Shareware 1 2 the Maxx/sw_1.zip/sw_1/MEM_MAN/XDISK331.ZIP/XDISK.NEW

Text File | 1992-02-29 | 6KB | 105 lines

                       xDISK
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               Copyright (c) 1989-1992, FM de Monasterio
            Licensed Material - All rights reserved


 Version 3.31: *Resizing with Data Preservation/Bug Fixes*

 Enhanced switch /Bn, where <n> is the size of the disk in kbytes. The current
 size of the disk can now be decreased by <n> kbytes (or the nearest higher 16
 kb multiple) when <n> is a negative number (e.g., /B-32 reduces the disk size
 by 32 kb, and so does /B-20). If the drive parameters allow so, disk contents
 are preserved; else, the disk is reformatted, and its contents are destroyed.
 Switch /B-n requires EMS 4 and MS-DOS (or compatible) 3.0 or higher.

 Added switch /X+ and /X- to provide a limited resizing implemented as long as
 the disk contents are preserved and disk input/output operations remain error
 free.  Switch /X- shrinks the disk free-space to zero or less than 16 kbytes,
 if possible, while switch /X+ expands the disk to the maximum size that still
 preserves error-free access to the disk contents.  This option requires EMS 4
 and MS-DOS (or compatible) 3.1 or higher.

 Corrected an apparently innocuous memory error upon completion of the service
 to unload a command-line loaded driver (XDISK.EXE).  Corrected another memory
 pointer error during UMB driver installation under DOS 5 (XDISK.SYS). Changed
 driver code so that a more informative message is displayed when DOS attempts
 to access a collapsed RAM-disk.  Also changed code for a faster adjustment of
 disk size when the requested size is larger than the available one.  Modified
 boot sector for full compatibility with MS-DOS 5.0.  Fixed error in XDISK.EXE
 that resulted in a garbled Status/Usage display when the screen was in a text
 mode and a page other than page 0.


 Version 3.30: *Feedback/Directory Listing*

 Visual and audio feedback during password-access checking are not the default
 condition any longer.  They must now be selected by the switches /FV and /FA,
 respectively, and can be disabled via switch /F-.  Added automatic encryption
 of the password.  Due to the requests of a number of users, added audio feed-
 back during DOS access to the RAM-disk via switch /A± (the old gate switch /A
 is now switch /G±). Added directory listing service to the Status/Usage panel
 via key <F3>. Modified the Status/Usage/Help panels for better legibility and
 faster Mouse support.


 Version 3.20: *MS-DOS 5.0*

 Due to changes in undocumented data structures in MS-DOS 5.0, the command-line
 loading of xDISK is temporarily restricted to DOS versions 2.x through 4.x, as
 its process of character-device loading can produce memory allocation problems
 in DOS 5.0. The loading of the driver via the CONFIG.SYS file is not affected.

 The self-installation of XDISK.SYS in the upper memory area is now implemented
 through either a DOS-based memory allocation (switch /H[n]!), if MS-DOS 5.0 is
 configured to control UMB allocation (e.g. command 'DOS=UMB' in the CONFIG.SYS
 file, and the drivers HIMEM.SYS and 386EMM.EXE installed), or an XMS-based UMB
 allocation (switch /H[n]), as in the case of versions 3.00 and 3.10.  Note the
 addition of '!' to switch /H[n] in the former case.  A problem during command-
 line loading of xDISK under buggy versions of IBM-PC DOS 4.00 has been solved.
 An error in the memory address of the resident driver shown in the Help/Status
 panel has been corrected.


 Version 3.10: *DOS Command-line Loading*

 It is now possible to load XDISK.SYS from the DOS command line (as opposed to
 during booting via CONFIG.SYS) via XDISK.EXE; this allows the installation of
 xDISK drives without having to edit CONFIG.SYS and to reboot the CPU.  Switch
 /L is now used in XDISK.EXE to denote command-line loading of the driver; the
 high-memory loading of the driver (which was mediated by switch /L in version
 3.00) is now mediated by switch /H.  A command-line loaded xDISK drive can be
 uninstalled with switch /U. Introduced the 486 release of xDISK. Added switch
 /K to avoid display of installation banner.


 Version 3.00: *386 Release/UMB Selfloading*

 Increased performance by improving the optimization of mathematical routines.
 Introduced the 386 release of xDISK, developed through versions 2.60 to 2.97.
 (The 386 release operates faster than the 286 one by a factor of about 1.5 or
 so; however, note that xDISK input/output times remain primarily dependent on
 the performance of the expanded memory system.)

 Also introduced the option of self-installation in upper conventional memory,
 i.e., above the 640-kb limit of DOS, but below the 1-Mb limit of conventional
 memory, if an extended-memory manager compatible with XMS 2.0 is also present
 and a free upper-memory block of 2 kb is available; this preserves the amount
 of conventional memory available for DOS use.  Unlike the high-memory loading
 provided by some (386) memory managers, XDISK.SYS self-loading in high memory
 only requires a free block of the size of the resident, and not of the entire
 driver.  See XDISK.DOC for details on high-memory loading.

 The user can specify a lower high-memory limit above which the driver should
 try load itself (if a block is available above such a limit), to avoid upper-
 memory areas having slow access times.  (The utility TIMEM.EXE can be used to
 measure conventional memory access times.)

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