How can I get rid of 'Ramdrive' on startup disk?

You guys are strange, you make such a big deal about meaningless stuff. Who
cares if my email is different from my name, who cares if I have my
preferences? Obviously I know I can boot without the ramdrive but I have to
give up my CD at the same time. But thanks for your heckles, I figured out
how to do it.

Obviously everyone in this newsgroup is too concerned with how different
other people are to actually answer a question. This is a newsgroup, not a
chat room, look it up and see the difference then go to a chat room instead.

Kevin


"Doc" ] wrote in message
...
"Mike M" wrote in
:

Oh yes you have and do! - every time you run and use the Startup
disk!!

Mart,

That's not strictly true if the poster chooses option 4 from the menu.
No RAMdrive and no tools.


And edit the [Menu] section of config.sys to make option 4 the default
option that is selected if no button is pressed.

menudefault=QUICK,10
for a 10 second time out.

Thank you John John for not freaking out about my seemingly strange request.
I am aware of Bootdisk.com and I did download a boot disk without the
ramdrive but it did some other strange things in place of the ramdrive and
it took an extremely long time to boot so it is not acceptable to me. I was
hoping there was an easy fix but I know how to create a boot disk with CDrom
support so I will just go through that hassle. It is probably the only way.

Thanks

Keven


"John John" wrote in message
...
You can do it the easy way, go to bootdisk.com and you will find such a
thing there for download.

John

Kevin J. Nielsen wrote:
I would love to make a Millennium startup disk without the Ramdrive.
This is so irritating, I have never used it and I never will.

I tried editing out all references to ramdrive from the autoexec.bat
file but then it wouldnt boot.

Does anyone know how to get rid of Ramdrive from the startup disk
while keeping the boot disk functional?

Thank You

Keven Nielsen

Mart, thank you for taking the time to explain to me what the ramdrive is
for, that is interesting. I also appreciated the link you sent, more
interesting information. I dont understand what my preference has to do with
my question; the question exists independently of my preference. If you must
know, I have never liked things that have no useful purpose. To me, Ramdrive
has no useful purpose; I have never used it and I will never have a use for
it. I have many other troubleshooting tools I prefer to use over the tools
on the startup disk. I only use the disk to boot to dos with cdrom support,
I have never had a reason to use the troubleshooting tools and if I did, I
wouldnt because I have other tools.

Keven


"Mart" wrote in message
...
I'm not sure that you understand the purpose and function of the Ramdrive
used by the WinMe Startup disk, nor do I understand quite why you think it
an irritation.

... I have never used it and I never will.

Oh yes you have and do! - every time you run and use the Startup disk!!

As the 1.4 Mb floppy Startup disk has only some 200kb or so of unused
space spare and it does not use (access) space on your hard drive - it may
be faulty, unformatted or not even installed! - it reserves some 4 Mb of
your RAM (32 Mb minimum requirement for WinMe!) as 'work-space' in which
to actually load and run any/all of the troubleshooting utilities supplied
on the Startup disk. Not too sure what you might be doing with the other
available 28 Mb of RAM whilst needing the Startup disk, so can't see why
you are irritated.

Although slightly out of context, see also the 2nd paragraph under 'More
Information' in :-
"Unable to Load Ramdrive.sys in Windows Millennium Edition"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/278620/en-us

I tried editing out all references to ramdrive from the autoexec.bat
file but then it wouldnt boot.

Hardly surprising then!

Mart


"Kevin J. Nielsen" wrote in message
...
I would love to make a Millennium startup disk without the Ramdrive. This
is so irritating, I have never used it and I never will.

I tried editing out all references to ramdrive from the autoexec.bat
file but then it wouldnt boot.

Does anyone know how to get rid of Ramdrive from the startup disk
while keeping the boot disk functional?

Thank You

Keven Nielsen

Hello Shane. First of all, if you don't have anything relevant to
contribute, then why are you even in this newsgroup?

You actually think it is "Loony" that someone doesn't want or need
Ramdrive?? Where are you from? I would assume it is a place where everybody
has to think the same way or be cast out. I am sorry I don't think the same
way as you; good thing we don't have to interact much. Also, I guess this
place you are from does not allow people to have email addresses that are
spelled different from their name, that is strange. Where I come from people
are allowed to use any email address they want and it doesn't even have to
have the same spelling as their name. The place that I come from seems to
have more freedom than where you are from.

