PowerQuest Drive Image Not Enough Memory Error # 3 (Win XP Pro)

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Greetings,

First of all, best wishes during this new year loungers and THANK YOU for your assistance – you’re the best!

I have a Dell Dimension 4100 with: PIII, 933 mhz, 256mb ram, two 80 gb hard drives, Windows XP Pro edition.

Ever since I installed the latest round of Win XP ‘critical’ updates I get an error ‘#3 – Not Enough Memory’ when I run PowerQuests Drive Image 2002 from within Win XP (it used to work prior to this). It goes to dos (caldera is what it uses in Win XP), starts to execute and when it’s at around 4% complete the error pops up. If I boot from the Drive Image Rescue Diskettes I am able to successfully execute the backup. So do any DI users (hint, Big Al et. al.) have any suggestions?

I appreciate your input and continue to learn much from you as I peruse the different loung areas. Thank you all!

LMD

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Boy, dont’cha just love it when ya get a reputation!

I don’t have any knowledge or experience with ERROR #3 (yet) so I’ll have to go nose around a little to see what others are saying about it. Then, I’d bet you’re already doing that too, so we’ll both go on a hunting expedition. The only time I ever run Drive Image from “inside” Windows is when they first come out with a new release, to see how it behaves. I always run from a customized Win98SE boot floppy that I keep around for such things.

However, given XPs tendency for loving all the RAM we can throw at it, I would bet that the fact that you have “only” 256 meg, combined with those TWO big hard drives, is at the root of this problem. Don’t know if you want to (or can) bump up your memory, but some time back I juiced up my system to 640 meg and I also have SP-1 installed and don’t get the Error #3, for what that’s worth. I’ll do a little looking and come back with whatever, if anything, that I find. More later…..

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This error is documented on Powerquest’s website and appears to result from a lack of conventional memory. That makes sense, as you are running it from within Windows XP. The suggested fix is to use the boot floppies to ensure that you have enough conventional memory (and all this time we thought that 640K didn’t matter any more).

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Not sure why PowerQuest says in that link that you should check your conventional memory in “true DOS,” rather than Windows. Just for the heck of it, I opened up a CMD prompt and did a MEM command to reveal:

655360 bytes total conventional memory
655360 bytes available to MS-DOS
629104 largest executable program size

1048576 bytes total contiguous extended memory
0 bytes available contiguous extended memory
941056 bytes available XMS memory
MS-DOS resident in High Memory Area

So, evidently my setup “qualifies” for their minimum requirement of 585K. LMD, why don’t you do that on your system and see what it says. Maybe it’ll reveal sumthin’

I’m gonna go do the same thing after booting with my floppy and I’ll be back later today.

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Don’t know if you’re still reading, LMD, but I finally remembered to check the MEM command after booting from floppy disk. My situation says I only have 397K available after I boot with my “special” network-aware boot disk and this is the floppy I use when I run my DI backups. Somethin’ fishy somewhere…..

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Thanks loungers, Big Al,

Here is what I’ve got so far using mem and tasklist (I don’t know all the services, etc. that are listed come from):

C:Documents and Settingsdefault>mem
655360 bytes total conventional memory
655360 bytes available to MS-DOS
633824 largest executable program size

1048576 bytes total contiguous extended memory
0 bytes available contiguous extended memory
941056 bytes available XMS memory
MS-DOS resident in High Memory Area

And I got this from using tasklist:

C:DOCUME~1default>tasklist /svc

Image Name PID Services
================ === =======
System Idle Process 0 N/A
System 4 N/A
SMSS.EXE 280 N/A
CSRSS.EXE 332 N/A
WINLOGON.EXE 360 N/A
SERVICES.EXE 404 Eventlog, PlugPlay
LSASS.EXE 416 PolicyAgent, ProtectedStorage, SamSs
SVCHOST.EXE 572 RpcSs
SVCHOST.EXE 596 AudioSrv, CryptSvc, Dhcp, dmserver, ERSvc,
EventSystem, FastUserSwitchingCompatibility,
helpsvc, lanmanworkstation, Messenger,
Netman, Nla, Schedule, seclogon, SENS,
ShellHWDetection, srservice, TapiSrv,
TermService, Themes, TrkWks, uploadmgr,
W32Time, winmgmt, WmdmPmSp, wuauserv, WZCSVC
SVCHOST.EXE 660 Dnscache
SVCHOST.EXE 676 LmHosts, RemoteRegistry, SSDPSRV, WebClient
CCEVTMGR.EXE 780 ccEvtMgr
SPOOLSV.EXE 908 Spooler
INETINFO.EXE 1032 IISADMIN, MsFtpSvc, W3Svc
NAVAPSVC.EXE 1056 navapsvc
NVSVC32.EXE 1072 NVSvc
EXPLORER.EXE 1596 N/A
CCAPP.EXE 1780 N/A
POINT32.EXE 1824 N/A
motmon.exe 1840 N/A
NOTEPAD.EXE 1368 N/A
CMD.EXE 1540 N/A
MSMSGS.EXE 1564 N/A
NTVDM.EXE 1812 N/A
tasklist.exe 1820 N/A
wmiprvse.exe 136 N/A

Again, thanks to all,

LMD

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What a surprise. Your memory status seems to be about the same as mine, so I really think the Error #3 must be a misnomer, which does happen sometimes. Must be something else goin’ on with your system that DI doesn’t like. Look, the long and the short of it is, we can (and will!) continue to try to find an answer for this if you like, BUT since you can’t run an image of your C: drive while Windows is running, it may be a moot point. And if you run DI from Windows and Caldera DOS (whatever that is…) loads, there’s no telling whether it’s utilizing your system’s memory effectively. I suppose we could try to run down the “BAT” or temporary files that Caldera DOS loads to see if it’s loading anything into high memory or not. But I’ve been running DI ever since it came out and have always used a “regular” boot floppy, albeit customized. I’m gonna keep looking on my system to see what I can see, but I think you’d be well served just to continue running it from floppy. C’Mon back and let’s talk some more.

