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98 FE + 98 SE + ME updates + patches + (hot)fixes


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??? WEIRD... -anybody ever have this problem w/scandisk? I sure haven't...

-scanning 2nd HD (both HD's < 1 yr old, 120gb each, p4 system <2 yrs old, NEVER probs w/scandisk b4..., win98se + sesp2.01 + 98se2me on both, 512mb ram, etc...), scandisk finds CROSSLINKED files, when told to go ahead and copy the cluster to each file, scandisk LOCKS ("unresponding" in task manager; HD light flashing every second nonstop; "end task" kills it no prob) ??? :realmad:

???

-haven't done anything funky w/2nd drive, it actually has a recent fresh win98se install on it, switching back & forth between it & 1st drive in BIOS-boot (swapping IDE boot-numbers), always have done that w/out probs, for long time now... ?

-tried restoring a pre-sesp/pre-98se2me backup, and same thing happened... ???

I'm gonna try DOS-MODE scandisk, see what happens...

:wacko:

---UPDATE: -ok, dos-mode scandisk didn't lockup, but it kept finding more & more crosslinked files, one at a time, and taking a couple minutes to find em each... STRANGE... never had crosslinked files ever before! on ANY system of my own... screw it, used Ranish (244) to delete & reformat that partition (had 4 partitions on that drive, only the 1st part had any probs)... good thing I backup religiously?sp? (from one HD to the other, too)... sigh... wonder what the h*ll it was...

---!UPDATE2: ! OH MY GOD: I copied a backup to that newly formatted partition, ran scandisk again just in case, and GUESS WHAT! cross-linked files again (tho no scandisk-lockup this time)! -the backup wasn't even zipped, just a straight windows explorer copy folders, from one HD to the other! (and scandisked both HD's, all partitions, BEFORE doing the copy, no probs!) ! -that means, there's a problem with win98se's copy-folders! Again, I've never had this happen before, and I copy folders A LOT, for many years... the only system thing I've recently changed is mdgx's SCANFRAG.EXE (?)... I'll have to restore (again) that old pre-sesp/pre-98se2me backup, reformat that bad partition, and try copy-folders again, w/scandisk after.... SHEESH! twilight-zone crap here...

(ps: full antivirus scans too, tho I never get infected; very careful/protected)

---UPDATE3: (full AV/spyware scans: negative) : aww, crap... I traced it down...

It's DOSLFNBK... I use that with my backup folders, to preserve the classic 8.3/long filenames problem... scandisk done BEFORE doslfnbk had no errors; AFTER doslfnbk, cross-linked files problem... SIIIIGGGHHH... I never had this prob w/doslfnbk before, this is new.... but it occurs regardless of sesp/98se2me/scanfrag.exe installed, now... I can't believe this... that prog. was the only thing that enabled TRUELY RELIABLE 8.3/LFN's backups, in win98se... (all FREE backup progs still had the classic 8.3/LFN problem).. now I have NO reliable (free) backup method.... :(:no:

DESPAIR

Edited by PsycoUnc
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What can go wrong / what u can do:

- flash BIOS to current version

- faulty wiring/cabling inside your PC case ?

- faulty power supply unit [PSU] ?

- virus [sometimes takes at least 2 different AV tools to detect 1 virus/worm] ?

- corrupted system files/drivers ?

Hope this helps.

Edited by MDGx
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What can go wrong / what u can do:

- flash BIOS to current version

- faulty wiring/cabling inside your PC case ?

- faulty power supply unit [PSU] ?

- virus [sometimes takes at least 2 different AV tools to detect 1 virus/worm] ?

- corrupted system files/drivers ?

Hope this helps.

BIOS: -is updated to latest... (board is <3 yrs old...)

faulty wiring/PSU: -the crosslink errors are too specific (during many repeated tries)

for random power probs... (plus other even more demanding HD/filesystem

operations do not cause errors; this is very specific)

corrupted sys files: -tried it in several diff. OS setups, + realmode dos; same

virus: -used 3 diff. scanners, no probs... (also, again seems a bit too specific for virus)

----MDGx: -are u aware of any other progs/utils that perform the same function as

DOSLFNBK? -or any (free) backup tools which DON'T screw-up 8.3/LFN's

in win98se?

