user2@cgevs3.cem.msu.edu (Stephen Medlin) (05/08/91)
In article <1991May7.163424.20942@midway.uchicago.edu>, mss2@quads.uchicago.edu (Michael S. Schiffer) writes: >Many device driver and similar programs seem to come in two forms: >A TSR .com file and a .sys device driver to be placed in config.sys. >I was wondering if someone would explain to me why they come in two >flavors, and which is preferable. (Or if one is preferable for one use, >and one for another, please elaborate.) Just a few points: SYS versions are faster and better integrated into the environment (also take less RAM). The EXE/COM versions allow you to remove them (using appropriate utilities) from memory if a conflict occurs or you need to recover RAM. A lot of older Operating Systems/computers were not able to handle SYS files very well. >And as long as I'm asking Naive Beginner Questions (tm), do people >generally define their hard drives as many, few, or one logical drive, >and why? Kind of user preference but there are reasons to/not to partition your hard disk. If you have DOS 4.0 or greater or a Hard Disk utility you can have Disk Partitions greater than 32 MB. If you don't then you HAVE to partition into units less than 32 MB. Ideally, you want to have one partition because you have everything together. However, when you have VERY large HD's (100 MB or grater), disk maintenace is more complex because it has to check more space. For example, doing a DIR can take a long time because it has to count all of the free space left. Also, backing up a giant partition takes much longer. What I usually recommend to colleagues is to partition into medium size partitions. Put all your EXE files on one partition, backup once, and then you won't have to back up/defragment/etc. that partition very often. On the other partitions, you can put user files which will fragment more often and change more often. You can do maintenance on this once much easier. One final reason--you might have several users on a computer--assigning a partition to each one keeps your work more autonomous. SVM
a_rubin@dsg4.dse.beckman.com (05/10/91)
In <1991May10.054812.16312@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> mig@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Meir) writes: >In my humble opinion, a .COM can be loaded after bootup and aded later, >whereas a .SYS can only be loaded AT bootup and cannot be unloaded at all. >.SYS files usually take up less memory (they are smaller) but probably cannot >be moved to high memory, if your system is capable of that. At least with QEMM386, .SYS files can be moved to high memory. >Hmm. There. I said it. Please correct any errors or misleading statements >I might have made. I try. > * * * * * * * ======================= Meir Green >* * * * * * * * ======================= mig@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu > * * * * * * * ======================= N2JPG -- a_rubin@dsg4.dse.beckman.com My opinions are my own, and do not represent those of my employer.