To:	opendos AT delorie DOT com
Date:	Sun, 30 Apr 2000 15:15:14 -0700
Subject:	Re: Optimising disk access in DRDOS
Message-ID:	<20000430.151515.-104647.3.domanspc@juno.com>
X-Mailer:	Juno 4.0.5
MIME-Version:	1.0
X-Juno-Line-Breaks:	1-2,6-7,10-11,14-15,17-20,22-23,26,29-30,34-35,37-38,42-43,45-95
X-Juno-Att:	0
X-Juno-RefParts:	0
From:	Robert W Moss <domanspc AT juno DOT com>
Reply-To:	opendos AT delorie DOT com

Try this for fast large file disk reads.  It seems to far exceed NWcache
, if that is topping out at 7 MB:

[ (Copied directly from my old Novell DOS v7.02 User Guide, pages 9-30
and 9-31).  I believe you can only use VDISK  or SMARTDRV but not both
simultaneously, so you would have to REM out whichever you were not using
from AUTOEXEC.BAT.]

The VDISK.SYS driver allows you to set up a memory disk: a portion of
memory that acts as a very fast disk. (A memory disk is fast but only
exists while the computer is turned on).

Use the VDISK.SYS driver when you want to store temporary files used by
programs or when youare using programs that need to access a lot of
information quickly and frequently, such as databases and spreadsheets.
________________
DEVICE = [D:]\{DOS Version}\vdisk.sys [disksize] [sector size] [maxfiles]
{/E:[sectors]} [/x]
_____________________________________
disksize=size of disk in KB, default is 64 KB.

sectsize=smallest amount of space reserved on the disk. default is 128
bytes but can also be 256 or 512 bytes.

maxfiles=the maximum number of files that can be written to the root
directory of the Virtual disk. Specify a number between 1 and 512;
default is 64.
The number you specify determines the amount of disk space reserved for
the disk directory.Specifying a large number wastes space unless you
actually do copy large numbers of files to the disk.

/E:[sectors]=Locates the virtual disk in extended memory, if available.
Specify the number of sectors at a time to be transferred between
conventional and extended memory when the virtual dfisk is being used;
sectors can be a number between 1 and 8 (default is 8).

/X=locates the virtual disk in expanded memory, if available. A virtual
disk in expanded memory can be up to 32 MB in size.
________________________________________
Must load vdisk  in config.sys before any other drivers that use extended
memory, but after your memory manager, such as EMM386 or HIMEM. If you
use setup or install to create a memory disk, however, VDISK.SYS is
loaded automatically, in the correct sequence.

Also note that if you use the HIDEVICE/DEVICEHIGH command to load
VDISK.SYS in extended memory, you MUST use the /E: switch.

EXAMPLE 1: 200 KB with sect size of 256 Bytes and max of 32 files.

DEVICE  = C:\NWDOS\VDISK.SYS  200  256  32 

EXAMPLE 2: 10,240 KB located in expanded memory.

DEVICE = C:\NWDOS\VDISK.SYS 10240 /X 

----------------------------------------------------------------
Bob 'DOMAN' Moss 
*"Remember, if you don't have chocolate*
* you don't have food"!!!!.............*
========================================

On 30 Apr 00 10:19:26 MDT Joseph Morris <b52g AT usa DOT net> writes:
> How can I improve the speed of disk read operations in DRDOS,
> specifically long file reads and searches?
> 
> I have 96MB of memory, so a larger disk cache was the first obvious 
> step.
> NWcache seems to max out at 7MB, I found smartdrv to be faster, 
> anyhow.
> Going above 8MB in smartdrv doesn't seem to give much performance 
> increase.
> 
> Are there any other decent disk caches?
> 
> In config.sys, I have:
> 
> HIBUFFERS=30
> HIFILES=60
> HIFCBS=4,4
> 
> Increasing the number of FCBS is something I'll try later on, but 
> since this
> seems to be related to searches and locked files, I'm not sure it 
> will help
> much.
> 
> Having seen how fluidly the my program runs when compiled for Linux, 
> or even
> the DOS version run in Windows 95, I'm a bit concerned about how 
> slow it is
> running under DRDOS.
> 
> 
> ____________________________________________________________________
> Get free email and a permanent address at 
> http://www.netaddress.com/?N=1

________________________________________________________________
YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET!
Juno now offers FREE Internet Access!
Try it today - there's no risk!  For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.

- Raw text -