98SE

You're just setting up the partition tables. To truly test if the partition is DOS compliant and bootable a full FORMAT C:/S/U is required. If it's done successfully you will get a true output of the entire capacity of the drive. After it's successful the first time you can perform FORMAT C:/S/Q > Z:\FORMAT.TXT Now you have a complete backup of the actual capacity verified in a simple text. This is for full legacy support. I only attempted this once to see how long it would take to FORMAT the 2TB as FAT32. This is useful for PS3 systems test. Unfortunately the result was incompatible with PS3. There was a 1.5TB limit.

DOS ISO means using DOS code to create the CD into an ISO. Whatever format the ISO has depends on the DOS program. The actual readme describes that ISOs made with the DOS ISO creator will not function in Windows. However it said if an ISO was created in Windows it should work for DOS. Simple the 98SE CD has a bootable DOS element on it. You could use the 98SE CD as the source and then remove everything in the 98SE setup folders and just leave the Root directory intact. Copy any other floppy related tools onto the Root drive or in folders and burn the modified ISO. The DOS ISO using your program would be theoretical to see if you can store it in a Ramdrive and then run it in DOS. There weren't that many DOS CDs that used the entire disc and most of these DOS CDs were patched or could be directly copied to the Ramdrive anyhow so this test maybe pointless. Most of the main programs I would use in 9X/ME will use VirtualDrive.

First what you seem to call support when I'm asking questions that you originally directed me to contact you. If I was using a purchased Ramdrive and trying to do something with it then I would call that true support. Asking questions only the author knows about their product that they originally openly invited themselves into is a discussion. And even when certain questions were not answered I did not reask them assuming your reasons were because you felt you were not getting a purchase but then you wanted to know the results of the test programs which came out of my own time to confirm for you. As for what potential benefits the Ramdisk has then you should promote such information constantly as being unique to your product. Why would $2500 be the cost of a few days work? If that's the case then your only reason for writing your programs is about profit and not about supporting the 9X/ME community at large. Why even make those products to begin with if you aren't making the projected amount you felt you deserved in the first place? If a few days of work say 3 days = $800 or so per day. And you haven't even stated how long it took to make the Patch or the Ramdrive but let's say it took 1 year or $292,000 worth of coding time. You would have to sell about 14,600 copies of your product to even break even according to your worth. I kind of doubt you've sold that many copies. I'm aware of your reasons. That's why I gave you every opportunity to limit the program. And even a few MBs as would at least show the copying content ability without breaching or entering the full functionality of the program. As for actually passing I haven't tested a full 98SE install on it and I have suspicions of whether a newbie could do it since the break in formatting bootable 98SE disks is present and perhaps even a manufacturer CD install will not work. If any indications your test could prove is the functionality of just the HIMEMX for you. And it's very doubtful anyone would buy the HIMEMX strictly for DOS because the only thing as you stated that sets it apart is the Win9X compatibility others lacked and the 64-bit memory. All other DOS functionality should be the same. But on Z170 the break in DOS compatibility on both hardware and software makes it less likely it a suitable system for using DOS or 9X/ME games. What PCIe sound card are you going to be using for 98/ME drivers or that supports EAX Advanced HD? Then for 9X/ME the break in PCI slots and possibly the drop of USB 2.0 eHCI will prove its death. I would like to see that happen. Even big companies will have their downfall. I'm sure there's always a first and the 700 McRibs was just an estimate of what one could ask. These days countersuits could be 700,000 McRibs or 7,000,000 McRibs. Remember that guy who got dragged off an airplane and was paid an undisclosed amount? I wonder how much that guy got for a fully paid airplane seat? Any invasion of privacy beyond the scope of the original release of private information is unwarranted. When someone buys something using a credit card I doubt they want their information tracked or reused to contact them. It's only a form of payment and not meant beyond that. If you're so open about your information then release your Driver's License, your Phone Number, and other social media accounts. We are discussing $20 vs legal fees with potential for countersuit to establish your own curiosity. Nothing is a sure thing these days and I would think you know anything is possible. Did you predict the Trump Presidency? And yet you thought that DOS couldn't copy a 4GB file. The only way to be certain is to test it. We predicted a 10th planet or the newly reassigned 9th Planet of our Solar System. We don't have physical proof it is there but until we do we can't really state for certain the 9th Planet. So even doing a simple test that probably wouldn't have taken a fraction of the time I did my tests for you would have been easily done. At first you mentioned you didn't have a USB floppy drive then later you did. I think you have a vendetta for past experiences you've encountered by legitimate people who did that to you that have nothing to do with me. But in this case you're barking up the wrong tree and wasting your time. As for licensing I think many of these so called 9X/ME users of your patch are buying 2nd hand copies of the 9X/ME OS CDs off eBay so in essence they are "NOT" the original licensee and thus people buying these CDs and then using your patch are in fact breaking such licenses you hold dear. I had asked how long it would take you even add what I think would enhance your Ramdisk and you only threw out a McRib amount of additional zeroes for doing it which didn't actually state your supposed "coding time". I think my estimate of a few hours minimum was generous and respectful of your skillset but if you'd like to disagree with my assessment then go right ahead and give me a proper figure. And we were only finally towards the end discussing "an improvement" because all the others I had previously suggested you felt wouldn't be worth it due to the amount of time to accomplish. I gave you the simplest improvement to uninstall the Ramdrive(s) (drive letters persisting since you couldn't prevent this) so this would allow you to recreate the Ramdrives without needing to reboot. Sure it may save 3 minutes in some cases of rebooting but that's good code. Also if you are running Windows and exit back to DOS to rearrange a Ramdrive size or change them this would be convenient and then running Win.Com again. If say the conventional memory available was severely impacted by adding this code then I would agree not do it but I don't think this is the case. I had assumptions of your skill level so if my assumptions were overestimates of what you could accomplish with little effort then that is my fault for thinking so highly of you.