Keven



"Shane" wrote in message
...
Hi Mart.

Boy this one has put a smile on my face! Really, all that are left are the
loonies!

Shane

Mart wrote:
I'm not sure that you understand the purpose and function of the
Ramdrive used by the WinMe Startup disk, nor do I understand quite
why you think it an irritation.

... I have never used it and I never will.

Oh yes you have and do! - every time you run and use the Startup
disk!!
As the 1.4 Mb floppy Startup disk has only some 200kb or so of unused
space spare and it does not use (access) space on your hard drive -
it may be faulty, unformatted or not even installed! - it reserves
some 4 Mb of your RAM (32 Mb minimum requirement for WinMe!) as
'work-space' in which to actually load and run any/all of the
troubleshooting utilities supplied on the Startup disk. Not too sure
what you might be doing with the other available 28 Mb of RAM whilst
needing the Startup disk, so can't see why you are irritated.

Although slightly out of context, see also the 2nd paragraph under
'More Information' in :-
"Unable to Load Ramdrive.sys in Windows Millennium Edition"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/278620/en-us

I tried editing out all references to ramdrive from the
autoexec.bat file but then it wouldnt boot.

Hardly surprising then!

Mart


"Kevin J. Nielsen" wrote in message
...
I would love to make a Millennium startup disk without the Ramdrive.
This is so irritating, I have never used it and I never will.

I tried editing out all references to ramdrive from the
autoexec.bat file but then it wouldnt boot.

Does anyone know how to get rid of Ramdrive from the startup disk
while keeping the boot disk functional?

Thank You

Keven Nielsen

"Mike M" wrote in
:

Oh yes you have and do! - every time you run and use the Startup
disk!!

Mart,

That's not strictly true if the poster chooses option 4 from the menu.
No RAMdrive and no tools.


And edit the [Menu] section of config.sys to make option 4 the default
option that is selected if no button is pressed.

menudefault=QUICK,10
for a 10 second time out.

"Kevin J. Nielsen" wrote in
:

You guys are strange, you make such a big deal about meaningless
stuff. Who cares if my email is different from my name, who cares if
I have my preferences? Obviously I know I can boot without the
ramdrive but I have to give up my CD at the same time. But thanks
for your heckles, I figured out how to do it.


snip

Perhaps instead of asking "How can I get rid of 'Ramdrive' on startup
disk?", you should have asked .... "How do I make a boot disk WITH CD
SUPPORT without using a ramdrive". Very simple.

Plonk

Whoops, I cancelled that message; I guess not fast enough. Sorry.

The reason I didnt ask how to create a boot disk with CD support is
that I like the menu in the WinMe boot disk. I would like to at least have
1) boot with CD support, and 2) minimal boot. I know how to make a boot
disk with CD support but I dont know how to make a menu.

Another thing that would be even better and I wouldnt have to throw
away a potentially useful tool is if I could add a menu item to the Windows
Millennium boot disk: 5) boot with CD and no ramdrive.

Anyway, I am sorry if I offended anyone; I will try to think more
carefully next time before I make a post.

Thank you Plonk for your help.

Keven


"Doc" ] wrote in message
. ..
"Kevin J. Nielsen" wrote in
:

You guys are strange, you make such a big deal about meaningless
stuff. Who cares if my email is different from my name, who cares if
I have my preferences? Obviously I know I can boot without the
ramdrive but I have to give up my CD at the same time. But thanks
for your heckles, I figured out how to do it.


snip

Perhaps instead of asking "How can I get rid of 'Ramdrive' on startup
disk?", you should have asked .... "How do I make a boot disk WITH CD
SUPPORT without using a ramdrive". Very simple.

Plonk

"Make one of those Keen DOS Startup Menus"
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article02-054

--
Jack E. Martinelli Former MS MVP 2002-06 for Shell/User / DTS
Help us help you: http://www.dts-L.org/goodpost.htm
------

"Kevin J. Nielsen" wrote in message
...
Whoops, I cancelled that message; I guess not fast enough. Sorry.

