Hi there! Don't worry, it looks more complicated than it is.

32-Bit Disk Access.. Windows HDD driver (32-Bit code)
32-Bit File Access.. Hard disk cache of Windows

You can enable both, or just one of them.

The 32-Bit Disk Access (aka Fastdisk) is just Window's own, native HDD driver.
It allows Windows to directly talk to the HDD, without the help of DOS or BIOS.
If it is enabled, Windows can do certain things it couldn't before.
This is interesting for DOS programs mainly.

- However, performance (throughput) isn't always guaranteed to be best with FastDisk.
Some later BIOSes supported things like PIO3/4 which can be faster.
For stability and smoothness, though, FastDisk might be better overall.

32-Bit File Access is just an ordinary HDD csche, like SmartDrive - minus its CD-ROM cache.

If both access features are enabled, WfW 3.11 will run on its own, without the need to ask DOS for help. Just like Win95, essentially.

Jo22 wrote on 2021-09-23, 21:11:

Hi there! Don't worry, it looks more complicated than it is. […]
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Hi there! Don't worry, it looks more complicated than it is.

32-Bit Disk Access.. Windows HDD driver (32-Bit code)
32-Bit File Access.. Hard disk cache of Windows

You can enable both, or just one of them.

The 32-Bit Disk Access (aka Fastdisk) is just Window's own, native HDD driver.
It allows Windows to directly talk to the HDD, without the help of DOS or BIOS.
If it is enabled, Windows can do certain things it couldn't before.
This is interesting for DOS programs mainly.

- However, performance (throughput) isn't always guaranteed to be best with FastDisk.
Some later BIOSes supported things like PIO3/4 which can be faster.
For stability and smoothness, though, FastDisk might be better overall.

32-Bit File Access is just an ordinary HDD csche, like SmartDrive - minus its CD-ROM cache.

If both access features are enabled, WfW 3.11 will run on its own, without the need to ask DOS for help. Just like Win95, essentially.

fantastic! thanks for the info!!

You're welcome. ^^

Racking my own memories...
32 bit disk access replaces the block level DOS disk access with a re-entrant safe routine, allowing DOS sessions to be swapped when using a permanent swapfile - requires a disk geometry compatible with the standard 32BDA driver in Windows, or an alternative driver compatible with the disk geometry. Ideally, one for the specific controller such as a VLB disk controller, or the Triones drivers for Intel Triton chipset.
NB. It can cause problems with the buggy IDE controllers such as RZ1000 and CMD640, as their problems mean they are not safe when more than one request is pending.
32 bit file access in only available in Windows for Workgroups, and replaces the file level routines, and supersedes SMARTDRV caching for the hard disk. You can eliminate SMARTDRV if you are not concerned with caching CDROM or floppy.

I was looking for an old diagram of how many protected - real mode transitions are saved, but can't find it

Matth79 wrote on 2021-09-25, 14:01:

You can eliminate SMARTDRV if you are not concerned with caching CDROM or floppy.

SMARTDRV will reduce the cache size when Windows is active, it's still useful for HDD caching in DOS so removing it's not a good idea unless you have a better alternative. You can also adjust the cache size when initializing it for both DOS and Windows.

1SMARTDRV 2048 16

The first parameter is for the allocation of the cache which is 2MB in this case and the second parameter is how it will be reduced when running Windows which will be 16KB on this example.