IBM Professional Series - Page 389

another system and the IMPORT command is used to load
the file. This method should be used only to transport
character data files.
Minidisk Method
Your configuration file must include a definition for a
minidisk
on your diskette drive. Since minidisks are files
whose names are in the form "userid.device address," it
is
helpful to have a common userid on both systems with
identical minidisk definitions. This userid need not
be the
one that you use normally, but you must be able to link to
that minidisk in
R/W mode (it might be preferable to use a
separate userid for the diskette minidisk because your logon
will take considerably longer if the diskette drive is empty
or
open).
The file to be transported is copied onto the diskette
minidisk with the
COPYFILE command and when the
command
is completed, the diskette may be removed and
transported to another system.
(If the userids and device
addresses do not match, as suggested above, the minidisk file
must be renamed accordingly.) The minidisk can
then be
accessed and the file can be copied to any other minidisk.
File Access Performance
As with any Personal Computer DOS file, the files used by
VM/PC are subject to performance degradation if they are
fragmented (its records are not allocated contiguously). The
Personal Computer
DOS CHKDSK command can be used to
determine if a file is fragmented.
Contiguous record allocation
is extremely important for the
paging file. Since it
is normally deleted when you logoff, you
will have to terminate
VM/PC (using CTRL-BREAK) with
the Local 3277 Session still active. You can then use the
CHKDSK command to determine whether the paging file
is
fragmented.
If you suspect that a fragmented file is causing a ~
performance problem, use the Personal Computer DOS
COPY or BACKUP commands to eliminate the
fragmentation.
(For a performance problem, see also "Using
DOS
Features," which follows.) In the case of the paging
D-2 VM/PC Users Guide