One more thing, I’m not sure how you got that list of services, it doesn’t look like what you’d see in Task Manager, but there’s a couple of lines in there that concern me. Mostly the line that says “System Idle Process 0 N/A.” Would you mind opening the Task Manager window and posting a screen shot of what you see there? Maybe you might, if you haven’t already, look in MSCONFIG too so we can see what TSRs are running.

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Thanks for your assistance. I have gone ahead and filled out a ‘support’ form on the PowerQuest web site. I haven’t had the product for a year yet so hopefully they will send me an answer in a few days. Part of the procedure they require is to fill out the form and attach a file after you execute a program (program filespowerquestdrive image 2002PartInNT.exe) which sends them some drive information. We’ll see.

Regarding how I got that list of services I performed a start/run/cmd/tasklist /svc

Attached is the task manager.

Thanks!,

LMD

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Thanks. I don’t see the System Idle line but since the status says CPU: 2% I guess everything is OK. Obviously, there’s stuff in that list that I don’t recognize, but that’s not our current problem. I guess you’re right to wait to see what the PQ folks say. Keep us posted…..

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Well, I received a prompt reply from PowerQuest. It reads:

“The problem probably is stemming from the changes Microsoft made with Service Pack 1 to the file system, which was never tested with Drive Image 2002 (it was released after our product). I do no know if/when a fix will be available for Drive Image 2002 in this area.
PowerQuest Technical Support”

Needles to say, I have replied and informed them of my displeasure. Basically I have a diskette powered backup system. And DOS was dead… Thanks to all of you who have tried to help and a very big ‘Thank You!’ to you, Big Al. As soon as I receive some update I’ll let y’all know.

LMD

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Thanks for posting that, LMD. I also watch their site periodically so I can keep both DI and PM updated. If their history is any indication, they’ve always been pretty good about keeping those products up to date for whatever reasons. So, whichever one of us sees it first I guess should post a note in the Software forum, ’cause there’s quite a few PQ users in the Lounge. Good luck.

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Greetings,

HELP!!!

Now Drive Image 2002 doesn’t even work from DOS (Caldera diskettes created from the DI 2002 software). I’m still getting the dreaded Memory Error #3 and I cannot perform any more backups. I sent the tech support person that responded to me in the past another e-mail regarding this issue and asked for a refund and for him to forward it to ‘the powers that be’. I think he forwarded it to the trash bin. I’ve been frustrated before (hail to the king MS) but never as much as with this software. PowerQuest doesn’t seen to care for any ‘little’ customer even though they know the software has problems with XP-Pro, SR1. There is not a hint of a fix, no promise of a free upgrade, no calls, NOTHING – $70 U.S. dollars plus tax down the toilet!

Sorry to call out for anyone in particular since many of you have helped me (directly or indirectly in someone else’s post) but, Big Al, how do you have your Win 98SE config.sys and autoexec.bat set? Maybe I can get a friend to create a DOS boot diskette with that O.S. and I’ll copy my Drive Image modules to it and try backing up the way you’ve been doing it instead of the CaCaldera way. I apologize If I’ve offended someone with that remark – I’m really frustrated.

Thanks to all in advance.

LMD

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No offense taken, at least not by me. I can see your frustration. If you want to get a friend to make you a bootable Win98 diskette, just ask him to go in to Windows Explorer and format a floppy, making it bootable in the process. It should be pretty “plain vanilla” but in particular, NOT contain any calls to memory management software! I’m going to include the contents of my Config.Sys and Autoexec.Bat which are pretty much empty. Then, after booting, take your 2nd diskette you already have, and run PQDI.EXE and see what happens. If this doesn’t work, there MUST be something with your Dell hardware that’s getting in the way, ’cause you’re at a basic DOS level and what Windows service pack you have installed should have NOTHING to do with this process.

Config.Sys
device=ifshlp.sys
files=60
stacks=0,0
buffers=30
lastdrive=z

Autoexec.Bat
@echo off
prompt $p$g

The only additional thing that still comes to mind, although I think it’s a slim possibility, is that you have two 80 gig drives and “only” 256 meg of RAM.

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Big Al,

Thank you very much. I got a bootable Win98 2nd Ed diskette and it worked! I still haven’t received a response from PowerQuest. Maybe they should just issue a DOS diskette type approach until the Windows version is fixed.

Yo, Woody, perhaps you can use some of your influence on PowerQuest to help some of us loungers regarding this…please?

Carbonnb, thanks for the link.

LMD

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Hey, I’m sure glad to hear you got over the “hurdle.” The irony of all this is that Drive Image is a DOS program, no matter how much PowerQuest tries to make us believe otherwise! It will not work from “within Windows” on any drive or partition that Windows is exercising any control over at the time. That’s why, for as long as I’ve been a user (Ver. 1.0), I’ve ALWAYS booted my system from a DOS floppy and run DI from there.

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Instead of getting a friend to create the boot disk, you can download one, of any flavour you want, from BootDisk.com

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