Have begun loading up the new hard drive. I have two on the computer, and drive D: did not get replaced, as it had several DOS type programs on it. One of which is Autocad.

It is taking FOR-EVER to load up an image or drawing now in MS-DOS mode. Used to load within 10 seconds on the older hard drive.

What do I have to do in order to speed this D:\ drive up? It is to the point now that the D:\ drive is audibly rattling, and it takes about four-five minutes to get that quicky image up. I have most all the command lines in my Autoexec.bat file and the Dosstart.bat file resembling the old format. Autocad says it needs EMM and maybe this is why it is slow now.

How do I configure to go faster?

Wm.

Is your config.sys the same? Dos memory configuration is handled there.

Just checked again. There is but one line in the new config.sys and that is SETVER. The old one used to have about seven lines.

Maybe that is it. How do I alter. Just copy off what may have been on the old hard drive? or is there something automatic which will set these items? I remember altering the autoexec.bat files on a once per year basis, but cannot rememeber ever setting these.

Wm.

Wm.

Edit your config.sys to this:

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE
DOS=UMB
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\setver.exe
DOS=HIGH

It'll be better than what you've got but I don't know if it's going to be good enough. After using it once or twice, exit to dos and type:

mem

and enter at the prompt. What does it say the 'largest executable program size' is?

Have noticed no change. If it did execute the MS-DOS programs, they only became 1% faster. Here are the numbers I have so far after a couple of repetitions in and out of MS-DOS.

Ran MEM as suggested.

What I got was 640K in conventional memory. 576k Free.

There is 261,056K in XMS

Largest executable program size is 575 K
Ammount free in Upper Mem block 0 K

MS-DOS is resident in High Memeory area.

Wm.

Check the Autocad documentation to see if it needs a special configuration for expanded memory. That would mean slightly changing the emm386 line in config.sys.

I'm sending you a zipped file with memmaker files. Memmaker was a prewindows dos utility that configured config.sys and autoexec.bat for maximum memory. The version I'm sending was part of a w95 add-on. Extract the files to the c:\windows folder. Be sure to check if your software needs expanded memory as it will ask that when it runs.

Before running memmaker, first run msconfig from windows, click 'advanced' and click on 'enable startup menu'. Then 'apply', 'OK' and reboot. When the menu comes up choose 'command prompt only'. Then at the c:\> prompt type:

memmaker

and enter. Memmaker will reboot the computer twice and it needs to go to dos and not windows. So when the boot menu comes up, choose 'command prompt only' each time.

Once memmaker is done, choose 'normal startup' from the boot menu, run msconfig again and click off 'enable boot menu'.

Then you might want to run the MEM command again to see if there's any significant difference in available memory.

Oh yes. Am familiar with Memmaker. I still have that on my 486 running under 6.2. I was not aware that it would run in later Windows software.

The Autocad software specifically states if needs Expanded memory. If you try and use conventional memeory or Extended, and error message will come up upon opening with a host of memory related items. Check this, check that, etc. Autodesk based their system upon a 386 as I remember for a number of versions past when Win95 came out.

I will give it a try.

Wm.

I don't have much experience setting up emm386 for expanded memory. Memmaker may allow you to enter the specific amount you need or you may need to do it manually. I imagine the amount needed would be in the autocad documentation somewhere. But give memmaker a try and see what happens.

If you were over at the H-P site forums, you would get their fifteen star award. I have only run the software a few times, but that installation of MemMaker made world of difference. I could swear that Autocad now fires off the drawings faster than it did a year ago. I hear the D:\ drive crack with a Brrrr-upt, and Whammo the images are up in less than five seconds. Used to take about 10-15 seconds.

I went into the config.sys, and not much changed, but RAM is added behind the Emm386 line. In running MEM the figures add up the same but they are more rearranged too.

I had used MemMaker in 6.2, and you version resemble that one too. I can't remember if there were differences or not. Without hitting the EMM option in the set-up it ran sluggish there too.

Wonder why this was not included into Win98? You version has the INF file included, but the question was never asked during installation.

Now, how you get the full windows routine to boot up a bit faster?

Wm.

Thanks. I'm glad it worked for you.

Even though the file dates are different, I think the memmaker I sent is the same as dos 6.22 as the files are exactly the same size in both.

I often wondered why microsoft didn't include memmaker with 98. Maybe they were just trying to phase out software that runs in dos.

Too bad it's not that easy getting windows to boot quicker. The only way I know is to just keep only the minimum software you need on the HD.

Wow, in reading back at other locations are you the big meany now.

Before posting the question here, I had it also at a few other sites. About 75% of them thought there was cable or jumper problems with the drives. (I Know how the hell to add in one, two or three slave drives) One answer was that I needed some sort of switching device, before any thing would work. Another was that there was already too much software on the drive (remove everything), and too many items in the start-up (Where is the instant start-up in DOS).

Your idea as to Memmaker is causing a stir. Even the folks at Autodesk never thought to run such a simple program.

Wm.

Thanks. Yeah it's amazing how soon people forget about some of the dos commands. Maybe letting it be known that memmaker helps will solve this same problem for other people.