I hate DELL... pls help me get around this

[HiHoStevo]

Hi Slick, I am back in town for a couple of days..........

I tried the XP install again..... this time I located the "advanced" selection you mentioned. It had two places to select options, so in the top one where it wants to know where to install windows I told it E:\

In the bottom window I told it I wanted it to prompt me for the location during setup.

It copied all of the files, then as it rebooted (I had removed the XP CD, should I have left it in?? if I do my bios is set to boot from floppy, CD, SCSI, then other) the computer booted Win98, but in 640x480 mode and started loading all of the drivers for the hardware from scratch. I was terrified that this would trash my Win98se setup, so I bailed on the installation and used GoBack again to reset the computer.... did I mention I love GoBack?!?

Any way.......... during what portion of the setup should it have offered to let me specify the drive location?

What if I copy all of the files from the XP/CD to the "E" drive and try the setup routine from there, would that help?

It also never did ask me anything about setting up a "dual-boot." It seems to me that this question showed up very early in the Win2k install that I did.

Steve

 

[Slikkster]

Yo...

You say after you ran the install process and it copied files, etc. that the computer "booted up Win98" in 640x480 mode...what makes you think it was Win98? Did you choose "New Install"? At the first reboot you should already have a boot menu, which should show you that it's doing the XP setup.

Here's the deal with the setup. XP is going to put it's boot files in your C:\ drive folder. All Microsoft Operating Systems need to boot from the C: drive. That doesn't mean the operating system needs to be on the C: drive, obviously. But files like boot.ini, ntldr, etc. will always be located on your C: drive.

I like to have my Cd's contents on the hard drive, anyway, so whenever I need a new driver or whatever, I don't get prompted for the CD...it's right there. So, I would definitely copy the CD's contents to your E: drive. At least copy the "I386" folder, because that's where all your install files will come from.

So, assuming you've copied either the entire CD or the I386 folder from the XP disc to your E: drive,
I would boot up into Win98SE, then use Windows Explorer and go into the I386 folder you copied over.
You can pull the CD out after copying the I386 folder (or all the folders).

Look for the file "winnt32.exe" in the XP I386 folder on your E: Drive. Doubleclick on that. That will bring up the install screen. You want a NEW install, not an upgrade. Tell it you want it to install on the E: drive. Let it copy whatever it needs.

Since this is a NEW install, XP will create a boot menu with both references on it (XP and Windows 98). It will probably show up as "Microsoft Windows (for Windows 98), and "Microsoft Windows XP Professional".

By the way, you can edit these entries to read anyway you want them to, since they are just text strings.
Additionally, you can set the OS you want to default to at bootup, as well as adjust the countdown clock that comes up which gives you a choice of what OS will boot. It defaults to 30 seconds. But we'll save that for later.

I would set the bios to boot directly to the hard drive(s) (wherever they are) temporarily.

You will NOT be prompted for a Dual Boot. If you choose "New Install" vs. Upgrade, the Dual-boot will be created automatically.

 

[HiHoStevo]

<< Yo...

You say after you ran the install process and it copied files, etc. that the computer "booted up Win98" in 640x480 mode...what makes you think it was Win98? >>



The windows 98 Splash Screen........



<< Did you choose "New Install"? >>



Yes



<< At the first reboot you should already have a boot menu, which should show you that it's doing the XP setup. >>



Nope, just the win98 splash and startup




<< So, assuming you've copied either the entire CD or the I386 folder from the XP disc to your E: drive,
I would boot up into Win98SE, then use Windows Explorer and go into the I386 folder you copied over.
You can pull the CD out after copying the I386 folder (or all the folders).

Look for the file "winnt32.exe" in the XP I386 folder on your E: Drive. Doubleclick on that. That will bring up the install screen. You want a NEW install, not an upgrade. Tell it you want it to install on the E: drive. Let it copy whatever it needs. >>



I will give it another shot........... it seemed like a pretty strange reaction to me......... at the first restart to have the 98 splash screen back up and then it goes back to trying to load drivers for the mb, floppy, etc.........

