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Multiple-drive-letter-problem


Multibooter

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Playing with phoney drives

These phoney drives are starting to get interesting, on an SDHC card it is possible to play with them, without risking damage to the HDD.

It is possible to move files from the real drive K: , for example, to the phoney drive P: , so that Windows Explorer displays different files in its windows for K: and P: Even Beyond Compare, which doesn't go thru Explorer, lets you move stuff from a real drive to a phoney drive, and vice versa. After having made K: different from P:, Norton Disk Doctor still finds no error in the FAT of both drives, so possibly the phoney drive contains its own FAT. Win98 is stable with these phoney drives: I am connected to msfn.org writing these lines while 3 phoney drives are displayed in My Computer. By the way, the icons of the phoney drives displayed in My Computer are regular Removable Disk icons, while the icon of the real drive is displayed with a 2-state-icon (card inserted/no card).

This is possibly not a bug in Windows Explorer, maybe something deeper. Maybe that's something for the kernel experts...

The phoney drives are gone when I reboot. Norton Disk Doctor finds then lost clusters.

P.S. 5 minutes later: I retract my statement about stability. While I was on the internet and the phoney drives were displayed in My Computer, I removed the SDHC card; the 2-state-icon changed ok from red to grey. Then I re-inserted the SDHC card, the 2-state-icon turn red Ok, but then the system froze. Upon reboot there were no lost clusters on the SDHC, everything was deleted from the SDHC card, except for an empty directory. Good that it was only an SDHC card with junk on it.

Any other ideas about the multiple-drive-letter-problem?

Edited by Multibooter
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I remember (an awful number of years ago ;)) a similar problem on a machine (we are talking of the floppy and MS DOS 6.22) where some smart@§§ had managed to put a SUBST command in autoexec.bat mapping drive A: to drive B: (or something like it, cannot really remember the details) and similar problems "strange" directory listings, freezing etc. happened.

Can you try running on the "Phoney" drive some of the "SUBST forbidden" commands and see how it behaves? ;unsure:

http://www.easydos.com/subst.html

(just for the sake of the experiment, I don't think it can lead us any further :ph34r: )

jaclaz

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Can you try running on the "Phoney" drive some of the "SUBST forbidden" commands and see how it behaves? ;unsure:

http://www.easydos.com/subst.html

Hi jaclaz, it's magic.

I went into a DOS window (not full-size), formatted the phoney drive P: ok, the light of the single-SDHC card reader was flashing during format so it really did something. After formatting I made a dir of the phoney drive P: msg: file not found, 1,018,822,656 bytes free.

Then I changed under dos to real drive K: - the files are still there, a .txt listed correctly.

Windows Explorer shows an empty window for P: , no more files.

In the window of real drive K: still the old files - all accessible, a .txt listed ok

Here the text displayed in the DOS window when I formatted the phoney drive:

P>Format P:

WARNING, ALL DATA ON DISK

DRIVE P: WILL BE LOST!

Proceed with Format (Y/N)?y

Checking existing disk format

Formatting 971,87.. (could not read my notes)

Format complete

Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none)?afterfmt

1,018,822,656 bytes total disk space available on disk

16.364 bytes in each allocation unit

62.184 allocation units available on disk

Volume serial number is 114F-1B09

when I gave it a dir K: (the real drive), everything was still there, K: had the "volume serial number is B7BF-ADBA"

A chkdsk of the real drive K: and the phoney drive P: was Ok. Norton Disk Doctor under Windows found K: and P: ok

Is it maybe all in cache somewhere? The system is stable, I am posting this while the DOS window with the phoney drive is still minimized.

P.S. 5 minutes later: I just went into a full-size dos window, where both drives were shown as empty, both had the same volume name AFTERFMT and the same volume serial number 114F-1B09.

Volume P: had 1,018,822,656 bytes free

Volume K: had 1,016,217,600 bytes free

Under Windows, the windows of K: and P: have become empty, no more files listed.

Under Windows, Norton Disk Doctor found no errors on either drive - so why the different amount of free space?

Edited by Multibooter
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Try the other ones also:

CHKDSK

DISKCOPY <- probably not doable

FDISK <- NO, NOT this one!

FORMAT - tested

LABEL

SYS

Would it be possible that something similar to SUBST is "automagically" done when booting 98?

