driver.sys(CMD) 19 June 1992 driver.sys(CMD) Name driver.sys - create a logical drive used to refer to a physical floppy disk drive Syntax device=[drive:][path]driver.sys /d:number [/c] [/f:factor] [/h:heads] [/s:sectors] [/t:tracks] Description A logical drive is a pointer to a physical disk drive in your system. The logical drive is associated with a drive letter (for example, A or B). You can specify parameters to describe the disk drive to MS-DOS. Parameter [drive:][path] Specifies the location of the DRIVER.SYS file. Switches /d:number Specifies the number of the physical floppy disk drive. Valid values for number are in the range 0 through 127. The first physical floppy disk drive (drive A) is drive 0; a second physical floppy disk drive is drive 1; a third physi- cal floppy disk drive, which must be external, is 2. For a computer with one floppy disk drive, both drives A and B are numbered 0; for a computer with multiple floppy disk drives, drive B is numbered 1. /c Specifies that the physical disk drive can detect whether the drive door is closed (change-line support). /f:factor Specifies the type of disk drive. Valid values for factor are as follows: 0 160K/180K or 320K/360K 1 1.2 megabyte (MB) 2 720K (3.5-inch disk) or other 7 1.44 MB (3.5-inch disk) 9 2.88 MB (3.5-inch disk) The default value for factor is 2. Generally, if you use the /f switch, you can omit the /h, /s, and /t switches. Check the default values for these switches to make sure they are correct for the type of disk drive you are using. To determine the appropriate values for the disk drive, see the disk-drive manufacturer's documenta- tion. If you specify the /h, /s, and /t switches, you can omit the /f switch. /h:heads Specifies the number of heads in the disk drive. Valid values for heads are in the range 1 through 99. The default value is 2. To determine the correct value for your disk drive, see the disk-drive manufacturer's documentation. /s:sectors Specifies the number of sectors per track. Valid values for sectors are in the range 1 through 99. The default value depends on the value of /f:factor, as follows: /f:0 /s:9 /f:1 /s:15 /f:2 /s:9 /f:7 /s:18 /f:9 /s:36 To determine the correct value for your disk drive, see the disk-drive manufacturer's documentation. /t:tracks Specifies the number of tracks per side on the block device. Valid values for tracks are in the range 1 through 999. The default value is 80, unless /f:factor is 0, in which case the default value is 40. To determine the correct value for your disk drive, see the disk-drive manufacturer's documen- tation. Notes Disk-drive change-line support The term change-line support means that a physical disk drive can detect when the drive door is open. Change-line support allows faster MS-DOS operation with floppy disks. If you specify the /c switch, it indicates to MS-DOS that the physical disk drive can support change-line error detection. To determine whether your disk drive has change-line support, see the disk-drive manufacturer's documentation. Limitations on DRIVER.SYS You cannot use DRIVER.SYS with hard disk drives. Creating a duplicate logical drive Suppose you want to use one physical floppy disk drive to copy files from one floppy disk to another. Because you cannot copy from and to the same logical drive by using the copy or xcopy command, you must assign a second drive letter to that physical drive. If your system has just one physical floppy disk drive, you do not need to install DRIVER.SYS for this purpose. MS-DOS already assigns both log- ical drive A and logical drive B to that drive. Just copy files from drive A to drive B and switch disks when MS-DOS prompts you. If your system has more than one floppy disk drive, then you need to use DRIVER.SYS to assign a second drive letter to the physical floppy disk drive. Creating a new logical drive with different parameters If you use DRIVER.SYS to assign a logical drive that has parameters dif- ferent from those of the previously assigned logical drive, then the pa- rameters of the previous logical drive will be invalid. Therefore, you should no longer use the drive letter corresponding to the previous logi- cal drive. Examples To add an external 720K drive to your system, add the following line to your CONFIG.SYS file: device=driver.sys /d:2 Since no location is specified, MS-DOS searches for DRIVER.SYS in the root directory of your startup drive. Suppose you want to use a single 1.44-megabyte external disk drive to copy files from one floppy disk to another. To do this, you must add two identical device commands for DRIVER.SYS in your CONFIG.SYS file. This procedure assigns two logical drive letters to the same physical drive. You can then swap disks in the same drive during the copying process. The following example shows how to do this: device=driver.sys /d:2 /f:7 device=driver.sys /d:2 /f:7