Thank you, Clarence, for your remarks,
On 21 Aug 01 at 2:31, owner-arachne-digest@arachne wrote:
>> Is there a way (utility) to find out the maximum size of the RAM
>> disk on a system after booting to it? What will be the optimum size
>> of the RAM in relation to CACHE size and performance.
>
>There are a couple of ways to get around this problem.
>The easiest way is to require the user to have 8Mb ram minimum and just make
>a 5120kb ramdisk - but the self-extracting Arachne.exe will refuse to
>extract in less than 6Mb (6144kb).
I cannot use the default file anyway. But I even want to go below
2 MB (ie. no RAM installation) as an intall option. The problem is
that I want to create the disk for people who cannot tell what is the
size of RAM on their system. So I cannot use CONFIG Menu, but
have to find out while running autoexec.
>Another method uses FIND and MEM (or QEMM) to test for the reported
>memory size string. Since you are providing the mem management software it
>should be little trouble to fine tune it to the exact search string(s).
yes
>I suggest you search for the strings representing 1M bytes to 8M
>bytes in 1Mb steps and if you don't find one, assume it is more. <g>
That means multiply with 1024? And look at the sum displayed by the
MEM command?
>There may be some
>reason to also search for 64k less than each of these numbers.
Why?
>There is probably some utility available to do this, but you will
>still have to interpret its output in your autoexec, so it won't be
>much help UNLESS you can find a utility that returns an errorlevel
>indicating that there is more than some requested amount available.
>Here the problem is you won't get that info before your autoexec
>runs so you can't load the ramdisk in config.sys if that is the type
>you use.
On Glenn's all- in- one disk there is
VDRVCHNG.COM (605 bytes) 10.03.98 14.34
Obviously it is originated in DR-DOS. IIRC Glenn's autoexec.bat said
that it looks for the first RAM drive bigger or equal to the size
given in command line parameter. This would do the job if I specify
VDISK to a maximum size 16 MB or so. But then I would lose the
possibility to use RAM for anything else. Will I need that RAM for
Arachne performance?
>TDSK, however, loads in autoexec (or later) and has the necessary copyfree.
Where do I find it?
>If there are many partitions on the HD, you need some way to determine what
>the RD designator is. I prefer to discover this rather than loading extra
>software to set the drive letter to some obscure value like Z. Lastdrive Z
>takes up valuable memory space too.
>
>Try this:
>For %%X in (C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) if exist
>%%X:\nul
> SET RDRV=%%X: (one line) (no space ^)
>
>As you can see, RDRV will change every time the test is true and the last
>value must be it. Or maybe you could use FIND on the output of your RD
>creation ?
I suppose this is what Glenn's small VDRVCHNG.COM is for, too.
VDISK does not allow to set the drive letter, does it? How much does
LASTDRIVE take? I have been using it anywhere and at any time
because I need SUBST.
>Finally, there is a BIG problem with FAT32 drives. If your supplied OS
>doesn't recognize FAT32, you may get the RD created as C: Goodbye Windows
>!! So, before transferring anything to the RD, check to make sure it is
>empty.:(
>
>- - Clarence Verge
This is going to be serious! Because one half of the people I aim at
will have this. When I realize that C: is not empty, where is the
RAM drive? Is this the reason why the TECHW0RM disk put the RAM drive
to drive letter Z?
A lot more questions than I expected. But many, many thanks for the
last warning!
Regards,
Christof Lange
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