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Unable to read Wordstar for Win v2.0

Started by MikeB, August 04, 2003, 04:52:37 AM

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MikeB

Hi,
I have the 6 install disks for Wordstar for Windows v2.0 but when I try to load on my Windows 2000 system it just states 'Unable to read from disk'  Any ideas or is this a known problem?   I have doc's on an old Wordstar for Windows v2.0 disk I am trying to read but can't so reckoned I needed to install this on my Windows 2000 system to do this.  Any advice appreciated!
Thanks
Mike

Forum Admin

#1
Hi Mike,

The installation of WSWin 2 on Windows 2000 can sometimes fail. I don't have details of what goes wrong and it's a while since I last tried an installation - I generally just copy the installed program from one PC to the next as I upgrade.

Having said that, your problem sounds more like a faulty floppy disk. Have you tried them on another PC?

Regards
Mike
Forum Administrator
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MikeB

#2
Hi Mike,
Many thanks for getting back!  I have tried on another PC with Win 98 but same thing.  I can see all the files on the floppy's using DIR but Win 98 or 2000 just isn't reading them when trying to install.  I don't have the installed program to copy from another PC unfortunately. Is there any place I could download  v2.0 you are aware of as I am desperate to read the files on my old wordstar disk!?
Regards
Mike

deedee

#3
Hi Mike,

WSWin2 isn't available as a download. It is available for sale, and the information about that is posted at http://www.wordstar2.com/cbabbage/wordstar. People have gotten their packages about two weeks after ordering.

It is possible that your install disk 1 is corrupted. I can upload a copy of that original disk for you to try out, if you wish. It will be on a password-protected directory, so I'd have to send you the instructions for getting it. Let me know what you want to do.

deedee

WordStar Users Group: http://www.wordstar2.com
WordStar Users Group Mailing Lists: http://wordstar2.com/mailman/listinfo
Reg. Linux User #327485

Forum Admin

#4
Purchase options for all WordStar versions are listed at http://www.wordstar.org/wordstar/pages/where.htm.

Try copying all of the floppies to a folder on your hard disk. If you can get the filles off the disks you can install from the hard disk. It may also show up exactly which files are causing the problem so you can get just those replaced.

Cheers
Mike
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MikeB

#5
Hi Deedee,

Yeah, that would be a great help if you could just upload disk1 and I can see if that helps to get the whole thing installed. Let me know?

Best regards
Mike

deedee

#6
Hi Mike,

I sent the information on downloading WSWin2 Disk 1 to you privately. I don't know if we get a notice when a private message arrives, so this is to let you know to look there.

deedee  :)
WordStar Users Group: http://www.wordstar2.com
WordStar Users Group Mailing Lists: http://wordstar2.com/mailman/listinfo
Reg. Linux User #327485

MikeB

#7
Hi Deedee, Thanks I was able to download disk 1 and unzip okay but when I double click on setup.exe file I get a setup message everytime as follows:
Could not open the file named  'C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\DISK1\WSWIN.DL_'

Any ideas???

Thanks
Mike

deedee

#8
Hi Mike,

I'm sorry to hear you're having problems with it :(.

What setup.exe is supposed to do, I believe, is decompress that file and install it as a dll in c:\windows. One thing that happens sometimes with ms-win installations -- some of the files may be hidden or read-only.

I zipped the disk to avoid that problem, but I read somewhere that the ms-win installer may do that during the installation process itself on older software. Since it had never happened to me, I didn't pay too close attention to the article. But your not being able to open it during setup makes me wonder if it happened to you.

You might check the attributes and make sure that none of the files are hidden ("h") or read only ("r"), but are archived ("a").

deedee
WordStar Users Group: http://www.wordstar2.com
WordStar Users Group Mailing Lists: http://wordstar2.com/mailman/listinfo
Reg. Linux User #327485

MikeB

#9
Hi Deedee,  Checked the properties of the files and all show as archived and not hidden or read only!!
All showing in my C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\install directory and when I click on setup it asks if I want full, minimum or custom setup and after that comes back with 'could not open the file....' error as indicated above.... so I'm at a loss at to why Win98 doesn't appear to like the  wswin.dl_  file ?
Thanks
Mike  

PGAGA

#10
Monday 18 August 2003

I assume you have properly set up your directory structure for installation.  WSWin will install from a hard drive or CD but files from each disk must have their own folder sharing a common root and named Disk1, Disk2, Disk3, Disk4, Disk5, Disk6.  The files from each of the WSWin disks have to be placed in the respective directories.

Phil

MikeB

#11
Sorry i've been away the past few weeks!  I have created a directory with specific folders for each of the 6 disks and tried to copy all the file information across.  Quite a lot of the files would not copy, don't know why, from each of the disks but a lot of them did.  Tried setup and came back with error on WSWINAPI.DLL incorrect no of bytes written to disk.  Is it possible to obtain this one file which I guess is major for WSWIN as I guess it's corrupt in some way?
Thanks
Mike

deedee

#12
Hi Mike,

The problem seems to be moving around from file to file. Also, your inability to copy all the files suggests to me one of two possibilities -- (1) you need to buy a new WSWin because your whole set of disks has problems, or (2) the problem is in your target computers.

You need all the files for installation. So if you weren't able to get them all copied, you will likely not get a working installation.

When did you last check your computer(s) for possible corruption on your hard drives (thorough surface scan), or viruses? Have you scanned your original installation diskettes for physical problems?

deedee
WordStar Users Group: http://www.wordstar2.com
WordStar Users Group Mailing Lists: http://wordstar2.com/mailman/listinfo
Reg. Linux User #327485

PGAGA

#13
Saturday 13 September 2003

A list of your missing files would help.

One trick to try is to do a non repair (turn off automatic repair) Scandisk of the faulty floppy.  In the past this has enabled me to get files off a disk which is faulty if I copy the files immediately after doing the Scandisk.  I suspect this gets around disk failure when the failure is a timing fault.

Phil

Forum Admin

#14
As I suggested some time ago, and Phil has again, after trying to copy your floppies to your hard disk, get a list together of which files you couldn't copy, or if it''s easier those that did copy, and we may be able to fill in the gaps.

You can use a DOS window to do this and the commands:
DIR disk1 /b >> filelist.txt
DIR disk2 /b >> filelist.txt
DIR disk3 /b >> filelist.txt
etc, etc.

filelist.txt will contain the total contents of your files copied from the floppies, assuming you put them in floders called disk1, etc.

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