There is no indication I said I was purchasing anything nor had any intent of any such Ramdrive. You wanted to discuss further regarding my comment when you left that response. Asking questions doesn't imply intent to purchase regardless if that is what was in your original thought process. I could have considered purchasing something if it were improved or some features of the Ramdrive you stated made it unique. Your answers helped make an informed decision. Had I heard you state you were going to add such features I may have bought it even though I wasn't going to fully utilize the program yet. Let's say I purchased the original state Ramdrive you had on the site. Then if I were to ask if you could add the modifications you could say no since I already bought it or the same responses you had already given as to why you wouldn't. I would then be left with a product that had no additional features because it would cost 700 McRibs for you to even consider doing it according to you. 700 McRibs go for around $3.50 a piece or roughly $2500 before tax. To me that seems a little absurd that any author would charge that much to even add something simple as an uninstall feature if that was the easiest method to code given all the other issues you brought up of why the other suggestions wouldn't be worth the effort. I asked if there was some Limited functionality or demo program that was handicapped or had some timer before being disabled to perform a functionality test to not break any rules or give you worries. If you had an actual demo program to perform verification of functionality just like your memory patch has a demo program that shows functionality before purchasing that would be suitable. Your utilities didn't verify anything as far my side of confirming the Ramdrive was functional on a Z170. Showing a bunch of misaligned garbage characters would not satisfy any customer's proof that the program does work on their machine. You may have coded the test program to verify for yourself but from a user's stand point this does not confirm anything nor does it give any incentive that the program will function according to their needs. If you went to a car dealership and the employee just showed you the hazard lights worked and the car horn tooted would you buy the car or would you require a test drive on a highway just to make sure it was at least functional? I would like to see the writing for Microsoft, Apple, or Samsung that says anything close to this that any of their software they could do such things. You may have a better chance against a business distributing copies of your program if you had found proof of some link of your program I agree but also if there were any kind of lawsuit that could be achieved on the other end it would be a countersuit if a customer or business wanted their privacy respected and out of some law suit they were to show proof in court then their countersuit would be worth more than the 700 McRibs you wanted and probably the entire profits of the program since day one. Then in this hypothetical you'd end with confirmed proof of ownership but also possibly at the loss of all your profits and legal fees. I kind of doubt someone would risk all of that over $20 someone paid for a program out of curiosity of ownership. And I never said that I had someone else purchase it for me. I was giving you hypotheticals for hypotheticals you were listing that anything is possible. Anyone can pay in any manner. Maybe even check or money order or whatever forms were accepted. Just like you were stating any person could illegally obtain your software through multiple means. That's not what I was trying to confirm. I was trying to confirm if himem.sys worked on the Z87 as it would give indications of whether DOS compatibility was broken. I never said it was impossible as one chance of it couldn't occur. I was saying that you wouldn't have allowed it so it would be impossible from that perspective. I never said I made "positive" references to your Ramdisk nor did I make any "negative" references to your Ramdisk either. I have consistently stated the only unique advantage that I can find so far is your 64-bit Non-XMS Ramdisk can allocate memory above 4GB for use with a Ramdrive and you even stated this yourself no other Ramdisk does this in DOS. Any