<storage, product> A Microsoft disk cache program to speed up disk access.
For most users, a 1MB cache is sufficient. Devoting more memory than that to the cache offers diminishing returns, since the additional cache hits become fewer. You'll enhance performance more if you leave the extra memory for your applications to use, thereby reducing the use of your swap file.
Type SMARTDRV /S at a DOS prompt to see the size of your cache, a hit-and-miss report, and information about which drives are being cached. The hit-and-miss statistics are crucial in helping you gauge the effectiveness of your SmartDrive settings. A score in the high 80s shows that SmartDrive is well configured. Run SMARTDRV /S several times during a Windows session and note the-hit-and-miss figures each time. If your percentage usually falls below 80 percent, you should consider increasing the cache size. You can edit the SMARTDRV line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file to increase both the InitCacheSize and the WinCacheSize parameters.
SmartDrive Monitor is an undocumented Windows program that comes with DOS 6.0 and logs cache performance, lets you adjust which drives are cached, whether they're read- or write-cached, and flush the cache.
(22 Nov 1995)