dencorso

I'm glad you've swiftly solved the issue you've found. However, allow me to nitpick: Well, no. You actually didn't follow my instructions, at first, despite your claims... Then, when you finally did follow my instructions (not exactly, but sort of): Surprise: It worked! Hence, when one follows instructions, one ought to follow them in full, not to decide what to leave behind... Patch patterns are matched to the file (the target) they intend to patch. When one gives them a different target they may patch it nonetheless, however the result will be a suffusion of yellow, to quote jaclaz.

BTW, where does Opera store cookies, history and whatever it calls the "Temporary Internet Files" if it keeps them?

Here is RLoew's complete patch, as a patch pattern, so that those interested may create the patched IO.SYS. Thanks are due to RLoew for creating it and for sharing it with us all. You do rock, RLoew! In order to use the enclosed patch pattern you need to grab (using 7-zip, for instance) the file winboot.98s from inside the Q311561USA8.EXE hotfix, and put it in an arbitrary temporary folder, say, C:\PATTMP (create it just for the patching procedure). Then download the freeware command-line utils.zip, from KanastaCorp, grab inside it just PATCH.EXE and drop it into the same C:\PATTMP folder. Then download the attached file containing IO_RRL.PAT and drop it into the same C:\PATTMP folder. Then open a DOS box, go to C:\PATTMP and, from there run the following command: patch -p winboot.98s IO_RRL.PAT IO.SYS A new IO.SYS will be created in C:\PATTMP, and it has the complete patch as per RLoew's post. Enjoy! As always, here, my standard disclaimer applies: I guarantee nothing whatsoever about the patch pattern I'm releasing in this post nor about the above procedure. So, by deciding to apply it you fully accept that anything you do is of YOUR SOLE RESPONSIBILITY! IO_RRL.7Z

No. As I said: That is KB311561 Win 98SE IO.SYS patched with both jds' revision of the Phelum patch and RLoew's earlier patch. CRC32 = 30D4D998 and MD5 = BC7FE0D6DC0AF9F3303C0A444C74442B. But it's very well tested and reliable, and solves most problems, all right. I intend to test RLoew's just released complete patch asap. But, at the moment, if you want that, you've got some hexediting to do.

That is KB311561 Win 98SE IO.SYS patched with both jds' revision of the Phelum patch and RLoew's earlier patch. CRC32 = 30D4D998 and MD5 = BC7FE0D6DC0AF9F3303C0A444C74442B. You can use MS CRC.EXE and MS FCIV.EXE to confirm the CRC32 and MD5 hashes, but you must extract the latter from inside KB841290, since the installer refuses to run on Win 9x, but FCIV.EXE itself runs OK on Win 9x. That should solve your issue, all right, submix8c. I decided to post the hashes to help distinguishing among the various versions of IO.SYS that are around at present.

Try reading the DVD RW in another reader before doing anything to it. Most probably your burner is broken, and using a different burner or reader to test the DVD RW will help decide where the problem really lies.

Read the entire threads where the utils I pointed you to are, and the links they contain. All you need to know is there.

Use DiskMod and the USB Boot Watcher, and XP will run fine.

I've checked it. It's OK.

If it was solved *here* once before, there's no need to troubleshoot it again. Does search the forum ring any bells? You need to stop Windows from re-installing those 2 files [uSBMPHLP.PDR + IOS.VXD] each time after you update drivers or re-install NUSB, because you need to keep the updated versions installed by NUSB 3.3.If you have Win98 SE setup CAB files (copied by you or by 98SE setup) on your hard disk(s), it's a good chance they are located in %windir%\OPTIONS\CABS [%windir% = usually C:\WINDOWS]. Just rename that directory to something else, like C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS.old\CABS.old (example). Then re-install your drivers and/or NUSB. And when Windows prompts you to reinstall/restore needed system files from Win98 SE CABs [you just renamed] or setup CD-ROM [make sure 98SE setup CD is *not* inside your CD/DVD drive(s)], answer Cancel or No [or similar]. Later when you're done installing your USB drivers + NUSB, rename that folder back to the original name: C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS Done. FYI: Guide on how to copy Win9x/ME CABs from setup CD-ROM to your hard disk: http://www.duxcw.com/digest/Howto/software...bs/movecabs.htm HTH Success! I was beginning to think I'd never see the day when I would be able to properly use my USB storage devices with Win98SE. But now that day has come, and it's a hearty victory indeed. Thanks for your help.

