RainyShadow

Your simple "answer" is wrong in this context. This topic is for accessing shared partitions over the network, not for directly accessing local partitions. Win98 could access any kind of partition over the network as long as it "speaks" the same protocol as the server. Of course, the same apply for other OSes too. OK, back to the topic... jasinwa, if you happen to install Vista and try this again, check the security logs, they may lead to a hint where the negotiation brokes. You may need to enable audition for remote access to the shares in order to get such logs.

Looking at the number of Linux users on that page, i doubt these statistics are correct at all.

On the "Security" tab too ?

The "first Win98 SE then Windows XP" thingie is because Win9x deletes the XP boot loader from the MBR, this is the only reason for that order. Anyways, it can be fixed by using the recovery console option which appears when booting the XP install CD. Or you could use any other boot manager. To remove the primary and secondary controllers, delete the CHILDxxx registry keys in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum\MF\

Tweak the permissions for that folder so that everyone has full access to it. I guess that's why MDGx asked if it's on a FAT drive, because these permission settings are available only on NTFS.

RAID and ATA are different stuff. SerialATA and ParallelATA are both... well ATA. So, SATA=ATA and PATA=ATA, but SATA<>PATA Look for an option which mentions "emulation" or "compatibility" or "IDE" mode. About the drivers, just try some of the generic ones. Or you could uninstall them, then remove all HDD related INF files from your \Windows\INF folder and try to finish the instalation this way. In Msconfig, the first 4 options might be of use. Try these in a few combinations and see what happens.

Well, if you stick with NTFS on the XP, compressing some folders might help a bit, but it might slow down things too. Try it and see what happens. To compress a folder or file , open its properties, click on the Advanced button and check the compression box. When closing the dialog, it'll ask if you want to compress the folder contents too, select yes and it's done. If the window seems hung, just wait until it finishes compressing. btw. if you create a large third partition at the end of the drive, this will avoid eventually placing system files there (because they're limited to the middle partition which is the XP one) and prevent future slowdowns due to it.

"PATA emulation mode" is a BIOS/chipset feature that makes the SATA drives be seen as normal PATA drives from the OS. If you have something in your BIOS setup which sounds like this, try to enable it. Unfortunately, your problem seems to not be caused by detection routines, so simply deleting INF files probably won't help. Your problem is caused by Win98 not using the IDE hardware in the way your system expects. Start MSCONFIG and tweak the settings in the "Advanced settings" dialog. Also, while booting to continue the setup, press F8 to boot to DOS instead, and then try to start WIN.COM with some of the command-line switches it provides. While in Safe mode, open the Device manager and, if there are any HDD controllers already installed, you could try to change the driver used for them. HTH

Another thing you could do to speed things up is to create a third partition for storing large files like movies, etc. Place it at the end of the drive. As such files are usually sequentially readed, they don't need such small access times as the smaller files need. Besides, it's always nice to have a separate data partition

Not much that i can think of, sorry. You could try to tweak your BIOS settings and see if this helps. Maybe installing on the SATA drive in PATA emulation mode would work. Other thing to try is, if you have another PC or VMWare/VirtualPC/etc. , to copy an already installed Win98 system from there. You could also see if Safe mode works on your half-installed setup and mess a bit with it. Once i had to delete some INF files just before the hardware detection in order to avoid a BSOD caused by the detection routines.

Well, you could try copy the Win98 folder on the install CD to your FAT drive, then boot from C: and install this way. You probably have to disable ACPI mode ( SETUP.EXE /P I ) HTH

Place the FAT32 partition at the begining of the drive. Make sure that it is a primary partition and is active. Disconnect the other drive until you're done installing. Re-connect the other drive. Use XOSL as a boot loader and set the "Swap drives" , "Activate partition" and "Fix drive nuimber" options for the Win98 entry. P.S. you'll probably have driver problems on this chipset. HTH

Well, first select to resize the XP partition. Change the values so that the first number (Free space before partition) is just a bit larger than your Win98 partition size. Then click "OK". Now right-click on the 98 partition and "Copy" it to the begining of the drive. Then PMagic should show two FAT partitions surrounding the XP one. Right-click on the first one and find the option to mark it as "Active". You can "Apply" the changes now. It may take some time, enjoy a cup of coffee Delete the original 98 partition (the one at the bottom). Resize the XP partition to use all available free space. You may also "Hide" the original 98 partition instead of deleting it, until you're sure that the new copy boots fine. If you use the XP boot loader, it may need some reconfiguration. Open the BOOT.INI file in the root folder of the drive and on each line change the number after "partition" according to your new settings. HTH

