config.sys w/98SE & partition magic

[edfair]

Machine has W98SE and partition magic. Had a sound blaster card that caused W98 to create a config.sys file containing set blaster settings. SB card has been removed. Config.sys has been removed. But reboot recreates the config.sys.
Where does the config.sys get created from? And how do I stop it? [sig]<p>Ed Fair<br><a href=mailto: efair@atlnet.com> efair@atlnet.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. <br>
Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.<br>
[/sig]

 

[Nostradamus]

can´t you just put a rem before each line in config.sys, so that they won´t be read during reboot?

Whenever a installation program edit config.sys or autoexec.bat it usually creates a config.bak or similar.
If the drivers for your soundblaster added those lines it would be possible that it replaced the config.sys as it was before. &quot;move config.old config.sys&quot;.

Why don´t you want config.sys? [sig]<p>Nostradamus<br><a href=mailto: > </a><br><a href= > </a><br> [/sig]

 

[edfair]

No matter what I do to the config.sys, when the machine reboots the config.sys is changed to what it was before. If I delete it, it is recreated. If I change it, it is changed back to the original.
This is on a customer's machine so I only got about 3 or 4 minutes to play with it as it isn't affecting operation.
Looks like there is a master copy somewhere that is used to regen the individual copies in each partition. But in the limited time I had I couldn't find it. There isn't any evidence that it is doing a rebuild. (no .old .001 or anything else)
[sig]<p>Ed Fair<br><a href=mailto: efair@atlnet.com> efair@atlnet.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. <br>
Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.<br>
[/sig]

 

[dneufarth]

Ed,

Don't know about Partition Magic, but System Commander keeps the master copies of these file in a folder that corresponds to the OS boot menu entries. They're in the System Commander installation folder (\SC). Perhaps Partition Magic does the same thing.

Dave [sig][/sig]

 

[kjonnnnn]

Leave it on it and REM out what u dont want.
Its not hurting anything.
You never know what future added programs might want it.

[sig][/sig]

 

[edfair]

Can't rem it out. On next boot it puts it back. [sig]<p>Ed Fair<br><a href=mailto: efair@atlnet.com> efair@atlnet.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. <br>
Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.<br>
[/sig]

 

[Damocles]

I not sure on this but I think Win 98 has 2 sets in the root one for DOS and one for Windows, I believe that when you delete the windows one it falls to the DOS one makes a copy and renames it Config.sys or it makes one from the Config.bak which is also located on the root. Remove them all with a DOS command such as &quot;del c:\config*.*&quot;, do this ONLY if no other program has it's own config file on the root directory. If a program has put one there then use the DOS commands &quot;del c:\*.sys&quot; &quot;del c:*.bak&quot; this should take care of your problem unless of course partition magic leaves masters some place, in that case use the find to locate and delete them. As far as I know NO O/S writes and changes anything in BIOS because BIOS's are motherboard specific. [sig][/sig]

 

[edfair]

On SE there was only one. And find doesn't find anything anywhere else. Haven't gone back into the partition magic partition yet to see if thats where its coming from.
Seems to be 98/98SE related. Have same version on 95 with parallel setup and this problem doesn't appear.
Now that I think of it, there is the possibility that there could be backup copies hidden in some manner. I'll look into that next trip. [sig]<p>Ed Fair<br><a href=mailto: efair@atlnet.com> efair@atlnet.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. <br>
Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.<br>
[/sig]

 

[Gazman]

This is very interesting. I recently installed a Creative Live! sound card and I have a different problem but with a similar symptom. When Win98 boots, I get a SET BLASTER line appear on the screen as though it were coming from the config.sys or autoexec.bat but when I look in these files the line doesn't exist. I want to remove it as it sets the card to INT10 which conflicts with my SCSI card.
I wonder.... does WIN98 have a config file somewhere else?
Win NT has a config.nt file in the system folder. Could this be relevant ? [sig][/sig]

 

[tomw]

I think what you guys are experiencing is Creatives' use of the hidden, system file, IO.SYS which still gets written to your hard drive in Win98-SE.

I seem to remember reading that this file can contain instructions formatted exactly as though they were executed from Config.sys or autoexec.bat.

Sorry I can't be more specific, but I'll look for the detail and then post it here. Meantime, it might give you guys some ideas to look at.

The jist of the article was that these type of commands can and do execute before Windows starts, every time, whether an actual config.sys or autoexec.bat file exists or not.

