dencorso

@Dave: Multibooter is right: get chipgenius, run it with the pendrive in 2k and post a screenshot of it, please. And while you're at it, grab also the Lexar Boot-It here. Neither need installation, so you can just extract them each to its own directory and use them right away, afterwards. Before things went wrong, do you remember whether 2k gave you an "Eject" option in the context menu of the pendrive? I bet it didn't and the only way to stop it was through the "Unplug or eject hardware" icon in the system tray.

[OT]@Multibooter: There are numerous free options, that IcemanND has collected in his list of Disk Imaging Software. Now, in what regards commercial software, there is Norton Ghost 2003, which may still be be found new at eBay for about $50. It does rock! I'm a longtime user, and own one licence of NG 2003. For most purposes, NG 2003 is good enough and it's still the easier to get version of Ghost. But then, suddenly, Symantec decided that another software altogether would be best for their home clients and began marketing it as "Norton Ghost", although it's a totally different animal (those are versions 9, 10 and 12-14) and it sucks. The true Ghost, however, is still sold by Symantec as "Symantec Ghost Solution Suite", but you have to buy at least 5 licences of it as a minimum.[/OT] @Dave-H: Your pendrive is working in DOS and seen as correct by both fdisk and RPM... I think you should put everything on hold and search for the filter driver, to have it working OK in 2k also. But, it just crossed my mind, when you created the partitioned pendrive, did you perchance use Lexar Boot-It to flip its "removable" bit? And, BTW, which pendrive is it, exactly? Also, do you have the Norton Diskedit v. 2002 at hand, and can it see the pendrive (in DOS, of course)?

@jaclaz: Welcome to this thread! Your arrival here is very good news, because Dave's problems at this point are somewhat hairy... Now, on to the most pressing issue: Dave's pendrive was originally divided in two partitions. While 9x will accept this gladly, XP will treat such a pendrive as removable and refuse to show more than one partition, as you know full well. I've got very little experience with 2k, but I suppose it'd behave like XP. If so, Dave is bound to have a filter driver installed, since he was able to access and use both partitions under both 2k and 98. So I think you've hit jackpot, there. FYI, Dave has a working 2k installation and a working DOS 7.1 installation, but his alternate 98 system is the source of the original problems, after a messed-up driver installation. @Dave: jaclaz's other suggestion is in line with what I thought should be the next step: to wipe (write 00s) at least the first 512 sectors of the pendrive, beacause it will clean whatever mess may have been left there. But I'd use the HDD Low Level Format v2.36 and fully wipe it, instead of using dsfok (as jaclaz suggested) to do it. Both methods work, jaclaz's method is faster, while Multibooter's is more user-friendly, albeit slower. And then, repartition and reformat with RPM, as needed. But even before doing all this, follow jaclaz's instructions in hunting for a filter driver, because your pendrive may be OK already and all that remains is a 2k registry problem to be solved, for it to work equally OK across 2k and DOS. Then, with this solved, we get back to troubleshooting your 98 installation.

I think I know what's happened... But it'd be a long-winded explanation, and I may be wrong. So... let's skip it for now. Download the Ranish Partition Manager (RPM) 2.40 from here. Extract it to it's own private directory. Boot to DOS with the pendrive inserted, run CWSDPMI then PART240 (or PART). In case RPM can see it do nothing and get back to me here, and I'll tell you how to partition and format it with RPM. Good luck! N.B.: Take care, RPM is as dangerous as fdisk, if not more, because it's more user-friendly.

Go to Win 2k. Insert the pendrive. Then go to device manager and delete its entry under Disk Drives. Remove it without stopping. Reinsert it and, after it's detected anew, format it again from Win 2k. If that doesn't work, more labor-intensive procedures will be needed. But don't worry, it's not serious and we'll overcome this problem fast.

GeoGazette

I couldn't be more glad to read you too think nusb rocks, Multibooter! I know it gave you a hard time, in the begining. But it sure is worth the effort.