The reason I didnt ask how to create a boot disk with CD support is
that I like the menu in the WinMe boot disk. I would like to at least
have
1) boot with CD support, and 2) minimal boot. I know how to make a boot
disk with CD support but I dont know how to make a menu.

Another thing that would be even better and I wouldnt have to throw
away a potentially useful tool is if I could add a menu item to the
Windows
Millennium boot disk: 5) boot with CD and no ramdrive.

Anyway, I am sorry if I offended anyone; I will try to think more
carefully next time before I make a post.

Thank you Plonk for your help.

Keven

SNIP

Hi Jack!

Apologies if incomprehensible.

My DOS Hack mode config.sys for Win ME (way below). I also have one for XP
and 98SE. I used to have a single set that determined which OS was running,
but can't be bothered anymore and just have one for each OS these days (you
know, multiboot scenario, sharing %TEMP% and poss. pagefile.sys).

In the autoexec.bat if the CDROM/RAMDrive option is selected, my batch for
determining which drive is which, runs. I used to have a %CONFIG% for
RAMDrive alone, one for CDROM alone and one where both get installed - in
short one for every possible contingency, but have quit playing. Similarly I
wrote a batch for determining where %TEMP% was, ie which drive, which OS; it
still gets called but is largely REMed out, and a batch for locating the
swap file (then overwriting it with an ECHO.filler%SWAP% -type command) but
went back to default.

A Safe Mode configuration is necessary of course because the hack disables
the F5/F8 means of booting to it.

I have long since built self-extractors to automatically install the DOS
hack-plus-config files - though only for UK copies of ME (I even did an inno
setup version a year ago but don't know if I still have that).

The .exe installs a menu group with one-click return-to-default (since
bootup takes longer with Real Mode installed), basically toggling Real Mode
with a boot in between.

And there's an option to simply restore all original files. Chris Quirke
expressed concern about the computer crashing while IO.SYS was being
overwrit, but nothing remotely like that has ever happened to me; I've never
had a single issue with the Real Mode DOS hack, but don't see a problem in
Chris's scenario. If Windows won't boot because it crashed while IO.SYS was
being overwrit, boot with the EBD and run SYS C: and the original files can
be restored at the same time if desired by typing BOOTBACK and hitting
Enter.

The boot scans/backups option was expanded but as I use it today is pretty
minimal. As a hangover from a previous version it still backs up every .ini
and .sys, for example, in %windir%, %windir%\System or %windir%\System32,
but it's really meant for backing up the DOS side of the machine - presuming
that in DOS one is likely to edit .bats and the like - so all ascii files in
C: and %windir%\command plus boot files. Makebaks.bat zips these using PKZip
for DOS or the Winzip Command Line add-on (in Windows and where installed)
and stores up to seven copies on a seperate drive. In the Command dir it
saves a copy of the current backup and of the previous one, uncompressed, so
you edit a major .bat then realise you made a big mistake, there are plenty
of copies to revert to.

Now, there's another thing. Chris is leary about DOSShell truncating LFNs,
yet I don't see that happening. Type DS and DOSShell starts (along with
Smartdrv if not already running, likewise Mouse. Though not Mouse if USB, of
course). I do not see it truncating LFNs.

If you make a new partition then boot with an EBD and SYS it, you can then
run this self-extractor on it and thereafter use it as an MS-DOS 8.00 system
without ever installing Windows.

For anyone interested, the majority if not all Upgrade copies of a 9x OS not
meant to be installed on a clean partition, can be if you create a folder on
it called Windows and place in that a file called WIN.COM. A text file will
do. All it looks for is the existence of a file of that name. Similarly to
make such a drive bootable just copy the relevent files over then run SYS C:
(or SYS A: C: prior to Win ME). Without a C:\Command.com, C:\IO.SYS etc, SYS
C: won't run. With them it will and you have basically a bootable empty hard
drive.

When you use the start menu shortcuts (or Start/Run - for instance *MFD*
installs Real Mode) if Real Mode is already installed and you run MFD, it
copies the boot files over the master copies, iow you can edit the copies in
the root and replace the masters too, rather than have the new versions
overwritten by the old ones the next time you toggle modes.

