XMSDSK.EXE & EMSDSK.EXE Franck UBERTO - 96/03/13 38000 Grenoble - FRANCE email : uberto@esrf.fr These utilities are 2 RAMdisks. For some people they surely will lack of some "bells and whistles", but I made them efficient and simple to use. There are 2 programs because I wanted to optimize size and speed, so one is for XMS and the other one is for EMS. To get help for running them, just type: XMSDSK (or EMSDSK) /?. You can use them on 286 and upper (use EMSDSK86 for 8086 CPU). Once installed they will occupy about 400 bytes. You can resize the disk (down to zero, or up to 32 Mb if available) at any time and so regain memory for another usage. This is possible on DOS command line but *NOT* under WINDOWS because of virtualization. The transient part of EXE will calculate all parameters for the new disk (I use the same ones as MS-DOS for hard disk, so they should be convenient for all cases). Take care, if you shell out of a DOS program and modify the size of the disk: in the case you have set TEMP (or TMP) environment variable on the ramdisk or you have told this program to use the RAM disk, then some (hidden) files may have been created and some (not) pleasant things can happen. These RAM disks can be installed *ON THE COMMAND LINE* (and hence in autoexec.bat for example, see below) BUT THE PREFERRED WAY IS IN CONFIG.SYS, because these drivers are standard ones. Although the installation method (on command line) has been successfully tested on MS-DOS 3.x, 4.0, 5.0, 6.x (adapted years ago from "Undocumented DOS" by Andrew Schulman, Addison-Wesley), it can't be certified that other MS-DOS versions or 'clones' support it. This permits to install the RAM disk after a CDROM driver (some people want to have it at a given 'letter' drive, unfortunately MS-DOS assigns drive name as they are loaded) or after a disk cache (if it can't disable caching for a given drive this way it doesn't see the RAM drive and so doesn't try to cache it; it is not only superfluous to cache a RAM disk but it wastes cache ressources). You can use and distribute these files: it's freeware. So ENJOY ... * Examples of use ------------------ device[high]='path'\XMSDSK.EXE [size] (or EMSDSK.EXE) Install ramdisk in config.sys. If size is not specified then disk has a null size. If the RAM disk is not loaded, at the fisrt time the EXE will be run it will ask to do it. So if you want to do it purposely, in autoexec.bat for example, type: echo y | loadhigh XMSDSK [size] (or EMSDSK) This will try to load driver in upper mem without prompting. XMSDSK (or EMSDSK) On DOS command line, tells you the size and drive used by the ramdisk. XMSDSK size (or EMSDSK) Modify the size of the ramdisk. echo y | XMSDSK size (or EMSDSK) In a batch file this prevents being prompted when modyfing size. XMSDSK (and EMSDSK) returns a value wich can be used with "errorlevel" to tell where it is installed: 0 if not installed or in case of error, 1 for drive A (huh ?), 2 for B (huh huh ?), 3 for C (hmmm ?), etc ... * History ---------- v1.0 (May 92) Initial version. v1.1 (Jun 92) Adds some optimization in resident part. v1.2 (Oct 93) Adds some tests in size redefinition part. v1.3 (Apr 94) Corrects a bug when requested size was around 4000 Kb and another one which limited size to 16 Mb. Adds more accurate error messages instead of "error during installation". v1.4 (Feb 96) Some cosmetic cleaning. v1.5 (Mar 96) Add possibility of installation on the command line. Thanks, for their help and testing, to: Bernard Marone Jim Oliver Mike Ray PS: as you may have seen this package is FREEWARE. I would be glad if you appreciate (more :-) or less :-( ) it to send a little Email message. Thanks. PS2: these utilities (at least XMSDSK) have been used with Linux + Dosemu and work well. * Disclaimer ------------- Copyright (C) 1992 - 1996 Franck UBERTO This package is offered to you "AS IS" without any warranty. This software has been thoroughly tested but no guarantee is given that it will work on every computer. The copyright owner may not be held liable for any damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the the use of this program. This archive is freely distributable. You may use the software and share it with all your friends (or others) as long as the program is supplied in its original, unmodified form, which includes this documentation. This program must not be distributed for profit.