Re: XyWrite & Windows 2000

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from  on Mon, 30 Sep 2002 08:36:03
-0400


> Any news on this or other DOS emulators, if that is the correct class of
> software, to deal with DOS-Box keyboard problems in W2000-XP?

Well, I'm running a beta that reduces it by about 80%. I'll get in touch again
and see what's what -- but I'm travelling and otherwise occupied... (P.S. Not
a replacement emulator! The cursor issue has to do with CPU timeslices and
such.)

> Also a question: Has anyone purchased a new desktop and installed W98SE
> just to keep XyDos running well? If so, was this done in a partition?

You have to put 9x on C: (required), and move W2K to D: or something above, in
an extended partition (essentially, that means you have to reinstall W2K -- you
can't just copy all NT files to D:, because all references in the Registry will
still be to C:. This is a very complicated subject, but briefly, here's what
you need to do:

Get a copy of Partition Magic. PM is the most important utility on the planet.
Then think out the organization of the disk. My preference, driven by the
precept that all OpSyses should be able to see all drives (so that if something
goes haywire in one OpSys, you can fix it with the other -- also to share
resources, like a single XyWrite installation), would be:

Primary Partition 1: a boot manager of some sort (PM supplies one or two BMs as
part of the PM package), to select which OpSys to boot. This partition can be
very small, maybe 7-20 Mb.

Primary Partition 2: C: Drive. Win98 operating system files ONLY -- no
programs!!! FAT32

Extended Partition 3: which contains:
 D: Win2K OpSys -- no programs -- also FAT32 (regrettably -- FAT32 is crap,
but Win9x wouldn't see NTFS, therefore your drive lettering would get out of
order: what Win2K called "E:" would be "D:" to Win98). Also, you can see
FAT32 from a DOS rescue disk, whereas you cannot see NTFS (without tricks).
Note that NT (W2K) has to be located wholly within the first 1024 cylinders
(about 8Gig) on the physical disk.
 E: Programs -- FAT32 -- as much as possible, isolate the programs from the
operating sys. If you have a choice, *never* put a program on the same drive
as the OpSys. This way, if you have to reinstall/replace the OpSys, you don't
lose your programming.
 F: Programs FAT32
 G: More programs FAT32
 H: A big drive, which can hold big files>4Gb (if you're making backup images
of drives, or burning DVDs, or working with digital video, for example). NTFS

You need to work it all out carefully in your head before you start
repartitioning a disk. And the PROBLEM with all this, often, is that the
system disk (CD) that comes with new computers these days isn't a real W2K
installation disk, but rather (sometimes) just an image of the preinstalled
machine. So when you use it to "reinstall" W2K, it just wipes the whole disk
and puts W2K right back on C:, instead of where you want it. You have to
inspect the CD carefully to see what its capabilities are.

All in all, I'd wait for this cursor utility. It will do what you need. Run
full screen VGA in the meantime!

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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