dencorso

Wow! That's a quite nice trick. I've been using the Wayback Machine to get otherwise lost text for a long time, but never thought to try the URLs retrieved in the process, as you just did. Thanks a lot for the idea! You rock!

jaclaz, my friend, you're quite right! That's precisely it! You rock, you really do!

You didn't quite get my point. What Sfor said is quite true but: One boots from BIOS support (USB 1.1, assuming DOS calls it C:), creates a RAM disk with XMSDSK (let's say D:), locates it with FINDRAMD and transfers everything relevant to the RAM disk (2.88 MB or a little more should be large enough), changes the current drive to the RAM disk (D:), and loads USBASPI and DI1000DD using, say, DEVLOAD. Poof, the original drive letter used for USB boot ceases to exist ( drive C: becomes invalid) and the drive's contents are inaccessible via that letter. But now they are acessible via a new drive letter, created by DI1000DD (say, W:). And since the current drive is the RAM disk, DOS will NOT crash! So, now change the current drive to drive W: and start windows from drive W: and all will go well, EXCEPT in the case in which windows, while loading, starts NUSB. If Windows strats NUSB (or Orangeware), and only in this case the drive Z: will become instantly invalid and the system will crash. But if the windows image does not have native usb support, nothing wrong will happen, and windoes can really be started from USB, at USB 2.0 speed, provided one corrects all references to the boot drive letter, changing it to Z: in all of MSDOS.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS, WIN.INI, SYSTEM.INI, PROTOCOL.INI, USER.DAT, SYSTEM.DAT and in the main environment. This can be done. The down side is that whatever drives were in the usb ports must remain there during the whole uptime, because unplugging any of them can crash the system. And also that no new USB device can be recognized after the loading of USBAPI. That's what I was talking about. I know it surely is very difficult to get this complex thing working but once working it should require no further adjustments. So, with lots upon lots of patience, *it* *can* *be* *done*. So why don't I do it myself? Well, I have no use for it since my only USB storage devices are flashdisks, and using windows from flash media is a sure way to kill the flash memory due to excessive writing to it. As soon as I have a USB HDD I may try it, but for now I have no plans of acquiring one. But all lilas asked was whether it is possible and I insist it IS. This is untested, AFAIK, so the first one to try it may not succeed at firs or even at all. But, in theory it can be done, and the dos part has been done and works. See the links I posted above in my next to last post before this one (that is, post #7).

@jaclaz: First of all, thanks for the link! You rock! Well, lilas needs to boot first, using the BIOS USB support (usually USB 1.1) then move things to a RAM drive and load the DOS USB 2.0 drivers. This will result in the disappearance of the BOOT drive and its letter, from the DOS point of view, hence the RAM drive is really needed. Now it'll be possible to start Win 98SE from the newly created USB 2.0 USBASPI drive using the new drive letter. I never said it was easy. It's not. But it is possible. But, in this context, NUSB cannot be present in Windows because, when Windows loads it, the USBASPI drive will disappear, resulting in a major system crash! So, possible it is, but only in Win 98SE without NUSB. The links I posted above are two alternate ways of doing it up to the point of having USB 2.0 support in DOS. The rest requires a lot of patience, tunning up and messing with the registry. But can be done. HTH.

@Chozo4: You mean USBASPI.SYS v. 2.24 ??? And I thought the most recent available was the v. 2.20! Thanks for the heads up! @lilas: Please give a look at these two threads elsewhere: USB 2.0 + NTFS read/write under DOS, Achieved successfully ! and Ghosting from Booted USB key Drive They don't do quite what you want, but they may be a start...

Read also: "137GB limit - ESDI-506PDR and other limits", where it all began. And do read again "Enable48BitLBA - Break the 137Gb barrier" from post #407 to the end. And there is also "Problems with 1 TB RAID". And yes, I think you ought to use v. 4.10.0.2225, patched by LLXX, unless you do have an IBM laptop. HTH

No, that is, Win 98SE will run, but using just one of the cores. You'll be better off by buying that pentium or any single core AMD.

And then you say "7. also if possible to be legal.", but it´s not legal. This is not to kick you in the balls, but M$ will take it down... It all obviously come under the interoperability exemption to the D.M.C.A, as it sure does add new interoperability galore, which is the sine qua non requirement for the relevant parts of the E.U.L.A. not to apply... I don't see quite why it is fated to be illegal. In my opinion it may be a question for attorneys whether it is or is not legal. I just want to point out it's far from crystal clear... more like 32k shades of gray, IMHO.

