Using shsurdrv.exe to create a ramdrive in MSDOS on pc with memory greater than 2 GB (Rev: 1.1)

I created a MSDOS boot CDROM disc to run ghost.exe so that I can backup or restore computer. I used WinZip to compress ghost.exe as ghost.zip in order to reduce the ghost file size. Then, I used xmsdsk.exe v1.9I (a ramdrive application) to create a ramdrive in MSDOS so that I can unzip the ghost.zip to the ramdrive as shown below in the autoexec.bat (no need to configure xmsdsk.exe in the config.sys):

autoexec.bat
---------------
set ramdrv=r:
rem To create a 16 MB ramdrive at r drive
rem on top of the XMS memory (/t)
xmsdsk.exe 16384 %ramdrv% /y /t
if exist ghost.zip pkunzip.exe -e ghost.zip %ramdrv%


However, xmsdsk.exe does not function correctly on computer with memory greater than 2 GB because it will produce a "XMS get free mem error". On computer with less than or equal to 2 GB of RAM, xmsdsk.exe runs OK without the "XMS get free mem error". Removing the /t parameter (top of the XMS memory) in xmsdsk.exe also has the same "XMS get free mem error".


Hence, I removed xmsdsk.exe and try using another ramdrive application, shsurdrv.exe v1.11 in MSDOS. I added shsurdrv.exe in the config.sys (no need to add shsurdrv.exe in the autoexec.bat) as shown below:

config.sys
------------
files=40
buffers=30
lastdrive=z
dos=high,umb
device=himem.sys
device=emm386.exe
rem Create a 16 MB ramdrive quietly at r drive
install=shsurdrv.exe 16384K,R: /Q
SHELL=COMMAND.COM /E:4096 /P

However, I encountered the "too big for memory" error when running shsurdrv.exe in MSDOS on a Dell Optiplex 755 or Optiplex 960 computer with 4 GB memory. On computers (eg: Dell Optiplex GX620 with 1 GB RAM or Dell Optiplex GX270 with 2 GB) with less than or equal to 2 GB of RAM, shsurdrv.exe runs OK without showing the "too big for memory" error.

I commented out the running of "device=emm386.exe" in the config.sys and the "too big for memory" error when running shsurdrv.exe in MSDOS on a Dell Optiplex 755 or Optiplex 960 computer with 4 GB memory did not appeared. I have no problem running ghost.exe in the ramdrive (r: drive), except that it is a bit slow (about 4 to 5 seconds) waiting for the ghost program to start.

Hence, you should add shsurdrv.exe in the config.sys and deleted the "device=emm386.exe" as shown below:

config.sys
------------
files=40
buffers=30
lastdrive=z
dos=high,umb
device=himem.sys
rem Create a 16 MB ramdrive quietly at r drive
install=shsurdrv.exe 16384K,R: /Q
SHELL=COMMAND.COM /E:4096 /P

autoexec.bat
----------------
set ramdrv=r:
if exist ghost.zip pkunzip.exe -e ghost.zip %ramdrv%

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现代名句精华 (Rev: 1.0)

• 樹多必有枯枝，人多必有白癡。
• 君子報仇，三年不晚。小人報仇，一天到晚。
• 帥有個屁用！到頭來還不是被卒吃掉！
• 騎白馬的不一定是王子，可能是唐僧。
• 帶翅膀的不一定是天使，也可能是 "鳥人"。
• 就算是Believe, 中間還是有個 lie。
• 就算是Friend, 最後還是會有個 end
• 就算是Lover, 最後還是會 over。
• 就算是forget, 也要先 get才行。
• 就算有個wife, 心裡也要假設 if。
• 樹不要皮，必死無疑。人不要臉，天下無敵。
• 人生 (人蔘)，不過比當歸長一點。
• 懷才就像懷孕，時間久了才能讓人看出來。
• 上帝給了我們七情六慾，我們卻把它們變成了色情和暴力。
• 最浪漫的三個字不是 "我愛你"，而是 "在一起"。
• 前程四緊就是：手頭緊、眉頭緊、衣服緊、時間緊。
• 青春就像衛生紙。看著挺多的，用著用著就不夠了。
• 女人的愛是用說的，男人的愛是用做的。
• 幸福離我們很近，但，我們都忘了靠近。
• 天底下沒有所謂複雜的事情，是人的思維和感情把它複雜化了。
• 福利不是問題，問題是沒福利。錢不是問題，問題是沒錢。
• 今日事今日畢，過了今日就不必。
• 皮夾裡的發票永遠比鈔票多。
• 我不是隨便的人，但我隨便起來不是人。

