Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!cornell!batcomputer!itsgw!steinmetz!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrwic!mlawless From: mlawless@ncrwic.Wichita.NCR.COM (Mike Lawless) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Using XMS driver (HIMEM) & VDISK??? Message-ID: <3173@ncrwic.Wichita.NCR.COM> Date: 19 Dec 88 16:12:51 GMT References: <499@igor.Rational.COM> <6478@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> Reply-To: mlawless@ncrwic.UUCP (Mike Lawless) Organization: NCR Corporation, Wichita, Kansas Lines: 33 In article <6478@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> chasm@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Charles Marsl >In article <499@igor.Rational.COM>, dsb@Rational.COM (David S. Bakin) writes: > > So: What ramdisk software can I use that is compabible with HIMEM.SYS? > > Will Microsoft's own RAMDRIVE.SYS work? > >Yep, and their cache program, they do all they can to keep you from >running with any others. That's mostly self defense since a rabid >cache program can do a fair amount of harm! I know of at least one non-MS cache that will work with HIMEM.SYS, but you have to be careful how you set it up. The program is Super PC-Kwik; I wanted to continue using it rather that SMARTDRV.SYS, because I also use a spooler which piggybacks on top of the cache, and dynamically shares the same memory block that is allocated to the cache. Also, the cache has a background write- through to disk on writes, which speeds write performance as well as reads. The trick to setting it up is to make sure that it is installed before running Microsoft's SETUP.EXE (contrary to all the warnings you have heard). Windows 2.1 expects the allocation of extended memory to be the same as it was at setup time, and gives warning messages if not, and disables HIMEM. Also, avoid using MEMSET.EXE. It will try to force you to install SMARTDRV.SYS. If you want to use RAMDRIVE.SYS (and this is as good as any RAM disk I have seen), you can read the documentation (I think it is in a README file rather than the manual, but I am not sure) and add the necessary DEVICE= line to CONFIG.SYS manually. I have been using this setup for several months now with not a single problem (once I figured out how to get everything coexisting). -- Mike Lawless, NCR E&M Wichita, Box 20 (316) 636-8666 (NCR: 654-8666) 3718 N. Rock Road, Wichita, KS 67226 Mike.Lawless@Wichita.NCR.COM {ece-csc,hubcap,gould,rtech}!ncrcae!ncrwic!Mike.Lawless {sdcsvax,cbatt,dcdwest,nosc.ARPA}!ncr-sd!ncrwic!Mike.Lawless