Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!hal!cwruecmp!neoucom!wtm From: wtm@neoucom.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Hard Drive dir problem Message-ID: <621@neoucom.UUCP> Date: Thu, 9-Jul-87 10:09:38 EDT Article-I.D.: neoucom.621 Posted: Thu Jul 9 10:09:38 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 12-Jul-87 07:40:59 EDT References: <3774@garfield.UUCP> <2684@mtgzy.UUCP> Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine Lines: 21 Keywords: flashing lights Summary: DOS is looking at the FAT Apologies if the answer is already out on the net, but I haven't seen the resonse at our site yet. A long pause upon doing the first "DIR" command on a drive is usually due to DOS scanning the FAT (file allocation table) to count the number of secotrs that are used and unused. You'll note that the pregnant pause happens just before the line at the end of the directory listing, "xx FILES nnnnnnn BYTES FREE". If you have a "BUFFERS = nn" line in your CONFIG.SYS file, the space available is cached in RAM by DOS, thus subsequent DIR connands do not require scanning the FAT. The poster also asked about PCTOOLS and NU. Both of these programs look at the fat themselves, keeping their information separate from what DOS thinks about the disk. Hope this is of use. Bill (wtm@neoucom.UUCP)