Q129710: PRB: Visual FoxPro Setup Problems with Disk 2
Article: Q129710
Product(s): Microsoft FoxPro
Version(s): 3.0
Operating System(s):
Keyword(s): kbsetup
Last Modified: 15-FEB-2002
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The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, version 3.0
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NOTE: Some products mentioned in this article are manufactured by vendors
independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise,
regarding these products' performance or reliability.
SYMPTOMS
========
When you run the Setup program for Visual FoxPro version 3.0 from floppy disks,
after removing Disk 1, inserting Disk 2, and pressing ENTER, you receive the
"Insert Disk 2" message continuously, or you might receive any of the following
error messages:
- Could not read from the file named <drive>:\VFP2.CAB.
- Unable to expand VFP2.CAB.
- The compressed file '<drive>\VFP2.CAB' cannot be decompressed and may
be corrupted.
- System Error: cannot read from drive A:
- Setup: Could not read from file named A:\VFP2.CAB"
CAUSE
=====
There are several possible causes for these errors:
- Software virus.
- Hardware failure.
- Bad floppy disk.
- Compatibility problem with the Distribution Media Format (DMF) used on disk 2
(and subsequent disks in the series).
WORKAROUND
==========
To isolate the cause of this problem, perform the following checks, and apply
the indicated solution.
1. Test for viruses. Use an up-to-date virus checking program to verify that you
do not have a virus on your system. Do this first. If you have a virus on
your system, any further tests on the diskettes may give you false results.
Moreover, if the Visual FoxPro installation disks have been infected by a
virus on your system, you risk infecting other machines on which you attempt
to install Visual FoxPro.
SOLUTION: If you have a virus, disinfect your computer system using an
up-to-date anti-virus program. An anti-virus program may not work on the
DMF-formatted disk. If you cannot disinfect disk 2, request a set of
replacement disks. Replacement disks are not DMF-formatted and are available
in 1.44 MB media only.
2. Test the floppy drive. If you have diagnostics software that will check the
functioning of your floppy drive, use it to verify that your floppy drive is
working properly. If you have had no problems reading and writing to standard
floppy disks, your floppy drive is probably not the cause of the problem.
3. Test for a bad disk. If you have another computer available, try to install
the disks on that machine. If you have the same problem on the other
computer(s), that does not necessarily mean that the disks are bad. Both
machines may have a problem reading DMF-formatted disks.
CAUTION: Disk 2 (and subsequent disks in the installation series) uses DMF.
DMF is a new format. Many existing disk utilities such as Norton Disk Doctor,
Central Point's PC Tools, and Microsoft's ScanDisk do not recognize DMF and
may try to write over the file on the installation disks. Therefore, you
should NOT attempt to use disk utilities to diagnose, or even examine
DMF-formatted disks.
NOTE: You cannot copy DMF-formatted disks using the MS-DOS COPY or DISKCOPY
commands. Instead, use the copy switch (/C) with EXTRACT.EXE utility, located
on disk 1.
SOLUTION: If you have a bad disk, request a set of replacement disks.
Replacement disks are not DMF-formatted and are available in 1.44 MB media
only.
4. Check for problems related to the DMF format. (For a description of DMF, see
the MORE INFORMATION section, below.) The four known DMF issues and their
solutions are outlined below:
a. Incompatible floppy drives.
You may have problems if your floppy drive is one of the following types:
- SCSI floppy drives, including Flopticals.
- Floppy drives attached via older MicroSolutions Compaticards.
- Apple Macintosh floppy drives (even via SoftPC).
- Early Gateway 2000 Handbook or Colorbook notebooks.
SOLUTION: Request a set of replacement disks. Replacement disks are not
DMF-formatted and are available in 1.44 MB media only.
b. Incompatible operating systems.
Operating systems other than Windows version 3.1 (or later) may not have
the correct floppy drive system files to support DMF. Problems have been
reported on the following:
- OS/2 Warp Version 3.0.
DMF was developed before OS/2 Warp was released so there was no
opportunity for compatibility testing. These errors have also been
reported on OS/2 versions 2.0 and 2.1. Microsoft has been unable to
reproduce these problems under OS/2 2.0 or 2.1 in testing.
