Spinman

If this will work, here's my game plan... Create the 3 partitions - #1 Fat16 1g; #2 Fat32 20g; #3 NTFS 40g Install DOS 6.2 to Partition #1 (still trying to figure out how to properly install - can't figure out a way to easily sys the partition) Copy W98SE ghost to partition #2 Copy W2K install disk to partition #2 set partition #2 as active - so that I can boot to W98 Boot to W98 partition - test ability to boot instead to DOS Boot to W98 - install W2k to partition #3 checkout w2k boot manager functions test w2k installation

I'm just experimenting - trying to learn a few tricks. I've got a program for reading the data stream from the diagnostic port of my car that runs in DOS that I've never been able to run properly. I've tried using a state of the art XP laptop - booting with a DOS 3.2 disk (NEC customized) and a W98 Startup disk - and while both load the program - it does not process the data properly via the serial port. Wanted to try it with DOS 6.2, the last MS release. Was told by the program author that I would have better luck using a slower laptop rather than a P4 machine. Also suggested DOS rather the the W98 version. *************** Also have a program that only run on W98 - thus the need for that partition. ************** And finally - the laptop does not have enought HP to run XP - so wanted to throw on W2K for all other applications - and avoid the BSOD syndrome. ************** Now my problem is - how do I install the DOS? When I try to SYS the drive from the command prompt on my XP machine I am using for loading - it informs me that I am using a incompatable system. When I boot from the DOS 6.2 floppy - it will not find any of my drives... Can I copy the files from the floppy to the partition - or must I use the sys command? As I recall - io.sys and msdos.sys had to be the 1st 2 files on the drive - or else it would not boot.

Want to try something new and hope someone can look over my shoulder. Have a laptop with a 6g drive running W98se. I've removed the drive from the laptop - installed in my desktop (xp) and generated a ghost image of the laptop hard drive. (I don't have a cd or floppy drive on the laptop - so I need to setup as much as possible while the drive is out of the laptop) I'm going to install a larger HD and want to install 3 OS - so that I can multi-boot. Partition #1 - Dos 6.1 (Fat 16) C:\ Partition #2 - W98SE (Fat32) D:\ Partition #3 - W2K (Fat32) E:\ Thought I'd created the 3 partitions and sys c:\ and transfer the Dos files to the c:\ partition. I'd then reinstall the ghost image of W98SE to d:\ And copy the installation disk for W2k to E:\ (Setup at fat32 so that I can access the partition from W98 (or should I setup at Fat16 so that I can boot to it from dos? yada yada yada Will the W98 partition be the primary boot device if I set the partition as active? Does W2K support multi booting like xp does? Problems? Thoughts? Suggestions? More to come as I think of it...

Problem Solved - Sorry...

MDGx - thanks for the info - I'll give it a try when I get home tonight. Another thought - the external drive box specifications says it only works with usb 1.1 and 2.0 How can I check my system - perhaps I'm only running usb 1.0 (it's old enough)? Can I check via the drivers loaded for the usb hub in device manager or is there a utility that could scan my system and report back? That could easily explain the driver mounting problems...

To my knowlege, the card is installed and configured properly. At least, that's why I went to the library - to check it out. I may have to move on down the road and select another free wi-fi location. Or as a last resort, set up a wi-fi access point on my system at home. (Still dial-up at home). I did notice that I was getting a reading for an access point at home from one of the neighbors - but when I checked again last night - it was gone. I also did try it with the never dial a connection box checked - no change in the negative results. I may have to try the tech support of the card mfg and see if they have any thoughts - unfortunatley, not a lot of applicable info on the FAQ web page.

Finally got the Sandisk flash drive to work thanks to info posted on another board. I had to go into device manager and manually assign it a drive letter on the settings tab - it would not automatically assign a drive letter. Once I did that, it worked. Still having problem with the ADS USB 2.0 drive box - it won't properly load the driver set. Now getting a yellow exclamation. Have removed and reinstalled the device - manually installed the drivers... What's the possibility of an irq conflict? It's been so long since I've done any heavy lifting in W98SE - there is a MS utility that would let you see assignments and conflicts - can anyone promt me with the name? Thanks -

Playing around with a recently acquired laptop (ancient) running W98SE. I just installed a PCMCIA Wireless card (and the associated drivers and software). I'm at my local library, which offered wi-fi service - trying to get the laptop on the web. All they can tell me is to be sure that WEP is disabled - otherwise, no computer support is available. When I boot up - the software recognizes the 8 access points in the library - displaying the signal strength and channel, shows that they do not use encription, the authentication is unknown, and their network type is infrastructure. When I select one of the points - my display says that I am connected. So far, so good. Is there something I need to do on the W98 side to have IE automatically access the wi-fi connection? When I open IE - my dial-up box pops-up - because I have it set to dial a phone number when there is no connection. I have gone into the LAN box and tried checking and unchecking the various boxes - but have not complete any string data - figuring that it would not be needed for such a generic connection at the library. Can someone point me in the right direction? I've done this with XP using the various wizards - but W98 has thrown me for a loop...

