NightOwl wrote on Nov 12^th, 2006 at 12:36am:

Evereti wrote on Nov 12^th, 2006 at 4:10pm:

El_Pescador

Quote:

Just after the system *POSTS*, and begins to read the floppy disk, hit F8 and select *step-by-step* confirmation so you can see which line in *config.sys* or *autoexec.bat* causes that error message.

I note you have a *DOS=high, umb* command in one of your setups--is that the one that causes the problem without loading *himem.sys*?

El_Pescador

Quote:

Probably, for most users, those two commands are not required.  

I remember one poster who was having a problem with Ghost erring out in the middle of a Ghost image creation procedure--I think it was a laptop system--and adding the *device=himem.sys* solved that problem--I don't believe the *dos=high,umb* had any effect on his Ghost error problem.  

I'm not sure where, but I found a reference that stated that

some systems

(always so vague as to what that means!) do not manage memory in DOS correctly (again, always so vague--what effect does that have on one's system or programs under what circumstances?) without the addition of *himem.sys*--but my personal systems do not require it to run Ghost successfully.

In my original posting about the Panasonic USB DOS drivers,

A Better USB 2.0 DOS Driver for Ghost + More!

, I included those two commands and added the *himem.sys* file to the boot files because the original source that I was using,

Yes, there are USB drivers for DOS...

, used those lines.  Looking back however, for some reason I did not use the *devicehigh* commands in [config.sys] as mentioned in that original source, nor the *LH* (short for *loadhigh*) in the [autoexec.bat]--can't remember why I decided not to do that being as I included the *device=himem.sys* line!  

**********************************

Now, for the more technically inclined--the *details*   :

The reason for using *himem.sys* is to create additional memory space for DOS to use in what's called *High Memory Area* (HMA)--the first 640 KB of RAM is called *conventional memory* that DOS uses to run programs--the RAM area from 640 to 1024 KB is called the *Upper Memory Blocks* (UMB) area, and then just above that 1024 boundary is an area that's a little less than 64 KB called the *High Memory Area (HMA)--DOS can not access HMA without *himem.sys*.  

The need for HMA occurs if you are running so many DOS drivers and programs that you run out of RAM in that first 640 KB of conventional memory.  If HMA is available, then DOS can load a portion of the DOS OS into HMA rather than using conventional memory,  and that frees up more conventional memory for more programs and device drivers.

Ghost is a small DOS program and most users will rarely load enough other DOS programs or drivers to use up too much of the 640 conventional memory to create a memory crunch problem.

If you want to also use the UMB memory area, then in addition to loading *himem.sys*, you must also load an *Upper Memory Block* memory provider (manager)--MS-DOS's is *emm386.exe*.

One of my favorite references for DOS is

Vernon Frazee's

MS-DOS v6.22 Help: Command Reference

.

Looking at the

< DOS >

command reference:

Quote:


So, basically, if you use *dos=high,umb*, you must load *himem.sys* in order to have DOS use the *high* parameter successfully, and you will get an error message if you have not loaded *himem.sys*.  In order for DOS to use UMB's, then in additiion to the *himem.sys* driver, you also need to load *emm386.exe*--if you have not provided *emm386.exe* along with *himem.sys*, DOS will not show an error message, but UMB's will not be used!

***************************************

I just looked at the

< devicehigh >

, and

< loadhigh >

--I remember now why I didn't use the *devicehigh* and *LH (loadhigh)* commands in my posting for the Panasonic USB DOS drivers:

*devicehigh* (for use in [config.sys],  and *LH (loadhigh)* (for use in [autoexec.bat]) are commands that load programs into the UMB area--and unless you have loaded the UMB memory manager *emm386.exe*--these commands are non-functional and your programs are loaded into *conventional* memory--*devicehigh* and *LH* have no effect unless *emm386.exe* has been loaded!

Quote:

To have been technically correct, and consistent--I should have changed *dos=high,umb* to simply *dos=high*, being as *emm386.exe* was not being loaded and the *umb* in *dos=high,umb* was not going to perform any function!

El_Pescador

Patience--I plan on working on this--I want to try to make a couple DOS screen shots to show the memory usage difference with and without using those UMB and HMA!

Evereti wrote on Nov 18^th, 2006 at 9:24pm:

The solution is surprisingly simple but somewhat bitter - pitch the PCI-to-USB2 card and select one that is

NEC-compliant

... a replacement  PCI-to-USB2 host controller card will address your issue, but I would strongly advise against procuring any card that is not NEC-compliant (which means avoiding ).

CLICK HERE for an inexpensive card proven to be Ghost 2003-friendly.  

Hi Guys

I have found the following available on Ebay OZ:

1) ST Lab PCI card with NEC 720101 chipset
2) Unknown brand card with NEC UPD 720100 chipset
3) Sunix card with NEC chipset (type not specified)

I guess any of these would be OK?

Cheers

Evereti

Quote:

Ghost Explorer runs under Windows--uses the Windows based USB drivers which is the *native* environment that the USB standard was designed for--so expect *more* compatibility--have to be more compatible to meet the USB standards.

Doing image creation or restores--Ghost has to run in DOS--and those Windows drivers are no longer in play--must use DOS USB drivers--and how compatible those are with various USB hardware components depends on how much work the developer of those drivers put into their driver software.