herbalist

The knowledge and help in this place is amazing. I'm still not sure why I'm keeping XP at all, except for that one addictive game that's installed there. It would probably run on 2K just as well. I should have archived it and installed 2K. Still might. Regarding the lack of an I386 folder, if it turns out that I really need it, I can copy it from a friends PC. Until now, it's always been a matter of getting the most out of a slow processor and limited RAM. There's so many things I've wanted to try but didn't have hardware that was up to the task, virtualization for one. Win2K is running faster in Virtual PC on this hardware than it does as a real system on my HP. Using some of the info in this thread and 7zip, I think I can make a zipped copy of the XP system on this PC and extract it onto a virtual disk. A fitting response to those who think 98 should be forgotten. This is going to be fun.

Do those CDROM drivers work for DVD drives?

Finally, it's working. 98SE and XP are both installed and working properly, using the windows bootloader. Used the Win2K CD (substituted nicely for the XP CD for this job) and BTSECT. It all works but it's going to take some getting used to. On my HP, the drive letters don't change, no matter what OS I'm using. 98 is the "C" drive, 2K is the "D" drive. On this PC, the partition containing the OS in use becomes "C". I would have preferred that it behaved like the HP, but if I understand it correctly, that would require that XP was installed on a "D" drive to start with. I'll just have to keep the changing drive letters in mind when I write batch files. I'm building the 98 system over from scratch. Both OS are using a dedicated swap partition. So far, the only issue is the graphics issue described in post #24. I'm using a driver obtained from the Intel site instead of the one from Dell but it didn't fix anything. Running at a reduced acceleration stops the lag and so far, hasn't caused any other issues. It will suffice until I find a driver version that works better. Thanks to everyone for all the help. Now I can get to the fun part of this job, finding out just what this unit can do with 98lite.

At a place of employment, office and workstation computers should only get internet access if it's necessary for them to perform their jobs. Reformatting might be the fastest way to fix the problem (assuming your office has all the data on these PCs backed up, but finding and fixing the actual problem could show who is the source of this problem.

Hijack this and instructions regarding its use are available here.

There is one version of Virtual PC that does run on 98, Connectix 5.1. When MS got it, they took 9X compatibility away. I presently have it installed on another 98 unit with the images stored on the external drive. I'm glad virtual machine software was mentioned here. Haven't used it in ages, not very practical on underpowered machines, but this one has more than enough RAM and a fast enough processor to make it quite usable. Yes. The install path is E:\I386. I talked again to the individual I got this from when I installed a security package on an almost identical unit. They're refurbished PCs. I didn't check if the operating systems were exact copies or not. Didn't want to know. It worked at Windows update, which is good enough for me. My experience with building systems on newer hardware is limited. I've had lots of practice on older hardware and getting as much out of them as possible. My experience with XP is in servicing and securing existing systems, not building them. This is the first time I've had hardware this recent that I could do with as I wanted. jaclaz, I went through those links you posted. Except for one, all of the options require that I have the CD for XP, which I don't. I have a 2K CD but don't know if I could use it to repair an XP boot. If it can, that would be my first choice. One of the links mentioned using Partition Magic, which I do have. I wasn't aware of the abilities of the utilities that came with it. PQboot looks like a potential solution. I need to back away and think about this before I go any further and decide just what role this unit and the others will fill. With a 40GB hard drive, it doesn't have enough storage to do everything. It's one hard drive cabinet is quite a limitation. I've also obtained a P-866 Compaq with 2-10GB drives but limited RAM (128MB) that's got all kinds of room and empty slots, possible light duty Linux server. There's also an old Gateway that's very limited on the processor (233mhz) but is maxed out on the RAM (384MB) that would make a good hardware firewall. I've thought about taking the motherboard out of the Dell and putting it into one of those two cabinets. If it would fit, it would make for a much more versatile PC. I'm also considering dumping XP completely and starting fresh with 98 and 2K. Those I have CDs for.

Given a choice, I'd put XP in a virtual environment. Now that you mention it, I could install Virtual PC on the new 98 box and move XP onto it. Managed to do that with an existing 2K system. Just need to remember how I did it.

Thanks. Oddly enough, Dell has newer versions of the drivers than the Intel site. So far, I haven't had any problems with the reduced settings. Everything is working as it should. I already installed the Dell drivers. At the moment, I have the XP system loaded back in, getting ready to strip it down some more. An online game a friend got me addicted to uses nearly a gigabyte of space, so I'm making some more room.

There is a customizing tool for 98 that can strip out a lot of components that are not normally optional. It's 98lite, available here. This tool does not integrate the other items you mention. I'm not sure if there is a tool that does.

Here is the info you asked for. CPU-Z found another problem. The two memory sticks are different speeds. Slot 1 is 133MHZ. Slot 2 is 200MHZ. The labels on the sticks don't say the speed, only the size. I don't have a stick that matches either one. If what I'm told is correct, it was a computer shop that added the extra memory.

