| DRIVER.SYS |
|
| Creates a logical drive that you can use to refer to a physical floppy disk |
| drive. This device driver must be loaded by a DEVICE or DEVICEHIGH |
| command in your CONFIG.SYS file. |
|
| A logical drive is a pointer to a physical disk drive in your system. The |
| logical drive is associated with a drive letter (for example, A or B). You |
| can specify parameters to describe the disk drive to MS-DOS. |
|
| Syntax |
|
| DEVICE=[drive:][path]DRIVER.SYS /D:number [/C] [/F:factor] [/H:heads] |
| [/S:sectors] [/T:tracks] |
|
| Parameter |
|
| [drive:][path] |
| Specifies the location of the DRIVER.SYS file. |
|
| Switches |
|
| /D:number |
| Specifies the number of the physical floppy disk drive. Valid values for |
| number are in the range 0 through 127. The first physical floppy disk |
| drive (drive A) is drive 0; a second physical floppy disk drive is drive |
| 1; a third physical floppy disk drive, which must be external, is drive |
| 2. For a computer with one floppy disk drive, drives A and B are both |
| numbered 0; for a computer with multiple floppy disk drives, drive B is |
| numbered 1. |
|
| /C |
| Specifies that the physical disk drive can detect whether the drive door |
| is closed (change-line support). |
|
| /F:factor |
| Specifies the type of disk drive. Valid values for factor are as |
| follows: |
|
| 0 160K/180K or 320K/360K |
| 1 1.2 megabyte (MB) |
| 2 720K (3.5-inch disk) or other |
| 7 1.44 MB (3.5-inch disk) |
| 9 2.88 MB (3.5-inch disk) |
|
| The default value for factor is 2. |
|
| Generally, if you use the /F switch, you can omit the /H, /S, and /T |
| switches. Check the default values for these switches to make sure they |
| are correct for the type of disk drive you are using. To determine the |
| appropriate values for the disk drive, see the disk-drive manufacturer's |
| documentation. |
|
| If you specify the /H, /S, and /T switches, you can omit the /F switch. |
|
| /H:heads |
| Specifies the number of heads in the disk drive. Valid values for heads |
| are in the range 1 through 99. The default value is 2. To determine the |
| correct value for your disk drive, see the disk-drive manufacturer's |
| documentation. |
|
| /S:sectors |
| Specifies the number of sectors per track. Valid values for sectors are |
| in the range 1 through 99. The default value depends on the value of |
| /F:factor, as follows: |
|
| /F:0 /S:9 |
|
| /F:1 /S:15 |
|
| /F:2 /S:9 |
|
| /F:7 /S:18 |
|
| /F:9 /S:36 |
|
| To determine the correct value for your disk drive, see the disk-drive |
| manufacturer's documentation. |
|
| /T:tracks |
| Specifies the number of tracks per side on the block device. Valid |
| values for tracks are in the range 1 through 999. The default value is |
| 80, unless /F:factor is 0, in which case the default value is 40. To |
| determine the correct value for your disk drive, see the disk-drive |
| manufacturer's documentation. |
|
|
| DRIVER.SYS--Notes |
|
| Disk-drive change-line support |
|
| The term "change-line support" means that a physical disk drive can detect |
| when the drive door is opened and closed. Change-line support allows faster |
| MS-DOS operation with floppy disks. The /C switch indicates to MS-DOS that |
| the physical disk drive can support change-line error detection. To |
| determine whether your disk drive has change-line support, see the |
| disk-drive manufacturer's documentation. |
|
| Modifying or redefining a supported physical disk drive |
|
| For information about modifying the parameters of a physical disk drive that |
| is supported by your hardware, see the DRIVPARM command. You can also use |
| DRIVER.SYS to redefine a physical floppy disk drive. |
|
| Limitations on DRIVER.SYS |
|
| You cannot use DRIVER.SYS with hard disk drives. For information about |
| substituting a logical drive letter for a hard disk drive, see the SUBST |
| command. |
|
| Creating a duplicate logical drive |
|
| Suppose you want to use one physical floppy disk drive to copy files from |
| one floppy disk to another. Because you cannot copy from and to the same |
| logical drive by using the COPY or XCOPY command, you must assign a second |
| drive letter to that physical drive. |
|
| If your system has just one physical floppy disk drive, you do not need to |
| install DRIVER.SYS for this purpose. MS-DOS already assigns both logical |
| drive A and logical drive B to that drive. Just copy files from drive A to |
| drive B and switch disks when MS-DOS prompts you. |
|
| If your system has more than one floppy disk drive, then you need to use |
| DRIVER.SYS to assign a second drive letter to the physical floppy disk |
| drive. |
|
| Creating a new logical drive with different parameters |
|
| If you use DRIVER.SYS to assign a logical drive that has parameters |
| different from those of the previously assigned logical drive, then the |
| parameters of the previous logical drive will be invalid. Therefore, you |
| should no longer use the drive letter corresponding to the previous logical |
| drive. |
|
|
| DRIVER.SYS--Examples |
|
| To add an external 720K drive to your system, add the following line to your |
| CONFIG.SYS file: |
|
| device=driver.sys /d:2 |
|
| Since no location is specified, MS-DOS searches for DRIVER.SYS in the root |
| directory of your startup drive. |
|
| Suppose you want to use a single 1.44-megabyte external disk drive to copy |
| files from one floppy disk to another. To do this, you must add two |
| identical DEVICE commands for DRIVER.SYS in your CONFIG.SYS file. This |
| procedure assigns two logical drive letters to the same physical drive. You |
| can then swap disks in the same drive during the copying process. The |
| following example shows how to do this: |
|
| device=driver.sys /d:2 /f:7 |
| device=driver.sys /d:2 /f:7 |
|
|
