Will ME make SE HDD unbootable?

When I set up this machine, I originally installed SE. Many partitions and
lots of programs along with transferred data.
Had lots of problems, likely due to hardware and the fact that Ultra likely
rebadged some RAM from 400 to 266 without changing SPD chip. One morning I
find machine rebooted itself displaying VMM32.vxd is missing. Not able to
get back up immediately or proficient with DOS, I grabbed a new drive and
installed ME. I've been running for some time and seem to have troubles
mostly worked out. So I currently have very few programs installed, mostly
utilities to kill the dragon, and would like to move back to the other
drive.
I would actually like to hook it up as secondary and browse around to locate
certain files and familiarize myself with its layout after 6 months.
Question I have is will that cause any problems that would hamper me from
hooking it up solo and getting SE back up and running?

I remember some discussion in the early days of ME about it putting some
file on the disks that might be problematic. Does anyone recall such issue?

Norman

Without going into the other questions, vmm32.vxd being missing (or
corrupted or whatever), practically speaking, requires either restoration
back to before such occurred, or reinstallation of the operating system.

Vmm32.vxd is the only file I bother to add to Scanreg.ini to ensure it's
backed up every day along with system.ini and the resistry. It's a composite
of the various drivers made by the OS during initial setup and added to, but
not rewritten or replaced, as more drivers are installed or updated. Without
it, Windows don't boot, and it can't be extracted from the cabs or
downloaded from the internet.



Shane

"Norman" wrote in message
...
When I set up this machine, I originally installed SE. Many partitions and
lots of programs along with transferred data.
Had lots of problems, likely due to hardware and the fact that Ultra
likely
rebadged some RAM from 400 to 266 without changing SPD chip. One morning I
find machine rebooted itself displaying VMM32.vxd is missing. Not able to
get back up immediately or proficient with DOS, I grabbed a new drive and
installed ME. I've been running for some time and seem to have troubles
mostly worked out. So I currently have very few programs installed, mostly
utilities to kill the dragon, and would like to move back to the other
drive.
I would actually like to hook it up as secondary and browse around to
locate
certain files and familiarize myself with its layout after 6 months.
Question I have is will that cause any problems that would hamper me from
hooking it up solo and getting SE back up and running?

I remember some discussion in the early days of ME about it putting some
file on the disks that might be problematic. Does anyone recall such
issue?

Norman

Yes, I already understood the headaches of what VMM32.vxd is. Just not
certain if I had created a back up of it or where I would have put and part
of the reason for wanting hook up drive and search it.
If I did, it was a manual copy of it.
Can you give me the details of how you set up that back up method and maybe
the workings of it?

Do you know if that works with W98SE?

Norman

"Shane" wrote in message
...
Without going into the other questions, vmm32.vxd being missing (or
corrupted or whatever), practically speaking, requires either restoration
back to before such occurred, or reinstallation of the operating system.

Vmm32.vxd is the only file I bother to add to Scanreg.ini to ensure it's
backed up every day along with system.ini and the resistry. It's a
composite
of the various drivers made by the OS during initial setup and added to,
but
not rewritten or replaced, as more drivers are installed or updated.
Without
it, Windows don't boot, and it can't be extracted from the cabs or
downloaded from the internet.



Shane

"Norman" wrote in message
...
When I set up this machine, I originally installed SE. Many partitions
and
lots of programs along with transferred data.
Had lots of problems, likely due to hardware and the fact that Ultra
likely
rebadged some RAM from 400 to 266 without changing SPD chip. One morning
I
find machine rebooted itself displaying VMM32.vxd is missing. Not able
to
get back up immediately or proficient with DOS, I grabbed a new drive
and
installed ME. I've been running for some time and seem to have troubles
mostly worked out. So I currently have very few programs installed,
mostly
utilities to kill the dragon, and would like to move back to the other
drive.
I would actually like to hook it up as secondary and browse around to
locate
certain files and familiarize myself with its layout after 6 months.
Question I have is will that cause any problems that would hamper me
from
hooking it up solo and getting SE back up and running?

I remember some discussion in the early days of ME about it putting some
file on the disks that might be problematic. Does anyone recall such
issue?