Steve

 

[HiHoStevo]

:disgust:

Well Slick, here is the latest.........

The good news is .......... I got a little farther this time...........

To protect the good working operating system on my Raid drive (normally C) I set the bios to boot from the WD drive I have hooked to ide_0.

I copied all of the files from the xp cd-rom to the e: drive and placed them in an install folder.

After booting from the WD drive (now C) I went to the e: drive and ran the winnt32.exe file. Answered the questions about where to install etc...
the system copied files and restarted..... magically this time it brought up the dual boot screen and offered me my choice of Microsoft Windows or Windows XP Professional Setup. Yeah.......... I chose setup and it started to load.......... it asked if I had any scsi drivers that it needed to load so I pressed F6... installed the XP drivers for my Promise Tech raid card and off it went........ at least for a few seconds then I get a blue screen with the following.......

"Error 768 occured at
Line 5101 in d:\xpclient\base\boot\setup.c."

I rebooted the bios into "fail safe defaults" and tried again............. same error.

I tried ignoring the request for the scsi driver and just continued the install without .............. same error.

Any ideas??

Steve

 

[Slikkster]

Edit: HOLD ON...there might be another way... I just went to Roxio's site...they have a Goback 3 XP compatiblity update Free:
Roxio Free GoBack 3 Deluxe upgrade

Try installing that first, then try the XP install again.

(Here is my original unedited post before I found the Roxio link):


Found this on the microsoft knowledge base...might be the problem. I know you love it, but unfortunately, it might be hurting ya here:

Disable GoBack when Windows XP Setup Restarts Your Computer
To disable GoBack when Windows XP Setup restarts your computer:
Press SPACEBAR to view the GoBack boot menu.


Press D (to disable goBack), press Y (yes, to confirm), and then press ENTER twice.


Cancel Setup, Uninstall GoBack, Then Reinstall Windows XP
Restart the computer, and then choose the "Cancel Windows XP Setup" option.


When your previous version of Windows is running again, use the Add/Remove Programs tool in Control Panel to uninstall the GoBack version 3 software.


Reinstall Windows XP.

So, essentially, it's saying you can just uninstall Goback from 98, then reinstall XP. Sorry, man. By the way, XP has it's own version of "GoBack" (a similar program) that makes "Restore Points" and lets you restore to a certain time.

 

[HiHoStevo]

Looks like I may be in trouble..........

The version of GoBack I am using is the 3.0 Personal edition........ it comes with Norton System Works 2002. Unfortunately, it does not appear that any of the XP updates apply to anything except the "deluxe" version that you buy direct from Roxio.

Steve

So if I understand you correctly, I cannot just Disable GoBack....... I have to first quit the XP install, then completely uninstall the sucker first, then try and load XP??

 

[Slikkster]

Yes, that's what you'll have to do, unfortunately. That blows that they won't provide an upgrade for the Personal Edition...anything for more bucks.

Here's what Roxio says, even if you HAD the proper version:

"We would like to remind customers when you upgrade your operating system you MUST uninstall GoBack, complete the operating system upgrade, and then re-install GoBack."

So, that apparently is the cause of your issues at present.

 

[HiHoStevo]

Thanks Slick...... while I was browsing around the Roxio web site I ran across a rwo page explanation of exactly what you have to do to get go back to work with XP.

You will be glad to hear that XP is up and running and I am loading programs.............

Ran into a couple more questions though............(they just don't seem to stop do they???)

1. When I try to import my messages from Outlook Express 5.5 into XP's OEv6.0, the wizard offers you the choice of OE4 or OE6 files, but no selection for OE5 or 5.5. I tried selecting 4 and then pointing the wizard to the folder where all of the data is... but no luck...
guess I will have to try exporting the messages to a file while I am in win98 and see if that file will be recognized.......... or I guess I could update my Internet Explorer 5.5 on win98 to IE6.0... I suppose that would update OE as well??

