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Is there a patched version of XMSDSK that works with 4GB?

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Rod Pemberton

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Dec 30, 2010, 4:56:29 PM12/30/10
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Does anyone know if there is a patched version of XMSDSK that works with
4GB?

Franck Umberto's XMSDSK seems to work fine with 1GB, but not 4GB. I've
tried it with MS' HIMEM.SYS and Japheth's HIMEMX.


Rod Pemberton


Sjouke Burry

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Dec 30, 2010, 5:31:23 PM12/30/10
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You might try with dos7.1 from win98, on my install floppy
all needed files are present.

Martin Str|mberg

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Dec 30, 2010, 8:31:09 PM12/30/10
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Rod Pemberton <do_no...@notreplytome.cmm> wrote:

Hmm... I don't remember but I managed to alleviate some problems with
XMSDSK by specifying some parameter about allocating the other way
(top-down or vice versa).

I don't remember how much memory the system had, though... This was
when I was developing and testing FDXXMS.


--
MartinS

Rod Pemberton

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Dec 30, 2010, 10:06:49 PM12/30/10
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"Martin Str|mberg" <a...@dexter.ludd.luth.se> wrote in message
news:ifjbot$6a3$1...@speranza.aioe.org...

> Rod Pemberton <do_no...@notreplytome.cmm> wrote:
>
> > Does anyone know if there is a patched version of XMSDSK that works with
> > 4GB?
>
> > Franck Umberto's XMSDSK seems to work fine with 1GB, but not 4GB. I've
> > tried it with MS' HIMEM.SYS and Japheth's HIMEMX.
>
> Hmm... I don't remember but I managed to alleviate some problems with
> XMSDSK by specifying some parameter about allocating the other way
> (top-down or vice versa).
>

Yeah, it's /T option for top of memory. For me, the /T fails with alloc
error, and without /T it hangs. Supposedly, /T is also required for the
ramdisk to work with Win98 SE.

I was hoping the FreeDOS crowd had patched XMSDSK or had a ramdisk that
worked with 4GB ram.

> I don't remember how much memory the system had, though... This was
> when I was developing and testing FDXXMS.
>

Should I try FDXMS? The FreeDOS website says it out of date. FDXXMS?


RP


Rod Pemberton

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Dec 30, 2010, 10:07:22 PM12/30/10
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"Sjouke Burry" <burrynu...@ppllaanneett.nnll> wrote in message
news:4d1d083a$0$8926$703f...@textnews.kpn.nl...

> Rod Pemberton wrote:
> > Does anyone know if there is a patched version of XMSDSK that works with
> > 4GB?
> >
> > Franck Umberto's XMSDSK seems to work fine with 1GB, but not 4GB. I've
> > tried it with MS' HIMEM.SYS and Japheth's HIMEMX.
> >
> >
> You might try with dos7.1 from win98, on my install floppy
> all needed files are present.
>

I'm using MS-DOS 7.1 and Win98 SE. XMSDSK worked fine with 1GB for both DOS
and Win98SE.

With 4GB, XMSDSK either hangs, or fails with an alloc error when using /T.

Japheth's HIMEMX allows Win98SE to work with 4GB with normal values for
MaxPhysPage and MaxFileCache in Windows\system.ini. With HIMEM.SYS, I
needed some atypical values which I found through tedious trial and error.
They allowed both the Win dos prompt and the my video card's modes to work
with HIMEM.

I also tried Marko Kohtala's SRDISK after seeing it on Axcel216/MDGx's
website. It seems to work fine for DOS, but not with Win98... I get a
green screen and hang. No, it's not a BSOD. It's a bit less flexible in
it's setup also.


Rod Pemberton


Rod Pemberton

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Dec 30, 2010, 10:07:39 PM12/30/10
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"Rod Pemberton" <do_no...@notreplytome.cmm> wrote in message
news:ifiv15$b5f$1...@speranza.aioe.org...

>
> Does anyone know if there is a patched version of XMSDSK that works with
> 4GB?
>

Do you guys know of other XMS ramdisks and XMS driver combinations which
might work?

