Ninho

Hmmm... those 2 are used for SCSI disks I believe. Definately not used for booting from IDE ! -- Ninho

I can answer this last point : Win 98 will recognise several primaries and assign them letters, as long as they are partition types that it knows, i.e. any flavour of FAT. It won't touch an NTFS (of course), but it is smart enough to "skip over" one and look for other DOS/Win partitions. There are certain bugs in DOS 7's IO.SYS partition enumeration code and letter assignment, only in certain cases where there exist also non-MS partitions, which is not a concern for the OP, I think.

Hi again, Dave! Sorry I didn't come back to you again earlier, have been away. Reading the whole thread again, concurr with James that source of your trouble maybe the NT loaders from XP and 2003 no longer booting from a secondary, while 2k had no problem with it. It would be a strange regression, but quite possible with Microsoft software. My recommendation of partition mgmt software : Ranish. You'll need to learn and practice some however before you touch your disk. In any event backup, backup, backup ! Ranish partition manager has an active and helpful support group hosted at Yahoo groups. Oh, did I tell you it's free ?

In one word : no, it wouldn't, for several reasons which would lead this thread afar. In my complex system, with OSes not only multibooting, but running in virtual machines from raw disk, I can't afford to "hide" some partitions (which is a misnomer btw; you don't hide parts, you change their type #) - the bug described in thread is more tolerable to me. Thank you for your suggestions any way -- Ninho

If it isn't a FAT partition, why would it show in Explorer. Anyway, hiding is useless: even though the drive won't appear in My Computer, you can still access it in the Address Bar, AFAIK. The problem is not whether it shows in an Explorer window (it doesn't), but it gives all sorts of annoyments : e.g., each time the trash is emptied, Windows prompts whether I want to format the "diskette" in the foreign partition (!) I daren't imagine what would happen to my Linux partition if someone inadvertently clicked OK ... Hiding the partitions in question suppresses the annoyments, but then it reveals the start menu bug, subject of this thread. Between two bugs, one has to choose the least -- Ninho

You /can/ have several primaries - partitionning tools offered as part of Microsoft OSes won't let you create such configurations, but the OSes can work with such configurations. Conversely, you can have only one primary extended partition, which in turn should contain only one logical, and optionally one extended, and so on. Concerning your problem, I would check the validity of the line in your boot.ini : "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WIN-NT="Windows 2000 Professional SP4" /fastdetect" Open the logical disk management console (diskmgmt.msc) and check that the OS partition is indeed number 2 as reported by Windows. -- Ninho

Win2000, please bear with my lame questioning (as I'm not sure I got it right and don't want to risk a mistake) : does your replacement system work for all localised versions of Win 2k SP4 (I have the French version), or is it applicable only to US English and Chinese or Japanese windozes exclusively ? If the latter, what is required in order to produce a French version ? Regards -- Ninho

Hi! Win2000! I noticed your thread earlier, but not tried yet. This will be a nice opportunity, & let me congratulate and encourage you for the eminent piece of work you've done. It's certainly not designed for the web and PCs of yore. Each 'tab' - not tabs in fact, they are detachable full windows - runs in its own process. What they are targetting is clearly web 2.0 (3.0?) types of usage where tabs will be executing remote apps (with the fast scripting engine) rather than Granpa's browsing static web pages... It'll be interesting to watch this as it evolves, and the effect it's going to have on the competition. Regards -- Ninho

Hi ! Did someone try to install Google Chrome on Win 2k ? I wonder if bypassing the installer version checks might suffice, or would the kernel extensions discussed in another thread of this section help ? Been trying Chrome (inside of a win XP virtual machine) and, boy! it's f.a.s.t.! Cheers, -- Ninho

The final word - after some searching : it's a "well known" Microsoft ® Bug :=) Namely an unwanted side effect of using TweakUI for hiding a drive letter from My Computer. By well known, I mean it is even acknowleged by MS itself <http://support.microsoft.com/?id=188209> In a typical microselfish way, the above article offers no solution other than unhiding any drives that were previously hidden. Grrr! Does anyone knows a real solution ? I need to hide a (non MS) partition from Explorer, not for cosmetic reasons. So, this is not the final word after all... -- Ninho Acknowlegement : Found link to the MS article thru Google -> at MDGx's precious site : <http://66.218.69.11/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=windows.98+explorer+start.menu+context.menu+disabled+explore+open&fr=moz2&u=www.mdgx.com/98-3.htm%2523TUI&w=windows+98+explorer+start+menu+context+menu+disabled+explore+open&d=I58ihRg5RNLF&icp=1&.intl=us>

Yes but no thanks ! I want to identify the source of the problem - can live with it meanwhile...

Hi ! I have X-Setup (in fact 6.6.3 is the last free version AFAIK) but can't find what's wrong where :-( The most approaching setting I can find in X-Steup is called : "Show context menu for Start button, Taskbar and Tray" and it is checked on. And indeed I have the Start button's context menu working, only the aforementioned options : Open and Explore being grayed out. Thanks for your input; more ideas ? -- Ninho

On this Windows 98 SE system "Start menu", the "Open" and "Explore" right-click context options have become unavailable (grayed out)... Everything else is working as designed. I don't think this is malware, rather I must have FUBARed something by myself, probably a registry key - but I can't find where exactly this comes from Does this symptom ring bells and where should I look for repairing it ? TIA !

Can't see anything wrong, it should be working ! Still you'll want to check that your WinNT partition is indeed where the boot.ini says it is, viz a primary partition described by the second physical slot in the MBR. For this check use any HEX viewer, or a competent partition-and-boot-manager (I like Ranish's). Nope it isn't. Using the Win 2k or XP boot files, my system is able to quad boot Linux, DOS, Win 98 and Win 2k. Good luck ! -- N.

