Manipulating Files and Devices
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The larger the size of the buffer, the faster the apparent access time to the disk. The Addbuffers command lets you add and subtract memory from the cache buffer of each drive. It has the following template: DRIVE/A,BUFFERS/A
The DRIVE/A argument is the device name of the drive to whose cache you wish to add or subtract memory. BUFFERS/N lists the number of 512-byte chunks of RAM you want to add to or subtract from the cache. If the number is positive, the buffers are added; negative, and they are subtracted. You can't reduce the size of the cache to less than one buffer. For example, to add ten 512-byte buffers to the cache for your internal disk drive, you enter: ADDBUFFERS DFO: 10
Adding buffers has a price; any memory devoted to disk buffers is not available to programs and data.
Binddrivers: Ties That Bind In Chapter 5,1 discussed the Expansion drawer, which holds device drivers for expansion hardware. The Binddrivers command matches the hardware with the driver that accesses it. Binddrivers has no template. It should be one of the first commands in the Startup-sequence file, where it can ensure that the sys tem will be able to access and control your expansion hardware.
The DiskChange Command Whenever you change a disk in one of the Amiga 3 1/2-inch floppy drives, the system automatically detects the change and updates its internal lists accord ingly. The DiskChange command lets you inform the system when youVe changed a disk in a drive that cannot automatically inform AmigaDOS about such changes.
What kind of drives are those? Any drive that lets you remove a disk and re place it with another may require that you use DiskChange. Examples are some of the new, high-density floppy drives, optical drives such as CD ROMs, WORMs, and magneto-optical read-write systems, and even the 5 1/4-inch drives that Commodore used to sell that let you read and write MS-DOS disks with the Amiga. These days, CrossDOS, a utility from Consultron that lets your Amiga floppy drives read and write 3 1/2-inch MS-DOS disks has just about eliminated the need for the Commodore 5 1/4-inch drive.