E.g., do you think RAMDRIVE.SYS would work with 4GB and HIMEMX?


Rod Pemberton


Sjouke Burry

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Dec 30, 2010, 10:34:51 PM12/30/10
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You wont be arrested for trying :)

Sjouke Burry

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Dec 30, 2010, 10:42:50 PM12/30/10
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have you been testing this one?
-----------------------------------------------zipinfo
XMS/EMS RAM disk installable and
resizable from command line.

You can choose the drive letter.
Up to 2 Gbytes supported.

Compatible with:
- MSDOS 3 to 7 (Win95), DosEmu (Linux),
NWDOS 7 (OpenDOS/DR-DOS 7), PCDOS 7.
- DBLSPACE/DRVSPACE, GUEST/GUEST95,
Stacker 4.

Include a little helper for HIMEM 3.09+
to let it use more than 64MB.

Freeware by Franck Uberto.
----------------------------------------------------
If not I can mail it(adress??)

Rod Pemberton

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Dec 31, 2010, 2:19:46 AM12/31/10
to

"Rod Pemberton" <do_no...@notreplytome.cmm> wrote in message
news:ifiv15$b5f$1...@speranza.aioe.org...
>

Correction:
Franck Uberto's XMSDSK


RP


Rod Pemberton

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Dec 31, 2010, 2:26:55 AM12/31/10
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"Sjouke Burry" <burrynu...@ppllaanneett.nnll> wrote in message
news:4d1d513a$0$8928$703f...@textnews.kpn.nl...

> Rod Pemberton wrote:
> > "Rod Pemberton" <do_no...@notreplytome.cmm> wrote in message
> > news:ifiv15$b5f$1...@speranza.aioe.org...
> >> Does anyone know if there is a patched version of XMSDSK that works
with
> >> 4GB?
> >>
> >
> > Do you guys know of other XMS ramdisks and XMS driver combinations which
> > might work?
> >
> > E.g., do you think RAMDRIVE.SYS would work with 4GB and HIMEMX?
> >
> >

RAMDRIVE.SYS doesn't support large enough drives, at least using 512KB
sectors...

> have you been testing this one?

Yes, I believe so.

> -----------------------------------------------zipinfo
> XMS/EMS RAM disk installable and
> resizable from command line.
>
> You can choose the drive letter.
> Up to 2 Gbytes supported.
>
> Compatible with:
> - MSDOS 3 to 7 (Win95), DosEmu (Linux),
> NWDOS 7 (OpenDOS/DR-DOS 7), PCDOS 7.
> - DBLSPACE/DRVSPACE, GUEST/GUEST95,
> Stacker 4.
>
> Include a little helper for HIMEM 3.09+
> to let it use more than 64MB.
>
> Freeware by Franck Uberto.
> ----------------------------------------------------
> If not I can mail it(adress??)

Correction: I wrote "Franck Umberto" earlier. That should've been "Franck
Uberto".

I believe I have the last version of XMSDSK, v. 19i from fu_rd19i.zip. It
says it supports 2GB... I could use a 4GB patch. If there is a more recent
version or patched version, I've not located it.

No need to email. I haven't used it in years. I don't have an active
account currently either. So, you couldn't send it to me anyway... If I
needed it, I'd have asked you to upload it Rapidshare, or to uuencode it and
post it here, or provided you with a myTrashMail email address to which you
could've sent the uuencoded file, etc. See, no need for an email account...
Thanks for the offer though.


RP


Rod Pemberton

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Dec 31, 2010, 10:22:18 PM12/31/10
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"Rod Pemberton" <do_no...@notreplytome.cmm> wrote in message
news:ifjh85$j0t$1...@speranza.aioe.org...