The respective path to MY Windows files is : D:\WINNT\SYSTEM32 , very similar to what you have. And it boots as designed to, whether using the original Windows 2000 Pro SP4 ntdetect and ntldr, or the replacement files from XP SP2. Please double check the contents of your C:\BOOT.INI file, esp. ARC paths in it. You should have a line similar to the following - but the rdisk(x) and partition(y) will vary according to your patitioning scheme, and you'll have WIN-NT instead of WINNT : multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect HTH [Edited] I realise your D: might be on a second physical drive, whereas my D: is a partition on the first physical IDE. I am quite sure however it shouldn't make a difference to the Windows NT bootloader, provided the correct BOOT.INI is present at the root of the partition from which BIOS boots the machine (which Microsoft, strangely, calls the "system partition". The partition which contains your WinNT files they call, also strangely, the "boot partition". IOW they have it in reverse... Need to keep this in mind when reading MS knowledge base articles)

Thank you, RR & Noguru :=) For the record, NUSB 2.4 on the older system, as well as NUSB 3.? on the newer one (having USB 2.0) were reinstalled and work perfectly. NUSB, both 2 and 3 versions, are really fabulous. -- Ninho

the kernel transaction manager, and the Security Center : N.A. to Win 2k :=) Automatic Updates, BITS : better set to disabled (or manual) and enable only when needed (windows updates). I concur wholeheartedly services that are either unwanted or not needed all the time, should be similarly removed from the start up process (and not only services, regular applications too...) As for regular Win 32 apps which are needed, they can be staged using shareware/freeware "delayers" and, possibly, someone wrote a similar delayer for NT services (I didn't search for that one). Yep. Sysinternals autoruns (free, now available from Microsoft) can be a great help in startup cleaning. All things being equal, I dare insist, replacing ntldr+ntdetect.com with the versions from Win XP has in my experience made a great difference in perceived and measured booting times for Windows 2000. I did not believe it myself until I first tried, it's almost magics - and with no ill effect that I noticed since. Worth a trial... Cheers, -- Ninho

You need to replace BOTH ntldr AND ntdetect.com ! They belong to C:\ . Doing so does make the start of the boot sequence faster, and as a bonus, fixes bugs in the (optional, scrolling) display of loaded drivers. You assumed incorrectly. Also, having Win 2k setup as you described cannot be called non standard. It's not even unusual. HTH and please report back if my proposed "fix" works for you (if it doesn't I'm sure you'll be reporting anyway...)

FYI using the OEM restoration CD to restore Windows 98 SE to this IBM Aptiva 2170 yielded a *blank* product type, empty string.

Thank you, GlocK ! If you know, pray tell how one can unpack those NUSB installers and examine the files inside ? [Edited] Disregard question : running > file_name /? yielded the solution. Doh!

Actually in order for the DOS virtual machine to execute a HLT instruction in most idling circumstances, one needs to load *both* : - dosidle - sleepvm (or equivalent; like the DOS TSR which comes with the VMadditions for MS VPC) Load (load high if using an UMB mem manager) these, inside of he VM of course. Tech note : Dosidle is excellent, however its author forgot to hook "int 28h" This is why the system will not idle as expected at the prompt inside of some programs, as someone noted. SleepVM will take care of this, or you could add the sleepvm feature to dosidle easily enough since dosidle is provided with source ASM... These will suffice to "tame" the VM even when it is running Windows 3.1/3.11fWG. However there exists a VxD which can be loaded in addition (in system.ini) and will do the HALT at idle trick in a Windows way. HTH -- Ninho

Yep, I had grasped that one already but as I said earlier, it's for the other system. If I were to "update" this one from NUSB v2 to v3, may I do so without rolling out the NUSB v2 entirely anyway ? Then why would M.Decim distribute patched versions of these files along with NUSB if they are not necessary ? Makes no sense at all, I hope M. Decim himself or MDGX could step in and clarify the mud a little...

I will be installing NUSB v.3 to the newer computer when its turn cometh; But this here machine will never have USB 2 capability! Does NUSB v3 install on top of NUSB v2 easily anyway ? (There does not seem to be an uninstaller for NUSB2) I'd still like to get the answer to : is the explorer.exe update needed for NUSB version 2 ? Is seems to work well enough without it! -- Ninho

Hi ! I have just installed the NUSB 2.4 to a fresh Windows 98 SE. The reason I went for 2.4 rather than NUSB 3.x is that the system in question has only got USB 1.1 controllers (cf. thread <http://www.msfn.org/board/NUSB-for-USB1-too-t121104.html>) Installation was successful as far as I know - but I have a possible problem/question : The NUSB 2.4 I used is the English version - my OS is French Windows 98 SE. Installation asked to replace Explorer.exe, which I declined. What was the technical reason for it wanting to update Explorer ? I will apply if necessary - but as I said it /looks like/ the NUSB works even without changing my explorer, so if it's just cosmetic I'll leave it as is... (Edit : My untouched %Windir%\explorer.exe is the original (French language Windows 98 SE, 5/5/1999 22:22), the one that NUSB wanted to install, and was copied to the CABS, is ENU 9/8/2000 but both have version 4.72.3110.1 !) Regards and thanks to M.Decim and all the team ! -- Ninho

Thank you guys ! Just installed the NUSB 2.4 and after reboot, connected a no-name "pocket disk" which triggered the new hardware wizzard, installation of the USBSTOR drivers and the pocket disk itself. Read/write is OK. I may have a complementary question, but I'll move it to the proper forum subsection as suggested by Noguru. See you there, I hope... :=) -- Ninho