For more information about the DMF and OS/2 Warp Version 3.0, please see
the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q122280 Error Running Setup from DMF Disks Under OS/2
c. MS-DOS does not recognize that the disk format on disk 2 is different from
the disk format on disk 1.
Change-line support on the floppy drive informs MS-DOS when a disk and/or
the format of a disk has changed. If MS-DOS determines the format of the
first disk but does not realize that the formatting of the second disk is
different, the second disk cannot be read.
Use the DIR command on disk 2. If you see a screenful of spurious
characters, this is probably a changeline problem. If you receive disk
read errors, a flawed disk cache may be involved.
SOLUTION: Choose one of the following four methods to work around this
problem:
- Method One: Add the MS-DOS DRIVPARM command to your CONFIG.SYS file
using the following syntax:
For a 1.44-MB A: drive For a 1.44-MB B: drive
--------------------------------------------------
DRIVPARM=/d:0 /f:7 DRIVPARM=/d:1 /f:7
-or-
- Method Two: Remove Setup Disk 2 from the floppy disk drive and press
ENTER. Then insert the disk in the drive again and press ENTER.
-or-
- Method three: With Setup Disk 2 in the floppy disk drive, follow these
steps:
a. Bring up the Windows File Manager.
b. Select the drive that contains the Setup disk (for example, A:) and
press the F5 key to update the directory window. If this doesn't
work, you may need to select another drive, and then switch back to
the drive that contains the Setup disk.
c. Press ALT+TAB to switch back to the Setup program, and continue
installing the application.
-or-
- Method four: If none of the previous methods work, you can force the
tree to be re-read by following these steps:
a. Press ALT+TAB to switch to the Windows Program Manager.
b. Shell to MS-DOS.
c. At the MS-DOS prompt, change to the installation drive.
d. Press CTRL+C to clear the cache and force MS-DOS to re-read the
tree.
e. Type "exit" (without the quotation marks) to exit MS-DOS and return
to Windows.
f. Press ALT+TAB to return to the Setup program, and continue
installing the application.
NOTE: You may have to repeat this process between each disk change.
d. Helix Multimedia Cloaking is running during installation.
SOLUTION: Disable Helix Multimedia Cloaking during installation. For more
information about the DMF and Helix Multimedia Cloaking, please see the
following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q128333 OFF4: "File Cannot be Decompressed" with Helix Multimedia Cloaking
STATUS
======
Microsoft is researching this problem and will post new information here in the
Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.
MORE INFORMATION
================
Besides a virus or hardware problem, the other major causes of disk 2 failures
relate to the new Distribution Media Format (DMF) used for the installation
disks.
The root of DMF-related problems is not DMF itself. The two underlying causes
are:
- DMF is a new technology that some operating systems or utilities cannot
handle reliably.
- Some disk controllers may not recognize the disk change when disk 1 (standard
floppy format) is removed and disk 2 (DMF format) is inserted in the drive.
What is DMF?
------------
DMF is a special read-only format for 3.5-inch floppy disks that permits storing
1.7 MB of data (a 17.7% increase over the standard 1.44 MB format).
This is achieved by reducing the inter-sector gap, and adding three sectors per
track. This does not affect the ability of arbitrary floppy drives to read the
disk, because we have not changed the magnetic recording density. With this
reduced inter-sector gap, however, there is not enough room between sectors to
allow a floppy drive to reliably write to a DMF disk.
Disks formatted with DMF cannot be copied to a standard high density 3.5-inch
disk using the MS-DOS DISKCOPY or Windows COPY commands.
For additional information, please see the following articles in the Microsoft
Knowledge Base:
Q120006 XL5C: How to Copy Files from Cabinets on DMF-Formatted Disks
Q122209 Error Message Occurs When Using Extract Utility
Q121802 OFF: "Could Not Read From File..." Running Maintenance Mode Setup
Q79207 WinWord Setup Fails on Disk 2; DRIVPARM Solution
OS/2 Warp Version 3.0 is manufactured by International Business Machines, a
vendor independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise,
regarding this product's performance or reliability.
Additional query words: VFoxWin tshoot t-shoot trouble-shoot installation set up
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Keywords : kbsetup
Technology : kbVFPsearch kbAudDeveloper kbVFP300
Version : :3.0
Issue type : kbprb
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