Dave-H

@Cixert I didn't format the 3TB disk I was using, it was pre-formatted with NTFS and I just used it as it was. Maybe that was a mistake, and I should have tried formatting it in XP, using Partition Magic if XP couldn't do it itself, with it connected in the hardware configuration I was trying to use. All I know is that it had severe filesystem corruption on it as soon as I started using it, which became very obvious when switching between XP and Windows 10. This happened whether it was connected directly to the motherboard or via an add-in Asmedia SATA card, and whether I was using the Paragon GPT driver or the driver files from Windows 2003 which @Andalu kindly supplied for me. It looked fine until anything was written to it using XP, and it had nowhere near to 2TB of data on it.

Ah, so it looks like it was just re-named for some reason then.

Ah thanks. That's an older version of the Paragon driver than the one I have. IIRC it was buggy, and the version 10 driver is much better.

Where did gptmount.sys come from? My Paragon driver is GPT_Loader.sys.

Possibly, although I've always assumed that the actual design work for the board would have been done before Server 2008 was released. Anyway, it works fine with XP and 10, although Windows 98 was a bit more of a struggle to get working properly on it! Windows 11 works fine on it too, although not officially of course.

No problem, here it is! I'm pretty certain that the drivers came on the CD that goes with the motherboard (Supermicro X7DAL-E+). The board, which is a server board, is from 2009 so would have been designed for Windows Server 2003 I would have thought.

I just wanted to make sure that you had the same version of the Paragon GPT driver that I have. Sorry, I forgot about the IDE /SATA driver! All the driver files are standard (I assume) Microsoft files.

The version of my GPT_Loader.sys is 10.5.0.95. I have the full HFS+ program installed, but I don't think you need that just to get GPT support. I think this is probably all you need. GPTLoader.zip The 3TB disk details are - C:\WINDOWS\system32>fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo I: NTFS Volume Serial Number : 0x01da43553017acb0 NTFS Version : 3.1 LFS Version : 2.0 Total Sectors : 5,860,530,168 (2.7 TB) Total Clusters : 732,566,271 (2.7 TB) Free Clusters : 329,433,181 (1.2 TB) Total Reserved Clusters : 1,024 (4.0 MB) Reserved For Storage Reserve : 0 (0.0 KB) Bytes Per Sector : 512 Bytes Per Physical Sector : 512 Bytes Per Cluster : 4096 Bytes Per FileRecord Segment : 1024 Clusters Per FileRecord Segment : 0 Mft Valid Data Length : 107.75 MB Mft Start Lcn : 0x0000000000005a53 Mft2 Start Lcn : 0x0000000000000004 Mft Zone Start : 0x000000002b9495a0 Mft Zone End : 0x000000002b955dc0 MFT Zone Size : 200.13 MB Max Device Trim Extent Count : 0 Max Device Trim Byte Count : 0 Max Volume Trim Extent Count : 62 Max Volume Trim Byte Count : 0x40000000 Resource Manager Identifier : 9710E0BD-AF47-11EE-A000-003048C77E47 I hope this helps!

That I would be interested to see, but it's off-topic here, so please send me a PM if you'd like to elaborate further!

Yes it does.

Off-topic, but here you are! Launcher.zip Remember that it's 16 bit and therefore won't work on a 64 bit system.

That's lost in the mists of time I'm afraid! Someone else asked about it a while ago, and I gave them a copy. You can have it too if you want. I've always found it very useful.

Superium 121 had a problem in that it relied on an environment variable which didn't exist in XP to place its profile folder. If you didn't add the variable (I can't remember what it's called) it would put its profile folder in the Windows Temporary folder. I decided I wanted the profile folder in the same \Program Files folder as the program, as I have it for 360Chrome, so I ended up using the command line switch in the shortcut. I'm still doing that with 122. 122 when installed didn't seem to have the same problem as 121, and without the switch it put the profile folder in the <Username>\Application Data folder, which is where I would expect it to put it by default, so it looks as if the problem with the missing environment variable on XP has been sorted out.

That's exactly what it is, it's an ancient 16 bit program called 'Run'! I use it as a program launcher on Windows XP and Windows 98. I'll keep an eye out for problems with Superium 122 and report anything I find.

Anyway. Fixed! After all that, it turned out that the problem was with Malwarebytes Premium, which I use as my Internet security. It has a function which allows it to protect certain programs. I've already had to turn it off for other programs like Acrobat Reader and Word, where it caused freezes. I should have realised that it was a prime suspect here. I switched off its protection of Chrome, and everything came good. Quite why it wasn't causing the same problem with Supermium 121 I have no idea, but 122 is now running fine, in fact much more quickly than 121 ever did. It is of course very likely that Malwarebytes was slowing down 121 as well, but just not making it crash. Thanks everyone for the help. Cheers, Dave.

@Milkinis Please don't post off-topic posts.

Still no joy, I'm afraid, even with those two switches. Surely I don't need to use the '--user-data-dir=' switch? The browser is generating the Profile folder exactly where I would expect it to.

Thanks. There is no portable version, at least if there is I couldn't find it. I tried just extracting the files from the setup.exe file the first time, which didn't work with the same problem. For this latest try I did run the installer, and told it where to put the files, and also to make a shortcut, NOT write to the registry, and install the NoToEmoji font (what exactly is that all about?) Unlike 121, which had problems allocating a default location for the user profile in XP, 122 setup correctly put it in my Users\Dave\Application Data\Supermium folder. So, I will try now running it with the --disable-machine-id and --disable-encryption-win switches when I get back to the machine. I'll let you know! If it doesn't work, I will delete the Profile folder and try again.

FWIW, the Paragon driver is working fine on my system, as far as I know. I've left it installed, even though I don't now need it. Unfortunately, the file system corruption problems I had were there regardless of whether I was using the Paragon driver or the files from Windows 2003 to provide GPT support.

Well, I'm still not having any luck. I've now installed Superium 122 in a separate folder, completely clean with no extensions and a new clean profile. Superium 121 is still running fine. Still just getting the STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION error all the time in 122. Research brings up the general consensus that this is caused by faulty RAM, which I'm sure isn't the problem here! Whatever the cause, it is a memory addressing issue. Sometimes it works for a moment, and I see what I'm seeing here - If I dismiss the foreground error message, the browser immediately goes to the STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION error. Anyone any ideas?

OK, that's enough about this guys! I wasn't going to use Thorium anyway, and I've cleaned my system of all references to it. Anyway, back on topic, I will do some more tests with Supermium 122 to see if I can pin down why it doesn't want to run properly on my system It could indeed well be something in my user profile, but I hope it's something which can be fixed, as I've no intention of building the whole profile from scratch again!

I've also now tried Thorium 122, and that works, albeit not using my Supermium profile. As far as I can see, it's superficially identical to Supermium as far as the GUI is concerned, just with 'Supermium' replaced with 'Thorium' in the text! Unless it's got worthwhile changes under the bonnet compared with Superium, I can see no compelling reason to use it instead of Superium. Now back with Superium 121. Can anyone report Superium 122 working for them on XP 32 bit?

Not having a lot of luck with Superium 122. I'm just getting this all the time. All the extensions are crashing and then closing, and no web pages will load. Anyone any ideas?

OK, so Superium 122, and now Thorium 122. Which is the one to go for?

I just haven't bothered to do it! If everything is known to be OK with the 122 version, I will probably do it. Do we have a link to the right version for XP? Presumably it's just a matter of over-writing the old files, as there is no installer IIRC.