Multibooter

Not so sure, I have different info, Stuxnet is USB + rootkit based, but I may be wrong. How about getting a sample of this government-sponsored malware and trying to run it under Win98? This might possibly show the lower vulnerability of running with manufacturer-provided USB drivers vsr running with the generic nusb under Win98. A sample of Stuxnet may be hard to find: "the Stuxnet worm, or a variation of the virus, had been traded on the black market" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet Virus researchers are like stamp collectors, they treat their specimen like precious stamps. "I have one which you don't have... ", and their virus collections are one of their major assets. Wikipedia did not list the current market price of a specimen of Stuxnet.

Not so sure, even if there could be infighting between that institution and the State Department.. Unless I am mistaken, there don't seem to be any working bittorrent downloads of cablegate, they seem to have been taken out, or maybe their access is blocked in the US. The decentralized KADemlia part of eMule lists a lot of sources for the encrypted 1.39GB file insurance.aes256 which might become interesting if a key becomes public. The eMule servers don't seem to list this file, strange. There seem to be also quite a few malicious visitors when one downloads Wikileak stuff with eMule, after half an hour there were 17 clients + 9 banned clients.

As reported by the German-language Spiegel http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/0,1518,732355,00.html Amazon has kicked WikiLeaks off its servers, possibly upon pressure by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The WikiLeak reports are readily available via eMule, which cannot be controlled by the U.S. government. Downloading them via eMule is very fast, there are currently many sources with high-speed uploads. The attempt to suppress the WikiLeak reports shows the importance, for the freedom of information, of eMule and of the de-centralized eMule/KAD networks. After the denial of service attack on the WikiLeaks server, it might be conceivable that agencies could try to attack eMule downloaders. Downloading under Win98 might provide some protection, most recent malware (e.g. Stuxnet) doesn't work under Win98.

That occurs 99 percent because the PC crashed, the PC was hard powered off or you pressed the case reset button. Thanks RJARRRPCGP, this error described in postig #31 has been bugging me for years, maybe twice a week, and the workaround was to reboot and run NDD. I can definitely exclude that there was a hard power off or that I pressed the reset button. In most cases when Win98 on my 10-year-old laptop freezes out of the blue and I then reboot, NDD displays this error message. Usually I was running too many programs at the same time with a heavy CPU load. This free space error has never occurred on my dual-core desktop under Win98. I have considered this problem to be unsolvable, although I suspect that it's caused by using a 120GiB HDD which the BIOS reports as 64GB. The problem occurs on all my Inspiron 7500 laptops, so it can't be caused by the old age of a specific hardware component. If you have any ideas on how to fix this problem, please let me know.

I have installed VoptXP v7.22, the last version for Win98, on the WinXP opsys on the same computer where I am running Win98. Under Win98 VoptXP v7.22 is blazingly fast, under WinXP slow like molasses. So when it comes to defragging FAT32 partitions, Win98 runs circles around WinXP. Win98 is the operating system of choice for defragging FAT32 partitions. VoptXP v7.22 does not lock the system under WinXP, in contrast to under Win98. Perhaps the lockup-problem of Vopt when defragging huge files under Win98 can be mitigated by using WinME DLLs. Any suggestions? It would be interesting to see whether VoptXP v7.22 has this lockup-problem also under WinME. I like old Vopt v7.22 (21-Nov-2003) under WinXP better than v9.21. I guess I'll keep Vopt v7.22 on my WinXP opsys, for defragging FAT32 partitions under WinXP, if needs must be, e.g. before burning a CD or DVD under WinXP, for good burn quality. For defragging NTFS I continue to use PerfectDisk v8.0.67 under WinXP, also for offline defragging of the FAT32 partition with the swap files,.

