hollen@megatek.UUCP (Dion Hollenbeck) (03/11/91)
In article <ZB7-!4#@rpi.edu> raster@itsgw.rpi.edu (Jerry D Bain) writes: > > hollen@megatek.UUCP (Dion Hollenbeck) writes: > > >I just upgraded from a 286 clone to a 386-33 clone. Norton 5.0 Unerase > >and Pathminder both now give me the error "Packed File Corrupt" when > >I attempt to execute them. I have DOS 4.01. > > This is most likely related to a known problem with Microsoft's EXEPACK > utility. Whenever a program that's been packed is loaded below 1000h, this > very error message is generated. Needless to say, this is incorrect. > > This problem has been fixed in DOS 5.0 but all previous version suffer from > this bug (in EXEPACK)... Until you upgrade (assuming you do), start running > a TSR (or something to that effect) to use up the memory all the way to the > 1000h boundry. This will force your programs in questions to get loaded > without error. > > Another solution (less elegant) is to use an un-packing utility (like the > one included with LHexe) to remove the EXEPACK code all-together (thus > making the executables take up much more disk space). I dislike the latter > solution as it tends to trip off virus detectors on my system (modifying > executables). Jerry hit the nail on the head. I also got this information from Mike Bessy at J.P. Software (4DOS). Both the solutions of using up more memory and unpacking the executable DO work. However, I just moved all my TSR's and device drivers into UMB area freeing as much lower memory as possible, so I don't want to eat up memory again if possible. I unpacked these files and this works also. Since I have misplaced my virus detector, I don't yet know if this method will cause me problems. I took up memory by running 4DOS 6 times until I finally got it running in high enough memory for the problem to go away. Good to know that the fix will be in DOS 5.0, but since it will not be on the market for a while yet, I can't very well use that as an alternative now. Thanks for all the replies, some of which were more helpful than others. A suggestion about disabling A20 gating was made, but since that would affect the speed of many of my other programs, I decided to go with unpacking these executables. I did not try the A20 solution, so I cannot attest to its validity. But thanks just the same. -- ----- Dion Hollenbeck (619) 455-5590 x2814 Megatek Corporation, 9645 Scranton Road, San Diego, CA 92121 uunet!megatek!hollen or hollen@megatek.uucp