Reply 80 of 167, by maxtherabbit
- Rank
- l33t
wrote:Have you tried using just SMARTDRV but having it load to both functional as double buffering and disk cache?
The DEVICE=SMARTDRV.EXE /DOUBLE_BUFFER+ in CONFIG.SYS for double buffering and either in AUTOEXEC.BAT or at the prompt just load SMARTDRV. The default should use 2MB XMS memory for disk cache, and it can cache both read and write. Use SMARTDRV /S to show the status and you should have all 3 (read cache/write cache/buffering) "Yes" for drive C: The disk cache in theory should somehow restore the disk performance caused by double buffering.
I have and it doesn't perform well. In fact, just running SMARTDRV from the command prompt without even using double buffering actually hurts my I/O performance. Guess the SCSI bus is faster than the CPU 🤣
I think I'm going to pull the plug on trying to make the Adaptec card work with 8-bit DMA targets. It's really starting to feel like square plug/round hole. I sold the Above Board to a buddy of mine and I'm gonna repurpose the Lo-Tech in an IBM 5150 I have.
I may revisit EMS on this 286 system in the form of another 16-bit memory card if a deal on one presents itself. Thanks again to you guys for helping me solve the mystery!