suggested "negative" references on you part is insinuating that because the features I'm looking for that would add to your Ramdisk are not present impacts your Ramdisk's favorability among other people. What I did say was I had made "positive" recommendations about the Patch program in the past on other sites that were appropriate to the discussion relating to 98 and the memory limit issue. I even recall having said that even way before I bought the Patch because your Demo program at the time was available to test functionality. So how's that for a recommendation? Again these are theoreticals for theoreticals sake. But if you did make the ultimate DOS Ramdisk and I felt it was necessary to use on multiple machines including ones dating back to 386 or 486 I would purchase it in that fashion if I were to consistently use it for that purpose. But I would call that extreme on your part as far as licensing per computer instead of per individual. This is probably why people choose freeware to avoid such limitations. Well I've seen other comments aside from those two you speculated. It's they would pay the price you listed, they would pay less than that price, or they won't not buy your product at all. Like I said it was only a suggestion to help boost your sales and without the historical sales price and copies sold over time I couldn't give you an appropriate answer to increase your sales if you are saying sales have been constantly increasing each year since you've released your program. I never said I had a problem with the current price. I was speculating that Z170 beginning in 2017 you will begin seeing a noticeable drop in sales over time starting from 2018. A way to counteract a drop in sales might be to reduce the cost of the product. Also the hardware limitations caused by Z170 also make it less likely people would consider getting your program which is what I believe is the only reason to use your patch (for 9X/ME) gaming. Unless you have some solid proof otherwise I am incorrect and a majority of your customers' purpose for using this patch is for some unique non gaming 9X/ME software that cannot run in XP or later I'd like to hear it. Perhaps you are happy with the way the program currently functions. If you don't feel any improvements aren't required that is your choice. If another Ramdisk added this feature I would say that is considered a Pro. I doubt you are a true DOS user so this would not be an issue or priority. That's assuming it would even take a year. At most I would think it would be a few days or maybe a few hours at the least (my original assumption of your skill). As for Jaclaz he's just making a joke on the James Bond 007 and I don't think he's insinuating you don't deserve being paid for your time. Also how can you know if the reason someone is buying the program is not because of the added features which could have boosted sales? I'm not sure what that had to do with India but I'm sure Indians want better wages too. Ask Dibya the cost between Windows XP vs Window 7. He chose XP because it was more affordable. I doubt he would have picked XP had Windows 7 been cheaper to purchase. We would then not seen the fruits of his labor in getting XP to support more memory or browsers or Window 7 applications. I understood your point but if you extracted the ROM I would think it would help with making the Emulator more compatible in functionality. If you're saying that it's a complete waste to even extract any ROMs at all to improve compatibility in what you are emulating then I'd like to know why. If they could extract what was inside the GPU and recreate it in code it should act like the GPU but probably take a considerable amount of processing power. But given today's Pascal GPUs I think it should be capable of emulating an older GPU of the 9X/ME era. When they made DOSBOX any DOS software that ran on a 386 12MHz perhaps would require at least a Pentium 4 1.2 GHz to match the performance. A 98BOX video and sound card emulator project would be better suited with a large team of people and made to run in XP and W7 avoiding the DOS/9X/ME limitations. Trying to do this in 9X/ME would be a complete waste of resources even for you and seeing how even a small change of the Ramdrive needs you to expend a year to accomplish would indicate this as well.

