On 21 Aug 01 at 2:31, owner-arachne-digest@arachne wrote:
>Reply to Sender: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>I hope you don't mind me dropping in, although not all aspects of the
>question are really clear to me...
Bart, thanks a lot for your answer, too.
>
>At 15:25 18-8-01 -0500, you wrote:
>>Christof Lange 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.
>
>When made my first arachne ramdrive diskette (for a 286 diskless
>workstation with only 4 mB) I didn't have much of a clue, but was lucky
>enough to find out that a cache isn't worth anything as you don't have any
>diskaccess to speed up (or only the diskette read during boot, but that's
>not a problem if you keep the diskette defragged).
Yes, my intention is to put everything on the RAM drive. The lower
limit will be about 2 MB for a reduced Arachne package.
But Arachne's CACHE directory will not always fit on the RAM drive.
>Now that I have
>experience on a 486 with 8 mB and a hdd, There are a couple of additional
>possibilities: 1. mail and download path to hdd: small cache (<200kB) is
>sufficient to load mails, for downloads a cache is not needed because the
>overall speed is limited to modem speed, rather than disk write.
Sorry, a misunderstanding, I suppose? I did not mean disk cache, but
Arachne's CACHE directory. It will be needed even if I browse files
offline (and there will quite some JPG on my package).
>2. RAM is
>needed for virtual screens; its size depends on the choosen size of those
>VS.(Of course you'd rather turn VS off than swap to disk)
OK, this is not necessary for the lower end PC.
>3. Should you want
>mail and downloads straight to diskette, remember that caching is readonly
>for removable media
But I probably will need disk caching if I set the path of Arachne's
Cache directory to the hard disk. For instance
8 MB total XMS: Arachne with Cache directory RAM disk, no disk cache
3 MB total XMS: Arachne on RAM disk, Cache directory on HD,
disk cache (how much?)
2 MB total XMS: maximum disk cache, Arachne does not fit on RAM disk?
Please, Clarence, help with this!
>>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.:(
>Here's where I don't really get it: If you want to make a diskette that runs
>arachne on a random system (that may have up to 4 physical drives), why not
>just use xmsdsk.exe from autoexec and point it to drive g: or h:? If you
>allow a choice for the mailpath to either a hdd or diskette, (using multiple
>.acf profiles), you'd have to fill in some paths manually anyway, so default
>all to the ramdrive and add a warning that a reboot would lead to totall
>loss, seems appropriate to me.
>Arnhem, Netherlands,
>Bart Buitinga
Yes, xmsdsk seems to be the easiest and most secure way.
Regards
Christof Lange
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