The last version of WinImage to work under Win9x is apparently v8.1. The currently latest version v8.50 of 26-Oct-2010 does not list Win9x anymore http://www.winimage.com/download.htm

Eventually I'll put a summary into the first posting, when most points have been covered. I assume there will many more postings. I would also be happy if HardDriv'n added a summary posting.I have been using VoptXP v7.22 under Win98 to defrag the FAT32 WinXP partition before creating a .gho image of it and am very satisfied with VoptXP v7.22. Defragging an external HDD with huge files, where Vopt v7.22 locks up the computer, is not that essential to me at this stage. Here some very interesting findings: 1) I have tested the later version Vopt v9.21 under WinXP. Vopt 9 under WinXP takes about TEN to FIFTY times longer to defrag a partition than v7 under Win98. What takes 10-15 seconds under Win98 takes 3 minutes and often much longer under WinXP. This looks like a WinXP issue, or the focus on defragging NTFS has made defragging software very slow. Maybe Win98 is an operating system better suited for defragging FAT32 partitions than WinXP is. 2) I am currently installing a lot of software, which is running under Win98, on my WinXP opsys selection on the same computer. After the successive clean installations under WinXP of about 3 packages, or 3 hours of installation work, I go into Win98 and create a .gho backup of the WinXP partition with Ghost v11.0.2 (switches: -z9 -cns -fatlimit -szee). Before creating a .gho image under Win98, I run Vopt v7.22, it takes about 15 seconds to defrag the WinXP FAT32 partition. Vopt v7.22 reports then 0 fragments and 0 gaps for the WinXP partition to be imaged. I then run ScanDisk on the defragged WinXP partition and finally create the .gho image. But, when I eventually restore the .gho image under Win98, using the same Ghost switches, then reboot into Win98 and then run Vopt v7.22 (Analyse only) on the restored WinXP partition, Vopt reports between 7-10 fragmented files. So Ghost, during its restoration of the partition image, turns an unfragmented partition into a partition with fragments. I have used Vopt v7.22 for defragmenting before the creation of about 20 successive WinXP partition images. All created .gho images restored the WinXP partition fine. In one instance, however, WinXP crashed after the image restore. Then, when WinXP was run again, CheckDisk came up with cross-linked files, lost clusters and truncated files of key WinXP and Kerio Personal Firewall v2.15 files. The restored WinXP image basically became unrepairably unstable. After the 3rd attempt at restoring this .gho image of the WinXP partition, standalone Ghost v11.0.2 created a good partition image and WinXP came up without any complaints. So if WinXP crashes after the restoration of its .gho partition image, one should not fiddle around under WinXP to get WinXP going, but instead repeat with Ghost the creation of the WinXP partition.

I view it as a personal prudent rule, not as a clear limitations. Norton Disk Doctor 2004, for example, works Ok under Win98 with 750GB disks with logical partitions up to a maximum of 240GB [=258.177.794.048 bytes]; a 240.5GB logical partition size results in a blue screen.When I used a 232GB active primary partition Norton Disk Doctor 2004 eventually displayed the err msg "Error on drive J: Invalid Disk Table in Boot Record". After NDD repaired this boot record, the HDD was basically destroyed. Partition Table Doctor v3.5 was able to recover a large part of the data. It looks like it's a problem of the specific software, not of Win98. Maybe 6 years ago the software developers didn't have large capacity drives available for testing. How do you defrag your HDDs?

Which version? This wouldn't concern me much. I am limiting all my FAT32 partitions to 192 GB, which is the maximimum size for a FAT32 partition allowed by PowerQuest PartitionMagic 8, they must have had their reasons. Any FAT32 partition above 192GB =196.600.1MB I consider as potentially risky, some software might not be able to handle it correctly. Your experience with Diskeeper just confirms this personal 192GB rule.By limiting myself to 192GB FAT32 partitions, I also limit the size of HDDs to a max of 1TB, to avoid drive letter overflow. I usually partition my external 1TB HDDs into 4 logical FAT32 partitions of 192GB and the remainder as a logical NTFS partition, with PowerQuest PartitionMagic 8 under Win98SE.

Crackup v1.0 can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.extremetech.com/pcmag/archives/1998/1103/crackup.zip Crackup v1.0 works Ok under Win98 on a 192 GB partition of a 1TB HDD connected via eSATA. It's an analysis tool, but I like the Analyze feature of Vopt v7.22 much better, Vopt indicates the number of fragmented files on a partition and also the names of the files fragmented.