Which version of USBMPHLP.PDR do you have on your machine? Anyway, do a full backup of the Windows (and also Program Files if you have space to do it) directory and all it's subdirectories, like Multibooter told you to above. Then install the genesys driver. Reboot. Then uninstall the genesys driver. Reboot. Then install NUSB 3.3. Reboot. Tell us then how is it working at this point. But even if the machine becomes unbootable after this procedure, be sure to discuss it with us first, before reverting to the saved previous windows dir.

Yes, he sure can. ScanReg cycles the names, so it's never obvious from the name which is the oldest (or the newest, for that matter) file in the set.I agree with all your suggestions in the above post: its better to ascertain which is the oldest file under 2k, and extract it manually with WinRAR or 7-Zip and then install them manually, all this also under 2k. Then, reboot into 98, and see how it goes. Also edit scanreg.ini to 10 is a great idea. At the moment, I use 9 myself, in my system.

Great idea, Multibooter! I didn't even imagine there still might be a usable registry back-up there, but you're right, of course: there may still be one, and if he doesn't save it now it'll be lost. If he finds it (and it's easy to recognize it by its date and time), after making the back-up copies you just suggested, he ought to try to restore it, using SCANREG /RESTORE and ascertain whether it fixed his machine, or, if not, how better it is as compared to its present state, before doing anything else.

There's nothing to apologize about, Multibooter: on the contrary, your constant contributions to this thread are very much appreciated! But, as regards to renaming the thread, I prefer to wait until we have achieved the complete repair, before any such move, although I do hope we'll be there soon.Now, on to your next question: I plan to have Dave-H redetect all his USB devices again, but in a quite controlled way, after we get his machine working properly without them. And there are more advanced levels of registry-surgery in store, if needed be. I believe all the non-USB hardware will be detected correctly and the relevant software installed from what windows had already saved previously. When this point is reached, I think some sort of back-up will be in order, perhaps by the method you suggested. After securing the back-up, we can then proceed to install the USB mouse, and then try nusb 3.3 once again, but this time standalone. That's, in brief strokes, my general plan. Fortunately, Dave-H has a working Win 2k second bootable partition, from which he can safely do all types of difficult procedures to restore Win 98SE, which is a great asset in the present situation.

@Multibooter: I mean the whole HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum, of course! It's pretty radical. But my intention is to try to obviate the need for a full system reinstall. And, in any case, since Dave preserved the back-up copies of the registry (system.ant and user.ant), he can always return to the point where we started, in case things go wrong. So I think it's safe enough. In any case, since the .infs are already there, win 98 ought to locate all the drivers it needs, so all should be normal after a longish device redetect. But all the trash will be left out, or so I hope. @Dave-H: in case you didn't start yet, copy also autoexec.bat, config.sys, msdos.sys, control.ini, system.ini and win.ini to corresponding .ant files, just in case, so we'll have a full backup of the configuration files, although I doubt they'll ever be needed, in the present case.

Did you try to give it mso.dll from office XP?

OK. Lets get rough, then. From 2k, rename user.dat and system.dat to user.b01 and system.b01 ("b" from "bad"). Then copy (not rename!) system.ant and user.ant to system.dat and user.dat Be sure that the original system.ant and user.ant remain safe and sound. Reboot int 98 and you should be back at your former, not-so-good system state, but no worse. After confirming this is so, go back to safe mode, run regedit and delete the whole HKLM/System/Enum. Close regedit and reboot. Undergo patiently all the redetections of all your hardware, and then report where this led you to.

Anything would do fine. It's just a way to back-up them. But "ant" stands for "anterior" (= previous in Portuguese, my native language [common usage], and in English [rare usage]) and "pnt" because "ant" was already used and the original extensions were "inf" and "pnf".

Your link was a redist of a Microsoft file, from a non-Microsoft server location. As per Rule # 1.b, I've removed the link. Please follow the rules - consider yourself warned! BTW, the reason you didn't find where to patch is because the SP1a file doesn't need to be patched...