Can this perhaps be of help? Connecting an MS-Dos Application to a Printer on a USB Port on Windows 2000 (link) I know it's not quite what you asked but maybe an adaptation of it might work...

The answer is (2) But it is more than just harmless, it is playing it safe, for who knows the future? Some day you might decide or be forced to transfer your installation to another hardware, not using the Promise board but the motherboard BIOS instead, so your system is already ready for it.BTW, welcome to the forum!

Problem Solved! Here's the real McCoy: Native Winds Docx2Rtf is a freeware file converter for MS Word 2007 Docx and OpenOffice Sxw and Odt files. NW Docx Converter (FREE)

My wild guess is that you used a wrong version of the slovak IO.SYS... But, to be able to help you, I must understand better what happened. How exactly did you restore the IO.SYS? Elaborate a little, please. Moreover, you are aware that the most current version of Win 9x/ME IO.SYS is Q311561, of course, aren't you? That's the one you should be using, in any localization.

BlindWrite 5 rw tool will do it for you nicely also. But, then again, you may just proceed in Nero as you would when using a brand-new blank and, after you click on burn and OK, it'll offer to erase it after it realizes it's not a blank. That's how I usually do it. HTH.

Why not go back somewhat further and install Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0, which is known to work OK (I do use it) or even MS VS 2003, which some say does work? You'll learn C++ just the same, and won't have to worry about compatibility issues, 9x/ME- wise.

Hi, Multibooter! Thanks for testing and reporting it. You rock!

Hi, Multibooter: 1)On thinking about them, your numbers make sense: 1151-512 = 639 and 1024-512 = 512 So, simply omit the /MAX=xxxxxxxx from HIMEM.EXE command, and things should be solved! Also, do try XMSDSK with and without the /T switch, and tell us what happens. This matter you'll have to investigate further once you solve the one above. This is fully unexplored land. But do tell me: if you put the swapfile elsewhere, do these problems again disappear? If you look inside vmm.vxd v. 4.10.0 2226, you'll find ConservativeSwapfileUsage starting at file offset 5287C, so not only vmm.vxd knows about it, but pays attention to it on Win 98SE startup. So, work it does, but with the amount of memory you have, I recommend you use ConservativeSwapfileUsage=0 instead, as I do. Also unexplored land. I'll sure be looking forward to hearing your findings about it.Good luck!

Did you try NDD (2002) or just NDD (2001)? The 2002 version is better and faster.

You're all saying wonders about Foxit Reader, but this thread Acrobat Reader 7, which is not too old, has me thinking things are not quite so simple, after all... Would any of you Foxit lovers care to give us an update about which version to use and just about how fantastic it really is, in fact?

Then again, you can just run "REGEDIT /S C:\yourfile.reg" in windows, by creating a shortcut having "REGEDIT /S C:\yourfile.reg" as the target and putting it in the StartUp folder in the Start Menu... HTH.

Hi Marius '95! It seems that Xeno86 is right, and dskmaint.dll from ME is also needed for things to work right using Scandskw and/or Defrag from WinME... Please try this package and tell us how it fares on your RAID: http://www.mdgx.com/files/BHDD30.ZIP. And also please do give us an update on how are you managing your RAID, which I believe is the biggest FAT32 disk ever used with Win 9x/ME. Best wishes.

I'm all for politeness, don't take me wrong, but I really doubt whether, if they tried real hard, the people at Adobe would ever manage to care less about us Win 9x/ME users than they already do. Adobe Reader dropped suport for our OS some time ago, while Shockwave and Flash, nowadays, just mess up one's system instead of working as advertised (they still claim to support Win 9x/ME, probably just because they forgot - or didn't bother - to update their info about them). I don't believe they still test them in our OS anymore. Then again, I may just be a bitter, misguided pessimist.

