buffers(CMD) 19 June 1992 buffers(CMD) Name buffers - allocate memory for a specified number of disk buffers Syntax buffers=n[,m] Parameters n Specifies the number of disk buffers. The value of n must be in the range 1 through 99. m Specifies the number of buffers in the secondary buffer cache. The value of m must be in the range 1 through 8. Notes Default settings The default setting for the number of disk buffers depends upon the con- figuration of your system, as shown in the following table: _________________________________________________________________________ Configuration Buffers (n) Bytes _________________________________________________________________________ < 128K of RAM, 360K disk 2 - < 128K of RAM, > 360K disk 3 - 128K to 255K of RAM 5 2672 256K to 511K of RAM 10 5328 512K to 640K of RAM 15 7984 The default setting for the number of buffers in the secondary cache (m) is 1. If you specify an invalid value for n or m, buffers uses the default value instead. Using the secondary buffer cache Using the cache can speed up certain disk operations. How MS-DOS uses buffers MS-DOS uses the memory reserved for each disk buffer to hold data during read and write operations. To achieve the best performance with programs such as word processors, specify a value between 10 and 20 for n. If you plan to create many subdirectories, you might want to increase the number of buffers to 20 or 30. Each buffer requires approximately 532 bytes of memory. Therefore, the more buffers you have, the less memory you have available for programs. If MS-DOS is in the high memory area (HMA), the buffers are also in HMA. This leaves more conventional memory for your program. Example To create 20 disk buffers, include the following command in your CONFIG.SYS file: buffers=20