China DOS Union

There’s a problem!!
Moderator, I recently downloaded your super boot disk, but while using it I found that after booting it can’t recognize FAT32 partitions. What exactly is going on?
I’m currently using Win-die-to-death XP, and my hard disk is split into 3 partitions: drive C is an NTFS partition with the operating system installed, drive D is an NTFS partition with some software installed, and drive E is a FAT32 partition with some old files. But after booting with the new boot disk, it just can’t recognize it, while the earlier version I downloaded could. I’ve thought about it every which way and just can’t figure it out, so please help, moderator!!

Could this be a aftereffect left over from fixing the hard disk logical lock?

I know why, and under what conditions it happens. If it still doesn’t work, then try this instead:
Open attachment

Wengier:
Thanks for replying to me so quickly. I’m downloading the new boot disk now to give it a try.
But even with the same version, the results are different on different computers. There’s no problem on the office computer, but that machine only has two partitions, and the extended partition, drive D, is also FAT32 format.
I’m guessing: could it have something to do with the partitions? Because I found that the difference between the two computers is that on the computer with the problem, the FAT32 partition (drive E) and another partition, NTFS (drive D), are both in the extended partition.
Also, could you give me a download address for SLOWDOWN3.1?
(The author’s homepage on Members.aol.com or Users.aol.com just won’t open no matter what)

Thanks!

Oh right, I forgot to mention, the version I recently downloaded was the one you made on July 2, and this problem really does exist.
The April version doesn’t have this problem.

Also, I think using a LOGO screen in the boot disk doesn’t really have any practical meaning. After all, the 1.44M space is just too small, so it’s still better to use it for more useful things, right?

I modified one of your boot disks myself and added quite a few things, and it still fits without using CAB archives. It feels more practical, and the boot speed is also quite a bit faster. (I wonder if there’s any way to upload it to you?)

By the way, using APACK to compress EXE or COM files works pretty well, you might want to try it.

I hope your boot disk can improve even more in terms of compatibility!

Have you tried the special edition I uploaded above? It doesn’t have this problem, right???

Which program do you mean should be compressed with aPack? The compressible programs in my boot disk have already been compressed, but programs like Cloaking.exe cannot be compressed, otherwise compatibility will drop. Also, aPack itself has BUGs; after compressing with it, it may cause a hang when loading into UMB memory! Compressing with UPX is much better!

As for whether there should be a LOGO, there’s a poll thread in the forum, and the result was that supporters were in the majority, so LOGOs will continue to exist in future DOS boot disks.

Wengier:
Hello, I already tried the new boot disk, and the problem of not recognizing FAT32 partitions located in the extended partition no longer exists. Thanks!

However, I’ve run into a new problem: when choosing startup with USB and NTFS drivers, it hangs when loading USBCD.SYS, whether or not a USB flash drive is connected. I don’t know what the reason is?

Also, that NTFSDOS is way too overbearing. Before loading it there are still 625K of conventional memory, but once I use it, only a little over 200K is left. As for APACK, I’m using version 0.99, and its compression is extremely strong. Besides, as long as ordinary programs aren’t TSRs, there really shouldn’t be any problem of hanging when loaded into UMB (because they weren’t going to be used there in the first place :-) ), right? But I still haven’t checked whether the new version has the problem you mentioned. :-）

If you don’t have a USB/SCSI CD-ROM drive, then USBCD.SYS can actually be removed.

As for NTFSDOS, well, it really was written at a pretty poor level. It’s unstable, has poor compatibility, and takes up a lot of memory too. I really don’t know how that company Winternals went about writing it. If anyone has the ability, why not write a more compact and practical NTFSDOS!

I’ve tried all sorts of versions of aPack from 0.91 to 0.99, and they all have this problem. However, some of the software in my boot disk is still compressed with aPack 0.99b, and XZL.EXE is a typical example (because XZL itself doesn’t really support UMB memory, so there isn’t much point in putting it into UMB memory anyway). I used to compress files like PCCACHE and CDPLAY in the boot disk with aPack too, but later after discovering this problem, all of those programs were switched to UPX compression.