Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!munnari.oz.au!bruce!trlluna!titan!shiva!stevens
From: stevens@shiva.trl.OZ.AU (Tony Stevens)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: Strange memory errors in Windows?
Message-ID: <1991May29.065802.22317@trl.oz.au>
Date: 29 May 91 06:58:02 GMT
References: <1991May29.005554.10290@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
Sender: news@trl.oz.au (USENET News System)
Organization: Telecom Research Labs, Melbourne, Australia
Lines: 46

mjf@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Michael J Flory) writes:

I have had similar experiences with Windows copying what appeared to be
junk to a floppy drive - 1.2Mbyte, 360kbyte, 5 1/4 or 1.4Mbyte 3 1/2.

>Some time ago I posted with a strange and dangerous error I got running
>DISKCOPY in a DOS window with a .pif asking for all 640 K if it could get
>it.  In short, the diskcopy operation miscopied a couple of sectors every
>dozen-and-a-half or so (the number varied).  But although VERIFY was on,
>I got no error message -- I discovered it through DISKCOMP.

In my case the errors in a dos window occur when I run a batch file
containing a XCOPY or COPY statement, and produce FF hexidecimal for
every forth byte of the file. 

>Now, running XTREE GOLD 2.0 under windows, I have discovered that the 
>beginning parts of whole sets of files copied to a floppy are sometimes

     some deleted

The problem was first noticed using XTREE GOLD 1.3 (I think this is the
version).  

One of my solutions was to set the following in the SYSTEM.INI file in
the [386Enh] section:

   EMMExclude=A000-DFFF    required because of Paradise VGA Driver 256
                           colors.
   VirtualHLRD=off         suggested somewhere ?? if you have drive
                           problems.

These fixed my problems both with XTGOLD and dos window in most cases.

The problem still occurs sometimes if I try doing an add or update
operation to ZIP file on the floppy drive or if the file being copied is
very large 800kbytes.

The above may help you.  If you get any replies I also would be
interested.  The batch file mentioned above is for backups of the hard
drive and the files are not much good if the 4th byte is FF hex.


 A.J. Stevens (Tony)             ||  Internet: a.stevens@trl.oz.au  
 Manager Plans & Programmes      ||       Tel: +61 3 5416532         
 Telecom Research Laboratories, PO Box 249, CLAYTON VIC 3168, AUSTRALIA
                       **** Jesus is Lord  ****