I've run into an odd issue with the browsers, Seamonkey and IE and their displaying of animated images. The link below is to an animated radar image that uses several layered images (might be the wrong word to describe it). With graphics acceleration on full, processor usage stays at 100% and the browser gets very sluggish. My 366mhz HP displays the animation faster than this box. It's not until I turn the acceleration down to one step above "none" that the speed is normal and processor usage drops. Any ideas? So far, this reduced graphics settings isn't causing any other problems, but I'm still building the system. http://www.intellicast.com/National/Radar/...mp;animate=true

That did it! I forgot to remove the 2nd RAM stick before starting the install, which gave me several "out of memory" errors. Had to install some drivers and SESP2.1 more than once to get them to complete, but when they were done, the errors and device problems were gone. It's fast, and I haven't used 98 lite or stripped out IE yet! Right now, it's just a base package, SESP, NUSB, my security apps, and a browser. Oddly enough, this is the first 98 unit that complains when I don't use the "safely remove hardware" utility before unplugging a flash drive. None of the others ever complained. Must be from having built in USB ports that are 2.0 ready. Time for a system backup. Then comes the fun, building and tweaking and making it even faster. My only regret is that I couldn't use 98FE, no drivers (unless I can tweak the installers for the SE drivers). For the short time it was installed, it was incredibly fast. Seemed like windows would open before I let go of the mouse button. I might try it again at another time. Right now, I'll enjoy tuning this one and get back to setting up the dual boot when it's done. Thanks for the help.

The patch made no difference. I also tried twice to install the new graphics drivers, once before using the patch and once on a re-imaged system after trying the patch. In both cases, I got the same memory range problems. The universal video driver is next.

Just to clarify a couple of things. I've pretty much decided that I will go with a more conventional dual boot system, now that I have the XP system down to under half its original size. At the moment, XP isn't on the PC at all. I'm working with 98SE only. I've installed NUSB and SESP2.1. Both are working well. I've got updated chipset drivers, sound drivers, and network drivers installed, all working properly. The only problem right now is the display adapter problem. I've removed one of the two RAM sticks, leaving 512MB installed. With the standard VGA adapter installed, I found that unchecking the "Use automatic settings" box gets rid of the error message. I've made a full system backup of the setup at this point. I'll pick up that patch but I'll also explore every other possibility, including the universal display drivers.

The CD isn't a problem. I backed up all the install CDs long ago on my primary 98 box. One partition on the external drive is nothing but backup images. I still have the display driver conflict. On the previous attempt, the problem persisted whether it was the standard VGA adapter or vendors drivers: This device cannot find any free Input/Output Range resources to use (code 12) On the resources tab, Memory Ranges showing as conflicting: 00000000-07FFFFFF 00000000-0007FFFF 000C0000-000CB7FF the first 2 show to be conflicting with "System board extension for ACPI BIOS". The first one shows 2 instances of it, the second, one. On the last range can't be modified.

My main reason for wanting both OS on one partition was the lack of hard drive space and the lack of expandability of this hardware. I was going to make the system partition as small as possible in order to make room for a decent size data partition. I've managed to get the XP system well under 2GB so I will have more hard drive space than I initially thought. This thing is becoming one annoying piece of hardware. What looks like a speaker jack is actually a line output. It has no speaker jack. I either have to install another sound card or use amplified speakers. The only sound cards that I have left are combination modem/sound units from HP units that use proprietary drivers. I have drivers but they're a nightmare to make work on non-HP hardware. I'm trying to install 98SE again. My old 98CD is so battered up that the installer couldn't extract cab-64. I'll find out soon enough if the disk I just assembled going to work better. On the last attempt, I had trouble with the display drivers and free memory space. This time, I'll pull out one of the RAM sticks first in case having 1024MB of RAM is causing the problem. On the last attempt, it showed 3 memory ranges that conflicted. One of them couldn't be reassigned on either device. Will try again.

Yes, I'm trying to put both XP and 98 on the same partition. I expect to have to manually copy one of the two sets of files onto the "C" drive. Which one remains to be seen. The XP system is complete, ready to go. I have Acronis images of the "C" drive and one of the whole disk. I also have a 7zip archive of the entire XP system ready as well. At the moment, I'm starting over building the 98 system. I had a lite 98FE system going that was incredibly fast, booting up in well under 15 seconds. Managed to fix windows protection errors for ndis.vxd, then fought through free memory range conflicts with the display adapter only to find that all but one of the 98 drivers Dell had on their site were for 98SE and don't work with FE. Neither the site or the files said 98SE, just 98. As much as I appreciate that they still have 98 drivers available, it would be nice if they'd give a little more accurate information regarding what they're for.