Norman

Okay Norman,

At the bottom of scanreg.ini you put

Files=11,vmm32.vxd

and then it'll do a daily backup of that along with the registry etc. Yes,
it works in both 98SE and ME. If you look at your scanreg.ini you'll see the
bottom lines are the instructions for doing this and you add
Files=11,vmm32.vxd below those. The '11' signifies that vmm32.vxd is found
in C:\Windows\System. You can also have it back up other files, of course.
Very useful!


Shane


"Norman" wrote in message
...
Yes, I already understood the headaches of what VMM32.vxd is. Just not
certain if I had created a back up of it or where I would have put and
part
of the reason for wanting hook up drive and search it.
If I did, it was a manual copy of it.
Can you give me the details of how you set up that back up method and
maybe
the workings of it?

Do you know if that works with W98SE?

Norman

"Shane" wrote in message
...
Without going into the other questions, vmm32.vxd being missing (or
corrupted or whatever), practically speaking, requires either restoration
back to before such occurred, or reinstallation of the operating system.

Vmm32.vxd is the only file I bother to add to Scanreg.ini to ensure it's
backed up every day along with system.ini and the resistry. It's a
composite
of the various drivers made by the OS during initial setup and added to,
but
not rewritten or replaced, as more drivers are installed or updated.
Without
it, Windows don't boot, and it can't be extracted from the cabs or
downloaded from the internet.



Shane

"Norman" wrote in message
...
When I set up this machine, I originally installed SE. Many partitions
and
lots of programs along with transferred data.
Had lots of problems, likely due to hardware and the fact that Ultra
likely
rebadged some RAM from 400 to 266 without changing SPD chip. One
morning
I
find machine rebooted itself displaying VMM32.vxd is missing. Not able
to
get back up immediately or proficient with DOS, I grabbed a new drive
and
installed ME. I've been running for some time and seem to have troubles
mostly worked out. So I currently have very few programs installed,
mostly
utilities to kill the dragon, and would like to move back to the other
drive.
I would actually like to hook it up as secondary and browse around to
locate
certain files and familiarize myself with its layout after 6 months.
Question I have is will that cause any problems that would hamper me
from
hooking it up solo and getting SE back up and running?

I remember some discussion in the early days of ME about it putting
some
file on the disks that might be problematic. Does anyone recall such
issue?

Norman

Not sure what you mean by 'the workings of it'. Scanreg /restore will
restore the backup, from DOS of course, along with the registry, system.ini
and win.ini. It seems likely that if you have a backup of it, it won't be in
isolation, so restoring the total backup would be the option, with the
synchronised registry. Otherwise there's a very good chance the file you
restore is no longer relevent to the current system, ie new drivers have
been installed since that backup was made. I believe I tried it once and was
only partially successful. For a long time now I've had a batch file that
edits scanreg.ini...

snip

@echo off
cls
if exist c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe goto end
if exist c:\windows\scnrgini.bak goto end
if not exist c:\windows\scanreg.ini goto end
cd\
c:
cd windows
copy scanreg.ini scnrgini.bak
echo.scanreg.ini
echo.Files=11,vmm32.vxd scanreg.ini
:end
cls
exit
cls

/snip

....so that immediately after setup vmm32.vxd is being backed up. btw I also
run XP, hence the line about cmd.exe.

Shane



"Norman" wrote in message
...
Yes, I already understood the headaches of what VMM32.vxd is. Just not
certain if I had created a back up of it or where I would have put and
part
of the reason for wanting hook up drive and search it.
If I did, it was a manual copy of it.
Can you give me the details of how you set up that back up method and
maybe
the workings of it?

Do you know if that works with W98SE?

Norman

"Shane" wrote in message
...
Without going into the other questions, vmm32.vxd being missing (or
corrupted or whatever), practically speaking, requires either restoration
back to before such occurred, or reinstallation of the operating system.

Vmm32.vxd is the only file I bother to add to Scanreg.ini to ensure it's
backed up every day along with system.ini and the resistry. It's a
composite
of the various drivers made by the OS during initial setup and added to,
but
not rewritten or replaced, as more drivers are installed or updated.
Without
it, Windows don't boot, and it can't be extracted from the cabs or
downloaded from the internet.