Not that it should affect your problem, but you've placed your FAT partition waaay to far from the begining of the drive. Expect problems with older software. I, as a rule, always place my DOS/Win9x partitions as close to the begining as possible. Maybe it's just a habbit from the days when 1024th cylinder/etc. boundaries caused major problems, but i preffer to be on the safe side than wondering why something doesn't work when it should. [edit] now that i think some more on this, the partition placing might be exactly what causes your slowdowns as the ending tracks on the drive should have much longer access time than the begining. So, if you have the time to test it, move your FAT partition to the begining of the drive. Beware that messing with the drive might break the XP boot, but (if that happens at all) it's easily repairable by booting from an XP install CD and using the recovery console to fix the boot loader.

Here is an advice - check BTEWin. As you do a lot of scripting, you could benefit from it's advanced commands/features. P.S. Bulgarian: sLanguage=bgr

Just a guess - if partition magic has decreased the cluster size while resizing, this should lead to doubled or bigger FAT size and higher file system processing overhead. Also, defragmenting sometimes leads to slower application loading if the DLLs, data files, etc. for this application get physicaly separated (i.e. the EXE at the disk begining, one DLL at the middle, other DLL at the end of the drive, etc.)

Well, you could always try the Kx Project audio driver.

What information do you need ? Just ask and i'll try to answer as good as i can. btw. I've looked a bit in your code and found a few flaws. The Install.bat script assumes default short (8.3) filenames, but these aren't always reliable. What if (just an example) i have a file named AutoSystemBackup.pif on my desktop? Its short name would be the same you use to run your app after install. And yours would be named Autosy~2.pif instead. Some of the values your scripts look for: Incorrect (for 4DOS) usage of IF Also you might want to specify in the :NOTWINMS message that the scripts need M$ Command.com as a shell. A typo: You'll find an output log and an 4DOS log in the attachment. I used to get the same ASET error as Max_04 on the first tries. I'm not sure if it got somehow fixed when i ran the scripts from the command line or just the message was hidden. log.txt log1.txt

Nice idea, but unfortunately your program doesn't work at all for me. I'm using 4DOS as a command interpreter. When i run AutoSYSTEMini.exe it installs fine, then i get to the introduction screen and the last lines are: Now making your original undo file... T" 1.5 After a couple keypresses i get: T" .5 Now loading your computer's current settings... T" 1.5 then some error messages scroll too fast that i can't read them, and finally i reach the menu. I press "V" to check if it detects my RAM and i get: Now checking to see how much RAM you have... T" 1.5 After i press a key, the output is: Syntax Fehler NSET 2.1 © 1997 Horst Schaeffer - s. DOK Datei ASET: Warning: syntax error! ASET: Warning: syntax error! ASET: Warning: syntax error! ASET: Warning: syntax error! ASET: Warning: syntax error! C:\PROGRA~1\AUTOSYS\code\SYS_Inst.bat [1055] Unknown command "1" ASET: Warning: syntax error! ASET: Warning: syntax error! ASET: Warning: syntax error! ASET: Warning: syntax error! Deleting C:\@@_tmp.txt 1 file deleted This program thinks you have mb of RAM available to Windows. You can confirm this now by going to your Control Panel then 'System' If this is not correct, you can manually enter in the correct amount so that the rest of the program will produce settings appropriate to your computer. Is this amount correct? [Y/N] Then i press "N" and it starts an endless loop of this: INPUT ver 1.2 © 2000, Horst Schaeffer Syntax: INPUT [line,column] [prompt] varname [options] Options: /E edit current variable /S edit: cursor at end, clear if 1st key is ASCII /Ln limit input length=n /U uppercase, /I insert, /P password, /N numeric only, /F flush buffer You cannot enter nothing for this setting. Please enter something! I've also tried to run Start_Me.bat from the original M$ command.com prompt, but it just closes the DOS window. The previous version has similar issues. HTH

Funny, i just downloaded the fix and decided to check WU one last time before i start your program... guess what... WU worked

maximus-decim, would you mind updating the first post when you release a new version, please?

If you have an additional PC around, use some RemoteDesktop-like program ( RAdmin, etc.) to control your system from the other PC, and see if Windows is running fine behind that black screen. If it does, try to tweak your driver/desktop settings like refresh frequency, resolution, etc. If your card has TV-out, you could try it too to see if you get any picture on a standart TV. HTH

How's mine? Photoshop original here

Try WindizUpdate. HTH

Try to downgrade your BIOS to an older version. On Dell laptops usually newer BIOSes create more problems than they solve.