I believe XP supports both NTFS and FAT32.  Each has its advantages and
disadvantages.  Only very specialized utility programs are likely to see or
care about the differences.  Specifically, several things that you wonder if
might be because of using NTFS definitely are not.

  The "Your files are waiting" bubble sounds like the system thinks he/you
want to burn the files to a CD-R, but there is no CD-R drive or no usable
disk in the drive.  (It doesn't sound like either of you *intended* to write
anything to a CD-R, but I think that's how XP interpreted something you
did.)

  I don't believe any Microsoft OS, including XP, has ever included support
for zip files.  Download WinZip, and if he/you keep using it, pay for it.

  I'm not sure what a "no-cd" program is, but I'm guessing that it's an
attempt to convince the game program that the CD is present when it is in
fact removed.  If so, it would constitute a DMCA violation, and so we can't
go deeper into that issue on the list.

David Gillett


On 2 Mar 2004 at 0:01, Al Thompson wrote:

> Hey,
>
> Please bear with me - this is a long post with somewhat strange problems (to me anyway).
>
> I've spent less than half a day using Win XP, which so far, seems very frustrating.
>
> I installed a game to C:\Program Files\Deus Ex on a friend's WinXP machine. He says it ran fine, with the cd in the
> drive. We were attempting to install a small no-cd program.
>
> For some reason there's a bubble message that appears on the desktop, which he says has been there since the game
> install yesterday. I can't recall the exact wording, but the message goes something like this:
>
> 'Your files are waiting to be sent to your CD-Rom (D:\)' ...and it points to a cd icon in his tray.
>
> The files are almost definitely some of this game's files. They appear to be in 'Documents and (?) - I forget the
> second location. I did a full install, so I can't see why it might need to store anything there. My friend didn't
> do anything (?) he knows about that would cause this.
>
> Ignoring that issue, I proceeded to install the small no-cd program, which didn't work, so we decided to uninstall
> the game and start over. After uninstall and a reboot the message above still appeared on the desktop, and the
> files were still in 'Documents and...'
> Also, a search revealed what appeared to be all of the game files still installed in C:\Program Files\Deus Ex.
>
> Now I said I know little about XP, but this just doesn't make sense. I thought it might be a file system problem
> (fat vs. ntfs) but since the game ran fine, I have my doubts. Also, the no-cd program was on a floppy that I
> prepared on my fat32 WinME.
> He managed to copy it to his HDD, but when he tried to open it he got an error message: 'This file is not a valid
> win32 app...", which I suspect IS a (fat vs. ntfs) problem, but maybe not.
>
> The files on the floppy were win-zipped, and I learned he doesn't have Winzip, but I expected there'd be something
> that would unzip them.
>
> So now I don't know how to proceed. Should I just delete all the known game files, then use regedit to clean up the
> registry, then reinstall the game? Any thoughts on why the files were waiting to go to the cd-rom? Or why the game
> files were all still in C:\program files\deus ex  folder, even after uninstall? I know that add/remove can't always
> remove everything, but there's way more in that folder than a few possible shared files.
>
> Am I correct that XP uses ntfs?
> If so, the game must be compatible with both fat32 and ntfs, since it seems to run on both WinME and XP, no?
>
> I'd really hate to let this guy down (as he's done many favors for me), especially over a (?)botched game install.
> And I really don't want to use his recovery disks to wipe the drive clean, either, but I will. I just can't see
> what I did wrong.
>
> I can't think of any relevant technical info to give that would help, so - DirectX is current, OS is XP, 128MB RAM,
> 16MB Nvidia, plenty of HD space.
>
> If you're still with me, sorry about the length, and thanks for your thoughts.
>
> Al Thompson
>
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