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T U R B O D S K 2 . 2
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Internet: ciri@gui.uva.es
FidoNet: 2:341/21.8

English of this file improved by:
(C) 1993 Charlie Henze

English

- DESCRIPTION:

TURBODSK is a Ram Disk controller for DOS and Windows 3 systems. This
file contains information which is not available with online help. TURBODSK
can dynamically allocate RAM to the disk. It requires DOS 2.0 or above;
XMS 2.0+, EMS 3.2+, and conventional memory is supported. In spite of using
EMS 3.2, TDSK can take advantage of the power of 386 and better systems
and can run programs which make use of EMS memory, unlike most public
domain RAM disks.

- NOTICE:

An incorrect assignment of numeric parameters (except disk size), may
make a disk malfunction. To avoid problems, follow the advice given by
help (TDSK /?) or allow TURBODSK to determine the numeric parameters
automatically.

- LICENSE:

This program is FREEWARE and can be used without charge by individuals
or corporations, although it is not allowed to charge something for the
concept or it's usage. Distribution is only allowed to the shareware
distribution companies who charge less than or equal to US $16 per disk
(when 1 disk is requested). Individuals can distribute it but without
charge.

- WARRANTY:

This program is provided "as is", without any explicit warranty. Use
is free. Therefore, the author does not assume responsability for damages
that may occur whether caused by bugs or incompatibility with any other
software.

- PERFORMANCE:

Comparison between TURBODSK and the DOS RAM disks:

RAMDRIVE VDISK TURBODSK
(WINDOWS 3.1) (DR-DOS 6.0) v2.2
────────────────────────────────────
Maximum size: 32 Mb 32 Mb 64 Mb
Conventional memory support: Yes Yes Yes
EMS support: Yes Yes Yes
Extended memory drived by INT 15h: No Yes No
XMS memory support: Yes No Yes
Files can hold the root directory: 4-1024 4-512 1-65534
Sector size supported: 128-1024 128-512 32-2048
Dynamic memory allocation: No No Yes
Cluster programmable size: No No Yes
takes advantage of 32-but bus in 386+: No No Yes
Conventional memory used (DOS 5.0): 1184-1232 2096-2608 432-608

Data transfer rate (in Kb/sec) measured by KBSEC.C, on machines
under MS-DOS 5.0, without any TSR's (except KEYB and DOSKEY). Sectors
are 512 bytes-sized:
VDISK RAMDRIVE TURBODSK
──────── ────────── ──────────
8088-8 MHz:
+ Conventional memory................ 563 573 573
286-12 MHz (0 WS):
+ XMS extended memory (1)............ 1980 4253 4253
+ Conventional memory................ 4169 4368 4368
386-25 MHz (without cache):
+ XMS extended memory (1)............ 6838 17105 17095
+ EMS expanded memory (1)(2)......... 1261 8308 14937
+ Conventional memory................ 7297 6525 14843
486-25 MHz (8 Kb internal cache):
+ XMS extended memory (1)............ 7370 10278 10278
+ EMS expanded memory (1)(2)......... 2533 7484 9631
+ Conventional memory................ 8256 8454 11664

Total.................................. 40267 67348 87642

Relative index......................... 45,9 76,8 100

(1) HIMEM.SYS from MS-DOS 5.0 installed.
(2) EMM386.EXE from MS-DOS 5.0 installed.

- UNDOCUMENTED SWITCHES:

+ With /F is possible to select the number of FAT copies (1 by default),
up to a maximum of 2.
+ With the /I option, it is possible to set the international telephonic
code of any country to select the language used by TDSK. In this v2.2
only the Spanish (Spain and Spanish language countries), German and
English (the other nations) are used. If system is property configured
(with COUNTRY order in config.sys) TURBODSK will use the correct
language. /I=34, for example, forces the Spanish; /I=49 the German and
/I=1 the English.
+ In DOS 5.0 it is possible to force the use of upper memory if loading
with LOADHIGH, provided that the amount of memory requested does not
exceed the available (in other case, conventional memory will allocate).
+ /M parameter switch output from color to monochrome (redirectable),
while in CONFIG monochrome will be used by default.
+ After execution, an ERRORLEVEL code is returned with these meanings:

0: Disk not defined
255: Driver not installed from CONFIG.SYS
254: Incorrect drive letter indicated
253: Attempt to define inside Windows
252: Syntax error

Other values below 128, are related to the handle used in both the
extended or the expanded memory.

- WARNING:

With 4085 to 4087 cluster disks, the CHKDSK /F command (except in
MS-DOS 3.3 and DR-DOS 6.0) are not able to correctly determine the FAT
type of the disk. Additionally, it will report nonexistent errors, and
will destroy stored data.

- BITDISK:

If TURBODSK still should require too much memory, BITDISK can be used instead.
It requires only 256 bytes instead of 408. Most probably this driver is the
smallest resizeable ram disk controller in the world. However, its usage still
has some downsides:
+ Only XMS is supported.
+ To save memory, some variables were placed directly into the code. This may
lead to errors under protected mode. But under testage no errors concerning
this point occured.
+ Some internal or undocumented features of MS-DOS were used. In most other
MS-DOS compatible operating system these features still are supported:
BITDISK was tested under MS-DOS 6.20, DR-DOS 6.0 and NOVELL-DOS 7.0, and
no errors occured there.

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