That's what I was referring to making the CD ISO in Pure DOS. I found it later in a reference but those DOS ISOs will only work in DOS. Making a standard Windows ISO works in both. If you wanted to make a DOS bootable 98SE CD just use the 98SE as the template and remove all the setup files and put your floppy files onto it.

The biggest problem is the huge wait time in the FDISK verifying integrity check after partitioning and if it even gets that far you have to format the sucker after. It took 24 hours to format 2TB FAT32 in DOS. I only did this once and never again. I was going to think about testing this out on an 8TB external now I remember why I keep to small capacity boot drives and keep the large ones for USB.

He mentioned it showed 2TB of 4TB disk capacity and 4GB of 8GB installed RAM. So he must have booted to 98SE DOS to even see these limits since the BIOS would show their actual value that he stated 4TB disk and 8GB RAM. I wanted to know what DOS tests he had performed to check the capacity and memory capacities shown. He hasn't responded. He shouldn't see more than 2.2TB at most but if most of it is blank space maybe he can still boot the drive. Data corruption could occur when he fills to over 2.2TB on it if it is MBR.

No problem for Z68 and Z77 F6 AHCI XP driver. Did you not try a USB floppy drive? Also slipstreaming AHCI and installing XP from DOS folder works. Read my post to condense your Ramdrive results post into spoilers.

. Yes 300 and maybe 600 MB seems rather low even for DOS utilities ever made and are you including every version of that utility? What's your list for 300MB of DOS utilities you have? As for games I got so many floppies and 120MB tapes. One time I did try and back them up and most are zipped to save space. I think I was able to fit all of them in 3 CDs. Later I missed some tapes to archive so maybe 4 CDs fit most of my floppy disk based DOS games. I can't imagine the size for CD based DOS titles.

This is the best way to avoid less confusion especially when partitioning and removing partitions you don't want to accidentally wipe out the wrong drive. Also I do not hide my partitions either. Also if you make any NTFS partitions they are hidden in 98SE DOS so sometimes this is a bonus. NTFS partitions are better made after the 128GB limit after the rest of the FAT16/32 partitions are created so all FAT partitions will be seen in 98SE DOS correctly. If you try putting NTFS partitions in between FAT16/32 in the first 128GB you could cause some problems of not seeing the rest of the FAT partitions after the NTFS partition.

You are correct. You can install it correctly in this manner and the recommended way of older OS to newer OS. You must have missed something during your tests. You could boot up in DOS 6.22 on floppy. Partition the Hard Drive C: with FDISK 2GB FAT16 then Format C:/S reboot off the C: DOS 6.22 You can precopy the entire 98SE CD files onto the C: into a folder called 98SE C: CD\98SE SETUP/IS Choose partition or drive letter C: to install can be C: or if you make an 8GB FAT32 partition you can install 98SE there. Once 98SE is fully installed pop in your XP CD into the optical drive The XP installation setup screen should pop up. You just have to choose to setup a New Copy instead of Upgrade. That will allow you to later choose which partition to install it to. If in this case you can choose D: so 98SE and XP will be on the same partition but since both like to use WINDOWS as their directory you can choose to rename the directory to XP instead to prevent conflict to where you will install. Or if you prefer to make a 3rd Partition E: FAT32 8GB or 16GB recommended then you will have the choice of DOS 6.22, 98SE, XP at the boot menu each on different partitions of the same hard drive. And yes it is better to have only one drive installed. When you add another hard drive it shifts the drive letters. This will cause an issue for 98 being on D: making C: 98 installation a better option if you install and remove hard drives later.

Jaclaz no wonder so much push for Grub4DOS. Interesting program "SHSUCDX". The one for the CD image may prove of use. How do you create the CD images for DOS? Also can you create the CD image in Windows to use in DOS? This program would definitely come in handy with Ramdisk testing.

The drive wasn't even larger then 137GB that it corrupted. I think the test SSD was 16GB. I think it will corrupt because of the Z170 chipset. This happened for the XP install in DOS. So you have to install without smartdrv. But another problem happens is you can't install XP using this method anymore and only via optical method because of the AHCI slipstream issue.

That would be beyond what I would be invested to do. You need someone who either worked for nVidia or graphics cards during the 9X/Me generation. I think the best is a video card and sound card emulator for 9X/ME to work in XP to make a 98WINBOX emulator.