Shane

"Norman" wrote in message
...
When I set up this machine, I originally installed SE. Many partitions
and
lots of programs along with transferred data.
Had lots of problems, likely due to hardware and the fact that Ultra
likely
rebadged some RAM from 400 to 266 without changing SPD chip. One
morning
I
find machine rebooted itself displaying VMM32.vxd is missing. Not able
to
get back up immediately or proficient with DOS, I grabbed a new drive
and
installed ME. I've been running for some time and seem to have troubles
mostly worked out. So I currently have very few programs installed,
mostly
utilities to kill the dragon, and would like to move back to the other
drive.
I would actually like to hook it up as secondary and browse around to
locate
certain files and familiarize myself with its layout after 6 months.
Question I have is will that cause any problems that would hamper me
from
hooking it up solo and getting SE back up and running?

I remember some discussion in the early days of ME about it putting
some
file on the disks that might be problematic. Does anyone recall such
issue?

Norman

Thanks for this info. Will likely find it useful at least until I get a full
backup system in place.
If I made a copy of it, it was likely past adding hardware.

I'm still hoping one of the MSVP will jump on the other part of the
question. Part of the conversation was something about ME "puking" a file to
the drive. A way around it was to add the HDD as a removable, but in that
laid the gotcha. You had to first add the drive before making it a
removable.
So that would evolve to something like a 3 drive rotation, the second you'd
format before using on another system.
Just hard to remember if that pertains to my current situation.
Norman

"Shane" wrote in message
...
Not sure what you mean by 'the workings of it'. Scanreg /restore will
restore the backup, from DOS of course, along with the registry,
system.ini
and win.ini. It seems likely that if you have a backup of it, it won't be
in
isolation, so restoring the total backup would be the option, with the
synchronised registry. Otherwise there's a very good chance the file you
restore is no longer relevent to the current system, ie new drivers have
been installed since that backup was made. I believe I tried it once and
was
only partially successful. For a long time now I've had a batch file that
edits scanreg.ini...

snip

@echo off
cls
if exist c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe goto end
if exist c:\windows\scnrgini.bak goto end
if not exist c:\windows\scanreg.ini goto end
cd\
c:
cd windows
copy scanreg.ini scnrgini.bak
echo.scanreg.ini
echo.Files=11,vmm32.vxd scanreg.ini
:end
cls
exit
cls

/snip

...so that immediately after setup vmm32.vxd is being backed up. btw I
also
run XP, hence the line about cmd.exe.

Shane



"Norman" wrote in message
...
Yes, I already understood the headaches of what VMM32.vxd is. Just not
certain if I had created a back up of it or where I would have put and
part
of the reason for wanting hook up drive and search it.
If I did, it was a manual copy of it.
Can you give me the details of how you set up that back up method and
maybe
the workings of it?

Do you know if that works with W98SE?

Norman

"Shane" wrote in message
...
Without going into the other questions, vmm32.vxd being missing (or
corrupted or whatever), practically speaking, requires either
restoration
back to before such occurred, or reinstallation of the operating
system.

Vmm32.vxd is the only file I bother to add to Scanreg.ini to ensure
it's
backed up every day along with system.ini and the resistry. It's a
composite
of the various drivers made by the OS during initial setup and added
to,
but
not rewritten or replaced, as more drivers are installed or updated.
Without
it, Windows don't boot, and it can't be extracted from the cabs or
downloaded from the internet.



Shane

"Norman" wrote in message
...
When I set up this machine, I originally installed SE. Many
partitions
and
lots of programs along with transferred data.
Had lots of problems, likely due to hardware and the fact that Ultra
likely
rebadged some RAM from 400 to 266 without changing SPD chip. One
morning
I
find machine rebooted itself displaying VMM32.vxd is missing. Not
able
to
get back up immediately or proficient with DOS, I grabbed a new drive
and
installed ME. I've been running for some time and seem to have
troubles
mostly worked out. So I currently have very few programs installed,
mostly
utilities to kill the dragon, and would like to move back to the
other
drive.
I would actually like to hook it up as secondary and browse around to
locate
certain files and familiarize myself with its layout after 6 months.
Question I have is will that cause any problems that would hamper me
from
hooking it up solo and getting SE back up and running?