What if you run SUBST (with no arguments)?

jaclaz

P.S.: Check this:

http://www.mdgx.com/98-2.htm

also :unsure:

And maybe, just maybe, something like this this could be a possible CAUSE:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/archive/PhantomDrv.mspx

Could the DRVOFF utility work?

Can it be found anywhere?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/232681/en-us

Doubledisk Version 2.5:

Windows 98 Second Edition may try to access "phantom" disk drives if

you use it with Doubledisk. Phantom drives occur when you use

Doubledisk to create a compressed drive. For example, if you have

drives A, B, and C on your computer and you use Doubledisk to

create drive F, Windows 98 Second Edition and MS-DOS recognize

drives D and E as valid drives, even though they do not exist. You

can use the DRVOFF utility to prevent Windows from recognizing

phantom drives. To order a copy of the DRVOFF utility, contact

Vertisoft.

Edited by jaclaz
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What if you run SUBST (with no arguments)?

Nothing happens. I don't use Doubledisk or disk compression either, System Commander would have problems with it.

Thanks for pointing to some similar situations, this is not just a problem of multiple-drive-letters: when I click on a phoney drive letter, I don't get an error msg as reply, but I get full access to a disk. This is a phantom-drive-problem. For each real partition I get three more phoney but accessible partitions.

Paragon Partition Manager 9.0 can manipulate SDHC cards (="Removable Disk"). It sees the real disk and the 3 phoney ones. Paragon Partition Manager also contains its own utility to check the file system integrity, the phoney drive is ok. I modified with the Disk Editor of Paragon Partition Manager 1 byte of the phoney drive K: . I then went with the Disk Editor to the real drive K: , the modified byte was displayed there also.

Device Manager -> Disk drives -> "Generic STORAGE DEVICE" (8 are displayed, selecting the one for phoney drive P:)

-> Properties -> Settings shows the identical Firmware revision 9451 as the real drive K: and has the following items selected:

Disconnect, Sync Data Transfer, Removable, Int 13 unit.

Current drive letter assignment is P: (greyed out)

I have been wondering why the real drive K: is displayed 4 times in My Computer. Initially I thought it was because this multi-card reader had 4 slots for 4 different types of cards. But then the limitation of max.4 primary partitions per HDD device occurred to me. The menu selection of USBMonit.exe, the safely-remove-utility in the system tray, displays for the multi-card reader a single menu selection with 4 drive letters (or with about 10 drive letters when this problem occurs), just like for a hard disk with multiple partitions. nusb, which works ok, displays 4 menu selection, one for each drive letter/slot/device.

Also, a very similar multi-card reader model, the hama 55350 (the older version with the same GL819 Genesys chip, the newer version comes with a USBest chip UT335), comes without a built-in USB 3-port-hub; it has an additional 5th slot for inserting a micro-SDHC card, but this 5th slot is a "phantom" of the slot for the SDHC card. You can copy between all 5 slots, except that you cannot copy between the SDHC and micro-SDHC slots. If you have both an SDHC and a micro-SDHC card inserted at the same time, Win98 hangs.

Any further ideas about this multiple-drive-letter, or rather multiple-phantom-drive problem?

Addendum: The real and the 3 phantom drives have target ID=0. The Logical unit of the real drive K: =0, the phantom drives P,Q,R, have the LUNs 1, 2 and 3. Also, I can remove the phantom drives in Device Manager - but they don't disappear from My Computer, not even after a View -> Refresh or a Device Manager -> Refresh. Even after Alt - Ctl -Del -> Explorer -> End Task the phantom drives will not disappear from My Computer. After double-clicking in My Computer on such a phantom drive, which should not be there anymore, the access light of the SDHC card reader blinks once and an Explorer window for the drive opens.

Edited by Multibooter
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Just one:

I) Backup your registry by copying SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT in a safe directory in the hard disk, preferably out of the system partition. And make a second copy in a SDHC card (and store it away from the computer, in a safe place).

II) Detach all USB storage devices.

III) Start regedit and clean by hand, by deleting, all devices related to the phoney drive letters under HKLM\Enum\USB, guiding yourself by their VIDs and PIDs. But let the entries for the real drives alone.

IV) Reboot.