It would be used in a 9X/ME video card emulator or if possible for XP and W7 might be a better choice removing the whole issue of Ramdrive and memory necessity to be DOS based. There is no way I would consider this for DOS. The memory overhead and the fact most graphics cards and iGPU should still work in DOS it's the sound card PCI emulation that you need to worry about if you're doing DOS games. XP and W7 should cover those issues.

The only reason I even volunteered such information was because I felt you were upset about something when you made that statement. I was only suggesting how to improve the Ramdrive when you mentioned some characteristics which were lacking. Perhaps you didn't consider I was seeing if the Ramdrive was worth purchasing regarding those questions and if the author was interested in improving something it lacked before buying it. In what way should I need to claim anything regarding any License? Then if any person who asks a question about your product you would need to get their info? I'm not even using the program myself since I found a hardware method solution and I'm not asking for a backup or replacement copy or upgrade if mine was missing or destroyed which then would incur the need to share such license information to prove ownership which I would agree to do so. But if I'm not in need of such then I don't see any need to verify my license nor do I see if I were the owner of a program to force request that from anyone. No I didn't ask you to test Z170 because you had no such machine. I said that I doubted it would work on Z170 since the Himem.Sys program failed to load which previously had no issues on prior chipsets at least for Z77. That's when you came up with your utils and sent me messages to download it which didn't show up till a week or so later and I said I downloaded for now and would test when I had the time but to me it didn't appear you cared about the result or it was urgent and I was still working on another project at the time. Later you insisted that I test it for you to get the result. I did it even though I was busy as a favor to you since you had answered questions. I already mentioned multiple reasons which make Z170 and later and unlikely chipset for 9X/ME if it is intended for gaming which I assume is the primary reason most people would buy your patch. Unless you can tell me another reason? Is there some unique 9X/ME non gaming based programs that don't exist on XP or later? I cannot confirm Z87 nor Z97 himem.sys compatibility at the moment but you didn't even bother to test the Z87 Intel even though I gave you instructions on how you could verify. Yes that is a possibility. I could also have had someone else buy it for me. I could also have bought two copies. Having the files could prove I bought them as well so there is no clear right answer but also have you thought to consider that I don't wish to reidentify myself in that regard even if the information is already in your possession? I think this is really about the need to fulfill your own curiosity than anything else as I haven't seen any other users questioned here or on other sites whether they bought anything or not. As for pirates having such a copy perhaps you could link such proof that it can be obtained in that manner. I doubt you would have allowed it to take place nor one such place to get it exists so you're just making it up being easily available. This program only has a niche market so it would be even less likely and much harder to find if it were to occur. So I think that is a moot point to think everyone can get it in that manner. They would have an intense need to get 9X working or just buy a legacy computer. Given my expertise there are other methods besides your patch to accomplish the same task. I have an assortment of computers dating back that any number of them would run 9X/ME software without needing any form of patching. You got your three big burgers banked for the program that in my opinion I'm good. I'm only trying to help you out but that doesn't mean I have to release my personal information or reconfirm it if I don't wish. Now I might not be the only one to have found my own hardware solution but it doesn't mean others won't have a use for needing your patch. I might even decide to finally use it later on just to give a performance evaluation comparison to my alternative methods to see if stability or compatibility differences will result. But my goal is to make it as easy as possible to run 9X/ME on modern hardware without patching if possible. Positive reference as in having posted that people should purchase your Patch on other sites under other nicknames when people wanted to use 98. I might have suggested this on this site as well. Maybe it was unclear because I had asked before what was the maximum limit for the patch on 98SE vs Win ME and I had asked maybe using the WinME kernel could provider better memory support. When I thought of the limit for 98SE unpatched I assumed it would be 512MB-1GB range without some major tweaking. The same person who would use it on a 486, Pentium to Z170+. All in one Ramdisk to do one job of making Ram into a Disk. Why would you use two separate Ramdisk programs and Memory Managers which would cause a bigger conventional footprint? If yours did it all then I'd only keep a copy of just your Memory Manager and Ramdisk. Well maximum profit depends on the total number of purchases over time. That's why I said $100 would not be as profitable. I only suggested $5 because it seems more likely you would get more purchases and if there is such pirating going on I think they could afford to pay that price then to find it through another method. But that's just how I would think if I were the author with a dying product. But since I don't have a database to evaluate each product and sales over the entire time frame I couldn't suggest the best price for it. But seeing that the 9X/ME compatibility is broken most likely and you know this yourself I don't see any negative outcome at reducing the price. Even a price reduction to $15 or $10 could be done over time. You don't have to do the $5 from the start. You could evaluate each reduced price point if the sales match the $20 or exceed it. If it's doing well or better at $15 than it was at $20 then I'd stick to it. Had your patch product exceeded $20 before like $25 or $30 to do a historical sales over time comparison? I already did explain it one major use on a 24/7 system. Not needing reboot after restarting to MSDOS mode from 98SE and changing the Ramdisk size. Well you might be right if no other DOS Ramdisk has done this as I'm trying to check what I can find. There were many DOS programs that could remove themselves from memory completely and since you mentioned total removal is impossible the next best thing was just resetting the Ramdrive so you could recreate the sizes. If it isn't considered common activity then it would be unique as many Windows Ramdisks do this all the time and if yours is the first that would make it special that no other DOS Ramdisk has done. I had thought this would be a simple thing to accomplish. If this will take you a year to do something like this then forget it. How long did it take you to write the entire non XMS Ramdisk program from scratch? I'm not talking about emulating any video card under DOS and that would be pointless as even the standard graphics card or iGPU would work with most DOS programs and I'm going to be doing some tests to confirm it. The huge amount of RAM that video emulator would need in DOS would be another issue. It has to be either a video card emulator that would run inside 9X/ME assuming you want to keep your 9X/ME products relevant and still needing your memory patch or it should run in XP and W7 if it's about guaranteeing the longevity of your product beyond 9X/ME on newer systems.

