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**blah789** · 05-19-2009, 09:17 AM

May I ask what version of DOS you're running underneath that (out of curiosity - don't think it makes much of a difference)?
First I think your himem.sys error may stem from having huge amounts of memory. In the days of Windows 3.1, the high-end PC's had 16 MB of memory. If you have in the hundreds of MB, or GB's, you may have problem.
In fact Windows 98 won't load with more than 768MB of memory! It's documented in this Microsoft KB article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/184447
I tried the workaround but still had trouble with various programs (even though I could start Windows 98 fine) until I installed my old memorys sticks back in the PC (512MB total).

The second things is prior to Windows 95, you had DOS 6.22, and the largest partitions it can create is 2GB (that's the limit for FAT16). I don't know what the largest hard drive it can see is, but if my memory is correct that's also limited to 2GB (based on an experience with FDISK from the DOS 6.22 floppy). Windows 95 can see up to 32GB hard drives, and Windows NT 4 only up to 8GB at setup time.
Needless to say, DOS 6.22 won't understand FAT32, NTFS, nor even drives over 128GB (that milestone marks 48-bit LBA).

Last thing I wonder about is how DOS or Windows 3.1 would react to a 64-bit or multicore processor.

If you really want to play with Windows 3.1, may I suggest using virtual machines or emulators? Microsoft Virtual PC doesn't work well with Windows 3.1, but you can try VirtualBox instead, or DOSBox (mostly for games, but it installs Windows 3.1 well).
http://www.virtualbox.org
http://www.dosbox.com

You can also try installing FreeDOS. Don't know how well it works with Windows 3.1 though, but it does support FAT32 (with possible problems with drives over 32GB - not thoroughly tested according to wikipedia). And this post relates to memory http://osdir.com/ml/emulators.freedo.../msg00086.html although it's kind of old (2005).

05-19-2009, 09:17 AM	#2 (permalink)
blah789 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 2,294 OS: Windows 2000 SP4 and Windows XP SP3	Re: Windows 3.1 as a Diagnostic Tool May I ask what version of DOS you're running underneath that (out of curiosity - don't think it makes much of a difference)? First I think your himem.sys error may stem from having huge amounts of memory. In the days of Windows 3.1, the high-end PC's had 16 MB of memory. If you have in the hundreds of MB, or GB's, you may have problem. In fact Windows 98 won't load with more than 768MB of memory! It's documented in this Microsoft KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/184447 I tried the workaround but still had trouble with various programs (even though I could start Windows 98 fine) until I installed my old memorys sticks back in the PC (512MB total). The second things is prior to Windows 95, you had DOS 6.22, and the largest partitions it can create is 2GB (that's the limit for FAT16). I don't know what the largest hard drive it can see is, but if my memory is correct that's also limited to 2GB (based on an experience with FDISK from the DOS 6.22 floppy). Windows 95 can see up to 32GB hard drives, and Windows NT 4 only up to 8GB at setup time. Needless to say, DOS 6.22 won't understand FAT32, NTFS, nor even drives over 128GB (that milestone marks 48-bit LBA). Last thing I wonder about is how DOS or Windows 3.1 would react to a 64-bit or multicore processor. If you really want to play with Windows 3.1, may I suggest using virtual machines or emulators? Microsoft Virtual PC doesn't work well with Windows 3.1, but you can try VirtualBox instead, or DOSBox (mostly for games, but it installs Windows 3.1 well). http://www.virtualbox.org http://www.dosbox.com You can also try installing FreeDOS. Don't know how well it works with Windows 3.1 though, but it does support FAT32 (with possible problems with drives over 32GB - not thoroughly tested according to wikipedia). And this post relates to memory http://osdir.com/ml/emulators.freedo.../msg00086.html although it's kind of old (2005).