[2] Early versions of SmartDrive were loaded through a CONFIG.SYS device driver named SMARTDRV.SYS.
[1] 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.
On Intel 80386 processors, it could 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.
The main advantage of VCache over SmartDrive is its ability to adjust cache size dynamically.