[PE Compression]

I am looking for a good exe\dll compressor for use on Win 98 and XP on small drives. I've tried UPX which seems to give the same exact error with everything I try to pack, Petit is good although it takes a long time and both ASpack and eXpressor seem to give good results with short packing times.

Can you suggest any good PE compressors?

[Vista WiFi Drivers]

For whatever reason, I got the thought "I'm going to install vista on my laptop" and I did. So now I am dualbooting Vista and 7.

The problem is that I currently don't have access to a wired connection so all I have access to is WiFi and when I went on an internet search for a Vista Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230 driver, I didn't find anything. This is , by the way, on a Dell Inspiron 7520.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[What is the point of this?]

Can you give a specific example, preferably with a link so that we can see for ourselves?

Cheers and Regards

This is the link to the software...

http://www.freewarebox.com/free_25098_321soft-data-recovery-express-download.html

When i UniExtracted the installer, I came across two files named 321recovery,1.exe and 321recovery,2.exe

I've seen this before but never really thought why this is done.

Edit: While in this example, the files are equal in size, I've seen different sized exes before. I ran them through Winmerge and it says they are completely identical.

[What is the point of this?]

I've come across many applications that have two or more exes in the form of

application,1.exe

application,2.exe

What is the point of this?

[Corrupted Copy]

Just for the record:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/56005-repair-scratched-cd/

But, no, the symptoms are the "wrong" one for a physical defect.

It sounds much more like any of the possible anti-copy/anti-rip protections.

A very suitable way to identify a problematic area is usually DVDisaster:

http://dvdisaster.net/en/index.html

Yeah... It seems that it did have protection (Kinda weird that it has protection since it's just a two dollar DVD that was distributed with a newspaper a few years ago)

Also to avoid creating a new topic, i'm going to ask another question here... Do you know of any good tools that can scan a CD\DVD and create a list of files that are defective? I currently use IsoBuster for that but the enormous slowdown\non-responsiveness when it encounters bad sectors is unbearable.

[Corrupted Copy]

I've been creating backups of all my CDs and DVDs in case they end up with scratches in the near future. I came across this one DVD with a documentary in the usual DVD (VIDEO_TS) format. The weird thing is that whenever I play it with WMP, it plays fine but whenever I try to copy it onto my HDD, it ends up all corrupted (still playable but with glitchy video and sound). This is the first time I've ever come across something like this. Any ideas why it's doing this?

[Redirect Start Menu Buttons]

I find the Windows 7 libraries annoying. Is there any way that I could redirect the start menu buttons to their respective folders (ie. "C:\Users\Username\My Documents") instead of libraries?

[Motherboard RAM Problem]

So I should get a S775 P4, install the BIOS update and replace the P4 with the Core 2 Duo?

Still, it's a bit strange how a unsupported CPU gives a RAM error...

EDIT: I replaced it with a Celeron and it boots. So I'll just have to do the BIOS update and it should work with the Core 2 Duo.

[Motherboard RAM Problem]

I bought it over the internet like two weeks ago, aside from the time that it has been inside the PC, it was inside its antistatic wrap inside the box it came in. It did appear to be new when it came out of the box. So since I don't think that I can do much with the board in its current state, do you think I should just try to get a replacement and retry with another?

[Motherboard RAM Problem]

I have recently built a PC, when I tried it on a barebones setup I had RAM problems and have not been able to get it to work.
This is a ECS P4M800PRO-M V2 motherboard with a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo and 512Mb of DDR2 (I plan to upgrade it to 2Gb later)

Whenever I turn it on, it beeps (it actually buzzes in this case), the CPU fan spins up and then keeps single-beeping again with a few seconds of delay between each beep. Various internet sources, as the manual does not include beepcodes, say that it's a DRAM refresh problem so I tried many different combinations of RAM (as this board supports both DDR and DDR2) with different sizes and speeds but they all have the same effect.

Any ideas about how I can get it to work?

[OS Compatibility]

EDIT: Sorry for the double post, my internet screwed up

[OS Compatibility]

So now I'm debating the PSU that I should use...

I've got a 400 watt one (I think) available right now with the right amount of connectors. Do you think that 400w is enough for this system or should I get a more powerful one?

