Turning off this drive while the Amiga is operating will have no effect at all, because the memory is allocated to the external drive as part of the start-up sequence.
Two powerful instructions are provided that allow you to maximise the available memory for your programs.
CLOSE WORKBENCH
instruction: close the Workbench
Close Workbench
This command closes the Workbench screen, saving about 40k of memory, and freeing it for your own programs! Prove this now, as follows:
E> Print Chip Free, Fast free Close Workbench Print Chip Free, Fast Free
CLOSE WORKBENCH can be executed from inside an AMOS Professional program, or from Direct Mode, but it will not work if there is a CLI window opened. To solve this problem, ensure that AMOS Professional loads using the following CLI instruction:
CLOSE EDITOR
instruction: close the AMOS Professional Editor Window
Close Editor
To save more than 28k of memory, use the CLOSE EDITOR command in an AMOS Professional program. The program listing will be completely unaffected. If there is insufficient memory to re-open the Editor Window after the program has finished, AMOS Professional will automatically erase the current display and revert to the standard default screen. Simply press [Esc] to summon up the Editor as usual!