ONGD - FREE - AlternaTIFF TIFF Plug-in --- http://www.alternatiff.com/

On trying to open a .pdf file of version 1.6 or higher, users of Adobe Reader 6.0.6 are greeted by a message box which says the following: Which is all very fine and all but, as we all know, we, users of Win 9x/ME cannot update Adobe Reader any further, anymore. So that message above became no more than a nag, and a very irritating one at that! The more so, because there is a check box inside the message-box that says "Do not show this message again", but once the check box is checked it works only for the then current session (so that if one closes the archive and opens another, without closing the Adobe Reader, it'll not display the message again, but once it is closed, Adobe Reader will not remember that setting next time: close the Reader, then open it again and there pops the selfsame message-box again...). There is no known way, not even through the registry, to make that nag message go away forever. On the other hand, I've yet to find a version 1.6 .pdf file that crashes the Reader, or even just fails to open, after you click OK on the nag message box! Of course the may exist, but surely they aren't common. And, even then, the only way to know whether the .pdf will open or not is by trying, so what is that nag useful for? One workaround, and a very unsatisfactory one at that, but also a good proof-of-concept, consists in hexediting the identifier of the offending .pdf file, so that, instead of the original "%PDF-1.6" (without the inverted double commas), it becomes, say, "%PDF-1.5". This'll suffice for Adobe Reader 6.0.6 to open it without nagging you. I say this is very unsatisfactory, because this workaround means hexediting each and every .pdf file one ever comes in contact with, for the sake of avoiding the nag. So here is what I consider a way better solution: 0) Confirm that you do have Adobe Reader v. 6.0.6: go to the \Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\ folder, right-click on AcroRd32.exe, choose Properties, then Version and confirm that it says "File Version: 6.0.6.2007010800" (without the inverted double commas). If it does not, update your version all the way up to 6.0.6; 1) Download the freeware command-line utils.zip, from KanastaCorp, grab inside it just patch.exe and drop it into the \%windir%\command\ folder; 2) Download the AcroRd32.zip attached below, grab inside it AcroRd32.pat and drop it into the \Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\ folder; 3) Still in the \Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\ folder, right-click on AcroRd32.exe, choose Properties, uncheck the read-only attribute, click Apply and Close, change the .exe extension to .ori, go to Properties again and check once again the the read-only attribute, click Apply and Close; 4) Start a DOS box, go to \Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\ folder, and run the following command from the DOS prompt: patch -p AcroRd32.ori AcroRd32.pat AcroRd32.exe 5) Still in the \Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\ folder, right-click on newly created acrord32.exe, choose Properties, and set the read-only attribute. 6) Enjoy your nagless Reader! If everything went well, the patched file will now say it has "File Version: 6.0.6.2008011100". Observe that this patch disables the above-mentioned message only in the case it would have been elicited by the detection of a v. 1.6 or higher .pdf file. There may be other reasons capable of eliciting the selfsame message-box, which are not disabled by this patch. It'll only prevent Adobe Reader 6.0.6 from nagging you because of .pdf files having a version above 1.5! This is by design. Note for those using GetVer.exe: Somebody at Adobe forgot to update the hexadecimal file version for Adobe Reader 6.0.6, so that if you use GetVer on it, it will say it is "6.0.5.399", which is the same value for Adobe Reader 6.0.5 !!! I corrected this also, so the patched file will say it is "6.0.6.400"... Of course, as always, the standard disclaimer applies: It works great for me, but YMMV and I can guarantee nothing whatsoever about this patch, and about the use you make of it. So, by deciding to apply it you fully accept that anything you do is of YOUR SOLE RESPONSIBILITY... Hence, if after performing this mod your pc morphs into a purple mushroom and explodes, causing a 10-day worldwide blackout in the process, you know you can't blame me for it! You have been warned. Update 05-08-08: Thanks to RetroOS's help, now I offer you also the patch for Adobe Acrobat 6.0.6 Standard! So: AcroRd32.zip contains the patch for Adobe Reader 6.0.6 and Acrofull.zip, the new one for Adobe Acrobat 6.0.6 Standard. AcroRd32.zip acrofull.zip

Precisely because of it: Win 98SE knows how to override MSCDEX, hence Win 98SE loads 32-bit file access for the CD/DVD drive, once it starts. SHSUCDX is better, faster and more carefully written, but Win 98SE knows nothing about it, so cannot override it, and the result is having compatibility mode for the CD/DVD drive...

How is it going? Have you solved the problem? BTW, which usbaspi.sys are you using? Panasonic 2.20? If not, why? Good luck!