WFWG Mail Causes Unexpected Hard Disk Activity

ID: Q122065

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows for Workgroups versions 3.1, 3.11

SYMPTOMS

When you run Windows for Workgroups Mail, hard disk drive access begins with no apparent cause or result.

CAUSE

By default, Mail compresses the mail message file (.MMF) during periods of inactivity.

RESOLUTION

To disable this feature, you can either increase the Secs_till_Fast_Compress entry, or disable the automatic compression feature.

Increasing the Secs_till_Fast_Compress Entry

To change the period of time Mail waits before automatically compressing the .MMF file, edit the MSMAIL.INI file as follows:

Open the MSMAIL.INI file in a text editor such as Windows Notepad.

Add the following entry to the [mmf] section:
```
      Secs_till_Fast_Compress=<number of seconds desired> 
```
NOTE: The [mmf] section may not exist. If does not, simply add it.

The Secs_till_Fast_Compress default is 600 seconds. Use a higher value if you want Mail to compress the Mail file less frequently. For example, if you want Mail to wait for 30 minutes before compressing the .MMF file, changing the Secs_till_Fast_Compress entry to 1800.

Disabling Automatic MMF Compression

Although you can disable automatic compression of .MMF files, Microsoft does not recommend doing so because it can lead to abnormally large message files.

To disable the automatic compression of an MMF file:

Open the MSMAIL.INI file in a text editor such as Windows Notepad.

Add the following entry to the [mmf] section:
```
      No_Compress=1 
```
NOTE: The [mmf] section may not exist. If does not, simply add it.

More information about message file compression can be found in the "Windows for Workgroups Resource Kit for operating system version 3.1" manual, sections 6-92 and 6-93.

Additional query words: 3.11 excessive disk system inactivity

Keywords :
Version : WINDOWS:3.1,3.11
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type :