I remember some discussion in the early days of ME about it putting
some
file on the disks that might be problematic. Does anyone recall such
issue?

Norman

I remember some discussion in the early days of ME about it putting
some file on the disks that might be problematic. Does anyone recall
such issue?

You need to be much more specific. Other than saying that Win Me places
no files on any system that might be "problematic". All I can think you
might be thinking of is the _RESTORE folder that Win me crates on all
fixed drives but this folder is far from "problematic" and on partitions
other than the system partition contains nothing more than a single byte
file srdiskid.dat containing the enumerated drive letter for the drive.
--
Mike Maltby



Norman wrote:

When I set up this machine, I originally installed SE. Many
partitions and lots of programs along with transferred data.
Had lots of problems, likely due to hardware and the fact that Ultra
likely rebadged some RAM from 400 to 266 without changing SPD chip.
One morning I find machine rebooted itself displaying VMM32.vxd is
missing. Not able to get back up immediately or proficient with DOS,
I grabbed a new drive and installed ME. I've been running for some
time and seem to have troubles mostly worked out. So I currently have
very few programs installed, mostly utilities to kill the dragon, and
would like to move back to the other drive.
I would actually like to hook it up as secondary and browse around to
locate certain files and familiarize myself with its layout after 6
months. Question I have is will that cause any problems that would
hamper me from hooking it up solo and getting SE back up and running?

I remember some discussion in the early days of ME about it putting
some file on the disks that might be problematic. Does anyone recall
such issue?

Norman

Hi Mike,
Would either of those files be a problem if I browse the drive with ME and
then hook it up as standalone primary trying to get the SE on it going
again?
Does SE even bother to look at them?
The .dat file would obviously show a different lettering than what it was
set up for?
It is quite possible I'm worrying about a red herring. The discussion was
new stuff to me and just recall it was round robin between several MSVP's
back when ME was almost new.
Thanks for helping
Norman

"Mike M" wrote in message
...
I remember some discussion in the early days of ME about it putting
some file on the disks that might be problematic. Does anyone recall
such issue?

You need to be much more specific. Other than saying that Win Me places
no files on any system that might be "problematic". All I can think you
might be thinking of is the _RESTORE folder that Win me crates on all
fixed drives but this folder is far from "problematic" and on partitions
other than the system partition contains nothing more than a single byte
file srdiskid.dat containing the enumerated drive letter for the drive.
--
Mike Maltby



Norman wrote:

When I set up this machine, I originally installed SE. Many
partitions and lots of programs along with transferred data.
Had lots of problems, likely due to hardware and the fact that Ultra
likely rebadged some RAM from 400 to 266 without changing SPD chip.
One morning I find machine rebooted itself displaying VMM32.vxd is
missing. Not able to get back up immediately or proficient with DOS,
I grabbed a new drive and installed ME. I've been running for some
time and seem to have troubles mostly worked out. So I currently have
very few programs installed, mostly utilities to kill the dragon, and
would like to move back to the other drive.
I would actually like to hook it up as secondary and browse around to
locate certain files and familiarize myself with its layout after 6
months. Question I have is will that cause any problems that would
hamper me from hooking it up solo and getting SE back up and running?

I remember some discussion in the early days of ME about it putting
some file on the disks that might be problematic. Does anyone recall
such issue?

Norman

Norman
I can almost guarantee that no MVP has used the phrase 'puking a file' -
perhaps if you're more exact in your phraseology, you may get a more
considered response??


--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm

http://tinyurl.com/6oztj

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's
"Norman" wrote in message
...
Thanks for this info. Will likely find it useful at least until I get a
full
backup system in place.
If I made a copy of it, it was likely past adding hardware.