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Solved unknown devices in Windows 7 Enterprise (x64) OS on Dell Optiplex GX960 pc (Rev: 1.0)

After installing Windows 7 Enterprise (x64) Operating System (OS) on the Dell Optiplex GX960 computer with 8 GB DDR2 800 Mhz SDRAM memory, there are 2 unknown devices in the Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager as shown below:

1. PCI Communication Controller
-> Installing the device drivers using Intel AMT HECI (from Chipset category) version 5.2.10.1023 PV, A02 from DELL.

2. PCI serial port
-> Installing the device drivers using Intel AMT SOL/LMS (from Chipset category) version 5.2.10.1023 PV, A02 from DELL.

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Change Roxio Creator DE 10.3 from Chinese interface to English interface (Rev: 1.0)

If your Roxio Creator DE 10.3 software installed in your Dell computer or workstation is of Chinese interface, and you want to change the Roxio Creator DE 10.3 software back to English interface, you will find that there is no options in Roxio Creator DE 10.3 software to change the language from Chinese language back to English language. Roxio Customer Care gave the below reply when you asked for their support:

This is just to inform you that when it comes to changing the language of your pc, you will need to contact your computer manufacturer, Dell, for assistance. It's a common and minimal issue our customers were getting and only if they are using Dell PC.


Assume that your computer is running Windows XP Professional SP3 Operating System. Please perform the below steps to change your Roxio Creator DE 10.3 software back to English interface:

1) Kindly click Start → Control Panel → Add or Remove Programs. Select "Roxio Creator DE 10.3" and click the "Change/Remove" button to uninstall the Roxio Creator DE 10.3 software.

2) Kindly click Start → Control Panel → Regional and Language Options. Click the "Advanced" tab. Change the "Language for non-Unicode programs" from "Chinese (PRC)" back to "English (United States)", and click the "Apply" button. When it prompt that the required files are already installed on your hard disk, and whether you like to skip file copying and use the existing files, click "Yes". When it prompt whether you want to restart your computer now, click "Yes" after you have save all your work.

3) After your computer has restarted, insert your "Roxio Creator DE 10.3"CDROM and reinstall the "Roxio Creator DE 10.3"software. The installation process will shown as English interface and your "Roxio Creator DE 10.3"software will be in English interface after you have finished reinstalling it.

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Solved unknown devices in Windows Server 2008 Standard SP1 (x64) OS on Dell Precision T7500 workstation (Rev: 1.0)

After installing Windows Server 2008 Standard Service Pack 1 (x64) Operating System (OS) on the Dell Precision T7500 workstation, there are various unknown devices in the Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager as shown below:

1. 3D video controller
-> Using Nvidia Quadro FX580 video card and Nvidia Tesla C1060 GPU card. We have added Nvidia Tesla C1060 GPU card (with 240 of Streaming Processor Cores and 4 GDDR3 memory) in the Dell Precision T7500 workstation. If you did not added the Nvidia Tesla C1060 GPU card, you will only see the Nvidia Quadro FX580 (512 MB) video card. Installing the device drivers using nVidia driver version 8.16.11.9100, A01.

2. Ethernet Controller
-> Using Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Controller. Installing the device drivers using Broadcom 57XX Gigabit Integrated Controller version 14.1.0, A05.

3. SM Bus Controller
-> Using Intel (R) ICH10 Family SMBus Controller - 3A30. Installing the device drivers using the "Chipset -> Intel driver version 9.1.0.1007, A23 (R205428) or higher version" from Dell.

4. System Interrupt Controller
-> Using Intel (R) 5520/5500/x58 I/O Hub GPIO and Scratch Pad Registers - 3422. Installing the device drivers using the "Chipset -> Intel driver version 9.1.0.1007, A23 (R205428) or higher version" from Dell.

5. System Interrupt Controller
-> Using Intel (R) 5520/5500/x58 I/O Hub GPIO and Scratch Pad Registers - 3422. Installing the device drivers using the "Chipset -> Intel driver version 9.1.0.1007, A23 (R205428) or higher version" from Dell.

