From: "Paul O. BARTLETT" 

On Tue, 15 Jun 2004, shadow{at}shadowgard.com wrote:

> On 14 Jun 2004 at 20:44, Paul O. BARTLETT wrote:

> > > > [concerning "Hard disk 2 configuration error"
at bootup"]

> >     This message appears after "Starting Caldera
DR-DOS..." and before
> > the first message from EMM386.EXE, which is the first thing that loads
> > in CONFIG.SYS.
>
> It may be the first thing *listed* in config.sys. But that doesn't
> mean it's the first thing *loaded*.
>
> Try doing the "step by step confirmation" at boot (I can't remember
> if it's f5 or f8). You may be surprised at the order statements in
> config.sys get processed.

    F8, if you catch it quickly enough (in my case, immediately after
triggering the boot manager to the DOS partition).  I did a couple of
times.  As I recall, it was coming *before* anything was getting
loaded.  However, I will try it again next time I boot into DR-DOS.
(I don't have time this evening.)

> > The common partition gets IMAGEd by the Norton
> > Utilities for Windows running when I have booted into Win98.  From
> > DR-DOS I cannot delete (even after resetting the file attributes)
> > IMAGE.DAT and IMAGE.IDX in the root of the D: partition, so I presume
> > that Win does some kind of funny stuff that is disliked by something
> > on the DR-DOS side of the fence.
>
> If you can't delete them, that means that *something* is using them
> or protecting them. If you can boot without running config.sys &
> autoexec.bat, try deleting them then.

    Actually, I don't really want to delete them permanently.  The
whole purpose of that partition is to be visible both to Win98 (where I
am still doing a lot of work) and to DR-DOS.  So I don't object as such
to NU imaging it from the Win side.  I just tried deleting them one
time to see if that might be where the "configuration error" message
might be coming from and found that DR-DOS wouldn't touch them.  (It
has been a bit, so I don't recall the exact error message.)

> >     The lockups occur entirely randomly, as nearly as I can tell.  I
> > can be doing just about anything, and when I get back to the command
> > prompt, the system locks up tight.  I cannot detect any pattern
> > whatsoever.
>
> Could be bad RAM.

    Possibly (this machine is old and was given to me), although I am
not having any errors from Win98 of a sort that I might attribute to
failing RAM.

> More likely is bad drivers.

    As I mentioned below, I am suspecting GUEST.EXE, although I
haven't had time to work on it further.  I will try to get back to
it as soon as I can.

> >     That may well be the case.  I haven't explored the capabilities of
> > DR-DOS's COMMAND.COM to its fullest extent.  My main interest in using
> > an old NDOS was screen color control.  [...]

> NDOS is an *old* version of 4dos.

    That I am aware of.

>                                   Old enough that there may be
> problems with some newer software & hardware.

    I have wondered about that.  However, as I indicated in my original
post, I ran into a problem when I tried to load the native DR-DOS
COMMAND.COM.  Unfortunately, I am having to pick away at this setup on
a time available basis.

> http://www.jpsoft.com will let you grab an evaluation version of
> 4dos. It'll run with all features for a few weeks.

    My financial situation is such that if it isn't free, I may not be
able to afford it.  I already had the copy of Norton Utilities with
NDOS, which is why I used it.

> >     HOWEVER, this afternoon, I took GUEST.EXE, the Iomega ZIPdrive
> > driver, out of AUTOEXEC.BAT, and for the length of time I was working
> > I had no lockups.  Then I started GUEST.EXE (it can load from the
> > command line or AUTOEXEC.BAT), and after some time I had another
> > lockup.  [...]
>
> Actually, you can do without guest.exe. You need to load the right
> combo of the drivers it calls, with the right options. As a bonus,
> it'll use less memory.

    But if I want to use the ZIPdrive, I presume I need a driver for
it, and GUEST.EXE is what I found at Iomega's website.

> It's been a *long* time, so I don't recall the steps I had to go thru
> to get my old Zip drive working without Guest. But it was worth it.

    If you do recall, I would be very interested. :-)  How one gets it
to work without a driver I can't imagine.

-- 
Paul Bartlett
bartlett "at" smart "dot" net
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