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MSDOS Disk and File System Information

Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 9:03 pm
by VolTeK
Hello, I am currently looking for information on how MSDOS (Before SmartDrive) had handled Disk information.

Where it had stored it, How much at a time and how the amount was set, caching algorithms. ETC

Im looking for a PDF (or anything really) on this specific information and i haven't had any luck finding it. Does anyone have a copy of this information, or know where i could find it?


I can already assume it caches constantly used sectors and fat entry sectors but, during operations like disk ejections (its responses to that situation), directory reads (does it read a sector at a time gathering information about files within the directories? etc). Where could i find this? Thank you for reading

Re: MSDOS Disk and File System Information

Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 9:31 pm
by Kazinsal
Try looking for the leaked MS-DOS 6.0 source code.

Re: MSDOS Disk and File System Information

Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 10:01 pm
by VolTeK
VolTeK wrote:(Before SmartDrive)
I assume 6.0 had SmartDrive, or some form of it. So i'm looking for something in range before MSDOS 4.01.

Re: MSDOS Disk and File System Information

Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 10:04 pm
by Kazinsal
SmartDrive was an external driver. You could simply choose not to install it at boot time. The MS-DOS 6 kernel therefore doesn't include it as a core disk function.