(ps: sry for my overly-enthusiastic posting; I've had a VERY bad week, and this crap isn't helping matters... :wacko::P )

Edited by PsycoUnc
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Hard to say, I had very similar problem with crosslinked files some time ago and it was caused by some bad contact - re-inserting of IDE cable helped.

Other possibilities:

- RAM error - I'd try http://www.memtest86.com/

- the HDD is going to die (HDD Diagnostic utility)

- overclocking?

For backup of files with long filenames under DOS you can use also Symantec/Norton Ghost - in fact full paritions are copied to one file.

Regarding the problem with not responsive scandisk - sometimes the check for cross-linked files is very long, I think I saw even several hours.

Petr

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Other possibilities:

- RAM error - I'd try http://www.memtest86.com/

- the HDD is going to die (HDD Diagnostic utility)

- overclocking?

- RAM: -I also use memtest86... ran it for long time, no errors...

- HDD: "SMART" shows 100% fitness, 100% performance, no probs... (and same error is reproducible on both drives, every time... and drives are < 1 yr old...)

- overclocking: I don't (can't :} ) overclock this mobo/ram/cpu...

- connections: checked/reseated all; same

-too many files/dir tree: the 2 backed-up folders (windows, program files) are only half the size (number of files, each) as other backups I have, and doslfnbk never has a problem with the others...

it's strange, it's always the same 2 files being cross-linked, but the files that they are crosslinked WITH changes every time... and they are in totally different directory trees, totally different file names... but it's 100% reproducible... and scandisk done just before doslfnbk is always totally clean... it's definitely doslfnbk bug, I'm just suprised I've never run across it in the past, I use it quite frequently, for some time now... I'll test it on another 98se puter today...

..and the 2 files in question aren't "special" in any noticeable way: filenames aren't very long, full path not very long, no weird characters, not large, etc... (one is an x-setup plugin, the other a windows theme file)

-thx for your help/suggestions, petr & mdgx...

(-btw, Ghost isn't free, is it?)

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-WOO-HOO! fixed it! -if ya use "/h" (high-level disk access) during the doslfnbk BACKUP phase, the restore phase won't create filesystem errors! scandisk was clean! :w00t:

I'll test it further, but for now I'm happy!...

>;]

(ps: this doesn't help for ALREADY-CREATED backups, tho... those are lost. :angry: )

Edited by PsycoUnc
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-uh oh... "/h" saved 800 FEWER lfn's than without "/h", in same dir! (with /h: 8200 lfn's saved; w/out /h: 9000 lfn's saved!) -this CAN'T be good... (unless the bug in the non"/h" function also causes too many lfn's to be saved... ?)

siiiigh... the saga continues... testing testing & more testing to come..... :}

Edited by PsycoUnc
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! CRAP! the "/h" DOES MISS FILES! -in my case, it missed about 800 files, which is roughly 1 out of every 10! ... so back to square one: NO DOSLFNBK RELIABILITY!

:realmad:

...

...-so, again, anybody know of a RELIABLE, FREE, replacement for DOSLFNBK?

(or of a FREE backup or zip util, which preserves the 8.3/LFN's in win98se?)

(actually, at this point, I'd be willing to PAY (a little) for something that works!)

Edited by PsycoUnc
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(sry to continue off-topic here, I'll finish this quickly...)

-WORKAROUND for DOSLFNBK bug: (VERY time-consuming, yet effective)

1) backup whole dir (my case: \Program Files)

2) copy & restore backup to empty temp partition (ex: swapfile partition)

3) scandisk, fix crosslinks/etc...

4) -find the offending sub-dirs (\Plus! & \X-setu~1) by looking at SCANDISK.LOG, and create a new backup EXCLUDING those sub-dirs, then back them up separately.

5) test the new backup by restoring to temp, scandisk (should be no errors this time), and byte-by-byte comparison to orig.

-nasty, but it works... and is the only way to get uncorrupted backup...

(unless someone out there knows of FREE backup/zip tools which PRESERVE 8.3/LFN's in win98se? -or maybe not free, but CHEAP? (<$20?) )

>;]

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-COOL! it worked! -we don't have to make separate backups, and all previous backups are still useable! :thumbup

-during the RESTORE ("/r") function, just exclude ("/s") the problem dirs, then re-run doslfnbk /r with the sub-dirs specifically, one at a time, like thus:

doslfnbk . /r /s Plus! /s x-setu~1

doslfnbk Plus! /r

doslfnbk x-setu~1 /r

-it works, no scandisk errors! all files properly renamed, byte-by-byte comparison is good... only thing is, ya need to find out the problem dirs first... they each do contain a LOT of files, so that's probably it, gotta split the restore function to less than x names in a sub-dir-tree at a time... the documentation does mention something like that...