I can confirm this. Vopt v7.22 indicates the number of fragmented files when clicking on the Analyze button and can also display nicely which files are fragmented.After defragging a partition with Vopt, the number of fragmented files was reduced to zero. When I ran Speed Disk 2005 immediately afterwards with the setting "Unfragment free space", then checked with Vopt the number of fragmented files: defragging with Speed Disk 2005 had INCREASED the number of fragmented files from 0 to 19. With the setting "Full Optimization" (=optimized placement using APPLOG data) the number of fragmented files increased to 29. With the setting "Unfragment files only" the number of fragmented files stayed at 0.

There are several reasons: 1) Win98 uses BIOS info, WinXP gets its own info. On my old laptop under a 2nd WinXP operating system (named by me "WinXP-NTFS") I defragged with PerfectDisk the FAT32 partition of my main WinXP opsys (named by me "WinXP-FAT32") and then ran sdelete to zero out free space (so that Ghost would create a smaller .gho image file of the WinXP-FAT partition). When I then booted into Win98SE and checked the defragged and sdeleted WinXP-FAT32 partition with Norton Disk Doctor, NDD detected lost clusters and displayed the error msg: "The boot area on this drive contains invalid information about the drive's free space. Windows may report the drive's free space incorrectly or slowly." I speculate that when I run the defragmentation and sdelete of the WinXP-FAT32 partition under Win98 I will not get these errors. In other words: defragging and sdeleting under WinXP somehow caused a minor corruption on my disk, as seen under Win98. My 10-year-old laptop has a very old BIOS. The 120Gib HDD inside it is reported incorrectly by this old BIOS as 64GB. Maybe PerfectDisk and sdelete under WinXP are using the (correct) WinXP info, while Win98 uses the incorrect BIOS value. For example, the only way that I can create a good clone of the internal HDD (i.e. a clone which is acceptable to System Commander) is to insert a blank HDD into the right-bay HDD module of the laptop and then clone it with the Paragon Partition Manager 9.0 RecoveryCD (Linux-based). When I insert the original or the cloned HDD into a USB enclosure, for example, PartitionMagic under Win98 will report it as a bad disk. In other words, I am using a 120GB internal HDD, which I shouldn't because the BIOS can handle only a 64GB drive. The 120GB drive is basically bad, but because of the flukes of good partitioning, it has always worked for me. After extensive file copies Win98 often freezes, and then after rebooting NDD fixes up fine the error "The boot area on this drive contains invalid information about the drive's free space." I never had any data loss under Win98 because I used a 120GB HDD with an old max.64GB BIOS. So in my special case, defragging and sdeleting a weird HDD under WinXP may cause problems under Win98. 2) WinXP seems to ignore Long File Name errors during defragmentation. Under Win98 defragmentation stops when an LFN error is encountered. Also, WinXP and Win98 seem to have some incompatibilities with Long File Names/DOS file names in different foreign languages. So defragmenting partitions with LFN errors or strange foreign-language file/directories names may produce different results under Win98 and WinXP 3) If one is interested in an optimized file/directory location when running under Win98, the defragmentation software has to access the Applog data of Win98. This cannot be done under WinXP. So to defrag an opsys in an optimized way, it has to be done under the operating system being defraqgged, and each opsys partition should be defragged while in that specific opsys. Based on usage patterns stored in \Windows\APPLOG\, file X will be placed in position A with optimized defragging under opsys 1, and then be placed in position B with optimized defragging under opsys 2. What is fast for one opsys, may not be fast for another opsys. 4) FAT32 is the main file system of Win9x. It would be a shame if there were no decent defragger under Win9x for its own main file system, working on a computer with recent hardware.