Whitesnake - Fool for your loving

Ditto.

Please do so. Just post numbers are enough. Having it I can split them and create another thread. I'd like to keep this the main Opera thread from now on. So I'm thinking of adding all previous posts into a locked thread, and add a pointer to it in the 1st post of this thread. How do you all like this idea?

Why don't you ask karyonix for a custom IDE version of his great DiskMod filter? He might very well consider doing it. And it would solve most, if not all the problems you've listed.

In case you're right and it is indeed a .msi, MsiX can extract it. It is able to extract files from .msi, .msm and .msp installation files, and it is a command-line console program, so I guess it'll be easy to integrate. Do give it a try! Find it here: Heath Stewart's Patch Files Extractor

Welcome Opera users to your special thread away from the KernelEx one! Now, for older posts regarding Opera: is there any list?

Yes, it's commercial. I use it. It's worth evey ¢ of its price. But there is a trial version, here, because it's shareware.

Thats great news! And Steven W's workaround ought to work for everyone, too, because it appears that what we have here is just an installer-imposed limitation. You rock!

Not underfloppies, no. Subfloppies, of course! But... that'd mean something with a total space less than 160 KB...

I stand corrected. PlainOldFavorites it is! I remembered reading about it somewhere, perhaps in this selfsame thread which is becoming really huge. At the time, there was no follow up to that mention, and I thougt I might as well bring it back to the discussion. I understand it does work with all versions up to 7, right? If so, it may still be a solution for many users.

For the Firefox bookmarks issue, there is rumor that PlainOldBookmarks PlainOldFavorites do work. Can any of you Firefox users please verify it? As for splitting the Opera fonts discussion ito its own thread, would any of the proposers be so kind as to PM me a post list?

I agree. But, just for the record, here's an interesting blog page from Atola Tech about it, with a free tool that seems to be able to remove it without formatting, when warranted.

Well, HDDErase, most aptly recommended by jaclaz can, if you tell it to, remove the HPA, and recover that space. The downside of it is that you'll have to erase the disk once more. BTW, when you 1st access a zeroed-out HDD's first sector with RPM, it'll report Unknown IPL because the IPL is all zeroes, as jaclaz already explained. However, what you should do at that point is move the cursor to the MBR entry in RPM's screen, then hit enter: focus will move to the box below... then hit the space bar until it says Standard IPL, and then hit <F2> to save. That's all. Bear in mind that if one partitons a disk with any other tool, and then looks at it with RPM, it'll probably also say Unknown IPL, whenever the IPL present is different of the one RPM consider Standard (and that means almost always...). In this case, if you trust the tool you used to create the IPL and want to let it be, that's OK, but if you prefer, you can follow the same procedure as for the zeroed-out HDD, and this will still result in RPM putting its Standard IPL in the place the one created by the previous tool was. I usually do it, as I prefer RPM's Standard IPL to any other. But here, of course, YMMV.

I never meant to say there were any problems from the POV of the standard. The "Number of Directory Entries" is two bytes, of course, so (if unsigned) 65,525 entries are allowed for. I just wished to point out that MS says there can be compatibility problems (most probably just with deprecated versions of some MS applications) when more than 512 entries are used. Then, I went ahead and typoed, and you cached my typo, as usual. And I was so certain of what I thought I had written, that only at this moment it dawned on me I had written "255" instead of "512". I'm sorry, I really do try to be as clear as best as I can, but more than once my typos conspire against me (and, BTW, that's why works meant for publication must have someone other than the authors revising them before going to press, although, nowadays, it doesn't always happen anymore). Thanks for the heads up! You rock!

jaclaz *is* right (of course, as always!): HDDErase is faster than Active KILLDISK. The latter remains useful when one wants to zero out just some parts of a HDD, but HDDErase is way faster for a full disk wipe, and the results are equivalent. Now, that said, here's what a WD Advanced Format Drive looks like: Your 80 GB does *not* have the phrase "Advanced Format Drive" anywhere on its label, hence it uses 512 byte sectors. That said, you may proceed as per my original instructions, but using HDDErase instead of Active KILLDISK, in the first step. HDDErase also is a DOS program, so very little has changed in those instructions. You can proceed, as agreed.