:)

Edited by PsycoUnc
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Decent selection of mostly free(ware) backup tools [see the 32-bit ones that keep LFNs in FAT32/NTFS/etx2 environments]:

http://www.mdgx.com/secrets.htm#FDPT

Bad memory? guide on how to check + DOS and Windows free(ware) tools:

http://www.mdgx.com/newtip8.htm#BADMEM

DOSLFN is issued now in 2 versions:

* DOSLFN.COM v0.32o Long File Names (LFNs) DOS mode TSR 16-bit for MS-DOS

5/6/7/8 and Windows 3.1x/9x/ME supports FAT32 and Joliet CD-ROMs, includes

LOWDMA and FastOpen cache, highly customizable:

http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~heha/hs_freeware/freew.html

Direct download [291 KB, freeware, open source, German]:

http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~heha/hs_freeware/doslfn.zip

More info:

http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~heha/en/hs...re/what_lfn.htm

Improved DOSLFN v0.40a:

http://www.geocities.com/jadoxa/doslfn/

Direct download [290 KB, freeware, right-click to save!]:

http://www.geocities.com/jadoxa/doslfn/doslfn.zip

Uses 12 KB of upper DOS RAM if loaded with LOADHIGH in AUTOEXEC.BAT (upper

memory manager required in CONFIG.SYS).

Load LOWDMA.SYS after UMBPCI.SYS in CONFIG.SYS to fix ISA DMA errors in native

MS-DOS:

http://www.mdgx.com/umb.htm#TOO

I've also had a series of random [unexplained] HD errors recently: turned out to be a faulty 5V power cable, and it took me almost 2 weeks to figure it out. :(

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-DOSLFN and DOSLFNBK perform different functions... doslfnbk backs up & restores all the LFN's/8.3 filenames in a dir-tree (whether in windows or real-mode dos), doslfn just allows u to read/work with lfn's in real-mode dos, but doesn't perform any backup/restore filename functions...

-I've lightly perused your backup progs list, but it isn't mentioned if/which ones also preserve the lfn/8.3 filenames PROPERLY... (I've tested MANY free backup progs, including some on your list, and none of em passed the "~1, ~2" lfn/8.3 preservation test... same prob exists with zip utils: ya have to first save the lfn's, then change all the filenames into 8.3 format only (using xxcopy /N, or pkzip /N, etc) for the compression, then restore the filenames after de-compression... -otherwise, the "~1" and "~2" 's will sometimes get switched (same bug happens when ya use Explorer to copy or move a bunch of files; the 8.3's are NOT preserved, and sometimes get swapped, leading to bad links, system errors/instability, etc)

(...the "save entire partition..." utils will probably work, preserving the names properly, of course, but saving an entire partition at a time is a bit extreme, for routine backup purposes...)

-thx for the help, but it looks like I've got the doslfnbk limitation sorted out, splitting off 2 or 3 sub-dirs (of too many files in each) during the restore function... when I get the time/motivation, I'll continue testing your backup-utils list, see if any of em do really preserve LFN/8.3's properly...

>;]

Edited by PsycoUnc
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-yup, that's exactly what I use, xxcopy /clone AND "/N" -to strip off the LFN's before zipping up the dir (otherwise, the zip programs will often mess-up the 8.3 filenames when unzipping (swap the "~1", "~2", etc)), which is why I need to use doslfnbk to back up the LFN's/8.3 filenames first, before stripping using xxcopy's "/N"; then I zip it up, and after unzipping use doslfnbk /r to restore the LFN's to the stripped 8.3 filenames, properly...

[-after EXTENSIVE searching & testing of just about every FREE backup prog/util and zip util, this is the only method I've found that ALWAYS preserves the PROPER 8.3/LFN relationships (other than full-partition backups, of course... but that sux ;) )... -if anybody else has found an other, FREE, prog/util/method, and has tested that LFN/8.3/"~" MS-win98se flaw PROPERLY with it, let me know, please... :yes: ]

Edited by PsycoUnc
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