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DRIVER.SYS
Description
| Syntax
| Parameters
| Switches
| Related
| Notes
| Examples
| Errorlevels
| Availability
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 (ie, A or B). You can specify parameters to
describe the disk drive to the operating system.
Syntax
DEVICE=[drive:][\path\]DRIVER.SYS
[/C]
/D:n
[/F:factor]
[/H:heads]
[/S:sectors]
[/T:tracks]
Parameters
- [drive:][\path\]
(v3.20)
- Specifies the location of the DRIVER.SYS file.
Switches
- /C
(v3.20)
- Specifies that the physical disk drive can detect
whether the drive door is closed (change-line support).
- /D:n
(v3.20)
- 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; 128 is the first
hard disk drive, 129 the second hard disk drive. 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.
- /F:factor
(v3.20)
- Specifies the type of disk drive.
Valid values for factor are:
- 0 160K/180K or 320K/360K (single-sided)/(double-sided)
- 1 1.2 megabyte (MB)
- 2 720K (3.5-inch disk) or other, the default
- 7 1.44 MB (3.5-inch disk)
- 9 2.88 MB (3.5-inch disk) v5.0
- 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
(v3.20)
- 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
(v3.20)
- 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:
- 8 /F:0 160K/320K
- 9 /F:0 180K/360K
- 9 /F:2 720K (3.5-inch disk) or other, the default
- 15 /F:1 1.2 megabyte (MB)
- 18 /F:7 1.44 MB (3.5-inch disk)
- 36 /F:9 2.88 MB (3.5-inch disk)
- To determine the correct value for your disk
drive, see the disk-drive manufacturer's
documentation.
- /T:tracks
(v3.20)
- 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 40 when
/F:0, otherwise
the default value is 80. To determine the correct
value for your disk drive, see the disk-drive
manufacturer's documentation.
Related
none.
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 operating
system operation with floppy disks. The
/C switch indicates to the
operating system 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. The operating system 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 the operating system 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.
Examples
To add an external 720K drive to your system, add to
your CONFIG.SYS file:
DEVICE=DRIVER.SYS /D:2
Since no location is specified, the operating system
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 will assign
two logical drive letters to the same physical drive.
You can then swap disks in the same drive during the
copying process:
DEVICE=DRIVER.SYS /D:2 /F:7
DEVICE=DRIVER.SYS /D:2 /F:7
Errorlevels
none.
Availability
- External
-
- DOS
-
v3.20
v3.05
v3.1
v3.21
v3.25
v3.30
v3.3A
v3.3R
v3.3T
v3.31
v3.40
v4.0
v4.01
v4.01A
v5.0
v5.0A
v5.00.02
v5.001A
v5.01
v5.02
v6.0
v6.10
v6.2
v6.21
v6.22
v6.23
v7.00
v7.0R1
v7.10
v8.00
- Windows
-
none
- Windows NT
-
none
Last Updated: 2003/07/28
Direct corrections or suggestions to:
Rick Lively