2. After I am confortable that this XP installation is not going to trash my win98 files (I told you I booted from the WD drive on IDE_0 to do the install of XP). If I want to go ahead and set up XP so it will offer me the boot option when I start from the raid instead (XP is on the second partition of the raid), do I boot win98 from the raid and then re-install winXP over the top of itself? or is there an easier way?

Steve

 

[Slikkster]

To answer your first question, yes, updating to IE6 on Win98 will give you Outlook Express 6 as well. So, that should be the path you take to settle the issue of importing messages. There is another way, which I'll cut/paste below from another website. But you might as well have the latest versions of IE and OE in Win98 anyway, no? Here's how to import them without making any updates to Win98:

OE6 and WindowsXP Note: you will only see OE4 and OE6 in the list of programs from which to import, and so it might seem that you cannot import from OE5. However both OE5 and OE6 use exactly the same file structure. To import from OE5, simply select OE6 on the list, then select "Import mail from an OE6 store directory" (not "Identity"). Then Browse to the folder that contains the OE5 *.dbx files.

If your backup files did not include "Folders.dbx", this method of importing will not work as OE will not "see" the *.dbx files without Folders.dbx. To work around this, click File| Identities| Add New Identity. Switch to the new Identity when prompted, but cancel the new account wizard that starts automatically. Click Tools| Options| Maintenance| Store Folder to determine the location of this Identity's store. Close OE and open the store folder in Windows Explorer. Copy your old *.dbx files into this store folder, then delete the file "Folders.dbx". Open OE and it will create a new Folders.dbx that includes the old *.dbx files. Click File| Switch Identities and return to your original Identity. Click File| Import| Messages| OE5| Identity and select the new Identity. After the import is complete, you can delete the new Identity, and then manually delete its store folder.

Note: This was cut/pasted from http://www.tomsterdam.com/insideoe5/faqs/how.htm#importOE5

As for the Raid setup, yes, I would do as you have thought...start the install again from Win98 and point it to your second Raid partition. By the way, you can have 2 different XP's if you want...When you install it, you're going to see a second XP show up on the boot menu. This is why it pays to edit your Boot.ini file. It makes it easier to see exactly which installation to boot to since they will both be named "Windows XP Professional". If you want to edit your boot.ini file, boot up to either XP or 98, then find boot.ini in your c:\ folder. Right-click on it and choose Properties. Uncheck "Read-Only". Then, open it in Notepad. Anything between quotation marks can be edited. So, you can call the first XP "XP on E: Drive" or some such.

If you want to totally get rid of XP and start over, then you'll first have to use a Win98 Boot disk. Boot up with it and do a "sys c:" to restore the Win98 boot loader info on the hard drive. This will get rid of the XP boot menu. Then, delete the following files:

boot.ini
netdetect.com
ntldr
pagefile.sys
bootsect.dos

and, of course, everything on your E: drive.

If you want to just reinstall XP on your Raid without going through this, you can just do that, then just edit Boot.ini to remove the line about your E: drive installation (just cut the line) and then delete the files on your E: drive. So, that's definitely easier than the first process. Of course, I would edit boot.ini ahead of time to make note of your original XP installation (edit text between the quotes) so you know which line to cut out of boot.ini after you reinstall XP on your Raid. If you choose the "edit boot.ini" vs. deleting the XP files mentioned above, make sure you don't delete any of the files on your C:\ root folder (boot.ini, netdetect.com, ntldr, etc.). As you can tell, it's far easier to just cut the line out of boot.ini from your original XP installation than deleting the files above, doing a "sys c:" from a Win98 boot disk, etc.

 

[HiHoStevo]

Slick... thanks for the very detailed help!

I may not have been clear on the XP issue. XP is currently on the E drive, which is the second partition on my raid. However the dual boot menu is loaded on the Western Digital drive so the dual boot option only comes up when I boot from the WD.