V) Reboot again.

VI) Reattach the USB storage devices.

Let's see what happens.

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Start regedit and clean by hand, by deleting, all devices related to the phoney drive letters under HKLM\Enum\USB, guiding yourself by their VIDs and PIDs. But let the entries for the real drives alone... Let's see what happens.

Hi dencorso,

Thanks for directing my attention to the registry. The phoney drives are not under HKLM\Enum\USB, but under HKLM\Enum\SCSI Please let me know, after you have read this posting, whether it still brings something to continue experimenting and to delete the phoney SCSI entries.

I have repeated the steps which bring about the multiple-drive-letter situation. After each step I rebooted (except after step 5) and took a snapshot of the registry (exporting all keys to a .reg file). Instead of the hama 55745 multi-card reader as before, I have used the hama multi-card reader 55350 (without a 3-port-hub, same Genesys GL819 chip). As 2nd Genesys-driven device I have used a WinTech single card reader (VID=05E3, PID=0723), which after step 6 appears with phoney multiple drive letters. I have taken the following .reg registry snapshots:

1After restoring W98_08Nov08.reg (no Genesys driver installed, no USB card reader devices detected, no nusb, with orangeware, USB 2.0 PCCard installed)

2After installing Genesys driver.reg

3After detecting multi-card reader 55350.reg

4After detecting singl-card reader Wintech (multi reader not yet connected).reg

5After connecting also the multi-card reader.reg (i.e. AFTER the single-card reader, to create multiple-drive-letters)

6After causing multiple drive letters with Refresh.reg

7After rebooting just with multi-card reader connected.reg

8After rebooting just with the single-card reader connected.reg

9After rebooting with no card reader connected.reg

and for comparing Genesys vs nusb: (after restoring W98_08Nov08, installing nusb 3.3, and detection of both card readers)

10With nusb after multi and single card reader detected.reg

With Beyond Compare -..-> Compare in Viewer -> View differences I identified the differences between the registry snapshots. Here some of my findings, but I am not a registry expert:

A) Comparing the registries before and after clicking on the Refresh button in Device Manager (i.e. when there were no multiple drive letters to just after the display of multiple drive letters) (.reg file 5 vs .reg file 6):

The following 3 values were added for the 3 phoney drives to:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\ASD\Prob\{CF2524C0-29AE-11CF-97EA-00AA0034319D}] and
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\ASD\Prob\{9B4E7760-3196-11CF-97EA-00AA0034319D}]

"SCSI\\GENERIC_STORAGE_DEVICE__9\\USBSTOR&DISK&0000USB&VID_05E3&PID_0723&00000000945101"=hex:00
"SCSI\\GENERIC_STORAGE_DEVICE__9\\USBSTOR&DISK&0000USB&VID_05E3&PID_0723&00000000945102"=hex:00
"SCSI\\GENERIC_STORAGE_DEVICE__9\\USBSTOR&DISK&0000USB&VID_05E3&PID_0723&00000000945103"=hex:00

