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Tiny Personal Firewall v2.0.15 may be something special, I would NOT put it on my list of recommendable last versions."die TINY 2.15 hat einen derben Nachteil/Fehler, der aber in der vorherigen Version von TINY 2.14 (!) nicht ist. Als ich damals die TINY 2.15 genutzt habe, bin ich aus diesem Grund *erstmal* zurück zur TINY 2.14 gegangen. Hier der Grund: Die TINY 2.15 sendet munter (ab und zu) an einen Server in Polen, auch bei "Alles blocken" kann diese Verbindung durch die FW [=firewall] hergestellt werden." Dr Octagon on Feb.26, 2006 in http://board.protecus.de/t22085.htm (Weren't there secret vacation places in Poland?) TINY v2.0.15 and v2.0.15A have been removed from the web archive http://web.archive.org/web/20011217155449/...zyklon/tpf.html but NOT v2.0.14 which can still be downloaded there. This web archive page is listed in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_Software as footnote 7 TINY v2.0.14 is "pre"-software (June 5,2001) while v2.0.15/A is "post"-software (Oct.12 and 22,2001). Tiny's software developers "would continue to work on the software under the Kerio brand... Kerio Technologies Inc was incorporated on 11 September 2001." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerio_Technologies I wouldn't trust Kerio v2.1.5 either. Old Tiny Personal Firewall v2.0.14 ("pre"-software) is still highly recommended.

I have shelved xmsdsk, at least for the moment. It looks like HimemX, 2GB of memory, Win98 & xmsdsk don't get along well together.After I ran a modded standalone version of the 250MB game PokemonPlayIt!2 (2001) on the xmsdsk RAM-disk, the Nvidia Display selection had disappeared from the menu of the Nvidia system tray icon. After checking with Norton Disk Doctor, it indicated an error in the Extended partition table. After verifying with Partition Table Doctor, I decided to wipe the 750GB disk and restored a backup. I never had an Extended partition table error before, I was just afraid that the logical NTSF partitions in the Extended partition might also have been affected.

The real limitation on disk/partition size under Win98 is the disk checking software which works under Win98 plus the number of free drive letters.About 2 years ago I shelved V-Com's DiskFixer v6 because when checking a 250GB HDD I got "Error occurred accessing disk" followed by a phony msg "session cancelled by user", terminating after nearly completing the File Allocation Table check. MS ScanDisk has a 127GB limit, beyond that it refuses with the misleading err msg: Not enough memory available. Norton Disk Doctor 2004 works Ok under Win98 with 750GB disks with partitions up to a maximum of 240GB [=258.177.794.048 bytes; 240.5GB partition size results in a blue screen when running NDD]. NDD 2005 I don't care about because it has a problem with large fonts. Any other reliable disk checking software for 1TB HDDs under Win98? The next major hurdle to overcome for Win98 aficionados is not that much 52TB of HDDs, but rather the 4GB FAT32 file size limit. About 2 years ago I looked at WriteDVD! Pro http://www.softarch.com/us/products/wdvdpro.html but it didn't convince me. If I remember right, this software, or maybe it was another UDF/DVD-RAM software, could also format HDDs with UDF, which doesn't have the 4GB file size limit. Files >4GB are not uncommon with eMule, because of some inconsiderate uploaders. One possible solution to circumvent the 4GB file size limitation might be to set eMule's download directory to a 9.4GB DVD-RAM drive http://computers.search.ebay.com/DVD-RAM-9...ters-Networking but the heavy disk access during eMule downloads may damage the expensive DVD-RAM drive quickly. Maybe the SCSI drives don't need a special Win98 driver. Here a good link re FAT16/32, NTSF & UDF http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/b.../LocFileSys.doc The ideal solution might be to format a 64GB USB stick with UDF and use it for the download directory of eMule, but this is another project ...

You're right, I didn't read critically enough Mosaddique's otherwise excellent article "Working with large hard drives - the issues and the limits"By the way, Win98 CAN access an EXTENDED partition >128GB (e.g. on a 750GB HDD an extended partition of 695.5GB, consisting of a 126GB FAT32 logical partition D: and an (invisible) logical 569.6GB NTSF partition E:). Also, the 128GB limit doesn't apply to USB HDDs.

