Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!ptsfa!ames!think!husc6!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!tikal!amc!jon From: jon@amc.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Hard Drive dir problem Message-ID: <494@amc.UUCP> Date: Thu, 9-Jul-87 12:27:04 EDT Article-I.D.: amc.494 Posted: Thu Jul 9 12:27:04 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 12-Jul-87 01:35:27 EDT References: <3774@garfield.UUCP> <7083@shemp.UCLA.EDU> Reply-To: jon@amc.UUCP (Jon Mandrell) Organization: Applied Microsystems Corp., Redmond, WA. Lines: 28 Keywords: flashing lights In article <3774@garfield.UUCP> robert4@garfield.UUCP writes: > > Whenever I (or a programme) access a directory for the first time > after a cold boot (after loading dos and executing autoexec.bat, > etc.) my hard drive access indicator light flashes rapidly and > steadily for about 5-10 sec and then produces the results of the > dir scan. > > This ONLY occurs the first time after I turn the system on OR when > using a utility like PCTools (each time it checks the dir or a > path). My system does the same thing, and after poking around I tracked it down to the BUFFERS= entry in CONFIG.SYS. It turns out that some clusters are getting buffered in memory, so that the next time you access the directory it just looks in memory. On mine, I can enter an invalid command, and the disk will whir and I will get an error message, and then if I do it again, it comes back immediately with an error message. P.S. If you really want to speed up operations (with a fast hard disk), and you can afford the memory, set your buffers to a larger number (I use 64, and have been tempted to go larger). -- Jon Mandrell, Applied Microsystems Corp., (ihnp4!uw-beaver!tikal!amc!jon) Jung vs Ze G. jrer tnl? Jbhyqa'g "Gur N Grnz" gnxr ba n jubyr qvssrerag zrnavat?