FishBowl

There are several "index.dat" files in Win98(SE), that can't be accessed, too. All of those seem to belong to IE, somehow. Though, I did only notice this on MS Backup. Won't ever surf the web with a system component...

Bad idea, to use the same partition for both systems. Instead either add a second hard disk for XP or make available a second partition for it. Shrinking the C: drive is possible with several tools. But if you already have a D: (or even e:) partition, remove every '98 related stuff from there and then use that for XP. If being installed to D: or higher, XP won't interfere with C: except of installing it's boot files and boot manager there to. Would even add '98 to it's own boot manager as second option automatically. And you can edit the boot manager even from '98, via "boot.ini".

There were / are many OEM versions of Nero around, that were made for and limited to CD writers. Those won't be able to handle DVDs.

There may be several reasons for such a module to be recognized falsely: - mainboard chipset: for example, i44BX may have three slots, but the center one would not accept double sided architecture or the inner architecture of the chips requires to be handled as two banks, also not working on the inner slot, nor on one of the outer, with the inner occupied in any way - module chip layout; again, depending on chip's inner architecture, the mainboard may fail to work with 256 MB modules with only four or with 16 chips on it eight chips may then normally work - bad / old mainboard BIOS - another RAM module inside, that blocks resources try the 256 MB alone, first slot - badly programmed SPD EEPROM, try to disable auto detection in BIOS setup ... Don't take the single sided / double sided aspect to serious, as even if both sides of the module are equipped with chips, they may still be electronically arranged as single sided / one bank, and vice versa. In many cases, though not always, four chips or sixteen chips are double sided / two banks, eight are single then. Of course, only talking single data rate SDRAM here.

Try another USB controller. Like, if having problems on a front USB port, compare with one on the back. Quite often the cables of front ports are not shielded properly and this for behave far from reliable, specially for USB2. Or the internal connector does not sit properly. Also think about adding some extra PCI controller for USB2.

Don't really know why, but I can tell you how:Already uses the swap file at boot time... That's one great reason to add more RAM.

Norton Ghost 7.5, for fast image backups (commercial) XFDISK, for it's MBR boot manager (freeware) I will not place any links to software here.

Did not really expect to turn out to be that weird, as I've never ever used Lynx 26.23274%

Optical drives like this normally use separate lasers for DVDs and CDs. The one for CDs may be bad. Try again with an original audio CD. If this does not work either, that thing surely is dead. Still under warranty? Return a.s.a.p.

Do you have any index service running? Explorer may bring one, MS Office another one. Even WMP could act similar, if allowed to search for media files everywhere. Or by chance installed Norton Protection, for the 'Recycled' folder(s)? No idea, if that's already available for Vista. If so, disable for that drive, once attached.

This is about files and registry, not drives. And folders are not formatted anyway, only drives.

No, it just sums up files installed and registry settings made, that will be removed then. You should not find more remainings or possible conflicts than before...

No idea, but this normally comes with MS Office, as an optional plugin. Had it from Office 2000, as long as I've used it.

Preferrably FAT32.And size can be far above 32GB, if you are using a 3rd party tool for formatting. It's far easier to get started with a multi boot system, if you install Win9x first, onto a primary partition, as later it won't be able, to create boot routines from an NTFS partition. But modern Win do know the trick, to install their boot menue into a FAT32. Partitions for modern Windows versions don't have to be primary then, logical drives inside of an extended are OK..

No idea about add-ons. Except of that, Foxit Reader 2.2 works fine on Win98SE. Foxit Reader 2.3 has some memory related issues, leading to scrolling failure and freezing on a lot of documents. That's what also other people reported any why I downgraded to 2.2

Switch mode PSUs should work fine with 50 Hz. So on those, Voltage (range) only matters. But classical transformers made for 60 Hz lose some power if used with 50Hz. They will get a bit hotter even without a load and provide around 10 - 20 % less output power. Some converter transformers have more than one input or output voltage. A 60 Hz dedicated device should not be fed with the theoretically correct voltage, but a little bit lower. For example, in Germany we have a nominal mains voltage of 230 V at 50 Hz. If your conversion transformer has an input of 240 Volts available, you may want to use this instead of a 230 Volts port. Or vice versa, if you only have 230 Volts primary, you may want to use a 100 Volts output port, if exists, instead of 110 Volts. If a transformer is made for 220 Volts input only, don't ever use it over here! Anyway, you should buy that transformer in Europe, for several reasons: - saving weight on the flight to Europe - proper mains plug should come with it; important as there are many different local standards for wall outlets around Europe - local law may apply for grounding or fusing systems Some more important aspects: - never ever overload a transformer 'just a bit', as that's the worst case, a fuse won't blow, but the thing may get extremely hot and occasionally start to burst into flames. Never let it be plugged in unattended. Never ever let it sit on any kind of inflammable surface material. Never ever cover it with anything, that might reduce cooling. - keep in mind, most such transformers DON'T give a potential free output, so one output pin may still be connected to 230 Volt mains potential, against ground, earth and your fingers... - never ever bring wireless phones or other RF transmitters to Europe, as frequency ranges, power limits and more details will differ, and in most countries it's a crime, to use any RF transmitter, that's not licensed for the country you're in. This also goes for walkie talkies, radio controlled toys, RF remote controls and a lot more. Bliuetooth, WLAN and GSM are OK. - some American devices may possibly be adapted to 230 or 240 Volts internally, but in any case only by an expert - pin adaptors may only be used up to a given current limit. Device that use more Amperes must have the plug changed instead, of course on location and by qualified personnel.