The boot scan is what an AV (usually) does automatically in 95/98 but won't
even install in ME even if it has been hacked. The same files are scanned
along with memory and mft etc, only (apart from also running the AVG version
if I have it installed, but whose command line version I don't consider good
enough to bother with if it's not) it runs Kaspersky, Trend, McAfee, Norton
and F-Prot scanners, one after another. Though obviously they have to be
updated.

I used to have a CD that installed first DR-DOS 7.03, then MS-DOS 6.22, then
WFWG 3.11 and a load of utilities and configuration. You just needed a
DR-DOS EBD to boot with initially. But I ditched it as part of the need to
ditch non-LFN aware OSes. I kind of wish I still had that, but that is
exactly why I had to throw it!

snip

DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS
DOS=HIGH,UMB

[MENU]
MENUITEM=WME,Windows
MENUITEM=SAFE,Safe Mode
MENUITEM=CMD,Command Prompt
MENUITEM=MIN,Command Prompt, Minimal Boot
MENUITEM=CDR,Command Prompt, Boot Scans, Backups, CDROM support and RAMDrive
MENUDEFAULT=WME,2
MENUCOLOR=15,1

[WME]

[SAFE]

[CMD]

[MIN]

[CDR]
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\EBD\OAKCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD001
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\RAMDRIVE.SYS /E 20480

[COMMON]
BUFFERS=10
FILES=40
BREAK=ON
COUNTRY=044,,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\COUNTRY.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\EBD\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
SHELL=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM /E:2048 /F /P
stacks=9,256

/snip


Shane

Jack E Martinelli wrote:
"Make one of those Keen DOS Startup Menus"
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article02-054


"Kevin J. Nielsen" wrote in message
...
Whoops, I cancelled that message; I guess not fast enough. Sorry.

The reason I didnt ask how to create a boot disk with CD
support is that I like the menu in the WinMe boot disk. I would
like to at least have 1) boot with CD support, and 2) minimal boot.
I know how to make a boot disk with CD support but I dont know how
to make a menu.

Another thing that would be even better and I wouldnt have to
throw away a potentially useful tool is if I could add a menu item
to the Windows Millennium boot disk: 5) boot with CD and no
ramdrive.

Anyway, I am sorry if I offended anyone; I will try to think more
carefully next time before I make a post.

Thank you Plonk for your help.

Keven

SNIP

You are dealing with *Internenet Calculus* here, Shane.
Is there a way to make this plausible to an *average *J.D*?
Surely sounds mighty interesting to me.

Harry.


"Shane" wrote in message
...
Hi Jack!

Apologies if incomprehensible.

My DOS Hack mode config.sys for Win ME (way below). I also have one for XP
and 98SE. I used to have a single set that determined which OS was
running,
but can't be bothered anymore and just have one for each OS these days
(you
know, multiboot scenario, sharing %TEMP% and poss. pagefile.sys).

In the autoexec.bat if the CDROM/RAMDrive option is selected, my batch for
determining which drive is which, runs. I used to have a %CONFIG% for
RAMDrive alone, one for CDROM alone and one where both get installed - in
short one for every possible contingency, but have quit playing. Similarly
I
wrote a batch for determining where %TEMP% was, ie which drive, which OS;
it
still gets called but is largely REMed out, and a batch for locating the
swap file (then overwriting it with an ECHO.filler%SWAP% -type command)
but
went back to default.

A Safe Mode configuration is necessary of course because the hack disables
the F5/F8 means of booting to it.

I have long since built self-extractors to automatically install the DOS
hack-plus-config files - though only for UK copies of ME (I even did an
inno
setup version a year ago but don't know if I still have that).

The .exe installs a menu group with one-click return-to-default (since
bootup takes longer with Real Mode installed), basically toggling Real
Mode
with a boot in between.

And there's an option to simply restore all original files. Chris Quirke
expressed concern about the computer crashing while IO.SYS was being
overwrit, but nothing remotely like that has ever happened to me; I've
never
had a single issue with the Real Mode DOS hack, but don't see a problem in
Chris's scenario. If Windows won't boot because it crashed while IO.SYS
was
being overwrit, boot with the EBD and run SYS C: and the original files
can
be restored at the same time if desired by typing BOOTBACK and hitting
Enter.

