I have Win98SE. Occasionally, at any time, I get this blue screen of death
message (I also occasionally get a boot failure message, when I switch off
and on, and the PC starts normally: I had a new motherboard fitted by
PCWorld recently as the clock way, way out)

I am told in a web site, in respect of "Cannot write to Drive C:"

"Windows supports the standard hard drive controllers (ST506 and ESDI). With
a SCSI or other non-standard controller, SMARTDrive must be loaded. Windows
detects SMARTDrive and directs all disk access requests through it. Most
compatibility problems are eliminated since SMARTDrive acts as a
double-buffering hard disk device driver.

But even with SMARTDrive loaded, you may still get the above error messages.
To correct, add this entry to your SYSTEM.INI file:


[386enh]

VirtualHDirq=off


This is the highest level of compatibility available with Windows."

Q1 How do I determine if Smartdrive is loaded?

Q2 Any dangers if, irrespective of the answer to that, I simply add the
line to System.ini?

The file you need for SCSI is dblbuff.sys, not smartdrv. They are clueless.

Try virtualhdirq, but I doubt it will help.

Sounds like a hardware problem. Check that all the cables are firmly planted.

"Vibes" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%Hjvb.556$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I have Win98SE. Occasionally, at any time, I get this blue screen of death
> message (I also occasionally get a boot failure message, when I switch off
> and on, and the PC starts normally: I had a new motherboard fitted by
> PCWorld recently as the clock way, way out)
>
> I am told in a web site, in respect of "Cannot write to Drive C:"
>
> "Windows supports the standard hard drive controllers (ST506 and ESDI). With
> a SCSI or other non-standard controller, SMARTDrive must be loaded. Windows
> detects SMARTDrive and directs all disk access requests through it. Most
> compatibility problems are eliminated since SMARTDrive acts as a
> double-buffering hard disk device driver.
>
> But even with SMARTDrive loaded, you may still get the above error messages.
> To correct, add this entry to your SYSTEM.INI file:
>
>
> [386enh]
>
> VirtualHDirq=off
>
>
> This is the highest level of compatibility available with Windows."
>
> Q1 How do I determine if Smartdrive is loaded?
>
> Q2 Any dangers if, irrespective of the answer to that, I simply add the
> line to System.ini?
>
>

On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 08:06:05 -0000, "Vibes" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I have Win98SE. Occasionally, at any time, I get this blue screen of death
>message (I also occasionally get a boot failure message, when I switch off
>and on, and the PC starts normally: I had a new motherboard fitted by
>PCWorld recently as the clock way, way out)
>
>I am told in a web site, in respect of "Cannot write to Drive C:"
>
>"Windows supports the standard hard drive controllers (ST506 and ESDI). With
>a SCSI or other non-standard controller, SMARTDrive must be loaded. Windows
>detects SMARTDrive and directs all disk access requests through it. Most
>compatibility problems are eliminated since SMARTDrive acts as a
>double-buffering hard disk device driver.
>
>But even with SMARTDrive loaded, you may still get the above error messages.
>To correct, add this entry to your SYSTEM.INI file:

<snip>

Have you checked to see if your hard drive is physically faulty? You
should determine the fitness of your HDD before investigating Smartdrv*
further.

*Smartdrv is a real-mode DOS utility for caching disk access. It is only
used in Win98 briefly during the initial boot-up process, then unloaded.

Win98 uses vcache for disk caching purposes. Smartdrv should not be used
in conjunction with vcache.


--
Robert B. Clark (email ROT13'ed)
Visit ClarkWehyr Enterprises On-Line at http://www.3clarks.com/ClarkWehyr/