The following 6 keys were added for the 3 additional phoney drives:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\DiskDrive\0045]
"NoSetupUI"="1"
"InfPath"="DISKDRV.INF"
"InfSection"="GenDiskInstall"
"ProviderName"="(Standard disk drives)"
"DriverDate"=" 4-23-1999"
"DriverDesc"="Disk drive"
"MatchingDeviceId"="GenDisk"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\DiskDrive\0046]
"NoSetupUI"="1"
"InfPath"="DISKDRV.INF"
"InfSection"="GenDiskInstall"
"ProviderName"="(Standard disk drives)"
"DriverDate"=" 4-23-1999"
"DriverDesc"="Disk drive"
"MatchingDeviceId"="GenDisk"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\DiskDrive\0047]
"NoSetupUI"="1"
"InfPath"="DISKDRV.INF"
"InfSection"="GenDiskInstall"
"ProviderName"="(Standard disk drives)"
"DriverDate"=" 4-23-1999"
"DriverDesc"="Disk drive"
"MatchingDeviceId"="GenDisk"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum\SCSI\GENERIC_STORAGE_DEVICE__9\USBSTOR&DISK&0000USB&VID_05E3&PID_0723&00000000945101]
"Capabilities"=hex:14,00,00,00
"SCSITargetID"="0"
"SCSILUN"="1"
"RevisionLevel"="9451"
"ProductId"="STORAGE DEVICE "
"Manufacturer"="Generic "
"DeviceType"=hex:00
"Int13"=hex:01
"PModeInt13"=hex:01
"Removable"=hex:01
"CurrentDriveLetterAssignment"="P"
"HardwareID"="GENERIC_STORAGE_DEVICE__9,GenDisk,SCSI\\GENERIC_STORAGE_DEVICE__9"
"Class"="DiskDrive"
"ClassGUID"="{4d36e967-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}"
"Driver"="DiskDrive\\0045"
"Mfg"="(Standard disk drives)"
"DeviceDesc"="Generic STORAGE DEVICE "
"ConfigFlags"=hex:00,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum\SCSI\GENERIC_STORAGE_DEVICE__9\USBSTOR&DISK&0000USB&VID_05E3&PID_0723&00000000945102]
"Capabilities"=hex:14,00,00,00
"SCSITargetID"="0"
"SCSILUN"="2"
"RevisionLevel"="9451"
"ProductId"="STORAGE DEVICE "
"Manufacturer"="Generic "
"DeviceType"=hex:00
"Int13"=hex:01
"PModeInt13"=hex:01
"Removable"=hex:01
"CurrentDriveLetterAssignment"="Q"
"HardwareID"="GENERIC_STORAGE_DEVICE__9,GenDisk,SCSI\\GENERIC_STORAGE_DEVICE__9"
"Class"="DiskDrive"
"ClassGUID"="{4d36e967-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}"
"Driver"="DiskDrive\\0046"
"Mfg"="(Standard disk drives)"
"DeviceDesc"="Generic STORAGE DEVICE "
"ConfigFlags"=hex:00,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum\SCSI\GENERIC_STORAGE_DEVICE__9\USBSTOR&DISK&0000USB&VID_05E3&PID_0723&00000000945103]
"Capabilities"=hex:14,00,00,00
"SCSITargetID"="0"
"SCSILUN"="3"
"RevisionLevel"="9451"
"ProductId"="STORAGE DEVICE "
"Manufacturer"="Generic "
"DeviceType"=hex:00
"Int13"=hex:01
"PModeInt13"=hex:01
"Removable"=hex:01
"CurrentDriveLetterAssignment"="R"
"HardwareID"="GENERIC_STORAGE_DEVICE__9,GenDisk,SCSI\\GENERIC_STORAGE_DEVICE__9"
"Class"="DiskDrive"
"ClassGUID"="{4d36e967-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}"
"Driver"="DiskDrive\\0047"
"Mfg"="(Standard disk drives)"
"DeviceDesc"="Generic STORAGE DEVICE "
"ConfigFlags"=hex:00,00,00,00

2) When the single-card reader was detected by Windows (comparing snapshot 3 vs 4), the following interesting keys were added:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\cfgmgr32\Phantom\7B]
"HardWareKey"="USB\\VID_0DDA&PID_2005\\000000000036"
"DevNode"=dword:0000007b

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\cfgmgr32\Phantom\7C]
"HardWareKey"="SCSI\\HAMA____CF__CARD_READER_9\\USBSTOR&DISK&0000USB&VID_0DDA&PID_2005&00000000003600"
"DevNode"=dword:0000007c

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\cfgmgr32\Phantom\7D]
"HardWareKey"="SCSI\\HAMA____SM__CARD_READER_9\\USBSTOR&DISK&0000USB&VID_0DDA&PID_2005&00000000003601"
"DevNode"=dword:0000007d

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\cfgmgr32\Phantom\7E]
"HardWareKey"="SCSI\\HAMA____SD__CARD_READER_9\\USBSTOR&DISK&0000USB&VID_0DDA&PID_2005&00000000003602"
"DevNode"=dword:0000007e

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\cfgmgr32\Phantom\7F]
"HardWareKey"="SCSI\\HAMA____MS__CARD_READER_9\\USBSTOR&DISK&0000USB&VID_0DDA&PID_2005&00000000003603"
"DevNode"=dword:0000007f

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\cfgmgr32\Phantom\80]
"HardWareKey"="USBSTOR\\DISK\\0000USB&VID_0DDA&PID_2005&000000000036"
"DevNode"=dword:00000080

I still have all the registry snapshots. Any suggestions?