As mentioned - The laptop only has USB 1.0 support (1 port). Which does work when using a usb mouse. I did install the required w98se drivers for the sandisk cruizer and the ads usb external box. The drivers were loaded when the device was initially installed - and then nothing. Have rebooted and reinstaleld the drivers manually with no luck. The ADS box has its own power supply, so I can't be overtaxing the usb port. Wondering if this was normal or abnormal behavior on a 6 year old laptop. I may have to try a PCMCIA usb 2.0 card and see if that solves the problem...

Playing around with a recently acquired laptop - circa 2000 production. It came loaded with a fresh install of W98SE. I've checked device manager - no ghost devices - all devices have loaded drivers. My problem is in the realm of USB... When I connect an optical usb mouse - the computer recognizes it and works perfection. When I attach a Sandisk Mini Cruzer (1g) it recognizes the device, searches and installs the drivers - shows up in device manager - but does not show up in my computer - there is no drive letter assigned and I can not access the drive. The same thing happens when I attach an external dvd drive mounted in an ADS 2.0 USB external drive kit - it recognizes the devices, searches and installs the driver - but does not show up in my computer as a usable drive. Out of curosity - I installed a PCMCIA card reader in the laptop and fwiw - the device was recognized, drivers loaded and device loaded properly. A drive letter was assigned and I can access the memory card. So, at this point, I'm at a loss. Is there some reason why USB 2.0 storage devices will not load properly into this system (they work fine on my XP desktop)? I understand that the laptop only has support for usb 1 (1.0 or 1.1 I'm not sure) - but both the ADS and the Sandisk should be backwards compatable. Is there a KB I'm missing? Appreciate any thoughts! Thanks -

How critical is it in these days of SATA raid to obtain a matching hard drive for Raid 0? I currently have a 200g WD2000JD SATA drive and would like to setup a Raid-0 array. Can I use a larger drive (and possible a different vendor) (giving me more versatility for future system reconfiguration)? Naturally the array would be limited to the smaller of the two drives.... Would the possible difference in read/write times be a problem? I'm sure there would be a theoretical performance difference by using 2 different drives - but in real world useage - would it really make any difference - speed wise or system damage wise? Is the drive controller confused when writing parallel data to two different drives? I'm thinking of adding a Hitachi 250g or a WD 330g drive as a match to the 200. (presumably at some point in the future, I would upgrade the 200 to the larger capacity - if still available). Thanks for any thoughts...

I have two systems at home - wondering if the performance differential between the two would be noticeable... Asus K8N 800/FSB * 1g DDR PC3200 memory * AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 2.0ghz vs Gigabyte 8Iexp 533/FSB * 1g DDR PC2100 memory * Intel P4 Northwood 2.4ghz non-hyperthreading I am currently using the Asus exclusively for MCE2005 and the Gigabyte for my daily work horse. I was wondering if it would make sense (and be worth the effort) to swap systems - so that the older Gigabyte is setup to run the MCE application and the Asus used for daily work (presumably faster processing when working with databases, calculations, financial applications, etc). Is the Asus faster, slower, or immaterial?

I have an old ATI 8500DV that I would like to use in an MCE 2005 system. I realize that this card in unsupported in this application, but.... I would add a Hauppage MCE 150 tuner card for encoding and TV tuner operations. I would only use the 8500DV for video processing. Would need to use the dongle for svideo output connector. Googled a bit - but didn't come up with anything promising. Anyone have any luck developing such an hardware application? Thanks -

I have a 250g drive with a corrupt MBR (XP-SP2-NTFS) - storage only - so I'm not using the drive until the problem is fixed... I have downloaded several programs from the web that have been able to identify the "lost directories and files" I need to recover - but I'm unable to enact reparis and corrections unless I purchase the program. Prior to doing that - was wondering if anyone could recommend a freeware program that is capable of restoring the MBR from the backup copy stored on the disk. Many thanks!

