Software Tips

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MAXI Disk & MAXIForm
Note to Norton Anti-Virus Users: Some versions of Norton Anti-Virus auto protect from Symantec (Norton AV) will cause your computer to lock up when using MAXI Disk for Windows under Windows'95. (Yes folks, you can cause Win'95 to lock up completely so that only a hard boot will restore your computer!) To prevent the lock up:

Open the Norton AV window by starting the program, or clicking on the Norton AV icon on the status bar.
Select "Options" from the Norton AV menu or button bar.
Select the "Autoprotect" tab.
Turn off the option box "Check floppies for boot viruses upon access".
Press "OK" and close the Norton AV window.

You can eliminate the use of the SMAX TSR driver program by inserting the following lines into your CONFIG.SYS file (for A: drive):

   DRIVPARM /D:0 /S:40
   DRIVPARM /D:0 /S:18

If you also have a B: drive floppy, you can add:

   DRIVPARM /D:1 /S:40
   DRIVPARM /D:1 /S:18

This tip also works for reading and writing Microsoft DMF disks, as well as most other extended capacity disks.

Some primitive boot sector viruses, such as the 'Stoned' virus, can interfere with MAXI formatted disks. If you find that your MAXI style disk no longer works (e.g. files appear corrupted) check your system for a boot sector virus. (Note: this problem also affects Microsoft DMF disks as well. Always write protect your DMF disks before installing software from them!)

You can make copies of the new Microsoft DMF format 3.5 inch diskettes by using the MAXI Disk "Copy disk" feature.

You can make copies of CP/M and other non-DOS disks by using the MAXI Disk "Advanced copy disk" feature.

FreeForm
You can make copies of the new Microsoft DMF format 3.5 inch diskettes by formatting the new disk first as a 1.7 meg disk using FreeForm, then using DOS DISKCOPY.

For technical details and formatting parameters on more than 100 types of CP/M disks, download the file 'DETAILS.ZIP'

See also tips above for MAXI.

FreeForm product information

Windows'95/NT
Windows'95/NT and MS-DOS 7 will change the boot sector of any floppy inserted into a system running Win'95/NT/DOS 7, even if you just look at the directory on it once! This "feature", called volume tracking, is supposedly to assign the removable media a unique code to track it (what happened to using the serial number and volume label?) and perhaps to update the file system on the floppy to accept long filenames. However, it can have serious effects on some disks such as some older MS-DOS boot disks and diagnostic disks, many copy-protected disks, and software that looks for a certain ID code in the OEM-ID field of the boot sector (offset 3). To prevent problems,

write protect any floppies before putting them into a Win 95 or MS-DOS 7 system;
don't copy files to an older floppy using Win'95/NT or DOS 7.

For the real techies, you can find what disk types Win'95/NT will not alter by looking in the registry under

The format of the entry is an offset into the boot sector (2 bytes), most start at offset 3, so will be "03 00", followed by the byte sequence you want it to recognize. For example "03 00 4d 61 78 69 20" will disable "volume tracking" for any disk formatted by our MAXI Disk software.

Windows'95 BACKUP will not recognize files created by earlier versions of the Backup program. To restore files backed up under earlier versions of DOS, install DOS 6.2 MSBACKUP as a DOS program under Win 95.

The Windows'95/NT "Recycle Bin" will NOT save files that have been deleted from floppy disks or network drives. If you delete a file from a floppy or network drive, hope you have a backup somewhere!

Web Pages
If you are having trouble printing light text on a dark background, make sure you have the 'Print black text' option selected in the 'Page setup' (or 'Print options') dialog of your web browser. (For Netscape, select 'File' - 'Page Setup' from the menu, then select the 'Black Text' option in the 'Page Options' group.)

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(This page last updated 2001-Dec-26.)

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