Scoop? Maybe you can explain further.

As I said before do you have a better tutorial for DOS 6.22/9X/ME/2K/XP with Grub4DOS? Yes I know that. But the bootloader contains the boot code and the boot menu together at least for Windows. For 9X you could disable the Bootmenu in MsDos.Sys and run it in pure DOS mode. But for XP there is no bootable floppy method from Windows to get to the DOS prompt. They used their own PE and since I used the 9X boot loader = DOS and Windows Boot Menu you could stack later Windows on top of it. Windows will add their on bootloader and boot menu on top so you can still access 9X or XP at the Boot Menu. If you don't do it the old school way of overlaying the newer OS on top of the older ones you won't see the new Boot loader and Boot Menu. If you install the newer OS first you will overwrite the older OS boot loader / menu. Interesting links. But I usually image my boot partition and save for later. There wouldn't be a need for those other programs because the USB bootable floppy or can be done in USB SSD/Flash drive if you need more speed and the size is very compact as it is so I can include some DOS programs on the floppy or more on the SSD. With the 98SE DOS I can then access the DOS disk image to restore back any OS bootloader/menu I had saved so there wouldn't be any special need to be using those other tools for my purposes. They might have come in handy if there was no way to image the boot partition in DOS. I suggest you delve deeper in the XP loaded entirely into Ramdisk possibility maybe you will find a way to do this yourself first and share.

You're talking about opening up a 2GB DOS File? What program are you proposing to do this? That I haven't tried and it would be enormous. I'm not even sure what program could open such a large file under DOS given its limitations. But yes the COPY command and probably XCOPY as well should have no problem copying the 4GB file in my Ramdrive proposed speed tests. However COPY and XCOPY will have differing results so I'm suggesting only the COPY method first in the first preliminary tests. XCOPY method could be used in a follow up test for comparison. Some other tests are adding DOS caching software into the mix to see if any benefit is achieved. There were several of these back in the day that I'll have to try and dig up and I don't think these can be found on the internet that easily. The most recognized from Microsoft is Smartdrv but from testing on Z170 it will corrupt the partition. I haven't tested it on the Z77 to see if it had the same effect.

One big problem jaclaz. I would not use a credit card to buy a jacket.

