RULES TERMS & CONDITIONS

We accept no responsibility towards using help or tips provided by Keep Systems Inc. nor do we accept responsibility  for any links from this site.

As a precaution, before proceeding to use any Tips, Programs, or making any changes, from any links contained therein and before opening any Hidden Windows System Settings, it is advisable to perform a full backup of the system even though Windows XP comes with a life-saving 'SYSTEM RESTORE' feature.  Always remember to create a System Restore Point before making any changes to your PC. Once that's done it should be safe to proceed with any tweaking you wish, but you do so entirely at your own risk.

Question: Can I create only an extended partition on my new drive using FDISK?

Answer: It is possible to do but there are dangers. If the primary drive has to be repartitioned for whatever reason, the drive with only an extended partition will have to be repartitioned as well (all data will be lost). Extended dos partitions always need a primary dos partition to relate to, if this is removed the extended partition becomes inaccessible. Please refer to the attached file on how to create extended dos partitions and logical dos drives.

Question: After adding a new device such as a hard drive or CD-ROM drive the system reports an error saying: "Not enough drive letters" or "Not enough drive letters available"

Answer: This issue is caused by the "LASTDRIVE" line not setup properly or defined in the config.sys file.
Solution: You must edit your CONFIG.SYS file. This file is located in the root directory of your hard drive.

From a DOS prompt, C:\, type the command edit config.sys.

Once in the editor, either change the LASTDRIVE=line or add a LASTDRIVE statement greater than the amount of drive letters.

For example the line could be: LASTDRIVE=Z. Make sure to save and exit. Reboot and the problem should be resolved

Question: This Program Cannot Be Run in DOS Mode" when running Windows XP setup.

The Microsoft Knowledge Base article that applies to this install procedure is lacking pertinent information regarding a successful install using the Windows 98 / Millennium startup disks.

Answer: You will need a Windows 98 or Millennium startup disk, with SmartDrive.exe included on the disk. Creating a startup disk from Windows 98 or Millennium does not load the SmartDrive.exe file natively.
To save SmartDrive.exe onto a floppy perform the following:
After you have finished creating the Startup disk, go to the Start menu and choose search, files and folders.
In the Search for files or folders text field type: Smartdrv
In the (Look In) text field choose your C:\ drive, and click "Search Now"
When the search is finished, copy the Smartdrv (Size 45 KB) file to your startup disk in the A:\ drive
Installing XP from a DOS prompt:
Remove the Startup disk and insert it into the system that you intend to install Windows XP on.
Boot the system to the A:\prompt, FDISK partition and format the drive first or XP will not install.
For more information on FDISK Click here.
After the drive has been partitioned and formatted with FDISK, boot the system to the startup disk, and start with CDROM support.
After the Startup disk finishes loading and stops at the A:\prompt, type SMARTDRV and press the enter key.
SmartDrive will load and revert back to the A:\prompt.
Install your Windows XP, CD into the CDROM drive, and switch over to the drive letter that the Windows startup disk assigned to the CDROM. Change to the I386 directory and type: WINNT and press the enter key, setup will commence.
Follow the onscreen instructions, to finish the install.

The smartdrv or smartdrive is a utility that can be loaded in the autoexec.bat to create a disk cache in conventional memory or extended memory.
Note: When XP starts copying the system files to the hard drive, it will copy some of the files, then your system may hang for about 2 minutes, then it should finish copying.

If you do not load SmartDrive during the boot XP will warn you with the message below.
"Setup did not detect SmartDrive on your computer. SmartDrive will greatly improve the performance of this phase of Windows setup."
You should exit now, start SmartDrive and then restart setup, see your DOS documentation for details about SmartDrive.
Press F3 to exit setup
Press enter to continue without SmartDrive If you continue with the install of XP without SmartDrive, the install will copy some of the system files, then it may hang indefinitely.

SMARTDRV.SYS: Computer Requires SMARTDRV.EXE to Run Properly

SMARTDrive creates a disk cache in extended memory and speeds up MS-DOS disk operations. Suppose if you're installing Windows from the DOS level, place a copy of SMARTDRV.EXE onto the boot floppy disk that you boot with. After you boot your PC with this disk, execute SMARTDrive by typing SMARTDRV from the A prompt. It will only take a couple of seconds to load. You can then proceed with your installation of Windows. For both Windows 2000 and Windows XP, you begin the installation routine by executing WINNT.EXE, located in the i386 folder of the installation CD.

How does SMARTDrive work? Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 83325

The DOS device driver that provides compatibility for hard-disk controllers that can not work with EMM386 and Windows running in enhanced mode. Use device command to load this device driver in CONFIG.SYS.
This command does not load the DOS dick cache; use the SMARTDRV command for that.

Smartdrv is a handy cache program that will greatly speed up data entry. I hope The following CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXECT.BAT files will load Smartdrv correctly. The syntics for

CONFIG.SYS

DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
BUFFERS=40,0
FILES=45
DOS=UMB
LASTDRIVE=D
FCBS=16,0
DOS=HIGH
STACKS=18,256
BREAK=ON

The first lines are necessary to load Smartdrv to high memory and the 6.22 library in the directory DOS has the files HIMEM.SYS and the memory manager EMM386 necessary for 386 and later PC's. The files are set larger then 6.22 defaults to allow Turbo Pascal overlays to load.

AUTOEXEC.BAT

@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $p$g
PATH C:\DOS;c:\log
set TZ=UTC
LH /L:0;1,42384 /S C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE
C:\DOS\smartdrv/c

Notes: This batch file allows Smartdrv to load in high memory but cache in low to make it very fast. The payback is it requires some memory resources. The LH command is DOS 6.22 Load High not found in early versions. This line is setting up a block of memory to load Smartdrive.exe but is stripping it back to fit. Notice Smartdrv is placed at the end of the file per MS instructions and the /c is not pointing to a drive but is a switch. If you leave off the drive specification the default will be to cache read and write C:drive but not A:. I prefer to backup to a floppy in the A:drive during the contest using ALT F. It takes a little longer but risk free.

The switch /c forces smartdrv to run at startup and I can see if things are working, as an added bonus the drive status dump is aborted.

Why is the capacity of the drive only showing 8.4 GB, 32 GB, or 137 GB when the capacity is significantly larger?

Question: After formatting the drive, the capacity of my drive is only 8.4GB, 32GB or 137GB which is significantly less than the actual capacity of the hard drive. What is wrong? If the BIOS only recognizes 8.4 GB, 32 GB or 137 GB of the hard drive, your system BIOS may not support the full capacity of the drive.

Answer: There are three possible answers to this question:
Check with the system or motherboard manufacturer for any BIOS upgrades for the system. If there are no BIOS updates from the manufacturer you can visit www.esupport.com for a BIOS update.