Win2K: Batch-file won't run, as a strange symbol gets inserted.

[Martin H]

I have just recently changed from WinXP to Win2K and now i have a big problem that i do not understand ?

I have a batchfile which installs a program silently, but when i doubleclick on the batchfile, then it just blinks, and when i then add a pause command to see the error report, then i can see that it won't run because there has been inserted some strange symbol at the start of the batchfile.

It works fine in WinXP and when i open the batchfile in Win2K in notepad.exe, then there isn't that strange symbol.

I would really be gratefull if someone could tell me whats the cause and maybe solution for this.

Here is the copy/pasted output of the batchfile when it fails :

D:\Backup\Programs\Acronis_True_Image_Home_v9.0.3677>n++msistub.exe AcronisTrueI
mage.msi /qn PIDKEY=XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX /norestart
'n++msistub.exe' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

Btw, it didn't looked like that originally in the cmd prompt, but more like a strange symbol of some sort, but after i had saved the output into a txt file, then when i now open the txt file to post the contents into this post, then the symbol has been changed by notepad.exe to that n++

Thanks in advance.

Edit : When i then copy/paste the contents of the batchfile into a new batchfile that i make in Win2K, then that new batchfile also will not run.

Edit2 : Hmm, very weird, but i have gotten it fixed now thankfully

First i copy/pasted it over to another batchfile and that didn't work. then i tried the exact same thing again to a third batchfile and then it finally worked and didn't showed that strange behaviur anymore ???

So, i don't have an issue anymore, but still, if someone knows what was causing this strange phenomina, then i would be very interessted in hearing it...

Edited February 23, 2008 by Martin H

[jaclaz]

Maybe, if you paste a few lines of the batch, NOT of the output, near the one containing:

msistub.exe AcronisTrueImage.msi /qn PIDKEY=XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX /norestart

it may help.

Please do the above TWO times, one using Notepad, and the other one using Wordpad to open the batch file.

jaclaz

[Martin H]

Hi jaclaz and thanks for your reply

I'm affraid i have allready deleted the bad batchfile, when i pasted it into a new one that worked, so i can't do that unfortunetly, but it was a good idea, though, so thanks mate

Also, the batchfile where actually only consisting of that one line i pasted, and it where located in a folder with 'AcronisTrueImage.msi' and 'msistub.exe'...

I originally made the batchfile by doing these exact steps, so i can't see that there is room for any errors on my side :

1. Right-clicked in the folder with 'AcronisTrueImage.msi' and 'msistub.exe' and selected 'New > Text Document'.

2. Changed the default name to 'setup.cmd' and pressed return and answered 'Yes' to the warning about changing the file-extension away from '.txt'.

3. Right-clicked on 'setup.cmd' and selected 'Edit', so it opened up empty in notepad.exe.

4. Typed the command-line and pressed 'Ctrl+S' to save it and closed the batch-file.

Btw, i posted that it worked in WinXP, but that was actually wrong(sorry about that), as i was just sure that the problem was comming from Win2K, as i had just changed to it and had never had this problem before with other batchfiles on WinXP, but to make sure, then i ghosted my system partition back to WinXP and then tried the batchfile from there and it also there had the exact same problem...

Anyway, atleast i don't have the problem anymore...

I just kick myself, for being so stupid as to delete the original bad batchfile, so that i cannot try out jaclaz's good advice...

[jaclaz]

Well, check if when you do "Save as" in notepad in lower listbox you have by default:

ANSI

Unicode

Big-Endian Unicode

UTF-8

The kind of error you report is often reported when one tries by mistake to use a Unicode text as .cmd, it MUST be ANSI.

jaclaz

[Martin H]

@jaclaz

Thank you very much for your help, mate