There's no nullifying complete privacy for being a customer. One can walk into McDonald's and use cash to purchase anything and leave. They could choose to use a credit card, bitcoin, or whatever method was available but it doesn't mean the cashier has to question your identity or keep follow up tabs on you after you bought something and left. It's just a payment choice. Although the credit card is less secure so cash usually is a better way to deal with simple transactions especially at the drive through where they could swipe your card through a skimmer out of your sight. As for paying for a jacket I actually would pay cash but that's because today there's too much of a digital trail for everything and I prefer not getting advertisement and spam. The idea of buying a jacket at a store and then bumping into the jacket's creator doesn't mean you would be willing to give him/her your personal information. And even purchasing your product on its own site was questionable and not on Amazon or eBay or some other trustworthy established site then but I went ahead and trusted it. It doesn't mean I have to redivulge my information again when asked. You were the one that had questioned if I had bought anything from you. I didn't bring up my status as a customer prior to that. How was I currying favor for being a customer when I never once mentioned I was until you questioned it? In fact if you dig back you were the one that initiated the message to me about your Ramdrive. If currying favors from you means giving you ideas on how to improve a product then that would be backwards. If I was asking for a free product from you without having purchased anything from you that would be different. I only listed the program files for the Patch even though I didn't have to for your benefit and any other person would realize when they compared their files to the list that I owned the original program and I don't need to divulge any more private information to prove otherwise. On top of that I went as far as protecting the filenames in case those could be used to track down the program somehow to help protect your software. I helped test out the compatibility for Z170 with your programs with my own time to help you out since you don't own anything newer than the Z87 on Intel and have referred your product on a number of times on other sites in the past on various sites so if anything you could say I paid my 3 big burgers worth for the patch and more from those who potentially or have already bought it as a result of my positive reference to your product. I said the first 640KB conventional memory was for DOS, the 384KB for HMA, you stated 1.1GB for 98SE would be allocated, 1.9GB for WinME. So if that's true that means above the 1GB would be the start of 98SE memory usage. I never said 3840 MB for the graphics card I was tallying up the total memory I could potentially use of the 4GB installed in a test system. This is all theoretical as I haven't performed my tests yet. I will start with DOS tests before going into 9X/ME official tests to see how it reacts to every DOS Ramdrive I will use. A Ramdisk does exactly what it should do make RAM into a virtual disk and it's usually not dependent on the CPU and the first time I heard that a DOS Ramdrive only worked on specific CPUs that supported PSE-36. Not all Pentium 1 class CPUs had GBs of memory but some in the lower MBs. You said you wanted to make a Ramdrive to make use all or as much memory that isn't utilized by the OS. Or in cases where there is only conventional memory even a small amount of it could still be used for a Ramdisk. If each Ramdisk uses some conventional memory footprint why would I prefer having more than one Ramdisk if I wanted to conserve my conventional memory when I can use just yours to do it all? The limitation of your Ramdisk to Pentium and higher is by design which I'm pointing out and wondering why had you not written it to fully support 386 to modern CPUs from the start so it would support more CPUs and most people using DOS aren't going to be using machines with GBs of RAM typically so it seemed odd. I don't see why you would blame the free ones for not doing it. Being able to remove the DOS Ramdrive and recreate without rebooting will save between 1-3 minutes of reboot time in some cases. For 24/7 operation not needing to reboot this would be an advantage. That's why I questioned if you could create a 9X/ME with GUI version which might make it easier to change Ramdisks without rebooting where this is common behavior. Reducing the price of the patch to 1/4 isn't supposed to automatically increase your sales to a factor of four. You could easily raise your price to $100 and not get 1/5 the sales you are getting but probably 1/10. The idea is to allow more people to purchase it so your other utilities would be usable bringing in follow up purchases but you failed to see the long game. If someone can't even install 9X/ME or is new and doesn't know the easier freeware tricks to accomplish it they would prefer to use your patch and willing to try it at $5 total or a burger. Then they might be so overjoyed about their purchase that they may want to buy other programs you have which is the payoff (repeat customers). By lowering the initial cost for the patch price it should increase more buyers but not necessarily 4 times but it could increase the amount of buyers to double or triple at a lower initial cost. The additional sales for your other utilities may be the added benefit you're not seeing. But if you're happy with the current sales then you could raise the price to $100 and see if you bring in 1/5 of your current sales at $20. At this moment only you know how many copies are sold of each program and how many are being sold per month. I'm willing to guess it has been going on a noticeable downhill trend starting at least from 2017 thanks to Z170. 2018-2020 will be a definite predictor if the number drops each year. I'm only trying to find ways to possibly help increase your sales given the newer hardware incompatibilities. If you feel my ideas won't help boost your total users of your products over time then stick with your method. I never said it would be an easy job to emulate the video cards but the end is near for 9X/ME and this project would be necessary but it would require a team and maybe with someone like yourself involved would help expedite it. I only proposed that if the Roms were able to be extracted then it will take a team to create an equivalent 98BOX of DOSBOX to make use of the extracted Roms. Then there's the sound card issue for EAX Advanced HD which only was supported on PCI sound cards so even a sound card emulator will be needed in conjunction for the 98BOX emulator to be truly compatible on modern hardware. Z170 has begun sealing the coffin for 9X/ME gaming and if your only concern is standard non gaming applications support then I have to wonder if your sales will drop accordingly as most non gaming 9X/ME software is already working on XP or available for XP so I can only see gamers being your target audience.