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?I have found no solution to the shutdown problems when the swap file is located on RAM drive Z: There are NO shutdown problems when the swap file is located on another drive. Software does not function properly when the swap file is on RAM drive Z:. For example, Sims2 when mounted on virtual Alcohol drive V: hangs after the logo comes up. On the other hand, when the swap file is located on a hard drive Sims2 functions as usual. I would therefore not recommend to put the swap file onto the RAM drive. It is interesting to note that the memory defragmentation software Fast Defrag 2 http://www.amsn.ro/ gets confused by the memory between 1150MB & 2048MB. With 2GB of memory installed, it reports: Total Physical Memory: 1150MB Virtual Memory Size: 898MB (2048-1150=898!!) [actual size of win386.swp: 0 bytes] BTW Performance - Virtual Memory - Hard Disk D [location of the swap file] is indicated as "D:\-9480MB" (negative sign!) even if the actual size is 130017MB =about 126GB. ScanDisk has a 127 GB limit, the ATA protocol a 137GB limit, is there any limitation of the Win98 swap file? Win98 has chosen by itself to use the D: partition (FAT32, 126GB) instead of the C: partition (FAT16, 1.99GB) All the above questionmarks regarding the Win98 swap file would suggest that when using 2GBs of memory it's best not to enter unknown territory with the swap file, and under no circumstance put it onto a RAM drive. Fast Defrag 2 seems to defrag memory ok with 2GB installed, although an annoying error msg "AMS specific__debuginteger function", displaying the value 10, comes up everytime after memory is deframented: displayed once when there is no RAM drive installed, displayed twice when there is a RAM drive Z: installed. Did anybody find 2GB-memory-bugs in other Win98 software? It might be useful to set up a list of software running bug-free, and software which is buggy/unreliable with 2GB.

Thanks dencorso,removing the /MAX switch from himem.exe in config.sys solved the problem of the disappearing RAM. config.sys with device=\...\himem.exe /NUMHANDLES=64 /VERBOSE is sufficient, /MAX is not needed autoexec.bat WITH the /t parameter \...\xmsdsk.exe 655360 z: /t /y /c1 give RAM 1150MB and RAM drive 639MB autoexec.bat WITHOUT the /t parameter \...\xmsdsk.exe 655360 z: /y /c1 give only RAM 512MB and RAM drive 639MB The /t parameter is therefore necessary when 2GB of memory are installed.

No, /c1 parameter only set cluster size I don't care about it let it set automatically. Parameter /t is important.Well, I think you didn't get my point... I can run XMSDSK with or without the /T switch, and Win 98SE doesn't care. Older versions of Win refused to run without the /T parameter (which loads XMSDSK at the top of XMS, as farther away from HMA as possible), for sure. As I said, Win 98SE does not care whether XMSDSK is at the top or at the bottom (close to the HMA) of XMS, in my experience, so the /T parameter in not fundamental anymore. However, there is a legend that XMSDSK has a bug that prevents it from loading at the top with 2 GB or more of RAM. Since you are able to load and run XMSDSK OK, having 2 GB of RAM, you either demonstrated it is just a baseless legend, or, more probably, have found out yet another strange quirk related to HYMEM.SYS, for it works for you but you are using HIMEMX.EXE. Curiouser and curioser... 1) I have 2Gb of RAM, of which 1150.0 MB are available as per System Properties WITHOUT xmsdsk.exe, io.sys patched with w98iopat.exe (many thanks to xrayer!)device=c:\...\himem.exe /MAX=1178624 /NUMHANDLES=64 /VERBOSE MaxPhysPage=48000 DMABufferSize=64 EMMExclude=C000-CFFF MinFileCache=32768 MaxFileCache=261120 ChunkSize=4096 AGP aperture=64MB The parameters are a modification of xrayer's device=c:\...\himem.exe /MAX=1048576 /NUMHANDLES=64 /VERBOSE MaxPhysPage=40000 PCI-graphics card (NO AGP aperture) When I run with C:\...\xmsdsk.exe 524288 z: /c1 /t /y in autoexec.bat, a RAMdisk z: of 512MB is created, BUT: System Properties now shows ONLY 640.0MB RAM (before: 1150.0MB) With xrayer's parameters I had pre-RAMdisk 1022.0MB, post-RAMdisk only 513.0MB The /t switch appearantly did NOT work for me - maybe because I use an AGP card? (xrayer uses a PCI graphics card) The readme.txt of xmsdsk says about the /t switch: "Parameter /t can be used to tell the driver to allocate XMS memory from the top addresses instead of lower ones. Some machines under Win95 hang up when there's no free memory under 16 MBytes. It can be used too if you have problem playing sounds under Windows. These 2 issues seem to be related to DMA buffering." Any idea of how to set the parameters with a 64MB AGP aperture? 2) After setting the swapfile to RAMdrive z: with PagingDrive=Z: I got shutdown problems: - Win98SE hangs after selecting either Shut Down, Restart or Restart in MS-DOS mode, with a blinking cursor on a black screen - the selection Standby is not displayed in the Shut Down Windows menu anymore xrayer possibly didn't notice, since the GeForce driver series 80 always has shutdown problems anyway with newer GeForce cards 3) I have seen in several system.ini files here the use of ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1. Does this really do anything under Win98SE? Microsoft only lists Windows 98 Standard Edition, NOT Windows Second Edition http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223294 4) Has anybody tried any memory defragmentation software with 2GB RAM plus io.sys patched with w98iopat.exe, plus xmsdsk, plus swapfile location=ramdisk, with AGP vs PCI graphics card?