How can I fix an MS-DOS compatibilty mode error message?

When I go to the System Performance Window (in the System Properties Window)I see the following messages for each of my Hard Drives: "Compatibility-mode paging reduces overall system performance.

Drive C is using MS-DOS compatibility-mode file system

Drive D is using MS-DOS compatibility-mode file system

Drive E is using MS-DOS compatibility-mode file system"

What is this and where did it come from ... How do I correct this to gain max performance of the disk drives ... they are slow since this showed up about 3 weeks ago ...

Thanks

This question was answered on September 7, 2002. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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There are several reasons why your hard disks might be running in MS-DOS compatibility mode:

-An unsafe device driver, memory-resident program, or virus that hooked the INT21h or INT13h chain before Windows loaded.

-The hard disk controller was not detected by Windows.

-The hard disk controller was removed from the current configuration in Device Manager.

-There is a resource conflict between the hard disk controller and another hardware device.

-The Windows protected-mode driver is missing or damaged.

Check your Device Manager for a yellow exclamation mark indicating a problem with the primary and secondary IDE channels This can be caused if the protected-mode driver for the hard disk controller is not correctly initialized when you start Windows When this happens, a NOIDE value is placed in the registry that prevents Windows from making any further attempts to initialize the protected-mode driver.

The following steps are recommended for Windows 98 users only On the Windows 98 CD, open the Tools\Mtsutil folder In this folder, locate the Noide.inf file Right-click the file and choose install When you do this, the NOIDE value is deleted, if it exists, in the registry After installing this file, restart your computer Windows will then attempt to initialize the protected-mode driver for the controller

If there are no problems, the file system and virtual memory will operate in 32-bit mode, and Device Manager will not display an exclamation mark for the IDE channels.

If the protected-mode driver is not initialized properly, an error message will be displayed and the NOIDE registry entry will be re-created.

Since you mention having 3 drive partitions, you may have a larger size hard drive Microsoft has confirmed that hard drives larger than 8GB are a problem with Windows 95 and Windows 98 that was corrected in the Windows 98 Second Edition Make sure you have updated your Operating System with all Service Packs available from Microsoft Windows Update.

If the problem continues, it may be that either the hard drive is bad or Windows is corrupted Reinstalling Windows may be necessary Further information can be found by searching with Google using the words "compatibility mode".

Good Luck

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Posted by Lois of Mesa Community College on September 7, 2002

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