[OS Compatibility]

So I got to ordering all my components just now and it turns out that the ATi Radeon 9800 XT I was going to get just got sold out

So does anyone know of any good high performance AGP 8X Graphics Cards that have both 98 and XP drivers?

Edit: If anyone wants to know the motherboard for the card I'm using a ECS P4M800PRO-M (V2.0)

Edit 2: SO I found the nVidia GEForce FX5500 which is an AGP card . The nVidia driver website is a bit weird though as hey have Desktop Graphics>GEForce>5 FX drivers. So are the 5 FX drivers for FX5 X X X cards?

[OS Compatibility]

So what I'll probably do is wait until all the PC components arrive and see if each bootloader works and does what I want it to do.

Also, would I be able to install each OS separately (as in only have the corresponding HDD connected while installing each OS) and then connect them all and install a boot loader? Or would there be any problems in doing that?

[OS Compatibility]

When using RFDISK, you choose which Boot Partition is visible. The Installer will not see the other Boot Installed Partition(s) unless you enable it to.

Since XP in particular rewrites the MBR, I would install it first. Then Install the Multi-Boot Profile MBR, then Windows 98, and finally DOS.

Offtopic: Even though I'm considered rather computer-abled for my age, my brain BSOD'd while reading the documentation for RFDISK

So with the information that I've gathered from your post and the docs, I'm lead to understand that RFDISK can 'hide' partitions so that OSes can't see them. Is that true?

[OS Compatibility]

The OSes C:\ Partition have to be on the First Physical Disk, so they are all in one HDD. You can setup Profiles on the other HDDs so that you can choose what is visible to the selected OS.

There is a Demo Package with Documentation available.

There is one more issue that comes to mind. I have read on the MS website that I should install the OSes in the order of DOS, 98, XP but every time that I went through the installation process either on a VM or real PC, I never saw a way to choose the partition like the XP install lets you. So it could possibly decide to install it over the DOS partition that would have been installed earlier. So is there anything such as maybe command line arguments that could let me choose the partition that it would install to?

[OS Compatibility]

So I am assuming that this boot manager would also work with DOS.

Yes. But DOS 6.22 would have to be confined to the first 8GB of the First Hard Drive.

If you have Data Partitions you want to access from DOS 6.22, they also must be placed in the first 8GB. It would be easier if you put these in the small Hard Drive you mentioned.

On one of your previous posts, you said that your boot manager supports OSes on a singe HDD so can it work over multiple HDDs or is it designed only for one.

[OS Compatibility]

I have written a Boot Manager that can choose among multiple Partitions on a single Hard Drive to Boot. With this you can have all of your Operating Systems on one Hard Drive. It is installed by my Advanced Partitioning Program RFDISK. It can be setup so you can choose which OS you want to boot by pressing a key at startup. I currently have Windows 95, 98SE, ME, XP, 7 and 8 on my Primary Hard Drive.

I seem to have found RFDISK on your website as part of the Terabyte plus package. Is there a way to buy it separately?

It is available separately. It is listed in the Prerelease and Beta Section of the Software Catalog.

So I am assuming that this boot manager would also work with DOS.

Does the 98 HDD limit involve drives over 137GB or just single partitions?

And also, if I were to have a PCI SATA\IDE expansion card in my PC, with one set of HDDs on RAID 1, would that cause any problems in DOS or 98 (I'm guessing that XP would be new enough to not have any problems)

[OS Compatibility]

I have written a Boot Manager that can choose among multiple Partitions on a single Hard Drive to Boot. With this you can have all of your Operating Systems on one Hard Drive. It is installed by my Advanced Partitioning Program RFDISK. It can be setup so you can choose which OS you want to boot by pressing a key at startup. I currently have Windows 95, 98SE, ME, XP, 7 and 8 on my Primary Hard Drive.

I seem to have found RFDISK on your website as part of the Terabyte plus package. Is there a way to buy it separately?

[OS Compatibility]

So what would be the advantages of using disk images instead of having the data 'raw'?

Not needing to change disk order and only use the third party bootmanager for those.

Better using the available devices.

A full install of DOS 6.x or earlier, including any DOS program of some utility ever written and a considerable amount of data created with those programs would top at - say - 300 Mb.