You are thinking of the FAT16 2GB file size limitation. He is using FAT32 that can use up to 2TB partitions but the maximum files size is 4GB using 98SE DOS (4,294,967,294 bytes). I'm letting him decide what link he wants to post for the hardware and software programs he tested since he knows the rules better on MSFN. I'm not including any commercial linked pages at the moment in case it causes conflict with linking to commercial stuff that requires purchasing. Also it is harder for the common user to get every paid Ramdisk so I will focus on freeware Ramdisks first to do the comparisons before moving onto commercial ones if necessary for any final benchmark comparisons unless the author wants to release a testable copy for evaluation or has demo versions I will check those out.

I'm testing DOS and 9X/ME Ramdisks independently. So any 512MB or under DOS Ramdisks or above 512MB DOS Ramdisks are welcome. Dencorso it's still taking too much space so reduce the two results into two spoilers. Or if they were quoted from a link you posted that might be better if you want to post two separate threads and link each individually. . . Two spoiler headers: Spoiler #1 title Gigabyte i-RAM 1.5GiB DDR1 memory installed hardware Ramdisk vs. R. Loew's software-only 32-bit Non-XMS RAMDSK32 Add link to the Ramdrives used for Gigabyte i-RAM and the R. Loew on two separate links. . Spoiler #1 Contents Header Computer Motherboard and CPU specs: OS: Windows 98 SE Filesystem: FAT32 Your results. . . Spoiler #2 title Gigabyte i-RAM 1.5GiB DDR1 memory installed hardware Ramdisk vs. Gavotte's software-only NT-only RRAMDISK Add link to the Ramdrives used for Gigabyte i-RAM and the R. Loew on two separate links. . Spoiler #2 Contents Header Computer Motherboard and CPU specs: OS: Windows XP SP3 Filesystem: FAT32 Your results. . . . You should do a Gigabyte i-RAM 4.0GiB DDR1 memory installed hardware Ramdisk vs. R. Loew's software-only 64-bit Non-XMS RAMDSK64 if you have the capability. Use 98SE DOS to boot up but keep the Config.Sys only with HIMEMEX and no other files. Keep Autoexec.Bat empty for cleanest state. In DOS you could do four drive letters for this test. C: HD OR SSD SOURCE TEST FILES. D: Gigabyte i-RAM 4GB Y: RL64 4GB #1 Z: RL64 4GB #2 COPY a 4.0GB FAT32 file size limit FILE FROM C: TO D: mark down time elapsed unless you have some sort of DOS benchmark transfer rate program. COPY the 4.0GB FILE from D: to Y: mark down the time elapsed in Minutes:Seconds COPY the 4.0GB FILE from Y: to Z: mark down the time elapsed in Minutes:Seconds DELETE the 4.0GB file from D: i-RAM COPY the 4.0GB FILE from Z: to D: mark down the time elapsed in Minutes:Seconds Post the results.

Do you have a list of any other paid Ramdisk for DOS or 9X/ME? Why choose this version of CrystalDiskMark 2.2? Any specific versions or last version number for DOS? And which versions works in 9X/ME only? Any way to remove double spacing in your results?

Save it for the Wonder Woman movie.