Edited by Multibooter
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Could the DRVOFF utility work?Can it be found anywhere?

It can be found, but most likely wouldn't help. Drvoff.exz is part of DoubleDisk 2.6 (1992), I wouldn't install it, it probably does strange things to the disk drive, and I don't know how to extract the .exz without installing it. The Read.me however has an interesting comment:

"Since DoubleDisk enables you to attach ANY drive letter to the Extended-Disk [i.e. the special thing created by DoubleDisk], a situation might occur where a "gap" of unused drive letters will be created between the last physical drive that is in use in your system and the Extended Disks' drive letters attached.

For example, assume that your system is equipped with physical drives A: B: C:D: E:, and you created two Extended Drives to which you have attached the H: and K: drive letters respectively. Note that in this case the drive letters F: G: I: J: are present but cannot be accessed (any access to these drive letters would end up receiving the error message: "Not Ready Error..."). These drives are called PHANTOM DRIVES, and MS-DOS recognizes them as existing drives. [There even is a registry key with the name 'Phantom', see code example above]

Some software products (in particular Microsoft's Windows) scan all of the existing drives in the system (as reported by MS-DOS) regardless of the fact that the drive may be a PHANTOM DRIVE, thus producing the "Not Ready..." error message for any PHANTOM DRIVE repeatedly."

I have set drives V and W as virtual drives with Alcohol, with usually unused letters before. But the multiple-drive-letters of the phoney drives go until Z:

Could the multiple-drive-letter-problem be a DOS problem?

Edited by Multibooter
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@Multibooter:

1) Yes, of course, I should have written /SCSI/ instead of /USB/...

And a complementary experiment, say, for a drive at letter Q, for which you'll find an entry:

CurrentDriveLetterAssignement='Q'

add a new last entry:

UserDriveLetterAssignment='QQ'

And see if this prevents it to get detected anew (I doubt it'll make a difference, but it's worth to try it).

There should be another entry, just one, for every known device, this one under /USB/, with key names like VID_04B4&PID_6830. The subkeys to these keys are multiple detections...

2) If cfgmgr32.dll made a difference, maybe adding NTDLL.DLL v. 4.90.0.3000 would also help. You are already using USBNTMAP.SYS v. 4.90.0.3000, aren't you?

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First of all, I have to correct my previous posting: Replacing cfgmg32.dll with the newer WinME version does NOT fix/change the device detection sequence of devices connected to USB 2.0 PCCards. The error in my previous posting was due to my having used in the first series of experiments the hama mult-card reader 55745, which has a built-in 3-port hub, and in the second series of experiments the hama multi-card reader 55350, which doesn't have a built-in hub.

When using the multi-card reader WITHOUT the built-in hub on port 1 of the PCCard, and the single-card reader on port2, then there is no multiple drive letter problem. When, however, using the multi-card reader WITH the built-in hub in port 1, instead of the one without the built-in hub, then there is a multiple-drive-letter-problem. So this "2nd bug" has something to do with the handling of USB hubs.

I have corrected my postings accordingly.

@dencorso:

I have manually deleted the 3 entries in HKLM\Enum\SCSI\GENERIC_STORAGE_DEVICE__9\ of the phoney drive letters (SCSILUN 1,2 and 3). Upon rebooting I got again multiple drive letters by clicking Device Manager -> Refresh, and the previously deleted entries were back again in the registry.

And a complementary experiment, say, for a drive at letter Q, for which you'll find an entry:

CurrentDriveLetterAssignement='Q'

add a new last entry:

UserDriveLetterAssignment='QQ'

And see if this prevents it to get detected anew (I doubt it'll make a difference, but it's worth to try it).

It didn't make any difference, the multiple-drive-letters came back.
There should be another entry, just one, for every known device, this one under /USB/, with key names like VID_04B4&PID_6830. The subkeys to these keys are multiple detections...