I just completed my stability test of Speed Disk of NSW 2005 defragmenting in the background under Win98SE. On my 10-year-old Inspiron 7500 (700 MHz, 512 MB RAM) I had eMule running/downloading and was browsing at the same time the Internet with Firefox at a JavaScript-heavy page while Speed Disk was defragmenting the internal HDD, then defragmenting a 192GB partition of a 1TB HDD connected to the laptop via a Vantec eSATA PCCard. Speed Disk fragmented fine, even if the system became slow when the 192GB partition was being defragmented, but no unresponsiveness or hanging/crashing of the computer. Speed Disk of NSW 2005, defragmenting in the background, passed my stability test with flying colors. I also defragmented with Speed Disk under Win98SE the FAT32 partition on which WinXP SP2 resides. I then booted into this FAT32-WinXP, which came up fine as usual. So Speed Disk of NSW 2005 does not do anything bad to the FAT32 partition which WinXP can't swallow. The defragmented FAT32 partition seems to be fully compatible with WinXP running under FAT32. I then gave Vopt v7.22 another try: Vopt 7.22 when loaded via MyRun v1.1 defragments Ok in the background a 20GB partition on the internal HDD. But when defragmenting the 192GB partition of an external 1TB HDD, connected via eSATA, Vopt locks the system for about 1 hour. The system turns completely unresponsive and the screen eventually turns black (Win98 power setting), and I couldn't turn the screen on again until Vopt had finished. The only indication that the computer was doing something at all was that the activity lights of the eSATA PCCard and of the EZ-Dock docking station were blinking. Once Vopt was finished, everything was Ok and back to normal. I will make one more test with Vopt under Win98SE, using a USB 2.0 PCCard under nusb 3.3 instead of the eSATA card. Addendum: I just finished the defragging test with the external HDD connected via USB 2.0: the locking problem is still there, but seems less severe than when connected via eSATA. Apparently every time Vopt finishes defragging a file, it checks for keyboard input. Vopt v7.22 seems to be Ok under Win98 if you are ready to go for an extended coffee break during defragmentation, and for displaying the defragmentation status of a partition (number of gaps and fragmented files)

Maybe there is a tool which can be used under Win98. I have installed Norton SystemWorks 2005 Standard for real-life testing on my good Win98SE opsys on my 10-year-old 700 MHz Inspiron 7500 laptop, where there are 100+ apps. The only component I selected during the installation was Norton Speed Disk. I am posting this while Speed Disk is defragging the internal FAT32 HDD. CpuIdle shows a high CPU usage, the laptop fan is blowing but the system is fully responsive. Earlier I was also on the internet while Speed Disk defragged fine a 192GB partition of the external 1 TB HDD connected via eSATA to my 10-year-old laptop. The system became very sluggish for a while, but never crashed or hung. Speed Disk of NSW 2005 seems to be up to now the defragmentation software of choice under Win98SE - if one wants to fill one's system with Symantec overhead of unknown consequences. Nevertheless, I was impressed. Now to the tricky part: How can one set up a standalone Speed Disk? Norton SystemWorks 2005 installs 62MB of stuff, even if one selects only Speed Disk.

Unfortunately it didn't work, neither on my old Inspiron laptop (old IDE burners) nor on my dual-core desktop (more recent IDE and SATA burners). When booting I always got the msg:Starting Windows 95... GCDROM DOS Driver v2.4, 2-6-2007 Driver name is "MSCD000". No CD-ROM drive to use; GCDROM not loaded!.... The description .... at http://sourceforge.net/projects/cdromdosdrv/ states: Operating System: 32-bit MS Windows (NT/2000/XP) It's the BIOS settings. In the AMIBIOS v2.53 of the Asus P5PE-VM motherboard in my dual-core desktop I have selected the following setting: -> Main -> IDE Configuration -> Compatible Mode ["when Legacy OS (i.e. Win Me, 98, NT 4.0, MS-DOS) is used"] As IDE Port Settings I have selected "Primary P-ATA +S-ATA" In this Compatible Mode the bootable DVD with the gcdrom.sys driver does not boot, while the DVD with the Panasonic driver does boot fine. The alternative BIOS setting is "Enhanced Mode" ["when Native OS (i.e.Win2000, WinXP) is used"] With the Enhanced Mode setting the gcdrom.sys works fine, the bootable DVD loads fine and both A: and Y: ( the application part on the bootable DVD) are accessible. The "Enhanced Mode", however, doesn't work for me with Win98, in contrast to the "Compatible Mode". The main use of gcdrom.sys seems to be for computers which can only run WinXP or higher.

