ID:SD SMARTDrive from Microsoft
Quarterdeck Technical Note #184
by Stan Young

                  Using Microsoft's SMARTDRV.SYS

The Windows Setup procedure installs Microsoft's disk cache
called SMARTDRV.SYS.  The default size of this cache tends to be
large.  Windows can reclaim memory from this cache when it starts
up, however programs that are run outside of Windows which use
expanded memory cannot do this.  If you run programs outside of
Windows which would benefit from expanded memory, you may want to
consider either removing SMARTDRV.SYS entirely from your
CONFIG.SYS file, or at least reducing its size.  

SMARTDRV.SYS takes parameters to set the size of the cache, the
first parameter being the "NormalCacheSize" and the second being
the "MinimumCacheSize".  An example SMARTDrive installation might
look as follows:

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV.SYS 1024 256

In this example, SMARTDrive takes 1024K (1MB) of memory when you
are not in Windows and 256K while you are running Windows.  While
it is difficult to suggest a cache size that might be best for
you, one possible suggestion might be to use the minimum amount
only.  To do this, using the example above, you would edit the
line to read:

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV.SYS 256 256

No problems have been detected between any Quarterdeck products
and this cache, so if you feel you would benefit from disk
caching, and SMARTDrive meets your performance requirements, it
should be fine to use.  As noted the default size tends to be a
bit large for users who are using programs that benefit from
expanded memory, but the information above should give you some
hints on how to adjust this usage.

Only you can determine the appropriate size of the cache,
depending on how disk intensive your programs are, compared to
your programs need for expanded memory.  If you are not running
programs that are disk intensive, deleting the cache entirely may
make sense. 

Further information on the parameters used to control the size of
SMARTDRV.SYS can be found in the back of the Windows 3.0 manual.

      Copyright (C) 1991 by Quarterdeck Office Systems
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