Re: [Freedos-devel] low mem unloadable ramdisk driver?

[Rugxulo <ru...@gm...>]

Hi,

On Oct 3, 2012 3:18 PM, "Bernd Blaauw" <bb...@ho...> wrote:
>
> Does anyone know of a ramdisk driver that can be unloaded and is able to
> use conventional memory? I'd like to redirect a program's output to a
> (batch)file on this just-in-time created ramdisk, then execute the
> batchfile to get settings/variables into system environment, then right
> away unload the ramdisk driver again.

Even FreeCOM 0.84's "set /e" needs a %TEMP% due to the way pipes are
implemented. Usually, though, you don't need such things because reading
env. vars. is usually optional (and most aren't worried about conserving
RAM).

If you provide more details, some of us could bang our heads together for
scripting suggestions, but it's unlikely that someone will write up such a
TSR for you.  :-(

> The MARK/RELEASE tsr utilities combined with TDSK might be a fallback
> option, but I'd prefer something comparable to SHSURDRV working even
> when no XMS/EMS/UMB/HMA is available.

IIRC, TDSK is old and chokes with more than 32 MB (used?? Ask Eric). Isn't
its smaller brother (BITDISK ??) smaller in size? Though IIRC, he unwisely
hardcoded NLS into the .EXEs, which is most likely unnecessary.

Long story short, I don't personally know of any other conv. mem. RAM disk
drivers, much less a free or libre one, but I know there's tons of old
stuff flying around out there, so it's not impossible.

Workaround:  TDSK won't unload, but you should be able to resize it to
almost empty, so try that, I often did such on my P166 due to trying to
conserve RAM.

(BTW, off-topic rambling, speaking of RAM and old machines, there's a guy
on YouTube who has a 386 DX/40 with 64 MB of RAM ... crazy, right??)