I just created with GRDuw v4.1.17 (excellent software, Italy's best, only for Win98, not for WinXP) an 86.0MB floppy disk image .ima (176186 sectors, setting: skip empty tracks) of a 100MB zip disk (Windows and Mac zip 100 tools disk) in the removable left-bay ATAPI module of my 10-year-old Inspiron 7500 laptop, seen by My Computer as "Zip 100" A: 3 1/2 Floppy Disk. When I de-selected the setting "Skip empty tracks" the created .ima image file was 95.9MB [100.646.400 bytes, 196.575 sectors].WinImage could not create a .ima file of the 100MB zip disk. No idea how good or useful this .ima image created by GRDuw is. When I double-click on this huge .ima file, WinImage comes up (after having set in tab Image the Size limit for image loaded in memory to 100.000 kB)) with the msg: "Error. You are trying to open a hard disk image without a FAT or FAT32 partition". GRDuw looks like a potential tool for archiving my zip disks, but that's another topic. Eureka! MagicISO can extract files Ok from this huge .ima file via drag and drop, UltraISO only via extract. So GRDuw and Magic ISO look like a good combo for archiving zip disks. GRDuw can read and write .ima files to the physical zip drive, MagicISO can display the content of the created .ima file and add, delete and extract files in the .ima image. Is GRDuw the only software which can create an image file of a zip disk? No idea of what settings one would have to enter in Nero to create a bootable CD/DVD from the 86.0MB .ima file.

I doubt you'll get it to work. The people at V-Communications were obsessed with copy-protection and created a hard-to-pierce black box. The installation CD of v9 has directory levels nested to the maximum to make it harder to create an installation source. Old v5 (2000) came on a floppy, and the original floppy was modified during installation with the boot record of the HDD, so after installation your original floppy was not a virgin anymore. I always installed from a dcf copy of the original floppy. Who knows what traps they built into the installation source. Nevertheless, System Commander is great, it works fine for me.

gcdrom.sys is inside ODD DOS driver v2.4 in the above link I have created another bootable Dell Diagnostics DVD-ROM with gcdrom.sys instead of the Panasonic driver. Unfortunately it didn't work, neither on my old Inspiron laptop (old IDE burners) nor on my dual-core desktop (more recent IDE and SATA burners). When booting I always got the msg: Starting Windows 95... GCDROM DOS Driver v2.4, 2-6-2007 Driver name is "MSCD000". No CD-ROM drive to use; GCDROM not loaded! MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD000 /D:MSCD001 /L:Y Device driver not found: 'MSCD000' No idea why gcdrom.sys doesn't work. Perhaps it doesn't work with the Win95 command.com or io.sys of 11-Jul-1995 9:50 AM The description of ODD DOS driver at http://sourceforge.net/projects/cdromdosdrv/ states: Operating System: 32-bit MS Windows (NT/2000/XP) So the Panasonic driver still seems to be the best choice, even if it doesn't work properly with SATA DVD drives.

2.88 MB seem to be the limit. During my experimentation I had created a 5.76 MB custom image of the 4 floppies, then tried to have Nero swallow it. Nero actually burnt the CD, but it didn't work. When I then tried to create with Magic ISO a bootable CD image with this 5.76 MB custom image, Magic ISO crashed.

