On Tuesday, March 10, 1998 03:51, Arnie Robuck
_________________ Begin Quoted Text _________________
> I have 3 questions: (I save them up)
>
> 1.  I have a Windows 95b Companion CD. Does anyone know how to use this >CD to do a full install of Windows?
>
> 2. Assuming I can use the Companion CD, will this give me a choice of
> installing an upgrade or will it start right from scratch?
>
> 3.  I am currently running Win95a with Internet Explorer 4.01a installed. I
> have also installed all of the obtainable updates for Windows 95 and
> Internet Explorer. What is the advantage of doing this upgrade and what
> effect will installing Windows 95b have on my already current [?} system?
 _________________  End Quoted Text  __________________

VBOK #5 - Upgrade from Win95A to OSR2

Alright, I got a submission for the newsletter. It's listed below, but first I'll give you some info about what he is talking about. Win95B OSR2 is an improvement over Win95A. To find out which version of Win95 you have, right click your "My Computer" icon, select properties, and under the "General" tab, look at where it says "System:" It will have a version number as the second entry. If the last digit is an A, then you have plain vanilla Win95. If it says B, then you already have OSR2 installed.

If you have Win95 version A, then the cool info tip below all my ramblings could help you. If you already have OSR2 (Win95 version B) installed, and on the same tab where you looked for the version number of Windows it says you are using FAT32 or 32 bit for the file system, then you may just want to read this for the info.

The greatest advantage to OSR2 is the 32 bit file system. It supports drives up to 2 Terrabytes (using 4K cluster sizes for drives up to 8GB). Versions previous to OSR2 used a 16bit File Allocation Table (FAT). This was extremely inefficient in that a 2GB partition used 32K clusters. So what does that mean?

Well, let's say you have an unpartitioned 2GB hard drive, and you write a small note to yourself using Notepad. You save it, and it is about 1K in size. Well, using a 16bit FAT, the file in reality takes up a whole 32K cluster. That means you just wasted 31K.


Under FAT32, you would only waste 3K (remember 4K clusters for drives up to 8GB using OSR2). In addition, the ROOT directory is now an ordinary cluster chain, so it can be located anywhere on the drive and does not have the limitation on the number of ROOT directory entries.

So why all the bother, 31K seems like a small amount of waste right??? Well, have you ever looked at the filesizes of many of your files? I'll bet you a case of beer (Guiness Stout of course) that not too many of them are multiples of 32.

That means if you have a file that is 79K you take up 2 clusters (on FAT16, that's 32K per cluster) with 15K left over, well that 15K takes up one 32K cluster. A waste of 17K. Now 79K is an average filesize, so let's say you have 2,500 files that are 79K. That's a waste of 42.5MB. You paid good money for that 2GB HDD, so why are you wasting so much of it?

If you have OSR2, but are still using FAT16, there is a utility called CVT.EXE that Microsoft put out to NON-DESTRUCTIVELY convert your hard drive from FAT16 to FAT32. You can get it here:

<http://www.dentalaw.com/freestuff/cvt.zip>

**** IMPORTANT - If you do install OSR2, you will not be able to use legacy utilities that rely on the FAT16 file architecture. Some of these include older versions of virus scanners, pctools, norton utilities etc... Also, you may specify smaller cluster sizes if you wish, but Microsoft will leave you hanging if your data gets corrupted. For those of you who DoubleSpace your drives, you will not be able to use FAT32 and DoubleSpace concurrently.

IMPORTANT AGAIN - IE4.0 comes with quite a few upgrades and updates, so you will want to uninstall IE4 and reinstall it after upgrading the OS. This is to make sure that you don't overwrite the newer updates with older ones from the WIN95B CD.

Another IMPORTANT note - Don't go to your favorite software store asking for Win95 OSR2, becasue they won't have it. It's Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), meaning that it comes with new systems. You may still be able to get your hands on it though. Some people could care less which version they have, and may trade you straight up for your "A" version (You'll have to straighten out the registration numbers and who they belong to),  if you are person with no regards for copyright laws, borrow it (But that'd be illegal), or some places even bundle it with a new hard drive or motherboard purchase.

The tip below has worked for me twice so far on two totally different machines. Still, you should make a backup before attempting the upgrade.

So without further rambling, here's the cool info tip.


**********************************************************
The following was submitted by Gordon Churchill (The NMI)

Here is a way to install win95B over win95 - It saves alot of time and this way you don't have to have a bare drive before you do the install. It works pretty well, but I don't make any promises, so no yelling if it doesn't work right for you.

One of the advantages of 95B is the fat32 file structure, among other things. Have fun, kiddies!

Step 1 Start the Win 95B setup from Windows. Stop at the dialog box that reads License Agreement. Don't click on Next.

Step 2 Press Ctrl-Esc to open the Start menu, then select Run. In the Run dialog, type NOTEPAD.EXE, and then press Enter. In Notepad, find the folder WININST0.400, which OSR2 creates, and open SETUPPP.INF. Inside this file, insert the line OEMUP=1 after the [data] heading, like this:
[data]
OEMUP=1

Step 3 Save your changes to SETUPPP.INF and close Notepad. Press Alt-Tab to return to the OSR2 installation window and continue from there. You must type in the 20-digit number found on the Certificate of Authenticity on the front of your Win 95B manual to complete the installation.
**********************************************************

Hope this helps...

Leif Greogry