That's exactly what I have in mind. I'm almost positive the laptop I worked on had just such a setup, but with XP and Vista. I'm also pretty sure that the bootloader was part of the Vista install. I've made Acronis backups of both the finished NTFS and FAT32 converted system to the "D" drive and copied all the backups on the "D" drive to a flash drive, just in case it gets damaged. At the moment, I've put the hard drive into my 98 box and am making a 7zip archive of the entire "C" drive, not including the swap file. Once that's done, I'll back up the MBR and start building the 98 system. How much difference is there between the XP and the 2K bootloader? I have a 2K CD and an existing system with 2K and 98 that uses the 2K bootloader. Might it be possible to use it in place of XPs bootloader? If they're basically the same, maybe I can do a temporary 2K install on "D" to get the 2K bootloader installed, then edit boot.ini to point at the XP system I'll copy back to the "C" drive. Would this possibly work?

The very first thing I did was to make a full backup of the original NT system, so no matter what happens, I can start over. I have a couple of Linux Live CDs but nothing with XP files. This PC has no backup files or restore points on it, so I have nothing to make an install CD with. The HD is partitioned into 27GB for C: (the system drive) and 10GB for D:. I'm presently using the D: a storage drive for backups, software and drivers. If possible, I'd like to keep the "D" drive as a data storage and put both systems on "C". Can Grub4DOS accommodate such a setup?

I recently picked up a Dell OptiPlex GX260 with XP-SP3 installed as payment for servicing other PCs. It has a Pentium 4 2.40 Ghz and 1GB of RAM. My first thought was to put a 98lite system on it, just to see how fast it could go. It turns out that Dell still has all the 98 drivers I need for this unit on their site. No matter how the rest turns out, this I get to build. I've decided that I also want to keep the XP install as well, if for no other purpose as a test unit and have a dual boot system. When I opened up the unit, I found that the cabinet has no place to mount a 2nd hard drive. There's just no room. In order to dual boot 98 and XP, both OS will need to be on one hard drive. A while ago, I saw just such a setup on a laptop with XP and Vista both installed on one partition. I wish I had examined that setup more closely. It seems that it should be possible to do the same with 98 and XP. I've already converted the hard drive to FAT32, and partitioned it into 2, but I have one more big problem. I don't have the disks to reinstall XP. I'm stuck working with the existing install or backups of it. I have an idea but I don't know if it will work. I'd copy all of the XP system to an external hard drive using my DOS CD, which has USB and long file name support. Then I'd install 98 with the Windows folder renamed to Win98. On 98, TweakUI has the ability to change the locations of "special folders", including the program files and common files directories. The XP version of TweakUI doesn't have the option to move the "program files" folder. I'd copy the contents of "program files" to "software", change the setting with TweakUI, then install everything to the software folder. When the 98 system is complete, I'd copy the XP files back to C:\. With 98 being installed in Win98 and Program_files relocated to "software", there should be no file/folder name conflicts (I hope). Has anyone tried this? Does it have a chance of working? I realize that I'll probably need a bootloader. Does anyone have another idea that will work on a single hard drive with an existing install of XP? All ideas and comments (except for "skip the 98 system") welcome.

98 standard edition is also known as 98FE to distinguish it from 98 second edition (98SE).

I don't know for sure if it's true or not. Either way, after accusations like those, I'd set up a monitored test rig and find out for myself before I used it. If it really does make all the connections claimed, I'd be very hesitant to use it. I don't see how those connections would help it to perform its stated purpose. I posted the link primarily to show that there might be a problem. Some of their responses don't stand up to reason. Any user to truly needs such a service would be wise to test it out for themselves first before actually using it. If I was going to use a service to help remain anonymous, I'd choose TOR. The last time I tried it, TOR itself works with 98, but the app it's bundled with, Vidalia, does not. Drains out the system resources in less than a minute. TOR can be used without it, but you have to configure it manually.

You might want to check out this thread and examine the data attached to this post before you install Ultrasurf. It may be the exact opposite of what you're expecting. Rick

This incident doesn't say anything good about either party. If this is malware caused, PrevX failed to detect it and allowed the activity. It doesn't say much for Windows 7 either if that's all it takes to bring it down. If this is caused by malware, what else is being disabled at this time, and is anything else taking place while the screen is black? They need to do better than "likely"

You've got a lot of options available for imaging or backing up your system. You can copy entire drives or partitions. You can also archive all of the files on a drive and handle the MBR, formatting and partitioning separately. Originally I used Acronis True Image, version 8, but didn't want the extra running processes. When I found that the bootable Acronis CD did everything I needed, I stopped installing the software. After setting up a multi-boot system, I found that the simplest way to back an OS was to boot to another OS and use it to copy or restore the first one. For the last year or so, I've been using 7zip to archive the contents of entire drives, not including the swap file. On single OS PCs, a bootable DOS CD with DPMI, LFN, and USB drivers running a command line version of 7Zip will also do the job. Each has their advantages. For my purposes, archiving the files and using separate utilities to partition and format drives is more suited to my needs. It's pretty much your choice whether you want to back up or image the entire OS as a unit or work with the file system, MBR, and partitioning/formatting separately.