i've made a bootdisk which loads a network driver to connect to a server by obtaining an IP-adres by DHCP.. This works perfectly, but after connecting to the mapped drive i want to execute winnt.exe, my problem is that there isn't enough free memory to execute winnt.exe...

How can i manage to free up enough memory to execute the winnt.exe anyway?

maybe this helps:

load the network driver in the upper memory

you have to modify you config.sys
and your autoexec.bat

uli

my config.sys looks like

DEVICEHIGH=A:\HIMEM.SYS
DOS=HIGH,UMB
LASTDRIVE=Z
DEVICEHIGH=A:\NET\PROTMAN.DOS /i:A:\NET
DEVICEHIGH=A:\NET\EL90X.DOS
DEVICEHIGH=A:\NET\NTSTS.DOS
DEVICEHIGH=A:\NET\DLSHELP.SYS
FILES=40
BUFFERS=40

And autoexec.bat
@ECHO OFF
SET PATH=A:\NET\;a:\;%PATH%;
SET TEMP=A:\
SET TCPHELP=A:\NET
SET ETCDIR=A:\NET
A:\NET\NET START
A:\NET\NET.EXE USE K: \\srv\windist

HOW can i save more memory, cuz these are the minimal setttings...

NOTE: this is PC DOS 7.10

I read some where recently that EMM386 was loaded by default in MSDOS 7.10, but you say you're using PCDOS, perhaps that doesn't load it automatically.

You need to load EMM386.EXE to give programs & drivers access to the UMA (Upper Memory Area). Just loading HIMEM.SYS only loads parts of DOS into the HMA.

Assuming you've got EMM386.EXE on your bootdisk, the following line should be inserted in CONFIG.SYS after the HIMEM line.

DEVICE=A:\EMM386.EXE RAM I=B000-B7FF HIGHSCAN

This will allow use of the UMA, claiming as much of that 384Kb area as possible.

You may know all this already, or EMM386 may well be loaded by default in PCDOS 7.10, but it may be of some help.

Well, i've included the win95 version of emm386.exe to my bootflop...

Before loading emm386.exe i had
\ 304K conventional free
\ 305K XMS

After loading emm386.exe i have
\ 294K conventional free
\ 63 meg XMS
\ 32 meg EMS

Still the message not enough memory to run setup...
Can i insert ure I=b000- .... into my conf.sys???

It worked very well...

FYI the I=B000-B7FF reclaims part of the DOS video memory that is extremely unlikely to be needed. I'm glad to see the old technique worked for you on the latest DOS, which I know very little about.

The MEM command has several switches which will give detailed info about program & driver allocation in the first 1 Mb.

Well,

It worked, with an emphasis on ED...

Now i've created the same bootflop but with other drivers, and it loads
* 322 in conventional
* 25 in upper
* 284 reserved
* 743 XMS

which gives me a maximum executable of 317K
and a maximum for upper 15K

Right now i also need to load smartdrv.exe thus needing more conventional...

How can i free up more memory, and why is the new bootdisk loading more in to conventional then the one i had, everything is set to devicehigh etc.

Below a insite in my autoexec.bat and conf.sys

Config.sys
DEVICEHIGH=A:\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=A:\EMM386.EXE RAM I=B000-B7FF HIGHSCAN
DOS=HIGH,UMB
LASTDRIVE=Z
DEVICEHIGH=A:\NET\PROTMAN.DOS /i:A:\NET
DEVICEHIGH=A:\NET\e100b.DOS
DEVICEHIGH=A:\NET\NTSTS.DOS
DEVICEHIGH=A:\NET\DLSHELP.SYS
FILES=40
BUFFERS=40

And autoexec.bat
@ECHO OFF
SET PATH=A:\NET\;a:\;%PATH%;
SET TEMP=A:\
SET TCPHELP=A:\NET
SET ETCDOR=A:\NET
A:\NET\NET START
A:\NET\NET.EXE USE K: \\srv\windist

You should get more than that in UMA. Smartdrv should load itself there anyway. You can get it to load in config.sys with an INSTALL command:

install={path}smartdrv.exe {buffer sizes}

(after EMM386 line) which will speed up booting a little.
I suspect DOS 7.10 isn't behaving as it should. I've downloaded DOS 7.10 and will have check it out.

I notice that you are trying to install across a network. If there is empty space on the hard drive, just copy the directory and then you won't need the drivers loaded in memory.