Very good question regarding IDE vs SATA.I have just shoved the created bootable Dell Diagnostics DVD into my dual-core desktop, which has 2 DVD burners, one PATA (Liteon LH-20A1H186C), the other SATA (NEC ND3650A) a) the created bootable DVD boots and runs fine on the Liteon PATA=IDE drive, i.e. the Panasonic DOS DVD driver also works with a Liteon b ) the created bootable DVD booted Ok on the NEC SATA drive and the Panasonic DOS DVD drivers were processed Ok, but the Dell Diagnostics did NOT run on the SATA NEC drive: Starting Windows 95... loading the drivers Ok from A: but then when the application part on the bootable DVD-ROM (Y:) was accessed for loading the Dell Diagnostics: CDR101: Not ready reading drive Y Abort, Retry, Fail? So the Panasonic DOS DVD driver works Ok with IDE drives, but not with SATA drives. Maybe another little driver file is needed. Addendum: I also booted in the NEC SATA drive from the bootable CD, the same error messages as with the bootable DVD. So there is definitely a SATA issue.

Possibly, but I haven't used the Boot Utility Disk or the Restart Disk in ages. When I have problems with System Commander, e.g. when some unruly software destroyed the System Commander boot code (i.e. when the menu for selecting operating systems doesn't come up anymore), I reboot with a plain DOS 6.22 or 7 boot floppy, then run c:\sc\scin.exe to restore System Commander. To access scin.exe in other situations, I reboot into a DOS opsys selection, then run scin.exe. What do you use these 2 floppies for? I have seen your project, that's why I posted the info about the DOS DVD driver. Apparently the oakcdrom.sys driver only works with CD drives, not with DVD drives. The combo MSCDEX.EXE+oakcdrom.sys (for CDs) seems to work with the CD/DVD drives of all manufacturers. For accessing a DVD it looks like you need a manufacturer-specific DVD-drive driver. For example taisatap.sys works for Toshiba DVD drives, but not for other makes. In the absence of a generic DOS DVD-drive driver you would have to create a bootable DVD-ROM specifically for each DVD-drive; the bootable DVD-ROM would then work with brand A, but not with brand B. The possibly generic Panasonic driver may solve this problem in your project.BTW, you can easily extract the floppy disk image (named "Arnes Boot Record.img" by Nero) inside the bootable CD/DVD with IsoBuster (e.g. v2.5.0.0 under Win98) and then inspect it with WinImage.