As to the re-generation of that config.sys file after you delete it I can't say much, other than the obvious, that it is very virus-like. I am very suspect of anything that respawns on it's own. [sig]<p>Tom Whitehead<br><a href=mailto:twhitehead@commeq.com>twhitehead@commeq.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br> [/sig]

 

[tomw]

Sorry it took so long....but yes, IO.SYS, the hidden system file, in Win 98SE is actually a binary executable file that will abosolutely exceute commands that most of us would expect to see coming from config.sys, or autoexec.bat. If you tell Win98 to do a step by step start-up, you will see the commands IO.SYS is holding. Typically, you will see HIMEM.SYS, IFSHLP.SYS, and SETVER.EXE being excuted, although some vendors like Creative can get &quot;creative&quot; in their installation scripts, writing new commands to this file. To stop them, you can use the debug command and manually edit IO.SYS (not for the faint of heart) or simply replace the IO.SYS file from your CD, or boot diskette.

So, the only reason that Win98 is able to work &quot;without a config.sys or autoexec.bat&quot; is that they are in essence built-in. The files are available simply to provide backward compatibility to software and/or devices as well as one more function...for overriding the SET values in IO.SYS. For instance IO.SYS by default will &quot;SET&quot; FILES=60. If you need more, or less, you can &quot;override&quot; by placing a similar SET command in config.sys. When the machine re-boots, it will execute IO.SYS, setting files to 60, then execute the local config.sys where your command will &quot;re-SET&quot; the files to ????.

This brings up the next main potential use of IO.SYS... memory management. Win98 still utilizes the same basic memory model as DOS 6.22 so the usage of the 1st 640K is still critical. The settings provided in IO.SYS are meant to be generic fail-safe entries that will allow basic functionality, making it easy for novices to install the OS, but they are sometimes insufficient. This is especially true of people who still use and depend on DOS programs, or an older sound card, etc.

Hope this helps....Let me know if you need further data.
Let me know if you need further detail on this one...

Tom Whitehead
twhitehead@commeq.com

 

[edfair]

Thanks Tom. I haven't been back to the machine yet and looks like a couple of weeks before I can unless it dies.

Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[Karl Blessing]

have you looked in the C:\Windows\Command

sometimes there is even a config.dos and autoexec.dos
Karl
kb244@kb244.com

http://www.kb244.com

Experienced in : C++(both VC++ and Borland),VB1(dos) thru VB6, Delphi 3 pro, HTML, Visual InterDev 6(ASP(WebProgramming/Vbscript)

http://www.brainbench.com/transcript.jsp?pid=629151

 

[tomw]

kb244...Aren't commands in the .DOS versions of those files supposed to execute when booting the machine in DOS mode? I know they have no bearing if you shell out to an MS-DOS prompt.

I was always curious about those instances of the system files, but haven't researched it (or &quot;had&quot; to) yet.

I have both of them on the machine I am on now. They are in C:\ and windows explorer reports file type as &quot;DOS file&quot; as opposed to say &quot;MS-DOS Batch file&quot; for autoexec.bat.

I'm just curious...nothing pending on an answer (so far!).

Tom Whitehead
twhitehead@commeq.com

 

[tomw]

BTW...your welcome Ed.

And one last thing I forgot to throw in...the MSDOS.SYS file is where the start-up GUI options are defined (or changed), but this file MUST be 1,024 bytes, or windows will not boot. Just FYI...I had a call on one that had been &quot;edited&quot; by a user to change the Win 98 boot up logo/screen, and he obviously removed one of the fill characters (X's) the file is padded with to maintain the 1,024 size.



Tom Whitehead
twhitehead@commeq.com

 

[edfair]

Hadn't touched msdos.sys and on this system there is no autoexec.dos config.dos. It is pure SE except 3 separate versions capable of running depending on which partition is chosen on boot up. There are/were software conflicts with what is needed on the system, which led to the three partitions.
One of the partitions had sound problems and when I got in the box I found two sound cards. Removed the creative and on the next boot the creative set instruction painted. This info so you know what brought this question.

Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[Hunter11]

Ed what about the references to the SB in the main registry (LOCAL_MACHINE). SE will rebuild the driver database from the reg. I had the same problem with a network card several weeks ago.

I located the references and removed them. Also removed all other references in the Config.sys, Autoexec.bat and the System.ini files. It is also possible that the Sys.ini file still has references to it.

Just a thought.



Steven Walker
strider@paradise.net.nz

Brainbench MVP Computer Technician

 

[edfair]

I don't recall a registry entry. But it will be on the list to look at again. Unfortunately I've open several other cans of worms since I first posted.

Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.