I was wondering if I could just copy the startup section from the WD drive to the first partition of the raid (which is also Win98) and that would go ahead and point at the XP install that is already on E, or if I would have to boot from the first partition on the raid and then do a re-install of XP so it would have the proper startup files.........

I will do the Outlook Express conversion tonight...........

Steve

I think it gets a little crazy because no matter whether I boot from the raid or from the WD, the second partition on the raid is still the E drive...

 

[Slikkster]

Here's the easiest way to do this:

Boot from your Raid partition to Windows 98. Then, install XP to the same place it is now!...on the E: drive. I would choose "Upgrade", so it doesn't get rid of all your current settings in XP on the E: drive now.

Now, you'll have a dual-boot menu on the Raid Drive vs. just the WD drive.

The problem with just copying over files to the Raid drive is that it doesn't have the WinXP boot sector, so the files themselves would do nothing for you.

I've read some convoluted attempts at creating a boot sector on a drive that doesn't have one with an ERD (Emergency Repair Disk) or with Recovery Console, but just reinstalling XP from the other drive to the same location it is now will accomplish the same, and you won't lose anything.

Remember, choose Upgrade as your option and point it to the exact drive/partition it already exists on.

 

[HiHoStevo]

Thanks Slick......... I will give her a go..........

The Outlook worked just fine... after upgrading the win98 partition to version 6 I was able to find all of the messages and import them just fine.

The only problem with the XP install is before I can do it I have to turn off the GoBack program......... as you know I love having that safety net!!

Steve

 

[HiHoStevo]

Hey Slick I hope your out there some where...........

I have somehow borked my wife's computer......... everything was going so well I installed a cd-burner on her machine...... everything was fine until I installed the software from the manufacturer.. VeloCDR/CDRW

Now every time I try to start her computer I get blue screened after I type in her password for microsoft networking during the startup. Up until then everything is fine... I ran Norton DD from safe mode, but the disk checks out fine.... I checked the registry with scanreg, but found no errors there. Of course I had not installed GoBack as I was getting ready to update her from Win98 to XP or Win2K......... it always happens when I have GoBack turned off..... Argh!!!

This is the error message.

"An exception 0D has occured at 0028:000100CE in VxD ---,

This was called from 0028:C1C2BBF8 in VxD scsi1hlp(03) + 00000508.

It may be possible to continue..........."

Of course it is not possible to continue if you press any key it goes to a black screen with an hour glass forever.....

Steve

Ps. In case you do not get this I am leaving town until Friday...... assuming my wife does not kill me!!

 

[Slikkster]

Not to worry...this is a common problem, and an easy fix. Hewlett Packard defines the problem and the fix well:

Windows 95/98 has a limit of seven virtual device drivers that can be loaded simultaneously for an I/O (Input/Output) chain. The OS (Operating System) takes four of these slots. With Direct CD loading at bootup, the limit of seven can easily be exceeded. The SCSI1HLP.VXD file is a standard OS file that is used to assist the OS in communicating with some very old SCSI-1 devices. Re-naming SCSI1HLP.VXD to a different extension and rebooting will normally allow all CD devices, and most SCSI devices, to work. SCSI1HLP.VXD is located in the Windows\System\IOSUBSYS directory.


So, in other words, your cd software is maxing out and then some on your input/output drivers. The scsi1hlp.vxd file is the one that's bringing you over the limit. Anyway, it's a file you don't need, so go into Dos or Safe Mode and go to your \Windows\System\IOSUBSYS folder and rename that file to something like "scsi1hlp.old". Reboot. Your wife will love you again and maybe treat you like the knight in shining armor..heheh.

 

[HiHoStevo]

Boy I wish I would have waited until I got home from this trip to try and fix the problem.......... unfortunately I did not I was up until 4am the morning I was supposed to leave.... It is sad it is such an easy fix...

