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SmartDrive

MS-DOS disk caching program

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
1 min read
Source updated August 22, 2026

SmartDrive (or SMARTDRV) is a disk caching program shipped with MS-DOS versions 4.01 through 6.22 and Windows 3.0 through Windows 3.11. It improves data transfer rates by storing frequently accessed data in random-access memory (RAM).

Early versions of SmartDrive were loaded through a CONFIG.SYS device driver named SMARTDRV.SYS. Versions 4.0 and later were loaded through an executable file named SMARTDRV.EXE, which could be run at user's discretion or at boot time via AUTOEXEC.BAT. However, SMARTDRV.EXE also includes a double-buffering driver that should be loaded through CONFIG.SYS. Version 4.0 also introduced 32-bit disk access and could reduce its footprint in conventional memory (the first 640 kilobytes of memory which is critical to MS-DOS) by running in upper memory area (the 384 kilobytes of memory located beyond the conventional memory).

A cloaked variant of SmartDrive utilizing the Helix Cloaking API was available from Helix Software. On Intel 80386 processors, it can run in protected mode to reduce its footprint in conventional memory.

Microsoft suggests SmartDrive to be used when installing Windows 2000 or Windows XP from MS-DOS to reduce installation time.

SmartDrive has been superseded by VCache (a portion of WIN386 or VMM32), which was introduced in Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and carried over to Windows 95, Windows 98/Windows 98 SE and Windows Me. The main advantage of VCache over SmartDrive is its ability to adjust cache size dynamically. However, it tended to take too much RAM in Windows 95; this aspect was improved in Windows 98.

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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “SmartDrive”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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FASTOPEN

In computing, FASTOPEN is a terminate-and-stay-resident command, introduced in MS-DOS version 3.3, that provides accelerated access to frequently-used files and directories. The command is also available in SISNE plus.

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Microsoft 32-bit file access

32-bit file access refers to the higher performance, protected mode disk caching method introduced in Windows for Workgroups 3.11, which replaced SmartDrive. It bypassed MS-DOS and directly accessed the disk, either via the BIOS or (preferably) 32-bit disk access (Windows-native protected mode disk drivers).