Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!microsoft!kevinro From: kevinro@microsoft.UUCP (Kevin ROSS) Newsgroups: comp.os.os2 Subject: Re: Is it possible to define a VDISK for DOS Box DOS to use? Message-ID: <53630@microsoft.UUCP> Date: 19 Mar 90 19:05:15 GMT References: <32811@brunix.UUCP> <1990Mar16.133453.3276@eng.umd.edu> Reply-To: kevinro@microsoft.UUCP (Kevin ROSS) Organization: Microsoft Corp., Redmond WA Lines: 22 In article dkb@cs.brown.edu (Dilip Barman) writes: >Really? How can you define an OS/2 VDISK? And why would you want to - >wouldn't it slow down the machine due to less paging memory available? The VDISK.SYS driver is included in the standard release of OS/2. It works just like DOS. Why would you want it? The same reason that you would use a VDISK under DOS: Its faster. Many programs (like compilers, etc) create temporary files on a disk. If this disk was a RAM disk, the access time becomes very fast. You need to be careful in choosing the size of a VDISK, especially on a small memory machine. If you have a 2 meg machine, setting up a .5 meg VDISK would be a very bad idea, since you are leaving very little memory left for applications to run in. I have a 13 meg machine, with a 1 meg RAM drive, and it proves to be a very good thing. Of course, you would be losing the battle if you create a VDISK, and then make it your swap device!