Patent · US Expired

System and method for determining a RAM disk logical drive designation

US6032223A · kind A · utility

36Cited by
5References
12Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateOct 15, 1997
Grant dateFeb 29, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 15, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F3/0674
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A system and method for determining a drive letter used by a RAM disk and communicating that designator to other programs is disclosed. In a computer having a processor for running operating system code, RAM, and a hard drive memory device, the RAM includes a RAM disk configured therein and the hard drive memory device includes at least one partition. The operating system code recognizes both the RAM disk and the hard drive partition as logical drives and therefore contains a series of at least two drive parameter blocks (DPB), one DPB for each logical drive. The computer also includes a software routine for determining a drive letter assigned to the RAM disk and communicating that drive letter to another program. First of all, the routine must ascertain the drive letter assigned to the RAM disk by sequentially performing the following steps: accessing a DPB from the series, examining the logical drive designated by the DPB, and determining if the logical drive is the RAM disk. Once the routine ascertains which DPB is associated with the RAM disk, it then retrieves the drive letter assigned to that DPB and stores the drive letter in a predetermined location. Therefore, a program ma…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.