I have a set of 4 Dell Diagnostics floppies for my 10-year-old Inspiron 7500 laptop. The first floppy is bootable, and the diagnostics program is spread out on these 4 floppies. To run the Diagnostics, all 4 floppies have to be completely read in, only then can the hardware diagnostics be started. The boot floppy of the 4 floppies boots into Windows 95. [Version 4.00.950] Because reading in 4 floppies is so time-consuming, the diagnostic floppies were hardly ever used. I have now repackaged/converted successfully these 4 floppies into both a bootable CD and a bootable DVD. The Dell Diagnostics now boot and load in about 40 seconds. Creating a bootable CD/DVD from a single bootable floppy can be done quite easily with Nero Burning ROM. But creating a bootable CD from a set of floppies, one of of them being bootable, is a little more involved. Below are my notes on how I tackled this task, maybe these notes helps others facing a similar task, and there may be other better approaches. Of interest may be also the DOS DVD driver by Panasonic, which can be set to generic with the /C35 switch. Here my notes on how to create a bootable CD from a set of floppies (i.e. from several floppies, 1 bootable floppy plus 1 or more other floppies). 1) create a folder "Application" -> copy into this folder "Application" all the files and folders on the set of floppies ("Replace existing files?" -> No) -> delete in the folder "Application" the boot files: command.com, io.sys and msdos.sys 2) create a folder "Startup_files" if autoexec.bat or config.sys exist in folder "Application": -> copy these 2 files to folder "Startup_files" -> edit in the folder "Startup_files" an existing autoexec.bat file (or add a new autoexec.bat file): a) to create a bootable CD: -> insert the following 2 lines before the application is called in autoexec.bat (e.g. before the line "delldiag.exe"): A:\MSCDEX.EXE /D:oemcd001 /L:Y Y:\ -> edit in the folder "Startup_files" an existing config.sys file (or add a new config.sys file): -> add the following line at the end of config.sys: device=A:\oakcdrom.sys /D:oemcd001 -> copy the 2 files Oakcdrom.sys and Mscdex.exe into the folder "Startup_files" b ) to create a bootable DVD: -> insert in autoexec.bat in the folder "Startup_files" the following 2 lines before the application is called (e.g. before the line "delldiag.exe"): A:\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD000 /L:Y Y:\ -> edit in the folder "Startup_files" an existing config.sys file (or create a new config.sys file): -> add the following 2 lines at the end of config.sys: DEVICE=A:\ATAPIMGR.SYS DEVICE=A:\SR_ASPI.SYS /D:MSCD000 /C35 -> copy the 3 files ATAPIMGR.SYS, SR_ASPI.SYS and Mscdex.exe into the folder "Startup_files" NOTE: I found the 2 files oakcdrom.sys and MSCDEX.EXE on other old bootable floppies The possibly generic DOS DVD driver is by Panasonic and can be downloaded from: http://members.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=42982 (log in/sign up first for a free account) This DOS DVD driver is ancient (1997-1998), but works fine on my Mats***a UJ-815A (DVD-RAM burner) and older Samsung CDRW-DVD SN-324F in my 10-year-old Inspiron 7500 laptop The switch "/C35" means "no check of vendor name" NOTE: the application (e.g. delldiag.exe) will run from drive letter Y:, while the boot files are on A: (= the CD boot drive); the floppy drive has the drive letter B: 3) in the folder "Application": -> delete autoexec.bat and config.sys 4) run WinImage (e.g. v8.10.8100 under Win98) to create a bootable floppy disk image (e.g. "CD_boot_code.ima" or "DVD_boot_code.ima" ) from the bootable floppy disk (=floppy disk 1) plus autoexec.bat and config.sys, but not the application: -> run WinImage: -> insert bootable floppy disk #1 in floppy drive -> Disk -> Read disk in the image file window: -> delete all files in the image except for the boot files command.com, io.sys and msdos.sys NOTE: also delete autoexec.bat and config.sys in the image file window, their modified versions will be injected in the next step NOTE: do NOT change the Label displayed by WinImage -> drag and drop ("inject") all files from the folder "Startup_files" into the image file window (autoexec.bat, config.sys, oakcdrom.sys [or ATAPIMGR.SYS and SR_ASPI.SYS], MSCDEX.EXE) create a .ima image file of the floppy disk (i.e. without the files and directories of the application): -> File -> Save As -> change file type from .imz to .ima -> enter file name (e.g. CD_boot_code.ima or DVD_boot_code.ima) NOTE: this file CD_boot_code.ima or DVD_boot_code.ima has the size 1440 kB -> exit WinImage 5) create with Nero Burning ROM the bootable CD/DVD: -> insert blank CD or DVD run Nero Burning ROM (e.g. v6.6.0.13 under Win98), in window New Compilation, in selector on the left: -> select CD (or DVD) at the top -> select CD-ROM (Boot) (or DVD-ROM (Boot)) (scroll down in selector at left, in the area with the icons) a new tab Boot appears in window New Compilation, in tab Boot: -> select Image file -> enter path to the image file "CD_boot_code.ima" or "DVD_boot_code.ima" -> Browse -> Open -> click on New button on left -> drag and drop all files from folder "Application" to the burn window in Nero -> change the CD/DVD label on left, e.g. to "DellDiag_1035" -> Recorder -> Burn Compilation in window Burn Compilation: -> select Finalize CD/DVD -> select lowest Write speed -> select Buffer underrun protection [appears only when burning CD] -> click on button Burn on right This approach could possibly be also used to create a bootable rescue CD (=DOS version) from the 2 PartitionMagic v8.01.1312 rescue floppies.

I have been using xrayer's io.sys patch since April 2008, there are no issues I can attribute to the patch.I am very happy that rloew provides professional patches for Win98, this is essential for the Win98 community. Eventually I intend to compare the performance and issues of rloew's and xrayer's patches. I have 2 nearly-identical dual core desktop computers, running on cloned HDDs with System Commander plus various operating systems plus apps, so this setup could permit some interesting benchmarking. My gut feeling, and I may be wrong, is that xrayer's patch somehow slows down the system. I actually expect rloew's patch to be better than xrayer's because rloew's patch has ongoing support and updates.

