DOS ain't dead - New UIDE Available (May 15)

New UIDE Available (May 15) (Announce)

posted by Rugxulo , Usono, 17.05.2009, 01:10

Home Page & Download: http://johnson.tmfc.net/dos/driver.html

15-May-09 Added the RDISK driver, which creates a 2-MB to 2-GIGABYTE "fast" RAM-disk using XMS memory! XMGR/UIDE unchanged. RDISK is a DOS RAM-disk driver, which creates a "fast" disk drive using from 2 Megabytes to 2 GIGABYTES of XMS memory! On loading, it assigns the next free DOS drive letter to its memory, then writes a FAT-16 disk structure in the memory. DOS can copy critical programs or data files to the "disk" and then access them much faster. Other read and write directories needing fast access (compiler TEMP files, a database, etc.) can be set up in the RAM-disk as well. RDISK can be used with V2.0 or V3.0 XMS managers (60-MB limit for V2.0 XMS). It needs only 640 bytes of upper-memory plus a disk control-block of 48 to 96 bytes on some DOS systems. If desired, RDISK can also load in 640K DOS memory. RDISK is a simple "load it and forget about it" driver, for users that do not need resizing or other complex features. 19072 05/15/2009 15:00 RDISK.ASM 1132 05/15/2009 15:00 RDISK.SYS

Note that someone should test to see if various file managers recognize it or not (DNOSP, DC-SK, NDN, DOSZip) since that's yet another reason why I stick to TDSK 2.3 on my P166 (although it's buggy for > 32 MB or so I hear). I forget, but I think XMSDSK crashes if no XMS found (plus no srcs, meh). Never tried SRDISK, but I didn't like its interface, IIRC. Jason's SHSURDRV works pretty well but is 15k UPX'd and is XMSv2 (16-bit build) or XMSv3 (32-bit build) only, which duplicates effort. I admit it's less useful for modern machines, but for my old P166, I like the fact that TDSK works with DC-SK, works with XMSv2, EMS, or conventional memory and can resize (only really useful in low memory situations). However, it's 18k (10k UPX'd), probably due to i18n messages embedded inside. It's little brother BITDISK is 10k (6k UPX'd) and XMS only. Oh, and SHSURDRV and XMSDSK can unload and choose drive letter (a big complaint against TDSK). But ou can use Eric's FINDDISK to search for a volume (e.g. RAM disk) with a known label if it doesn't let you select what drive letter to use.

I'm quite glad we have another (very tiny!) one to test! :-)

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Complete thread:

New UIDE Available - rr, 28.04.2009, 09:56 (Announce)
- New UIDE Available - Rugxulo, 28.04.2009, 22:43
  - New UIDE Available - sol, 29.04.2009, 00:37
- New UIDE Available - rr, 29.04.2009, 22:40
  - New UIDE Available - Ninho, 01.05.2009, 13:09
    - New UIDE Available - Khusraw, 01.05.2009, 15:04
      - New UIDE Available - Ninho, 02.05.2009, 11:06
        New UIDE Available - Khusraw, 02.05.2009, 14:36
        New UIDE Available - Ninho, 02.05.2009, 23:23
        New UIDE Available - rr, 04.05.2009, 22:52
        New UIDE Available - Ninho, 05.05.2009, 10:52
        New UIDE Available (May 6) - Rugxulo, 10.05.2009, 03:29
        New UIDE Available (May 15) - Rugxulo, 17.05.2009, 01:10
        New UIDE (May 15) - Does this work for anyone at all ??? - DOS386, 17.05.2009, 05:26
        New UIDE (May 15) - Does this work for anyone at all ??? - sol, 17.05.2009, 20:03
        New UIDE (May 15) - Rugxulo, 17.05.2009, 22:58
        New UIDE4W98SSE (May 15) R.P. - DOS386, 18.05.2009, 06:16
        New UIDE4W98SSE (May 15) R.P. - Rugxulo, 18.05.2009, 08:34
        New UIDE Available (May 15) - Zyzzle, 18.05.2009, 03:58
        New UIDE Available (May 15) - rr, 19.05.2009, 13:49
        New UIDE Available (May 15) - Zyzzle, 20.05.2009, 00:07
        New UIDE Available (May 15) - Rugxulo, 18.05.2009, 08:40
        RDISK test - small bugfix. - Japheth, 19.05.2009, 12:22
        RDISK test - small bugfix. - rr, 19.05.2009, 16:30
        New UIDE Available (May 27) - Rugxulo, 28.05.2009, 22:13
        New UIDE Available (June 1) - Rugxulo, 03.06.2009, 16:13
        New UIDE Available (June 9) - Rugxulo, 11.06.2009, 04:03
        New UIDE Available (June 23) - Rugxulo, 24.06.2009, 22:54
        Custom RDISK Build ("RDISK-S") - Paul, 16.07.2009, 23:18
        Custom RDISK Build ("RDISK-S") - Rugxulo, 17.07.2009, 08:50
        Custom RDISK Build ("RDISK-S") - roytam, 17.07.2009, 13:12
        Custom RDISK Build ("RDISK-S") - Paul, 18.07.2009, 21:48
        Custom RDISK Build ("RDISK-S") - roytam, 19.07.2009, 03:55
        Custom RDISK Build ("RDISK-S") - Paul, 19.07.2009, 18:44
        Custom RDISK Build ("RDISK-S") - roytam, 20.07.2009, 12:23
        Custom RDISK Build ("RDISK-S") - Paul, 21.07.2009, 23:38
        Custom RDISK Build ("RDISK-S") - Paul, 18.07.2009, 21:48