DumbDrv
                    Dummy DOS Device Driver
             Copyright (C) 1994-1996 Marcus Better

                         Version 1.10
                        January 3, 1996









What is DumbDrv?
================

DumbDrv is a device driver which creates a null block device - a
device that does absolutely nothing, except for occupying one or more
drive letters.  This can be useful if one wants to reserve a drive
letter at boot time, so that another driver can use that drive letter.
The KillDrv utility may be used to delete a DumbDrv device.

Here's an example where DumbDrv is useful: Let's say we have a hard
disk called C:, a CD-ROM drive (accessed by MSCDEX.EXE), and a ramdisk
created by RAMDRIVE.SYS.  We now want the CD-ROM drive to be D: and
the ramdisk E:.  Since RAMDRIVE.SYS is loaded before MSCDEX.EXE, the
ramdisk will automatically become D:, though.  This is where DumbDrv
comes in.  By loading DUMBDRV.SYS just before RAMDRIVE.SYS, we reserve
the drive letter D:, forcing the ramdisk to become E:.  We can then
delete the DumbDrv using the KillDrv utility, and load MSCDEX as D:
instead.


License
=======

DumbDrv is free software, and is distributed under the GNU General
Public License.  Please see the file COPYING for details.


Installation
============

DumbDrv is installed by entering the line

            DEVICE=d:\path\DUMBDRV.SYS

in your CONFIG.SYS file.  The driver will be loaded the next time you
boot your computer.  DumbDrv will display a message saying what drive
letters it occupies.

You may also specify the number of drive letters you want to reserve.
To reserve three drives, use the line

            DEVICE=d:\path\DUMBDRV.SYS 3

in your CONFIG.SYS.  If you do not specify a number, the default value
is 1.  If you specify a number higher than the number of available
drive letters, DumbDrv will use all available drives.

NOTE: Drive letters are assigned to block device drivers sequentially
in the order they are loaded in CONFIG.SYS.


Contacting the author
=====================

You are welcome send me any ideas, comments and suggestions for
DumbDrv.  If you have found any bugs, please let me know.  My email
address is

        Marcus.Better@abc.se