There is only 1 entry for the single-card reader, no multiple entries. Here is the key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum\USB\VID_05E3&PID_0723\000000009451]
"Capabilities"=hex:14,00,00,00
"HardwareID"="USB\\VID_05E3&PID_0723&REV_9451,USB\\VID_05E3&PID_0723"
"CompatibleIDs"="USB\\CLASS_08&SUBCLASS_06&PROT_50,USB\\CLASS_08&SUBCLASS_06,USB\\CLASS_08"
"DeviceDesc"="Wintech2 Card Reader"
"Class"="USB"
"Driver"="USB\\0012"
"Mfg"="General"
"ClassGUID"="{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}"
"ConfigFlags"=hex:00,00,00,00
"Serial"=hex:22,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
"SymbolicName"="\\DosDevices\\0000000000000022#{a5dcbf10-6530-11d2-901f-00c04fb951ed}"

2) If cfgmgr32.dll made a difference, maybe adding NTDLL.DLL v. 4.90.0.3000 would also help. You are already using USBNTMAP.SYS v. 4.90.0.3000, aren't you?
I was wrong about cfgmgr32.dll, nevertheless I also tried ntldll.dll of WinME, but still the same multiple-drive-letter-problem as before. I don't have USBNTMAP.SYS under Win98SE, since nusb is not installed.

I guess this multiple-drive-letter problem will remain unresolved.

Manufacturer-provided drivers vs nusb

The main reason I dug so deep into the Genesys driver was to become more knowledgeable about the quality of manufacturer-provided Win98 drivers vs nusb for SDHC card readers. A work-around was found for this special multiple-drive-letter problem, so using manufacturer-provided Win98 drivers for SDHC card readers is still my preference, mainly because:

- there is no need to uninstall drivers for all existing mass storage devices, drivers which have worked well in the past

("don't touch a working system", just for getting a card reader to work)

- there is no need to re-detect your USB mass storage devices and customize again their settings (disable auto-run, assign drive letters, etc.)

- the Genesys driver has nice 2-state-icons for removable media devices, which indicate whether media is inserted or not. 2-state-icons are particularly useful with multi-card readers.

- you can customize the menu entry, with a meaningful name, of each device displayed by the safely-remove-icon (via the device list in the .inf file of the device)

But nusb has many appealing features:

- it works fine with devices for which there is no manufacturer-provided Win98 driver

(i.e. no headache "Where can I buy a device with a Win98 driver")

- a single safely-remove-icon in the system tray for all USB mass storage devices

- no messing around with various drivers

- a safely-remove-utility that works well

- only one program monitoring usb (systray.exe)

I don't like the either-or situation of nusb; I would like to keep my old working drivers AND use nusb for some new hardware, at my choice. If only nusb could be made to co-exist with other drivers, without requiring their previous uninstall!

Edited by Multibooter
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I don't like the either-or situation of nusb; I would like to keep my old working drivers AND use nusb for some new hardware, at my choice. If only nusb could be made to co-exist with other drivers, without requiring their previous uninstall!
Well, it actually IS possible to use NUSB 3.3 with other manufacturer-provided drivers. It gets easier to do in the case you don't have any files having the same names of any of NUSB's files. But, even when this happens, it can be made to work by careful renaming of the offending files and editing of the appropriate .INFs... Of course, Maximus Decim doesn't say so in the documentation but, then again, the documentation is aimed at the average user, and this is an advanced topic. And Maximus Decim is known for his terseness.

I'd uninstall the current USB 2.0 and any third-party driver happening to have same-named files, solve this latter problem by renaming and editing, reinstall the third-party driver, install NUSB, use Add/Remove to remove the generic USB 2.0 stack, and reinstal my preferred USB 2.0 stack. From this point on, what driver installs for each new device detected can be controlled by masking/unmasking .INFs through their renaming (by changing their extension). It's not quite a pretty walk on the park, but can be done and, AFIAK, works OK.

Of course, backup, backup, backup and backup again, before even thinking of starting this procedure.

As always, here, my standard disclaimer applies: It works great for me, but YMMV and I can guarantee nothing whatsoever about this procedure, and about the use you make of it. So, by deciding to apply it you fully accept that anything you do is of YOUR SOLE RESPONSIBILITY... Hence, if after performing this mod your pc morphs into a purple mushroom and explodes, causing a 10-day worldwide blackout in the process, you know you can't blame me for it!

Edited by dencorso
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  • 1 month later...