If you are really clever and manage to actually have *all* programs EVER written for DOS , this will top at around 600/700 Mb.

Quick reality check, when DOS 6.22 came out it was year 1994 AD:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_DOS_operating_systems

At the time the size of a common hard disk was within first CHS barrier, i.e below around 528 Mb:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/127105/article.html

http://www.dewassoc.com/kbase/hard_drives/1024_cylinder_528_limit.htm

likely below 250 or 300 Mb.

So when you said that DOS needs to be on a active primary partition on the first disk, did you mean an active primary partition on a HDD that is a Master on IDE Channel 1?

[OS Compatibility]

I'm not wanting to install only DOS, I am wanting to create a multiboot system with each OS on a separate HDD. This brings up another question. Would the default XP bootloader work or do I have to install a 3rd party one such as GRUB?

Yes and no.

Again, DOS NEEDS to start from active primary partition on first disk.

If you have three disks of which two contain DOS you need to change the disk order.

This can be done by a third party tool or by entering the BIOS and changing disk order (that may or may not be an option in your specific BIOS, and in any case, it is a nuisance).

The NTLDR is mainly a OS loader with very little capabilities as bootmanager and cannot exchange disks.

You can have DOS 6.22 and DOS 7.x+Win9x on the SAME disk and partition (as this is one of the intended uses of NTLDR and DOS 7.x/Windows 9x has a "special" provision for it) but not on different disks.

Among the third party tools, grub4dos (which is NOT GRUB and NOT GRUB2) has some dedicated features aimed to the "DOS/Windows world" among them the possibility to be chainloaded from NTLDR without needing any "install" and it is strongly suggested.

But, again, grub4dos has also the possibility to load and run a DOS from a disk image, the suggestion was to have (since you are going over a multi-disk approach):

• a disk dedicated to DOS 7.x+Windows 9x (containing also the NTLDR+BOOT.INI+NTDETECT.COM)
• a disk dedicated to Windows XP
• any number of disk images residing on either of the two other disks (or on a third one) with each image dedicated to a given version of DOS

jaclaz

So what would be the advantages of using disk images instead of having the data 'raw'? And would these images be accessible to different OSes?

[OS Compatibility]

Yes, it's installed by default with 9x. I recommend 98Se.

I know that it is installed by default in 9x. I was asking if it can be installed on a separate partition (multiboot with 9x). So can you have this sort of setup:

Disk 1: DOS 7.x

Disk 2: Windows 98SE (which includes 7.x)

Disk 3: Windows XP

DOS needs to start from First Active Primary partition of First disk.

You need to change disk order in BIOS (or use a tool like grub4dos and change disk order with it).

But to run *only* DOS, if you plan to use grub4dos anyway, having it in an image makes a lot of sense.

I'm not wanting to install only DOS, I am wanting to create a multiboot system with each OS on a separate HDD. This brings up another question. Would the default XP bootloader work or do I have to install a 3rd party one such as GRUB?

[OS Compatibility]

Yes, it's installed by default with 9x. I recommend 98Se.

I know that it is installed by default in 9x. I was asking if it can be installed on a separate partition alongside 98SE with its own version. So can you have this sort of setup:

Disk 1: DOS 7.x

Disk 2: Windows 98SE (which includes its own 7.x)

Disk 3: Windows XP

[OS Compatibility]

With 2 GiB DOS, particularly MS-DOS 7.x (the one that comes with win 9x), should work with no hiccups.

From the working DOS you can then install Win 9x using Usher method (limited to seeing/using 1 GiB RAM) or RLoew's patch (accessing all the RAM).

Take a look at the machine list (post #2) in my > 1 GiB RAM thread, and muse over it for a while, taking into account what has been said in this thread.

I was originally planning to install DOS 6.22 but since you brought up 7.x, can it be installed alongside 98, (eg. different partitions) and what are the benefits\added features over 6.22?

[OS Compatibility]

Without adding an option to the HIMEM.SYS Command in CONFIG.SYS, you may have problems above 2.5GiB.

So since I will only be using 2GB, would that mean that it should mostly work except for, as you said, these apps that have bugs with large amounts of RAM?