With all due respect, Sfor, I have to disagree: RLoew is right! If the BIOS does not support Hard Drives larger than 137GB, you risk corruption when: Because, in all these situations the Intel Application Accelerator isn't active. In fact, many other operations in true DOS mode, besides running SCANDISK may also result in certain data corruption (it's a case of "when" not "if").So, to be on the safe side you'll need: (i) A BIOS update to support 48-bit LBA, either from the manufacturer (in case it exists), or modded by a third party (in case it exists), or from e-Support (in case it exists, but that won't be for free). or (ii) RLoew's BOOTMAN (not for free either). There's no escaping from it. Sorry! You may use his free 48BITLBA program to ascertain whether this really is your case. Both BOOTMAN and 48BITLBA (inside his High Capacity Disk Patch Demo package) are available from his site.

Yes. shlwapi.dll and shfolder.dll come immediately to mind, but there are others. That's the meaning of "integrated". IE6 is not a standalone browser. Then again, I fail to see what's the relevance of it. The unofficial updates, MDIECU, for instance, only update files that already existed in IE6SP1, which was released when Microsoft still supported fully Win 9x/ME, so that any major modification to the system was made at installation time, not at update time. While there were many issues with IE6 SP1, I'm sure it's not "essentially flawed" neither on 9x-family, nor on NT-family OSes. It was superceeded on the NT-family OSes, but for the 9x-family it is the most up-to-date MS browser that can be used. You either decide you can live with that, or drop it and use a third party browser, but part of IE6 cannot be removed without crippling the system, so you're stuck with it, whether you like it or not. The unofficial updates, at best, make it more secure. But surely they cannot render it more insecure: at worst it remains as secure as it was to begin with.

It makes no specific sense at all. In fact, when one installs IE7 on Win XP, dependency walker finds the same types of unsatisfied dependencies, because IE7 was created to run both on XP and on Vista. And since both are NT-Family OSes, his/her central argument is flawed. All these missing dependencies just show that dependency walker is not a very bright software piece, that was created before those types of dual-use files even existed and it knows nothing about them, and hence yields false positives. That's all there is to it. Nothing more.

That's not how it works! We have no duty whatever of showing your unnamed contender anything. Let him/her do his/hers homework and provide evidence of flaws or exploits that *actually* can run in Win 9x / IE6 SP1 patched to the utmost, but which cannot harm Win 2k / IE6 similarly patched to the utmost. Until such evidence is presented, I really think we have more pressing busisness that to be led by the noses into doing extensive security testing for free for an unknown third party. He/she, in my view, is nothing more than a provocator, and, as such, ought to be disregarded.

Welcome to MSFN! And thanks for your report. But let me, please, point you out some more info we've gathered: LLXX's thread is not all there is about it here. If you had read using HDDs larger than 137 GB (128 GiB) with Win 9x/ME carefully, then you'd have followed the link to 48bitLBA.com, which documents the use you describe of the Intel® Application Accelerator... ...and you'd surely have read this post and the ones it links to, so you wouldn't be surprised, as ScanDskW and Defrag (both from Win ME, provided one also uses DiskMaint.dll from Win ME) are known to work OK with up to slightly above 850 GB partitions (= 26,389,392 clusters of 32 kiB ).Searching more thoroughly the forum would have led you to the relevant threads. And, of course, it's referenced in the Important / "Stickified" / Pinned Windows 98/98 SP1/98 SE/ME Topics stickified thread, you ought to always check before even starting a search.

@karyonix: Receive my most warm welcome to MSFN! It's wonderful to have you as a member here. You rock! @all: Do read also karyonix's Tutorial Boot Windows 7 from USB hard disk, over at Boot-Land.

Dave, don't you have any full system back-up, however old it may be? In any case, do try the following: copy usbstor.inf and usbstor.pnf to usbstor.ant and usbstor.pnt Copy system.dat and user.dat to system.ant and user.ant Reboot to Safe Mode, enter the Device Manager and delete all entries under USB. Reboot. Say no to all automatic new device detections. Delete usbstor.inf and usbstor.pnf Reinstall NUSB 3.3 Reboot. This time let the system install drivers for all new hardware it finds. Test with your pen-drive again and see what happened. Good luck.

Yeah... right. Just like motorcycles fail to work right because they lack two more wheels... Remember: motorcycles and cars, just like the NT and 9x families of OSes, are widely different animals, that's all.

To remove System Restore and other tricks: OppComME