1. Kat don't leave and xms and ramdrive
Kat,
Sorry to give you a hard time. But if ramdrive is not needed, then why is
it used? It is needed when Win95 or Win98 has to come from a CD (an OEM
install). There is no CD driver in MSDOS to do this, and Win9x needs both
the extra room in ram to install its universal cd driver and its own
bootstrapping. Without the Himem and XMS it can't do anything. The whole
thing is actually quite an ingenious contraption, and it usually works
without a hitch. However, the point I was trying to make was that it will
be found somewhere in the OS files, sitting there dormant. It is rather
curious that Microsoft keeps it in the Windows directory even when it
should never be used again by Windows itself once it is installed.
However, it will probably be needed if you have a crash and have to
reinstall your OS from its backups, depending on how much it has cratered
itself.
Stick around, don't leave. You ask good questions. And you do program;
that is what EU is all about.
Sincerely,
Norm
2. Re: Kat don't leave and xms and ramdrive
----- Original Message -----
From: Norm Goundry <bonk1000 at HOTMAIL.COM>
To: <EUPHORIA at LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
Sent: Monday, August 16, 1999 4:16 PM
Subject: Kat don't leave and xms and ramdrive
> Kat,
> Sorry to give you a hard time. But if ramdrive is not needed, then why is
> it used? It is needed when Win95 or Win98 has to come from a CD (an OEM
> install). There is no CD driver in MSDOS to do this, and Win9x needs both
> the extra room in ram to install its universal cd driver and its own
> bootstrapping. Without the Himem and XMS it can't do anything.
But ramdrive has nothing to do with himem or xms, other than it can use
them. Once himem is installed, win has access to xms, it doesn't need
ramdrive to get to the xms. So i opened a dos box, fired up Xtree Gold,
found all the "ramdrive.sys" and renamed them to "rm.exe", closed the dos
box, saved a draft of this email, shut down win95, rebooted, played some
solitare while the firewall, dunce, email, and DUN came up, and finished
this email. There is no ramdrive.sys on my C: .
>The whole
> thing is actually quite an ingenious contraption, and it usually works
> without a hitch.
Well,, sometimes. I had a mouse driver that would hang the boot process if i
moved the mouse while it was being installed.
>However, the point I was trying to make was that it will
> be found somewhere in the OS files, sitting there dormant. It is rather
> curious that Microsoft keeps it in the Windows directory even when it
> should never be used again by Windows itself once it is installed.
Ok, i'll stop trying to convince you,, it's not important anyways.
Kat,
getting quiet.
3. Re: Kat don't leave and xms and ramdrive
----- Original Message -----
From: Norm Goundry <bonk1000 at HOTMAIL.COM>
To: <EUPHORIA at LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
Sent: Monday, August 16, 1999 4:16 PM
Subject: Kat don't leave and xms and ramdrive
> Kat,
> Sorry to give you a hard time. But if ramdrive is not needed, then why is
> it used? It is needed when Win95 or Win98 has to come from a CD (an OEM
> install). There is no CD driver in MSDOS to do this, and Win9x needs both
> the extra room in ram to install its universal cd driver and its own
> bootstrapping.
I know people using CD drives in win3.1 (not the 32bit 3.11WfW), which is
dos5. I was tempted to drop in a spare hard drive, and do an install after
deleting ramdrive from the cab files, but it's too much work. Oh well.
Kat
4. Re: Kat don't leave and xms and ramdrive
Norm, you're totally wrong, actually.
The reason they're using a ramdrive, is because the tools they need won't
fit on a normal 1.44 floppy disk. Older versions of windows 95 used 2
floppies without a ramdrive system.
Ralf
