#Pioneer 604x drive
6 messages in this thread
I'm currently using the 604x for images and am happy with it except for the
fact that the mscdex file to load the driver takes up to 130 kb and I don't
have enough high memory left to load the driver high and therefore must load it
in conventional ram, thereby making impossible booting up several programs.
There is a review of the drive in the current issue of CD ROM Professional.
Yours truly,
Hal Amsbaugh
Hal,
You might want to try the DRD608 driver. It lets you use all 6 disc of the
604x as 1 drive letter. You just use the xdisc program to select which disc
is active. I don't use EMS so the /e switch doesn't help.
The DRD608 driver is on the Pioneer BBS, XDISK.EXE.
rem CONFIG.SYS
device=c:\tlbmm\lastbyte.sys @c:\lastbyte.ini
device=c:\tlbmm\highdrvr.sys c:\dos\himem.sys
device=c:\tlbmm\highumm.sys
devicehigh=c:\dos\nnansi.com
devicehigh=c:\dos\ramdrive.sys 3072 128 900 /e
devicehigh=c:\stacker\stacker.com /p=9 /f=32 /-auto d:\stacvol.dsk
device=c:\stacker\sswap.com d:\stacvol.dsk
devicehigh=c:\pioneer\drd608.sys /d:mscd001 /n:6 /s:0 /c:cdp
shell=c:\4dos.com @c:\4dos.ini /p
dos=high,umb
lastdrive=g
buffers=40
break=on
files=100
stacks=9,256
rem AUTOEXEC.BAT
loadhigh c:\dos\mscdex.exe /d:mscd001 /l:g
loadhigh c:\4dos\kstack.com
loadhigh c:\ezmorse /1
prompt $d $t$h$h$h$_$p$g
path d:\bp\bin;d:\qb45;c:\stacker;c:\windows
path c:\;c:\bat;c:\util;c:\pctools;c:\dos;%path%
set /r c:\setlist.cfg
alias /r c:\alias.cfg
setdos /m1 /i-list
Conventional Memory :
Name Size in Decimal Size in Hex
————- ——————— ————-
MSDOS 19744 ( 19.3K) 4D20
4DOS 256 ( 0.3K) 100
FREE 635216 (620.3K) 9B150
Total FREE : 635216 (620.3K)
Upper Memory :
Name Size in Decimal Size in Hex
————- ——————— ————-
SYSTEM 182736 (178.5K) 2C9D0
4DOS 5232 ( 5.1K) 1470
NNANSI 3888 ( 3.8K) F30
RAMDRIVE 1184 ( 1.2K) 4A0
STACKER 40624 ( 39.7K) 9EB0
DRD608 18784 ( 18.3K) 4960
MSCDEX 27968 ( 27.3K) 6D40
[>> Continued in next msg]
[>> Continued from previous msg]
KSTACK 1056 ( 1.0K) 420
EZMORSE 22800 ( 22.3K) 5910
FREE 96 ( 0.1K) 60
FREE 23072 ( 22.5K) 5A20
Total FREE : 23168 ( 22.6K)
Total bytes available to programs (Conventional+Upper) : 658384 (643.0K)
Largest executable program size : 634096 (619.2K)
Largest available upper memory block : 23072 ( 22.5K)
7340032 bytes total contiguous extended memory
0 bytes available contiguous extended memory
4006912 bytes available XMS memory
MS-DOS resident in High Memory Area
Hal,
Aaaarrrrgh! 130 kb! How can that be? Are you saying that MSCDEX takes up
130 kb or that there is another driver that goes with the -604 that take up
that much? What are your MSCDEX command line switches?
I was about to spring for a -604, but I could not tolerate a 130 kb hit.
robin
Robin,
MSCDEX increases in size depending on the number of drives letters
installed. I don't have EMS so I don't know if it would be smaller with the
/E switch. The standard driver makes each disc a seperate drive. There is
another driver that will use one drive, but you have to select which one
disc is active.
Here's how much memory MSCDEX uses depending on the number drives:
Name Size in Decimal No. of Drives
———- ——————— —————–
MSCDEX 27968 ( 27.3K) 1
MSCDEX 32320 ( 31.6K) 2 4352
MSCDEX 40816 ( 39.9K) 3 8496
MSCDEX 49296 ( 48.1K) 4 8480
MSCDEX 57776 ( 56.4K) 5 8480
MSCDEX 66256 ( 64.7K) 6 8480
James,
Thanks for taking the time to give me the info.
Is there another driver also needed (in addition to MSCDEX)? I assume there
must be an ASPI or proprietary driver. How much memory does it take?
Does the "single disc" driver come with the drive? How much memory does it
take? (I'm looking for the smallest total hit; I could live with having to
select the active disc each time (? with a batch file?) if that would take
less memory.)
Thanks again!
robin