After I had no success I went back and re-formatted the drive (wasted a day's work) and then used Ghost to copy the image of her C drive back onto the partition.... the only difference is now instead of it being a single drive it was a partition on a mirrored array. Apparently Ghosting to an array does not work quite right..... it seems like it does, but nothing ever seems to work correctly afterward. Drivers do not load properly etc...

So as I already "borked" the entire installation I was thinking I would just install Win2K ProSever on her array as her main operating system. The HP software for her G85 is not operational yet for XP and she also uses a Mac. I understand that the Pro Server version of Win2k is very good for connecting to Mac's. Then of course I would need to re-install all of her software from scratch. I did save all of her personal files before formatting the system.

When I first tried the install with Win2k, after loading the promise Tech raid drivers it found the array as a single undefined drive of 60 gigs. It is actually two 60 gig drives in a mirrored array, that has been partitioned into three different drives. However the win2k installation did not recognize them as C,D, & E. Instead it asked me to delete the current partition (the whole drive it appeared) and then let it set the partition. I have not gone ahead with this yet as I wanted to get back in and make sure all of my wife's personal files were secure. That is done now and I am ready to proceed.... have you any experience with Win2k and raid partitions? or have you seen this before?

My only other choice is to go ahead and disable the raid then ghost her original image (win98) back to a single drive. Then reconnect the raid and allow the promise software to rebuild the mirror. Install the software again, but before I do that I will delete the scsi1hlp file. I was thinking it would be just as easy to go ahead and install Win2k and re-install her software on the new OS.............

Steve

 

[HiHoStevo]

Well Slick my wife's computer is coming back up to speed........ Doing the Win2k install did in fact wipe the entire raid, but oh well... that's what happens when you get impatient and don't wait for the "Slickster's" replies..........

Ran into a small problem getting the XP installation boot up transferred over to the raid.......... Apparently during one of my "brain farts" the "E" partition on the Raid where the XP installation lies was formatted as an NTFS partition. Therefore when I boot from the raid (Win98) I cannot access the "E" drive so I can click on the winnt.exe file in the i386 folder.... it is not available.

When I boot (with SCSI selected as the boot choice right after CD-ROM) from the XP CD it see's the Western Digital single drive as the C: drive rather than the array. The only thing I can think to try is to either pull the ide cable from the Western Digital or try selecting "NONE" as the selection in the CMOS for the primary ide port on the motherboard.

Now that I think about it.......... that will not work either.... When I booted from the XP-CD it defaulted to install on the WD single drive, but it did have the array listed below........ unfortunately it saw the raid the same way win2k did on my wife's computer as just one large undefined partition. That means any attempt to install from the CD will result in the entire Raid array being reformatted....... not an option!

Is there a safe way to convert the NTFS partition back to FAT32? I seem to recall that partition magic had the capability to change the file format of partitions.... but I have never tried to go from NTFS to FAT32, just the other way around.....

I was thinking you might have a more thoughtful approach.....??

Steve

 

[Slikkster]

Hi...other than Partition Magic, I know of no graceful way to convert from NTFS to Fat32. And I can't really delve too much into the thing because I've been out and have had too much alcohol to really think straight about this deal. I'll have to look at it again in the morning. As I mentioned previously, I don't have real hands-on experience with Raid setups, so I can only speak of them from what I've read. I'll re-read this stuff in the am when I'm lucid.

 

[indianduddawg47]

it is, if i am not mistaken, to download windows 98 (same edition you own on your dell) and install it using your dell-provided oem key.

 

[HiHoStevo]

As I already had used Partition Magic Pro 7 to do the initial partitioning, it seemed the best choice to use it to change the file system back to FAT32.

I disabled GoBack....

Then I uninstalled GoBack.....