6. System Interrupt Controller
-> Using Intel (R) 5520/5500/x58 I/O Hub Control Status and RAS Registers - 3423. Installing the device drivers using the "Chipset -> Intel driver version 9.1.0.1007, A23 (R205428) or higher version" from Dell.

7. System Interrupt Controller
-> Using Intel (R) 5520/5500/x58 I/O Hub Control Status and RAS Registers - 3423. Installing the device drivers using the "Chipset -> Intel driver version 9.1.0.1007, A23 (R205428) or higher version" from Dell.

8. System Interrupt Controller
-> Using Intel (R) 5520/5500/x58 I/O Hub System Management Registers - 342E. Installing the device drivers using the "Chipset -> Intel driver version 9.1.0.1007, A23 (R205428) or higher version" from Dell.

9. System Interrupt Controller
-> Using Intel (R) 5520/5500/x58 I/O Hub System Management Registers - 342E. Installing the device drivers using the "Chipset -> Intel driver version 9.1.0.1007, A23 (R205428) or higher version" from Dell.

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Solved "Operating system not found" error during Windows XP OS bootup (Rev: 1.0)

When booting up the Windows XP Professional Operating System (OS) in the Acer TravelMate 3002 notebook, an "Operating system not found" error appeared because the first primary partition in the hardisk that contains the Windows XP OS was not marked as "active".

You can use gdisk (in DOS environment) or gdisk32 (in Windows XP environment) from Symantec to check the status of your hardisk primary partition. For example, assume in Windows XP environment,

# gdisk32

Disk Partitions Cylinders Heads Sectors Mbytes Model
1 4 9726 255 63 76293.9 ST3808110AS
2 2 19457 255 63 152627.8 ST3160215AS
3 3 7296 255 63 57231.6 IC25N060 ATMR04-0 MO3O

Disk 3 is the 60 GB (shown as 57231.6 MB) hardisk that I have took out from the Acer Travelmate 3002 notebook that had the "Operating system not found" error during bootup. I connected the Acer hardisk (disk 3) to another computer using the USB interface and it is shown as disk 3.


# gdisk32 3

Disk Partitions Cylinders Heads Sectors Mbytes Model
3 3 7296 255 63 57231.6 IC25N060 ATMR04-0 MO3O

Partition Status Type Volume Label Mbytes System Usage
G: 1 PRIMARY 28678.5 NTFS/HPFS 50%
2 EXTENDED 28553.0 50%
H: 3 LOGICAL 28553.0 NTFS/HPFS 50%

In disk 3, the G drive is the first primary partition (Partition 1) where the Windows XP OS is installed. As shown above, the status is blank indicating that it is not marked as "active".


# gdisk32 3 /act /p:1
Partition Status Type Volume Label Mbytes System Usage
G: 1 A PRIMARY 28678.5 NTFS/HPFS 50%
2 EXTENDED 28553.0 50%
H: 3 LOGICAL 28553.0 NTFS/HPFS 50%

Mark the disk 3, partition 1 as "active" (Shown as "A" status).


Reference:

[1] Switches: GDisk and GDisk32 for Norton Ghost 2003

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Trim WinXP Pro OS in the 4 GB SSD (Rev: 1.0)

Asus Eee PC 4G (white, 900 Mhz, 512 MB DDR2 SDRAM) comes with 4.0 GB Solid State Drive (SSD). After installing a full version of Windows XP Professional Operating System (OS), set a virtual memory of 512 MB, installed Asus Eee PC 4G software and drivers, anti-virus software, a strip down version of Microsoft Office 2003 Professional Edition with only Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0, Microsoft Windows Media Player 11.0, WinRaR v3.90, Samsung GT-S5603 handphone software, and also updating all the Windows XP Professional OS patches, the SSD has left with less than 300 MB of hardisk space.

Due to the low hardisk space, I decided to install the FoxIT Reader v3.1 (about 9.13 MB of installation size) to read .pdf (Portable Document Format) file and not the Adobe Reader v9.2 software (about 142 MB of installation size). I also performed the below to trim down the Windows XP Professional OS in order to save hardisk space:

1. Remove unwanted software in the Start -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs. At the Add or Remove Programs window, kindly click the "Add/Remove Windows Components". At the "Windows Components Wizard" window, select the "Accessories and Utilities" and click the "Details" button. Uncheck the "Games" subcomponent, select the "Accessories" subcomponent and click the "Details" button. I have only checked the "Calculator" subcomponent of Accessories, the rest are all uncheck (uninstalled).
   
