3) Select " Option ", then click on " Properties " on the menu list. (4) On the properties window, select " Recording", check the item " CD Audio ", and then click on " OK ".
To start " Advanced Controls for Recording Control " :
(1) Click on the icon " Build VCD from CDAudio ". (2) Choose " Volume Control ". (3) Select " Option ", then click on " Advanced " on the menu list.
To start " Sound Recorder " :
(1) Click on " Start ". (2) Select " Programs ", then go to " Accessories". (3) Select " Multimedia ", and choose " Sound Recorder ".
Q25. Why can't I find the CD Player on my system?
Ans: (1) Please go to " Control Panel " and choose " Add/Remove
Programs ". (2) Select " Windows Setup ", double click "
Multimedia ", and then check " CD Player " if it exists. (3) If CD
Player doesn't exist, then check the " Media Player", click " OK ",
and add the player into your system.
Note: Windows 95 ORS2 and Windows 98 provide the " CD Player " program. But Windows 95 doesn't have the " CD Player " program, you can use the " Media Player " to play CDAudio in Windows 95.
Q26. Can I build VCD ( Virtual CD) from selected files on my
computer, network server or CDROM disc?
Ans: Yes. You can create an ISO9660 CDROM image file from the selected files
by using a CDR burning software. ( For example, Adaptec Easy CD Creator.) And then
use the " Convert ISO9006 image to VCD" function to import it into Virtual
Drive.
Q27. From where is the cache buffer allocated?
Ans: It is from your random access memory. Rapid Cache is incorporated with
dynamic memory management. It swaps out automatically when Windows 95 requires more
memory.
Q28. How can I change the cache buffer size for Rapid Cache?
Ans: Click "Advanced" icon in Rapid Cache Monitor program window, select
the memory size on the "New cache size", and then click OK. Rapid Cache
will reallocate memory and reinitialize immediately.
Q29. What is the maximum cache buffer size for Rapid Cache?
Ans: It is unlimited. The only limitation is your physical memory.
Q30. Does Rapid Cache work with other caching and memory
management programs?
Ans: Yes, it works with all kinds of Windows programs.
Q31. What is the maximum number of files can be cached at
the same time?
Ans: There is no limit. You can cache as many as you want at the same time.
Q32. What is a large file?
Ans: A file is defined as larte if it contains data that is above 256KB. If a
file is larger than 256KB, Rapid Cache will only cache the first 256KB. You
can turn on "cache video and large file" switch to override this default
behavior.
Q33. How Rapid Cache determines the default cache size?
Ans: Physical Memory cache size allocated
<=8MB 1280 KB
<=12MB 2048 KB
>16MB 4096 KB
If "cache_size=xxxxx" found in SYSTEM.INI, the cache size allocated will be the less of (xxxxx and Physical Memory - 3MB)
Note: the cache size used may not the same as above, because the applications installd on your system will affect the result.
Q34. For FAQ on Rapid Cache V3.1 for Windows & DOS?
Ans: Please refer to \WIN31\README.TXT on your distribution disk.
Q35. How to disable the startup logo of Rapid Cache?
Ans: You may use a text editor to add a line to [INSTANT] section in
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI:
[Rapid Cache 95]
lgog=0