MS-DOS v6.22 Help: DRIVER.SYS

---------------------- MS-DOS v6.22 Help: DRIVER.SYS -----------------------
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                                 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.

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                             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.

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                            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

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