ts@uwasa.fi (Timo Salmi) (05/27/91)
In article <468@txsil.lonestar.org> robin@txsil.lonestar.org (Robin Cover) writes: >Can someone point me to a PD or shareware utility which will support >a large (e.g., 9 megabyte) RAM disk? DOS 3.3 manual does not mention >the upper limit for ramdrive.sys, but I have been unable to get it >to work for extended memory greater than 4 meg. I found nothing >useful in <msdos.ramdisk>. If there's nothing PD or shareware, >then what commercial utility supports this? (not "cache" please) For once I'll make a "me too" posting. I have exactly the same software problem because ramdrive.sys gives an error when one goes beyond a 4K ramdisk. Now if anyone has a shareware or PD utility that goes beyond this, I would like to solicit an upload to garbo archives. Both to make it publicly available and to have it myself. The ramdrives on the our and SIMTEL20 file lists are mostly old, and the ones that I tried were of no help. Incidentally, we will be contacting the supplier of my office PC with the same question. (I had 8 Mb installed just this Friday, and we noticed the same problem.) ................................................................... Prof. Timo Salmi Moderating at garbo.uwasa.fi anonymous ftp archives 128.214.12.37 School of Business Studies, University of Vaasa, SF-65101, Finland Internet: ts@chyde.uwasa.fi Funet: gado::salmi Bitnet: salmi@finfun
w8sdz@rigel.acs.oakland.edu (Keith Petersen) (05/28/91)
[Some users say Ramdrive.sys doesn't work for very large ramdisks] If you use MicroSoft's Ramdrive.sys the commands are: device=ramdrive.sys [disksize (in Kbytes)] [sectorsize] [entries] /e or device=ramdrive.sys [disksize (in Kbytes)] [sectorsize] [entries] /a Example: device=ramdrive.sys 1024 512 256 /e This makes a 1 megabyte ramdisk, in extended memory, which has 512 byte sectors with 256 directory entries maximum in the root directory. For very large ramdisks you may run into limitations if you use sector sizes smaller than 512 because of the number of bits available in the FAT for each entry. If 512 doesn't work, try 1024. (1024 is the maximum allowed). The /e option uses extended (above one meg) memory. If you use this option, the ramdrive.sys entry should appear before any entry for an extended memory manager such as qemm386.sys, etc. Otherwise qemm386.sys will grab all available extended memory to be used as XMS and expanded memory. The /a option lets you use LIM expanded memory for the RAM drive. The book says that if you have extended memory the /e option is preferred. Keith -- Keith Petersen Maintainer of the MSDOS, MISC and CP/M archives at SIMTEL20 [192.88.110.20] Internet: w8sdz@WSMR-SIMTEL20.Army.Mil or w8sdz@vela.acs.oakland.edu Uucp: uunet!umich!vela!w8sdz BITNET: w8sdz@OAKLAND
rogerhef@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Roger Heflin) (05/28/91)
In <6602@vela.acs.oakland.edu> w8sdz@rigel.acs.oakland.edu (Keith Petersen) writes: >[Some users say Ramdrive.sys doesn't work for very large ramdisks] >If you use MicroSoft's Ramdrive.sys the commands are: >device=ramdrive.sys [disksize (in Kbytes)] [sectorsize] [entries] /e > or >device=ramdrive.sys [disksize (in Kbytes)] [sectorsize] [entries] /a >Example: >device=ramdrive.sys 1024 512 256 /e >This makes a 1 megabyte ramdisk, in extended memory, which has 512 >byte sectors with 256 directory entries maximum in the root directory. >For very large ramdisks you may run into limitations if you use sector >sizes smaller than 512 because of the number of bits available in the >FAT for each entry. If 512 doesn't work, try 1024. (1024 is the >maximum allowed). Try the command: device=ramdrive.sys 6144 521 256 /e It will fail with the error message: RAMDrive: Invalid Parameter As far as I could see anything above 4M for the size, fails, no matter what the other parameters are. I also would like to know were a program for a large ramdrive is. -- Rogerhef@Matt.ksu.ksu.edu Roger Heflin EECE Grad Student (913) 532-5600
