Command: tdsk
TDSK (TURBODISK) creates a RAM disk like RDISK and SRDISK. Part of
memory is set aside to act like a disk drive. Because memory is much
faster than a real disk drive, RAM disks are very fast, but anything
stored on them will be lost when the machine is restarted or switched
off. TDSK supports EMS and XMS.
Syntax:
device=tdsk.exe size [[s_sector [files [s_cluster]]]] [/E] [/A|X] [/C]
[/M]
Options:
size the size of the RAM disk, from 8 to 65534 (in Kilobytes).
[[s_sector [files [s_cluster]]]]
Advanced. The size of the sectors, root and clusters
on the disk.
Valid values for sector are 32,64,128,256,512,1024,2048.
Files (in the root direcotry) can be from 1 to 65534.
Clusters can vary from 1 to 255 (some systems are restricted
to 1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128)
/E Forces the use of XMS memory.
/A Specifies the use of EMS memory.
/X Specifies the use of EMS memory.
/C Forces use of conventional memory (not ideal, so it is
generally only recommended for systems without XMS/EMS or if
you are having problems with XMS/EMS memory.)
/I:nnn nnn=country code. This will show the help in another language.
Spanish (/I=34), German (/I=49) and English (/I=1) are
supported.
/M Switches the screen output from color to monochrome(redirect-
able) while in CONFIG.SYS monochrome will be used by default.
/B avoids to load TURBODSK if there is at least one hard disk
available on the system.
/F selects the number of FAT copies (1 by default) up to a maxi-
mum of 2.
/H Shows the help.
/? Shows the help.
Comments:
Size must be in the range 8 - 65534 KB; valid sectors are from 32 to
2048 Bytes (in powers f 2), though some DOS versions support 128, 256
and 512 Bytes only. Files of root may be 1 to 65534 and sectors by
cluster can vary from 1 to 255 (some systems need a power of 2). Only
the size is necessary.
Turbodsk defaults to XMS or EMS.
After installing TURBODSK in CONFIG.SYS it can be run from AUTOEXEC.BAT
or the prompt in order to vary the drive size (amount of memory used);
this also erases the drive's contents. A size 0 can be used to
completely free the memory occupied by the drive: When using
conventional memory it is useful to cancel a drive BEFORE resizing.
When more than one TURBODSK is installed, they can be identified by
additionally giving the drive letter.
By default, tdsk tries to use XMS or EMS, before trying to use
conventional memory. Most modern computers have XMS.
Why use a RAM disk?
Many programs create temporary files, which will be stored in a
temporary directory specified by an environment variable:
set temp=c:\temp
Temporary files are deleted when a program exits anyway. So one of the
main uses of RAM disks is to hold this temporary directory. This
increases such programs' performance.
TDSK has the following ERRORLEVEL / EXITCODES:
0: Disk not defined.
255: Driver not installed from CONFIG.SYS.
254: Incorrect drive letter specified.
253: Attempt to define a drive from within a multitasking
environment such Windows, DOSSHELL, TASKMAX/TASKMGR, etc.
252: Syntax error.
Other values below 128 are related to the handle used in both
the Extended or the Expanded memory.
TDSK is not part of the FreeDOS distribution and cannot be downloaded
via FDNPKG. If necessary, you can download it here:
https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/dos/ramdisk/
Examples:
IN CONFIG.SYS/FDCONFIG.SYS:
device(high)=C:\FREEDOS\BIN\tdsk.exe 8096
(creates 8096 KB RAM disk)
tdsk.exe 0 resizes the ramdisk to 0 Byte size
(deletes all files)
tdsk.exe 2048 resizes the ramdisk to 2048 KB size
(deletes all files)
See also:
autoexec.bat/fdauto.bat
config.sys/fdconfig.sys
device/devicehigh
errorlevel/exitcode
fdnpkg
(fdxms (XMS))
(fdxms286 (XMS))
himemx (XMS)
jemm386 (EMS)
jemmex (EMS)
rdisk
rdiskon
srdisk
Copyright © 2003 Robert Platt, updated 2011
by W. Spiegl.
This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO.
See the file H2Cpying for copying conditions.