[comp.sys.ibm.pc] Can ramdisk & LIM memory co-exist on same expansion board?

miller@gvlv3.gvl.unisys.com (Bruce J. Miller) (11/03/89)

(The line eater got the beginning of my previous posting.  Sorry.)
I have added an Everex RAM3000 memory expansion board with 3 Meg to my
Hyundai 286C.  I would like to have part of this board as a ramdisk for
my own uses with the rest as LIM memory for those programs which can take
advantage of it.

My DOS (MS 3.3) came with an install utility to install a ram disk and/or
EMS, but it seems unhappy when I try to do both.

What is the difference between the vdisk.sys and ramdrive.sys?
Is what I want to do possible?  Is installation order crucial?  Do the
absolute addresses matter?  Do I really not understand?  (And what about
Naomi? - sorry).

Please reply direct to me if you feel that this has been re-hashed too many
times, or post if you think it's of general interest.

	Bruce Miller
	Vacuum tubes aren't dead - they just smell that way.

twb@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (thomas.w.beattie) (11/04/89)

In article <387@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM> miller@gvlv3.gvl.unisys.com (Bruce J. Miller) writes:
>
>I have added an Everex RAM3000 memory expansion board with 3 Meg to my
>Hyundai 286C.  I would like to have part of this board as a ramdisk for
>my own uses with the rest as LIM memory for those programs which can take
>advantage of it.
>

I use an AT&T PC6300 Plus (80286 based) PC with a 2Meg expanded memory card.
I use the AEMM.SYS driver to access it.
I use the AEX.SYS driver to allocate 1Meg of the expanded memory as extended
memory and then make that 1Meg into a ramdisk with RAMDISK.DEV.
I use SMARTDRV.SYS to establish a 512K Cache in expanded memory.
The remaining 512K of expanded memory is available as expanded memory for
whatever program wants to use it.

I also allocate the "upper" 384K of the 1Meg on the motherboard as
another ramdisk.
(I think RAMDRIVE.SYS and SMARTDRV.SYS are from MicroSoft).

Here is a fragment of my config.sys.

device=C:\DRIVERS\RAMDRIVE.SYS 384 /U
device=C:\DRIVERS\AEMM.SYS
device=C:\DRIVERS\AEX.SYS 1024
device=C:\DRIVERS\RAMDISK.DEV /M=1024/E/DIR=128
device=C:\DRIVERS\SMARTDRV.SYS 512 /a

---
Tom Beattie
att!hoqaa!twb
t.w.beattie@att.com

poffen@chomolungma (Russ Poffenberger) (11/08/89)

In article <5484@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> twb@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (thomas.w.beattie,ho,) writes:
>In article <387@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM> miller@gvlv3.gvl.unisys.com (Bruce J. Miller) writes:
>>
>>I have added an Everex RAM3000 memory expansion board with 3 Meg to my
>>Hyundai 286C.  I would like to have part of this board as a ramdisk for
>>my own uses with the rest as LIM memory for those programs which can take
>>advantage of it.
>>
>
>I use an AT&T PC6300 Plus (80286 based) PC with a 2Meg expanded memory card.
>I use the AEMM.SYS driver to access it.
           ^^^^^^^^

Sounds like this may be an AT&T supplied driver, not much use if you don't
have an AT&T computer.


Russ Poffenberger               DOMAIN: poffen@sj.ate.slb.com
Schlumberger Technologies       UUCP:   {uunet,decwrl,amdahl}!sjsca4!poffen
1601 Technology Drive		CIS:	72401,276
San Jose, Ca. 95110
(408)437-5254
-------------------------
In a dictatorship, people suffer without complaining.
In a democracy, people complain without suffering.

twb@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (thomas.w.beattie) (11/09/89)

In article <1989Nov7.223157.4619@sj.ate.slb.com> poffen@sj.ate.slb.com (Russ Poffenberger) writes:
>>In article <5484@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> twb@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (thomas.w.beattie,ho,) writes:
>>I use an AT&T PC6300 Plus (80286 based) PC with a 2Meg expanded memory card.
>>I use the AEMM.SYS driver to access it.
>           ^^^^^^^^
>
>Sounds like this may be an AT&T supplied driver, not much use if you don't
>have an AT&T computer.

Each board vendor should supply the equivalent driver.
I believe the AST driver is called REMM??.SYS.

I have also used one vendor's driver on a different vendor's board
with varying degrees of success.

---
Tom Beattie
att!hoqaa!twb
t.w.beattie@att.com

ppa@hpldola.HP.COM (Paul P. Austgen) (11/14/89)

I don't know why, but vdisk does not work correctly with some
combinations of BIOS and expanded memory and/or smartdrive.sys.

The best solution is to just use ramdisk instead and forget about
vdisk.