grs@cocamrd.mel.cocam.oz.au (Gary Raymond Schmidt) (05/28/91)
In article <1991May27.210905.136@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu> rogerhef@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Roger Heflin) writes: >In <6602@vela.acs.oakland.edu> w8sdz@rigel.acs.oakland.edu (Keith Petersen) writes: > >>[Some users say Ramdrive.sys doesn't work for very large ramdisks] > [ Some users say it does ....] In my manuals, not sure whether it's Windows or MS-C or ..., it clearly states, in NUMERALS, that the largest RAMDRIVE supported is 4096Kb. (It also states that the maximum space for SMARTDRV is 4096Kb). -- | Use the .signature, not the Header | | Gary R. Schmidt || MHSnet: grs@mel.cocam.oz.au | || or: grs%cocamrd@mel.cocam.oz.au | Co-Cam Computer Group, || I sees it, but I don' believes it !! | Melbourne, OZ || VOX +61 3 412 3431 FAX +61 3 412 7857
ts@uwasa.fi (Timo Salmi) (05/28/91)
>>[Some users say Ramdrive.sys doesn't work for very large ramdisks]
The big ram disk problem has been partly solved thanks to the
feedback from users, Daniel Wesolowski dwt@acsu.buffalo.edu in
particular. He pointed out that the vdisk.sys driver that comes
with older MsDos version has large disk capability. I have an old
Zenith Z-181 laptop with MsDos 3.21, which includes vdisk.sys.
Contrary to the more recent ramdisk.sys, vdisk.sys created a 7K
ramdisk for me on my office 386 without problems.
This solution is not, however, entirely satisfactory from the point
of view of FTP archives, since vdisk.sys cannot be distributed for
obvious reasons. (No requests, please).
...................................................................
Prof. Timo Salmi
Moderating at garbo.uwasa.fi anonymous ftp archives 128.214.12.37
School of Business Studies, University of Vaasa, SF-65101, Finland
Internet: ts@chyde.uwasa.fi Funet: gado::salmi Bitnet: salmi@finfuntcs@mailer.jhuapl.edu (Carl Schelin) (05/28/91)
In article <6602@vela.acs.oakland.edu>, w8sdz@rigel.acs.oakland.edu (Keith Petersen) says: > >[Some users say Ramdrive.sys doesn't work for very large ramdisks] > [and others do] Page 591 of MicroSoft Windows User's Guide: Disk Size Specify how many kilobytes of memory you want to use for the RAM disk. For example, to create a 640K RAM disk, type 640. If you don't specify an amount, RAMDrive create a 64K RAM disk. You can specify a value from 16 to 4096. ^^^^ Carl
valley@gsbsun.uchicago.edu (Doug Dougherty) (05/28/91)
robin@txsil.lonestar.org (Robin Cover) writes: >Can someone point me to a PD or shareware utility which will support >a large (e.g., 9 megabyte) RAM disk? DOS 3.3 manual does not mention >the upper limit for ramdrive.sys, but I have been unable to get it >to work for extended memory greater than 4 meg. I found nothing >useful in <msdos.ramdisk>. If there's nothing PD or shareware, >then what commercial utility supports this? (not "cache" please) Try XPANDISK from PCMag. Works with expanded memory (only). No limit (as far as I can tell) on size. Size is changeable on the fly (w/o rebooting) I use it exclusively now. (No more VDISK for me) -- (Another fine mess brought to you by valley@gsbsun.uchicago.edu)
valley@gsbsun.uchicago.edu (Doug Dougherty) (05/29/91)
ts@uwasa.fi (Timo Salmi) writes: >>>[Some users say Ramdrive.sys doesn't work for very large ramdisks] >The big ram disk problem has been partly solved thanks to the >feedback from users, Daniel Wesolowski dwt@acsu.buffalo.edu in >particular. He pointed out that the vdisk.sys driver that comes >with older MsDos version has large disk capability. I have an old >Zenith Z-181 laptop with MsDos 3.21, which includes vdisk.sys. >Contrary to the more recent ramdisk.sys, vdisk.sys created a 7K >ramdisk for me on my office 386 without problems. I still don't understand. What *is* the problem? In dir ramdisk on WUarchive: 27 -rw-r--r-- 1 20002 26714 May 18 1989 xpandisk.arc -- (Another fine mess brought to you by valley@gsbsun.uchicago.edu)