Of course, I know do about the technical background. Won't mix up physical drives with anything logical.Sorry, I am not a native English speaker, and even worse, haven't ever seen a non German localised Windows yet. So sometimes I'm not really sure. how things are called in English versions

BTW, recent cheap Brother DCP and MFC models don't support 9x any more Last compatible should be DCP-130C and MFC-215C

Not sure if I am understanding well, but basically there is no need to have an extra primary partition for modern Linux, it would also work well inside of a logical drive as one part of an extended partition. I do have some Linuxes installed for years now, on all of my machines, working fine. In fact I do now have 10 logical drives inside of the extended partition of my 400 GB IDE boot HDD. Win98 uses the only primary partition there, plus the first four logical drives, in FAT32 except of a 2GB FAT16 compressed one to hold '98SE CD, drivers, CDDB database and alike. Then 2k and XP have the next two, formatted as NTFS. Followed by three logical drives for different Linuxes, formatted as ext2fs or similar, last is Linux swap. Partitions and logical drives can be created or changed with XFDISK under DOS or Win9x, for example. Formatting comes later. Also possible, to use qtparted from a Knoppix LiveCD or similar, which can also format. In both cases, Win98 itself never ever recognized Linux 'partitions' over here, once they really were formatted. And this for never complained. Nor did 2k or XP. BTW, I am using the MBR boot manager from XFDISK, to select between Windows (C: drive, boot.ini then to select between windows versions) or one of the Linuxes. Easier than grub or lilo, and it can be modified or even restored from a DOS diskette. Just won't work resp. deactivate itself if physical changes to the internal / boot time present HDDs done. In such a case, simply / only Windows gets started. Selected '98SE, I am then able to use XFDISK to reconfigure the boot manager.

So this is not really your machine? Or not your internet account? Nor life, yet? Means, you would in any case have to ask the one who's responsible for it.

What start page are you talking about, that would require a login? The internet itself would not need this at all... Just a portal page of an internet provider may be required in some cases, but this would also be forced up if starting empty and trying to go anywhere else to. Some malware may have set your start page to a nasty place or mislead such an address (and others) by manipulating your HOSTS file. Suppose your Internet Explorer uses something weird as it's start page, and you should try to - set that to empty page - restart IE then and make sure the page in fact is blank - then use the address of that blank page as start page - completely stop using IE for the internet BTW, if using Outlook Express, that's just another component of IE... So also stop using this. Also clean your system from all Browser Helper Objects, Downloaded Program Files, ActiveX components installed, clean up temporary internet files. If a machine is as badly infected as yours seems to, there's a fat chance, it's already hijacked and trying to infect others, like all of your contacts. So this is serious.

You did not install the Canon software. OK, but did you install drivers for the Canon then? If not, look for all the driver details for the Nikon camera that's still working. Most important is the .inf file. Try to point Windows to that one, use anyway. If yes, reboot into safe mode, remove exactly that device and drivers from there. May be more than one for it, get rid of all. Install again. However, for Windows, the cameras are nothing but USB storage devices. Same as flash sticks, USB harddisks, flash cards inside of a reader, ... In most cases, the USB storage device internal controller tells it's name to the bus, and windows also displays it, but a generic driver could and even would be used. On my Win98SE, I am using nusb3.3 (Maximus Decim) for all such devices, but I've got no idea, if it can be used on WinME.

On my machines at home, I am keeping system / applications and documents / downloads / recordings strictly separate, on different HDDs / partitions. I am making image backups of the relatively small system partition(s) every couple of days, onto two big mobile HDDs, alternating those. And I even have a spare machine, almost similar hardware. Just in case... I am using Ghost 7.5 from inside of Win98SE (+NUSB), to write the images. Around five to ten minutes for an OS. Worst case, I could take the mobile (IDE) disk out of it's case and connect it directly to the board. Then MS-DOS and Ghost are enough to write back. Similar would also work with my old Knoppix LiveCD 3.4 and partimage, instead of '98, for example. Anyway, taking care and having a nice HW firewall protected me pretty well during the past years, so system reconstruction never was required to remove malware but only to move to bigger disks or to repair human mishaps and failing experiments.

Definitely depending on content and packer routine used Same as with archivers. As an example, big differences can even show up on the very same file type: I am recording from DVB-S frequently. Normally the resulting .mpg files can't get compressed noticeably, as they are already heavily compressed inside. BUT if the source is a truly digital test screen (like those I am using for TV repair), a good engine like ace or 7zip might compress to far less than 10%. A special flicker test sequence I've created with mute audio compressed from >100 MB to around 100 kB. Forget zip on this... A matter of packer intelligence. So no way for a realistic prediction.

You should check your disk frequently for quite some time, to find out, if the bad sector issue comes back. If so, go for a new disk. Attach that by a suitable USB2 HDD controller first, create partitions and format them. Copy all the content of non-system partitions. Then get an imaging tool, to copy the system partition. At last, put inside. If not possible / working, use another computer, to copy everything. Even then, better use USB2 interfaces, to enable hotplugging and avoid drive letter issues or possible damage for the host system. Image tools don't care for any kind of file protection or user rights on the source or target. You will have to reactivate XP after this. But also possible, the error won't return (for a long time). Activate S.M.A.R.T. control in your BIOS setup, to enable an early warning. Bad sectors may come from physical degrading or shock damage of the disk in most cases, but they sometimes also result from really bad crashes or even connector / cable discontinuities.