The boot scans/backups option was expanded but as I use it today is pretty
minimal. As a hangover from a previous version it still backs up every
..ini
and .sys, for example, in %windir%, %windir%\System or %windir%\System32,
but it's really meant for backing up the DOS side of the machine -
presuming
that in DOS one is likely to edit .bats and the like - so all ascii files
in
C: and %windir%\command plus boot files. Makebaks.bat zips these using
PKZip
for DOS or the Winzip Command Line add-on (in Windows and where installed)
and stores up to seven copies on a seperate drive. In the Command dir it
saves a copy of the current backup and of the previous one, uncompressed,
so
you edit a major .bat then realise you made a big mistake, there are
plenty
of copies to revert to.

Now, there's another thing. Chris is leary about DOSShell truncating LFNs,
yet I don't see that happening. Type DS and DOSShell starts (along with
Smartdrv if not already running, likewise Mouse. Though not Mouse if USB,
of
course). I do not see it truncating LFNs.

If you make a new partition then boot with an EBD and SYS it, you can then
run this self-extractor on it and thereafter use it as an MS-DOS 8.00
system
without ever installing Windows.

For anyone interested, the majority if not all Upgrade copies of a 9x OS
not
meant to be installed on a clean partition, can be if you create a folder
on
it called Windows and place in that a file called WIN.COM. A text file
will
do. All it looks for is the existence of a file of that name. Similarly to
make such a drive bootable just copy the relevent files over then run SYS
C:
(or SYS A: C: prior to Win ME). Without a C:\Command.com, C:\IO.SYS etc,
SYS
C: won't run. With them it will and you have basically a bootable empty
hard
drive.

When you use the start menu shortcuts (or Start/Run - for instance *MFD*
installs Real Mode) if Real Mode is already installed and you run MFD, it
copies the boot files over the master copies, iow you can edit the copies
in
the root and replace the masters too, rather than have the new versions
overwritten by the old ones the next time you toggle modes.

The boot scan is what an AV (usually) does automatically in 95/98 but
won't
even install in ME even if it has been hacked. The same files are scanned
along with memory and mft etc, only (apart from also running the AVG
version
if I have it installed, but whose command line version I don't consider
good
enough to bother with if it's not) it runs Kaspersky, Trend, McAfee,
Norton
and F-Prot scanners, one after another. Though obviously they have to be
updated.

I used to have a CD that installed first DR-DOS 7.03, then MS-DOS 6.22,
then
WFWG 3.11 and a load of utilities and configuration. You just needed a
DR-DOS EBD to boot with initially. But I ditched it as part of the need to
ditch non-LFN aware OSes. I kind of wish I still had that, but that is
exactly why I had to throw it!

snip

DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS
DOS=HIGH,UMB

[MENU]
MENUITEM=WME,Windows
MENUITEM=SAFE,Safe Mode
MENUITEM=CMD,Command Prompt
MENUITEM=MIN,Command Prompt, Minimal Boot
MENUITEM=CDR,Command Prompt, Boot Scans, Backups, CDROM support and
RAMDrive
MENUDEFAULT=WME,2
MENUCOLOR=15,1

[WME]

[SAFE]

[CMD]

[MIN]

[CDR]
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\EBD\OAKCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD001
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\RAMDRIVE.SYS /E 20480

[COMMON]
BUFFERS=10
FILES=40
BREAK=ON
COUNTRY=044,,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\COUNTRY.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\EBD\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
SHELL=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM /E:2048 /F /P
stacks=9,256

/snip


Shane

Jack E Martinelli wrote:
"Make one of those Keen DOS Startup Menus"
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article02-054


"Kevin J. Nielsen" wrote in message
...
Whoops, I cancelled that message; I guess not fast enough. Sorry.

The reason I didnt ask how to create a boot disk with CD
support is that I like the menu in the WinMe boot disk. I would
like to at least have 1) boot with CD support, and 2) minimal boot.
I know how to make a boot disk with CD support but I dont know how
to make a menu.

Another thing that would be even better and I wouldnt have to
throw away a potentially useful tool is if I could add a menu item
to the Windows Millennium boot disk: 5) boot with CD and no
ramdrive.

Anyway, I am sorry if I offended anyone; I will try to think more
carefully next time before I make a post.

Thank you Plonk for your help.

Keven

SNIP