I am using PHM Plus! to swap out my boot screen (so I don't need to worry about modifying the kernels etc). They provided several demo images that are formated in bmp and have a 151kb file size. When I load these images - everything looks and runs fine. The problem comes when I try to load my own images - the picture quality is degraded from the original bmp or jpg image. Using MS Digital Image 10 - the bmp files I am created are always 901kb in size. Assuming that I need to reach a target size of 151kb (as all of the other boot screens I have located are that size) - how to I compress the image to achieve good looking photo? I tried to load one of the provided demo files and when I saved it in MS DI 10 - w/o any modifications - the size was increased to 901kb and the quality suffered when loaded into the boot sequence. Any Suggestions? http://www.phm.lu/Products/PC/Plus/Default.aspx

In the past, I have always used an answer file with my installation - specifying enable big LBA - and as a result - have never had any problems installing new drives and accessing data on large capacity drives. I read that SP1 and SP2 automatically turn on LBA - and with my last install, did not use an answerfile - installing from a slipstream SP2 disk (created from an original version oem disk). Today I am trying to install a new 250g disk and it will only partition to 137g. Using the vendor installation software and norton partition magic - can only access the 137g limitation. [i have several 160g, 200g, and 250g drives currently in the system - formatted and installed prior to my last rebuild - I seem to have no problems accessing those drives and data]. I went into the registry and added a line to activate LBA - sill no go.... I attached the new drive to a machine running media center 2005 - and with partition magic - I was able to increase the 137g partition to the full capacity of 238g. Returning the drive back to the original machine - it now tells me that the drive is not formatted - would I like to format it?. When I answer yes - I get a message shortly thereafter that windows is unable to complete the format. 1) Do I need to install a slipstream installation with an answerfile in order to achieve LBA capacity - or should it be turned on automatically? 2) Is there a way to turn it on manually - (which my registry hack apparently did not achieve)? 3) Are my existing drives in excess of 137g in danger of corruption if I continue to run this system (should I do another installation with the answer file to activate LBA?) Thanks -

I'm going to be rebuilding a friends computer that is running Windows 2000. Checking the web - it appears that the latest service pack for this OS is SP-4. Correct? Is SP-4 cumulative - or do I need to also obtain and install SP-1, SP-2 and SP-3? Thanks!

Finally found the solution to my problem: ******************** http://www.homenethelp.com/comments/displa...&messageNo=4660 ******************** If your client can see your host machine but can't get out to the Internet you might try a ping test and then tell the client machine to use the host as DNS if you have not already. Ping the host machine from start]run]cmd (or command). In the DOS window type: ping 192.168.0.1 or whatever your host machine is set. If you get a reply, it can see your host machine. NOW ping an external web site like this: ping www.yahoo.com -- if you get a reply, you should also be able to see it in your browser, if you don't, then ping the IP# directly, at this writing: ping 66.218.71.94. IF you NOW get a reply, you have a DNS thing to fix bud. You should also be able to see the site in your browser: http://66.218.71.94 should bring up yahoo.com You should go to the DNS settings in your Network Properties and "Enable DNS" then type in the name of the host machine, leave domain blank, and add the IP number of your host machine, typically: 192.168.0.1.

I have several shock wave files that I would like to convert to MPEG file format (so I can build a DVD playback menu). Can anyone recommend a freeware utility that can do the conversion? Thanks!

After a long week of network learning curve problems - the end is in sight! I now have a peer-to-peer network functioning (2 machines connected via a switch). Both are running XP-Home-SP2. I use dial-up, not broadband - so now I'm trying to configure my internet gateway on the non-modem equipted machine, so that it also has internet access. Naturally, the machine with the modem has a static IP address of 192.168.0.1, while the 2nd machine has an IP address of 192.168.0.2 (and a gateway address of 192.168.0.1 for the pass-through). I have configured the modem for access sharing. Since activating the internet gateway - my lan connection status shows a small, but constant stream of activity (and the icon is constantly illuminated on both monitors). I have an Internet Gateway icon on my connections page. When I click on settings - I am presented with a page containing services. The only service marked is "Teredo". (Do I need anything else for internet access?) As things currently stand - when I open IE - it tried to load my home page - msn.com - and after a few seconds - times out - presenting me with "This Page cannot be displayed". ************** Might anyone have any suggestions on manually configuring my dial-up modem for local LAN sharing? Thanks!

Finally got everything to work - but don't know why I had to do it the way I did. I booted into safe mode - at which point an unspecified device loaded. Rebooted and returned to normal mode - no improvement. Rebooted and returned to safe mode. Reconfigured entire network settings in safe mode. Renamed PC and Workgroup Rebooted back into safe mode Renamed PC and Workgroup Rebooted back into normal mode. System partially correct. Rebooted back into normal mode. System stable and works perfectly (for at least the last hour). Very strange....

Finally got everything to work - but don't know why I had to do it the way I did. I booted into safe mode - at which point an unspecified device loaded. Rebooted and returned to normal mode - no improvement. Rebooted and returned to safe mode. Reconfigured entire network settings in safe mode. Renamed PC and Workgroup Rebooted back into safe mode Renamed PC and Workgroup Rebooted back into normal mode. System partially correct. Rebooted back into normal mode. System stable and works perfectly (for at least the last hour). Very strange....