> "Sjouke Burry" <burrynu...@ppllaanneett.nnll> wrote in message
> news:4d1d083a$0$8926$703f...@textnews.kpn.nl...
> > Rod Pemberton wrote:
> > > Does anyone know if there is a patched version of XMSDSK that works
with
> > > 4GB?
> > >
> > > Franck Umberto's XMSDSK seems to work fine with 1GB, but not 4GB.
I've
> > > tried it with MS' HIMEM.SYS and Japheth's HIMEMX.
> > >
> > >
> > You might try with dos7.1 from win98, on my install floppy
> > all needed files are present.
> >
>
> I'm using MS-DOS 7.1 and Win98 SE. XMSDSK worked fine with 1GB for both
DOS
> and Win98SE.
>
> With 4GB, XMSDSK either hangs, or fails with an alloc error when using /T.
>
> Japheth's HIMEMX allows Win98SE to work with 4GB with normal values for
> MaxPhysPage and MaxFileCache in Windows\system.ini. With HIMEM.SYS, I
> needed some atypical values which I found through tedious trial and error.
> They allowed both the Win dos prompt and the my video card's modes to work
> with HIMEM.
>

Well guys, I forgot that Win98SE is being capped to 1GB. AIUI, Win98SE
cannot handle much more than 1GB. It's capped at that due by the
MaxPhysPage and MaxFileCache values. So, the solution for me for using both
Win98SE and DOS 7.1 together is to cap DOS' XMS usage. That is done with
the /MAX parameter for HIMEMX. Fortunately, capping XMS worked with XMSDSK.
Unfortunately, if someone wants to use XMSDSK only for DOS with a full 4GB
of XMS, they've got a problem. XMSDSK says it'll work upto 2GB, so the /MAX
parameter of HIMEMX should be able to go upto 2GB. I limited XMS to 1GB
since Win98SE is limited also. So, the settings I used are:

config.sys
DEVICE=HIMEMX.SYS /MAX=1048576

autoexec.bat
XMSDSK 100000 D: /C1 /T /Y

Win98 system.ini
[386enh]
MaxPhysPage=3FFFF
[vcache]
MaxFileCache=524288


If you're trying to get Win98SE loaded with HIMEM.SYS and 4GB, then maybe
try:
MaxPhysPage=22000
MaxFileCache=560000

Those wierd values worked for me... but, without XMSDSK.


Rod Pemberton


Rugxulo

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Jan 8, 2011, 6:05:04 AM1/8/11
to
Hi,

On Dec 30 2010, 9:07 pm, "Rod Pemberton"


<do_not_h...@notreplytome.cmm> wrote:
>
> Do you guys know of other XMS ramdisks and XMS driver combinations which
> might work?
>
> E.g., do you think RAMDRIVE.SYS would work with 4GB and HIMEMX?

IIRC, some guy nicknamed Zyzzle hacked Jack's RDISK to work with 4 GB.
(EDIT: Okay, apparently Jack told him what to change if he wanted to
try it.)

http://www.bttr-software.de/forum/board_entry.php?id=6542#p6643

Note that this is an unofficial hack to make it use 64 kb clusters, so
it may not be 100% failsafe (and I've never tried nor needed to,
personally, yet). Caveat emptor.

Martin Str|mberg

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Jan 10, 2011, 3:47:05 AM1/10/11
to
Rod Pemberton <do_no...@notreplytome.cmm> wrote:
> Should I try FDXMS? The FreeDOS website says it out of date. FDXXMS?

FDXXMS is included in FDXMS*.zip. It's the version that supports XMS
3.0 specification and > 64MB of memory (IIRC - and that's from the
author... Sigh. It's been a while).

FWIW, XMSDSK with version number that ends with "i" seems to work with
FDXXMS 0.95 (unreleased, IIRC, which is what I was working on when I got
other stuff to do), but I've only done minimal testing. But it won't
use more than 2GB (this is on a 8GB box of which FDXXMS can get 3.4GB).


Using FDXMS with WINDOWS is unsupported. There has never been any
plans for that and probably won't ever be, because HIMEM.EXE doesn't
follow the XMS specification and I think WINDOWS is depended on the
misfeatures and bugs in it.

But try it if you dare. But don't complain if it doesn't work.


--
MartinS

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