   At the "Windows Components Wizard" window, only "Accessories and Utilities" with the "Calculator" subcomponent, "Internet Explorer", "Networking Services", "Update Root Certificates" and "Windows Media Player" are checked (installed). The rest are unchecked (uninstalled).
   
   
   
2. Remove unwanted fonts in the Start -> Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options. Click the "Advanced" tab and at the "Code page conversion tables", I have only checked those English and Chinese fonts. The rest of the foreign fonts are unchecked (uninstalled). Kindly also check the "Default user account settings" and click the "Apply" button to apply all settings to the current user account and to the default user profile.
   
   
   
3. Deleted unneeded or seldom used files by performing a search [for example, key in "*.hlp *.chm" at the search input box] at the whole C drive for the below extension files:
   
   • .hlp (Windows Help File)
   • .chm (Compiled HTML Help File)
     
   Kindly deleted these files from the displayed search result window.
   
   
   
4. Deleted unneeded or seldom used folders at the below directories:
   At the "C:\Windows" folder,
   backup the below Service Pack or patches uninstall folders to another hardisk and deleted them:
   
   • $MSI31Uninstall_KB893803v2$
   • $NtServicePackUninstall$
   • $NtServicePackUninstallxxx$ (where xxx stands for numbers or letters or both)
     
   • $NtUninstallxxx$
   
   At the "C:\Windows\Help" folder,
   backup the whole Help folder to another hardisk and deleted those help files inside it. Please note that the "C:\WINDOWS\Help\Tours\mmTour\tour.exe" file cannot be deleted by Windows. If you delete it manually, Windows will automatically put a copy of it back to the "C:\WINDOWS\Help\Tours\mmTour" folder.
   
   
   
5. Compress seldom used files or program folders
   Please perform a search at the whole C drive (where Windows XP Professional OS is installed) for seldom used files as shown below:
   
   • .txt (Plain Text File)
   • .rtf (Rich Text Format File)
   • .log (Log File)
   Compressed these files (assume your file system is NTFS) from the displayed search result window.
   
   For example, after the search result for "*.txt *.rtf *.log" files have finished, select all the .txt, .rtf and .log files, right-click and click "Properties". Click the "Advanced..." button. Kindly check the "Compress contents to save space" and click "OK".
   
   Try not to delete the .log files as it might be needed when uninstalling a software. If you wish, you can delete those End-User License Agreement Files such as eula.txt, eula.rtf or eula.xxxx.rtf where xxxx stands for numbers.
   
   
   Compress the below seldom used folders:
   
   • "C:\Program Files" folder
     (compress those programs folder that you think you have rare usage of it)
     
   • "C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download" folder
   • Under "C:\Documents and Settings' folder, compress the below sub folders:
     
     • All Users
     • Default User
     • LocalService
     • NetworkService
       
   
   
   
6. Recycle Bin
   Right-click the "Recycle Bin" and select "Properties". Under "Use one setting for all drives",drag the pointer to 0% to set the maximum size of "Recycle Bin" to 0 MB. Click "Apply" and click "OK".
   
   
   
7. System Restore
   Disable the "System Restore" function at the Start -> Control Panel -> System. At the "System Properties" window, click the "System Restore" tab, and check the "Turn off System Restore on all drives". Click "Apply" and click "OK".
   
   
   
8. Disk Cleanup
   Click Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Cleanup. Select C drive as the drive that you want to cleanup and click "OK". Check the below to delete the files:
   
   • Downloaded Program Files
   • Temporary Internet Files
   • Offline Webpages
   • Recycle Bin
   • Temporary files
   • WebClient/Publisher Temporary Files
   • Catalog files for the Content Indexer
     
   
   For "Office Setup Files", it is not recommended to delete it unless you have ready access to your original installation media.
   
   For "Compress old files", it is not recommended to delete it because we don't know what are the compressed files and it might be needed by the Windows.
   
   Click "OK" to start deleting those files that you have checked.
   

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