Microsoft KB Archive/73843

= Files and Buffers Memory Usage =

Article ID: 73843

Article Last Modified on 5/12/2003

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0a
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.2 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.21 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.22 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q73843



SUMMARY
The following article explains MS-DOS version 5.x and later files and buffers memory usage.



Buffers
The version 5.0 &quot;Microsoft MS-DOS User's Guide and Reference&quot; states on page 376 that buffers are automatically loaded into the high memory area (HMA) when the DOS=HIGH statement is used in the CONFIG.SYS file.

The required 512 bytes (200h) is always loaded in conventional memory. This number remains constant regardless of the number of buffers specified.

If DOS=LOW, or no DOS= line exists in the CONFIG.SYS file, buffers are allocated in conventional memory. Each buffer uses approximately 532 bytes of memory.

Files
The memory consumed by the FILES= statement in the CONFIG.SYS file is always allocated in conventional memory, regardless of the DOS= statement in the CONFIG.SYS file.

There is no constant number for the amount of memory used by each allocated file in the FILES= statement. As the number of files allocated increases, the amount of memory required for each file increases also. A chart of commonly used amounts follows:   # Files in       Bytes used         Bytes used CONFIG.SYS      in Decimal           in Hex --

Default           192                 C0        10              496                130 15             608                260        20              896                380        25             1200                4B0 30            1488                5D0 35            1776                6F0 40            2080                820        45             2368                940        50             2672                A70 55            2960                B90 60            3260                CC0 65            3552                DE0 70            3856                F10 75            4144               1030

Additional query words: 6.22 5.00 5.00a 6.00 6.20

Keywords: KB73843

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