How DoubleSpace Assigns the Host Drive Letter This article was written about products for which Microsoft no longer offers support. Therefore, this article is offered "as is" and will no longer be updated.| Article ID | : | 94336 | | Last Review | : | November 19, 1999 | | Revision | : | 1.0 |
This article was previously published under Q94336
This information applies to both Microsoft DoubleSpace and Microsoft
DriveSpace. For MS-DOS 6.22, use DRVSPACE in place of DBLSPACE for commands
and filenames.
SUMMARY
When you install Microsoft DoubleSpace, the installation program
normally leaves four unassigned drive letters between the last drive
and the host drive. For example, if you have two drives (C and D), a
RAM drive (E) and a network connection (F), DoubleSpace skips G, H, I,
and J, and uses drive K for the host drive.
If DoubleSpace detects Novell NetWare in memory, the host drive is
assigned one letter less than the LASTDRIVE command in the CONFIG.SYS
file. If that drive letter is unavailable, the host drive is assigned
the next available drive letter.
If you install DoubleSpace when device drivers that use drive letters
(CD-ROM drivers or RAMDrives) are not loaded or your network software
is not loaded, you may need to change the host drive letter.
MORE INFORMATION
If you are using MS-DOS 6.2, you can change the host drive letter with
the DBLSPACE /HOST command. If you are using Windows and have set up a
permanent swap file (PSF) on your host drive, you need to remove the
PSF before you change your host drive and then re-create it after you
change the host drive. To do this, run Control Panel and choose the
386 Enhanced icon. For more information on re-creating the Windows
PSF, see the text in step 10 below. For more information on using the
DBLSPACE /HOST command, type "help dblspace /host" (without the
quotation marks) at the MS-DOS command prompt and then press ENTER.
If you are running MS-DOS 6.0, you can change the host drive letter
by following these steps:
| 1. | If you use Microsoft Windows and have a permanent swap file (PSF),
run Windows, note the current size of your PSF and change your PSF to
None. (You will undo this change later in this procedure.)
| | 2. | Change to the host drive (for example H).
| | 3. | Use the ATTRIB command to change the file attribute on the
DBLSPACE.INI file. For example:
attrib h:\dblspace.ini -s -h -r
| | 4. | Edit the DBLSPACE.INI file with a text editor, such as MS-DOS
Editor.
| | 5. | Change the LastDrive setting to the letter you want to be the
host drive.
| | 6. | Change the first parameter in the ActivateDrive line to the same
letter you used in step 5.
WARNING: Do not change the second parameter (represented by <xx>) in
the following example:
Before change: ActivateDrive=H,xx
After change: ActivateDrive=D,xx
WARNING: If you use a drive letter that is used by a physical
device (such as drive A), for the N value, the system may stop
responding (hang) or continually reboot when you restart it.
| | 7. | Save your changes and quit the text editor.
| | 8. | Reset the system, hidden, and read-only attributes on the
DBLSPACE.INI file. For example:
attrib h:\dblspace.ini +s +h +r
| | 9. | Restart your computer (press CTRL+ALT+DEL).
| | 10. | If you removed your PSF in step 1, run Microsoft Windows and
re-create the PSF on your host drive. Do not attempt to create the
PSF on your DoubleSpace-compressed drive. You may receive the
following message if you re-create your PSF at its previous size:
Windows will not use more than the virtual
memory specified by the Recommended Size.
Are you sure you want to create a larger swap
file?
You can ignore this error message; it is likely incorrect. As long as
the PSF is not larger than four times your physical memory, Windows
can use a swap file that is larger than the recommended size. |
APPLIES TO| • | Microsoft MS-DOS 6.0 Standard Edition | | • | Microsoft MS-DOS 6.2 Standard Edition | | • | Microsoft MS-DOS 6.22 Standard Edition |
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