I attempted to run Partition Magic from windows for the conversion..... it reboots to do the actually dirty work in DOS....and I received the following

"Error 1681 Data is compressed or Sparse, File 6653 (128) Click OK to cancel"

I ran Norton Disk Doctor in XP mode and received a message that another disk or application had control of the disk but it would schedule a check for the next restart... I selected ok and restarted.... the check proceeded normally and no error's were reported.... I have no idea was is the problem while windows XP is running. I have run NDD from the Win98 installation on the first half of the raid with no problems.

So I used the emergency boot Partition Magic disks to attempt the change straight from DOS. No luck, exactly the same error message.

Unless you have a great link ( I am going to see if I can find anything on their web site) I may be stuck booting like I am now, until it is time to convert the whole shooting match over to NTFS.

Steve

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Sorry Stevo but I can offer little help with your latest issue I really just wanted to say that since I've been perusing the threads here at AT that Slikkster has provided, hands down, the finest pro bono tech support I've ever read When others would have desisted in their attempts to assist you, he went above and beyond to research and address your issues :Q Your one of the good ones Slikkster BTW, I hope everything gets straightened out for you Stevo

 

[Slikkster]

Morning....thank you, Dapunisher, for your kind words. I enjoy the challenge, so it's fun for me. HiHo, found this at Powerquest's site. This should fix the error you're getting. It has to do with the way fat/ntfs deal with "compacted" files:

Error 1681 Fix

 

[HiHoStevo]

<< I really just wanted to say that since I've been perusing the threads here at AT that Slikkster has provided, hands down, the finest pro bono tech support I've ever read When others would have desisted in their attempts to assist you, he went above and beyond to research and address your issues :Q Your one of the good ones Slikkster >>



I could not agree with you More!!! Slick has been WAY above and beyond the call on this thread.... I am actually embarressed to keep asking questions...

but it is so hard not to..... As I am trying to update and reconfigure these computers I seem to run into more problems than what I would consider "my fair share!" It probably has to do with these silly raid cards that I am using.....!!

Steve

 

[HiHoStevo]

Slick, I failed to mention earlier that I do not have any compressed files on this partition.

I will go check it out.........

The attempt may have caused some other problems... in trying to answer this thread (which I am embarressed to still be asking questions.... people are starting to point...) I have twice received the XP equivelant of the "blue screen of death!" It is just a slightly different color of blue...

It does not stay up long enough for me to give you the technical number at the bottom.... but at the top it says

"IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL"

and then the computer restarts..... I have not added or changed any hardware recently.... just the failed attempt to convert the NTFS system back to FAT32!!

Steve

 

[HiHoStevo]

<< Morning....thank you, Dapunisher, for your kind words. I enjoy the challenge, so it's fun for me. HiHo, found this at Powerquest's site. This should fix the error you're getting. It has to do with the way fat/ntfs deal with "compacted" files:


<<

Actually there are compressed files......... I just remembered, I have the entire contents of the XP install CD on the hard drive... these are probably the compressed files that are causing the problems..... Even after deleting this file I ran the DOS command to unpack all of the compressed files and the search actually came up with 34000 and change compressed files.... I had not emptied the trash yet (the install folder was in there) so I am hoping that is where most of those were... I am amazed that their were actually that many!!!

Steve

Slick.... I am thinking I should probably close this thread and start a new one for new problems (you know there are going to be some) what do you think?

 

[HiHoStevo]

Unfortunately the Error Fix 1681 did not function......... the instructions are for NT and 2000. I did try all of them, but after the first phase (steps one thru 4) I re-attempted and got the same message

File 6653 (128)

plus after that another file message of

File 1635017028 (544434464)

I attempted to follow the instructions for identifying these files..... but the "pgfile" DOS command is unrecognized by XP as is the "PQFile" command.

I tried the DOS "compact /u" command and it uncompressed one file, but said the other file was in use.... this is probably the same hang-up that Norton Disk Doctor is running into thinking that some other application or file has control of the disk. It did not identify which file this is however. Checking PowerQuests web site for any info regarding XP and error 1681 was a blank.

Steve