I have 2 computers - loaded with XP-Home SP2 over the weekend. Therefore a clean install on each - no accumulated garbage - no 3rd party software installed. Default MS firewall setting off. Computer "A" seems to have loaded properly (whatever that means) - when I check 'My Network Places' in windows explorer - I can see the shared folders from Computer "A" listed as a sub line - along with entire network\microsoft network\workgroup. Computer "B" (my problem child) does not display the shared folders from Computer "B" under 'My Network Places'. As I drill down through the hierachy - I eventually get the message that I have seen others report - about access being denied and to check with their system administrator (me). ****** I then setup a USB wireless point on "B" and a PCI wireless point on "A". I am able to lock on to the signal and affect a peer to peer connection (no router access point) - but that is as far as I can get. "A" will not display any of the shared folders from "B" and "B" will not display any of the shared folders from "B" or "A". I'm sure the fact that shared folders from "B" do not appear on the host machine is the reason that they are not available over the connection on "A". Why is "B" not showing the shared folders under My Network Places? BTW - in addition to the default shared folders - I have also established 2 slave drives as shared network devices - so they should appear as well... (have the hand underneath). Does this sound like a software problem? I have a fully loaded machine - yet I can't imagine that it would be hardware related (defective part or irq conflicts, etc...) With the exception of this networking problem - everything else seems to work perfectly. BTW - I've tried the motherboard based LAN and a PCI LAN card - and each fails to load properly. Others have told me that the devices are defective. Now with the failure of USB wireless to work properly - I'm wondering if there is a software setting that is affecting all 3 methods of networking - or if something else is in play. I have disabled the motherboard LAN via bios, so hopefully that is now out of the picture. I think I need to resolve the lack of local machine shared files in My Network before tackling the actual connectivity problems. Appreciate any thoughts... Thanks!

Did a little experimenting since my last post... Disabled the motherboard LAN via bios to remove it from my experiments. 1) Add an PCI LAN card - during installation I was unable to get it to properly load the drivers. Kept getting an error message (that I don't remember at this time). Contacted Linksys support and worked with them for 10 minutes - his conclusion - the PCI card was bad..... (?) In reality - it is probably because of my overall problem... I'll have to try the card again on another machine. 2) I then tried to network using a USB wireless G network device and set up a peer-to-peer connection with another computer at home. I am able to get the signal and recognize the other computer (and it in reverse) - but I am unable to access the workgroup on the problem machine - keep getting a MS message that I need to contact my system administrator..... 3) On the off chance that I might have a registry setting that was the cause of the problem - I did a clean install of XP on a new hard disk and installed the wireless connection immediately after installing my intel chipset drivers. Same problems. Same error messages. 4) Flashed back to the OEM version of the bios to see if that was favorable - no improvement (using a hacked bios). Looks like it is 0 for 3 - motherboard LAN port; PCI NIC; USB wireless. Without going into specifics - is there a component on the motherboard that could have failed that would prevent me from establishing network communications via all three methods (including PCI and USB)? Everything else on the system works perfectly. I have a fully loaded machine - is it possible that a card conflict or IRQ mismatch would be the cause? I might try the USB wireless again after removing all the PCI cards tonight. (My 2nd machine was a clean install 2 days ago - wireless installed w/o any problems and shows the shared folders from that machine on the network workgroup - obvisouly nothing from the 1st machine despite having a connected wireless link). I don't understand why the problem machine will not display the shared folders under its network workgroup in explorer... Is there anysort of utility (MS or 3rd party) I could run to check for conflicts or defective hardware on the motherboard? I'll try aSmilon's suggestion tonight when I get home as well. YUK! - (this puts a crimp into my home media center network)

This is a new install of windows - so there should not be any conflicting garbage left over that is causing interference... I did switch the cable - no change in status. Everything seems to click in solid. I downloaded the drivers from the web site last night - so they are the latest and greatest. I removed the driver utility and tried to install using the installation CD that came with the motherboard - it reported that no LAN devices were found. When I clicked on the network adapter in device manager - and pointed to the Cd - it found the OEM drivers and installed them - resulting in the same sequence of messages. Retested the half duplex setting - problem continues. So it would appear that my NIC feature on the motherboard has failed. Funny thing - I tried to install a LInksys PCI LAN card in the system last year (to check out the card) - it failed to load and Linksys was unable to offer any suggestions - other than the card was bad. Wonder if there is something generic in the bios (or elsewhere) that is causing a LAN enable problem. Thanks!