Culprit identified

I am back from a long stay in Europe and have connected now several Genesys-driven USB devices to my desktop (Asus P5PE-VM motherboard, dual-core CPU, 2GB of RAM) under Win98, and NO multiple-drive-letter problem occurred.

The multiple-drive-letter problem has occurred only on my laptop, an old Inspiron 7500 with a Texas Instruments PCI-1225 CardBus Controller (= for the slot where I insert the PCMCIA/CardBus cards).

On this laptop, under WinXP, the Texas Instruments PCI-1225 CardBus Controller works fine and I had no problem with devices connected to a USB 2.0 CardBus card inside the PCMCIA/Cardbus slot, only under Win98. The MS Win98SE driver for the Cardbus Controller is in my view the most likely cause of this multiple-drive-letter problem and many others.

Microsoft has originally provided the driver for the Texas Instruments PCI-1225 CardBus Controller on its Win98SE opsys CD. The driver consists of the following files: carddrv.exe, cbss.vxd, csmapper.sys, Fls1mtd.vxd, Fls2mtd.vxd, PCCard.vxd, pcmcia.cat, Pcmcia.inf and Srammtd.vxd.

Microsoft has provided various driver bugfix files, which have been removed from the Microsoft website, only their description is still left, mainly under http://support.microsoft.com/kb/295629 The original bugfix for the lousy MS Win98 driver for the PCI-1225 can be downloaded from http://ftp.isu.edu.tw/pub/CPatch/msupdate/.../295629usa8.exe But this bugfix does just as much as the shutdown bugfixes by Microsoft: nothing helpful to me. I followed their instructions to add a registry key to enable the bugfix, but this only causes nusb 3.3 to hang the system when a new device is detected.

At http://www.mdgx.com/web.htm there are 2 related bugfixes listed, and after installing them, the original bugfix would not cause nubs 3.3 to hang the system anymore:

a ) "Microsoft Windows 98 SE PCMCIA Adapter Code 10 Device Manager Error MSHDC.INF, IOS.VXD 4.10.2224 + PCI.VXD 4.10.2227 Fix:"

b ) "Microsoft Windows 98 SE Laptop PCs PCI.VXD 4.10.2228 Fix: MUST install PCMCIA Adapter Code 10 Fix above FIRST!"

I have seen mentioned in Google a newer Win98 driver, Texas Instruments PCI-1225 CardBus Controller 5.0.2183.1, release date: 2003-06-19, probably also by Microsoft, but I could not find it anywhere. Does anybody know where to find it?

Edited by Multibooter
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I have seen mentioned in Google a newer Win98 driver, Texas Instruments PCI-1225 CardBus Controller 5.0.2183.1, release date: 2003-06-19, probably also by Microsoft, but I could not find it anywhere. Does anybody know where to find it?

It seems to exist only in ZDNET file library nowadays...

However, since 5.0.2167.1 is the release version for pcmcia.sys from Win 2k Pro, it seems to me that this driver pack may not be for Win 9x/ME, regardless of claims galore to the contrary floating around google...

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I have seen mentioned in Google a newer Win98 driver, Texas Instruments PCI-1225 CardBus Controller 5.0.2183.1, release date: 2003-06-19, probably also by Microsoft, but I could not find it anywhere. Does anybody know where to find it?

It seems to exist only in ZDNET file library nowadays...

However, since 5.0.2167.1 is the release version for pcmcia.sys from Win 2k Pro, it seems to me that this driver pack may not be for Win 9x/ME, regardless of claims galore to the contrary floating around google...

Mind you, completely and utterly unrelated, and possibly irrelevant, but FYI:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=9922

Win2K drivers might be "nearer" to Win9x ones than one might expect. :unsure:

jaclaz

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It seems to exist only in ZDNET file library nowadays...

Hi dencorso,

I tried to download the Texas Instruments PCI-1225 CardBus Controller 5.0.2183.1 from ZDNET http://downloads.zdnet.com/abstract.aspx?docid=458239 but ZDNET only passes the download request to Microsoft with MS Windows Update, and then I get the request "Install and run Windows Update signed on 8/26/03".

I have my reservations about installing MS Windows Update - does it still work for Windows 98SE? Will I just install spyware, and then get a msg like: "Sorry, Win98 is not supported anymore"?

Edited by Multibooter
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