I'm still hoping one of the MSVP will jump on the other part of the
question. Part of the conversation was something about ME "puking" a file
to
the drive. A way around it was to add the HDD as a removable, but in that
laid the gotcha. You had to first add the drive before making it a
removable.
So that would evolve to something like a 3 drive rotation, the second
you'd
format before using on another system.
Just hard to remember if that pertains to my current situation.
Norman

"Shane" wrote in message
...
Not sure what you mean by 'the workings of it'. Scanreg /restore will
restore the backup, from DOS of course, along with the registry,
system.ini
and win.ini. It seems likely that if you have a backup of it, it won't be
in
isolation, so restoring the total backup would be the option, with the
synchronised registry. Otherwise there's a very good chance the file you
restore is no longer relevent to the current system, ie new drivers have
been installed since that backup was made. I believe I tried it once and
was
only partially successful. For a long time now I've had a batch file that
edits scanreg.ini...

snip

@echo off
cls
if exist c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe goto end
if exist c:\windows\scnrgini.bak goto end
if not exist c:\windows\scanreg.ini goto end
cd\
c:
cd windows
copy scanreg.ini scnrgini.bak
echo.scanreg.ini
echo.Files=11,vmm32.vxd scanreg.ini
:end
cls
exit
cls

/snip

...so that immediately after setup vmm32.vxd is being backed up. btw I
also
run XP, hence the line about cmd.exe.

Shane



"Norman" wrote in message
...
Yes, I already understood the headaches of what VMM32.vxd is. Just not
certain if I had created a back up of it or where I would have put and
part
of the reason for wanting hook up drive and search it.
If I did, it was a manual copy of it.
Can you give me the details of how you set up that back up method and
maybe
the workings of it?

Do you know if that works with W98SE?

Norman

"Shane" wrote in message
...
Without going into the other questions, vmm32.vxd being missing (or
corrupted or whatever), practically speaking, requires either
restoration
back to before such occurred, or reinstallation of the operating
system.

Vmm32.vxd is the only file I bother to add to Scanreg.ini to ensure
it's
backed up every day along with system.ini and the resistry. It's a
composite
of the various drivers made by the OS during initial setup and added
to,
but
not rewritten or replaced, as more drivers are installed or updated.
Without
it, Windows don't boot, and it can't be extracted from the cabs or
downloaded from the internet.



Shane

"Norman" wrote in message
...
When I set up this machine, I originally installed SE. Many
partitions
and
lots of programs along with transferred data.
Had lots of problems, likely due to hardware and the fact that Ultra
likely
rebadged some RAM from 400 to 266 without changing SPD chip. One
morning
I
find machine rebooted itself displaying VMM32.vxd is missing. Not
able
to
get back up immediately or proficient with DOS, I grabbed a new
drive
and
installed ME. I've been running for some time and seem to have
troubles
mostly worked out. So I currently have very few programs installed,
mostly
utilities to kill the dragon, and would like to move back to the
other
drive.
I would actually like to hook it up as secondary and browse around
to
locate
certain files and familiarize myself with its layout after 6 months.
Question I have is will that cause any problems that would hamper
me
from
hooking it up solo and getting SE back up and running?

I remember some discussion in the early days of ME about it putting
some
file on the disks that might be problematic. Does anyone recall such
issue?

Norman

Norman wrote:

Norman,

Would either of those files be a problem if I browse the drive with
ME and then hook it up as standalone primary trying to get the SE on
it going again?

No. There will be just one file, srdiskid.dat in a folder _RESTORE on
each partition other than the system partition (that is the drive from
which Win Me is launched) where the folder will contain five sub-folders
together with the system restore archive..

Does SE even bother to look at them?

No, unless you choose to do so using Windows Explorer.

The .dat file would obviously show a different lettering than what it
was set up for?

If you mean that when running Win 98SE the drive will have been allocated
a different drive letter, that isn't important as Win Me and it's state
manager will not be running at the time.

It is quite possible I'm worrying about a red herring.

Too true! g You need to explain what concerns you might have but
personally I wouldn't bother as my reply would almost certainly be the
same, having a folder labelled _RESTORE will have no effect on any
operating system other than Win Me where it is used by Win Me's System
Restore. Given that it will contain a single file containing a single
byte if you are going to worry, worry about something significant. vbg

The discussion
was new stuff to me and just recall it was round robin between
several MSVP's back when ME was almost new.

I suspect your memory fails you. To the best of my recollection there was
no such discussion and I have participated in this newsgroup since it
first went public in July/August 2000. Oh, and incidentally I am also an
MVP not that that should necessarily make my comments more correct than
any other poster MVP or not. :-)

Thanks for helping
--
Mike Maltby