QuuSoft Disk Defrag installs Ok under Win98SE, but does not run under Win98SE. The 1st err msg displays: "H:\QuuSoft Disk Defrag\DiskDefrag.exe. A device attached to the system is not functioning." The 2nd err msg displays: "Error Starting program. The H:\QUUSOFT DISK DEFRAG\AD\AD.DLL file expects a newer version of windows. Upgrade your Windows version." Maybe an older version works under Win98. I hope \AD\AD.DLL is not adware, like what some version of FlashGet contain.I then installed Norton SystemWorks 2004 on a test Win98. SpeedDisk defragmented and optimized free file space Ok on a 192GB partition on the pre-brick 1TB HDD connected via eSATA to my old laptop. But SpeedDisk seems to be very slow, maybe it's doing some optimizations. I don't need optimized file placement on an external HDD. Norton SpeedDisk defragmented fine in the background, while I was using other applications. Here some old notes of mine regarding Norton SystemWorks 2004 (one of its components is SpeedDisk) under Win98SE: "REJECTED 11/20/06 . the system seems much crisper without it 10/11/06 UNINSTALL 10/11/06 . it seems to be a pain to get rid of it" Before the uninstall I was using Norton Disk Doctor and SpeedDisk installed from the original NSW2004 CD. Eventually I re-installed NDD via file-copy as a standalone application, without the Symantec Activation and LiveUpdate, which had turned my system into a sluggish and crash-prone computer. NDD as a standalone application, however, is top under Win98SE (except for some partition table repairs, which may be dangerous), just as standalone Ghost v11.0.2 is top under Win98SE. After having installed NSW 2004, from the original CD, but not activated, on the test Win98 opsys (to avoid that the Activation and LiveUpdate stuff of NSW2004 corrupt my working Win98 opsys), I copied the following 9 files to the folder with NDD-standalone: Sd32.exe Sd32.hlp Sd32eng.dll Sd32vxd.vxd N32DLSTU.DLL Norton.exe \Program Files\Symantec\S32evnt1.dll \Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\Symmigr8.dll Unfortunately, nothing happened when I double-clicked on Sd32.exe. I checked for any NOTFOUND files with Filemon, according to the 5-year-old discussion in , but nothing obvious was displayed. "I know for sure that Speed Disk for Windows 98 can be standalone... Sorry I don't remember..." in posting #7 there by Oleg_II Are there anywhere good instructions on how to build a standalone SpeedDisk for Win98SE from the files of the regular installation of NSW 2004?

OT: DB061 contains the facsimile of the first edition and the Riverside Edition, both in English. The software makes it very easy to compare passages in the editions. DB061 is out of print, there is 1 copy for USD 65 at http://cgi.ebay.com/Digitale-Bibliothek-Shakespeare-Complete-Works-Eng-/200415608801?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ea9b37fe1 Directmedia is selling to university libraries, so DB061 can probably be found in an academic institution near you. Another volume, DB059 "English and American Literature", is also in English and contains most important English-language works, but no facsimiles of the original edition. Back to VoptXP: VoptXP v7.22 was written in Visual Basic 6 [it accesses msvbvm60.dll, as shown by MiTeC EXE Explorer], but Win98 stays locked under both msvbvm60.dll v6.00.9782 (23-Feb-2004) and v6.00.9815 (5-Mar-2009). VoptXP locks up Win98 only when moving files. After moving a file, VoptXP seems to check for keyboard input, then moves the next file. If the files being moved are small, Win98 doesn't appear locked up, but when big files (e.g 100MB-4GB) are moved, Win98 stays locked for up to 30 minutes. This seems to be caused by the way VoptXP was programmed, and probably very little can be done about it. Although VoptXP v7.22 seems to be a blazingly fast defragger under Win98, I have rejected it because it cannot handle partitions with large files without locking up Win98.