[xcalibr39]

Hoping someone can help me install my ancient PageMaker5 on a new HP Pavilion XP Media Center m7580n. I bought PM5 in 1991. It came on 6 floppies, one of which looked ready to go bad. I got them onto a CD-R, in 6 folders numbered 1-6. I owned several machines in recent years, including XPs. and successfully installed PM5 from the CD-R every time, so I dumped the floppies. New machine has no floppy drive IAC. First message that comes up is "Error initializing installer. Cannot create directory I:1USENGLISH", and I can go no further.

I put the folders on the C: drive and tried from there. Got similar message: "Cannot create directory I:1".

I tried the ‘Compatibility Wizard', and also reassigning D: to Z: and I: to D:, all to no avail. I desperately need to work on some .PM5 files created over the years.
TIA,
Peter M

PS This machine is also the first I've had that cannot run Startup Optimizer. I get a mysterious error message saying ‘EAccess Violation', and nothing further. Any thoughts?

[mphenterprises]

Hello Xcalibr and welcome to PCWorld. :-)




First, since your problem is related to the inability to install PageMaker 5, I have moved this Discussion from the Windows Community into the Other Software & Services Community.

I have some questions for you:

- Have you tried to install this application in Safe Mode? If you are not sure how to get into Safe Mode, follow the steps within this Document.

- Is the CD scratched or damaged in any way?

- Have you tried to install the application on any other computer?

- How many drives (partitions) do you have? (including any optical drives) Please include the letter designation that Windows assigned to each partition.

- Since you bought this application almost 17 years ago, have you tried to get an upgrade to either PageMaker 6 or PageMaker 7?

- If you can get an upgrade from 5 -> 6 or 7, have you contacted Adobe to confirm if .pm5 files will open in the updated versions?




Please answer all the questions thoroughly and we can proceed from there.

[rgreen4]

You told up that the machine is the m7580n Media Center, but what OS? It was available with both XP Media Center Edition and Vista Home Premium from the HP supplied upgrade.

Do you by chance still have your old machine? The reason I'm asking is we are talking about a program that was designed for Windows 3.0/3.1, installing it on a machine that is 15 years newer and an OS that is at least 10 years newer may be a challenge.

What was the OS on the last system you installed the program on? And did it have a floppy? The installer may be looking for a floppy drive even though you did not use it for the installation. There may be a line in the code looking for the presence of a floppy and not finding it generates an error.

By the way - your motherboard will support a floppy, its just that there is so spot in the case for it. If you still had a floppy and cable, you could hook it up to your MB with the side off the case (I have hooked up HD's that way) and then try to install the program.

Of course the path of least resistance is simply to go back to the old machine on a temporary basis if you still have it.

[smax013]

mphenterprises said:

* Since you bought this application almost 17 years ago, have you tried to get an upgrade to either PageMaker 6 or PageMaker 7?

* If you can get an upgrade from 5 -> 6 or 7, have you contacted Adobe to confirm if .pm5 files will open in the updated versions?

Unless one buys it used (i.e. eBay or such), I don't believe PageMaker 6.x is still available. You can get PageMaker 7 still from Adobe.



And according to this link, PageMaker 7 will open older versions' files.

[xcalibr39]

Thanks for the welcome. To answer a few questions: I just dug out my old machine from the garage and successfully installed PM5 again from my home-made CD-R. That machine is a Gateway Kittyhawk15 Win XP Home SP2 with a 40GB HD and a Samsung CD-R/RW. On my 'desk', which is a 48"x20" folding-leg banquet table, I now have my new 17" LCD monitor, new keyboard, and two mouses, one for each machine. Under the table I have the new Pavilion, the old Gateway, a CRT monitor tilted upward on some books, a printer, and the old keyboard. It's a workaround, if not an elegant one; but it doesn't answer the question of why on the Pavilion the CD tries, and of course fails, to install PM5 to its own drive, I:, whereas on the Gateway it installs right away to drive C:

The Pavilion's drives are: 0=C: (partition) 178GB, and H: (partition [recovery]) 9GB; 1= D:Generic USB SD (no media); 2=E:Generic USB CF (no media); 3=F:Generic USB SM (no media); 4=G:Generic USB MS (no media); plus I:TSST CD/DVDW CD-ROM 0.

Also remaining a mystery is why Startup Optimizer also works just fine on the Gateway, whereas the Pavilion spits out "EAccess Violation".

[mphenterprises]

xcalibr39 said:

...but it doesn't answer the question of why on the Pavilion the CD tries, and of course fails, to install PM5 to its own drive, I:, whereas on the Gateway it installs right away to drive C:


The Pavilion's drives are: 0=C: (partition) 178GB, and H: (partition recovery]) 9GB; 1= D:Generic USB SD (no media); 2=E:Generic USB CF (no media); 3=F:Generic USB SM (no media); 4=G:Generic USB MS (no media); plus I:TSST CD/DVDW CD-ROM 0.

>
>
>
>


Okay, I'm just going to through this one out there. In the first quoted snippet, you pose the question why the application does not install itself to the I: drive of the Pavilion computer. In the second quoted snippet, you indicate to us that the I: drive is an optical drive. My question to you is why are you trying to install an application into the same drive from where it originated?

You have 178GBs of space on the Pavilion C: drive. This is where the application should go.




> {quote:title=xcalibr39 wrote:}{quote}
>
> Also remaining a mystery is why Startup Optimizer also works just fine on the Gateway, whereas the Pavilion spits out "EAccess Violation".
>
>

I am not familar with this error message; however, I did a quick search and it seems that it pops up if an application either:

- does not completely install and then another installation is attempted

OR

- does not completely uninstall and then another installation is attempted


There we several questions you did not answer, most notably is whether or not you attempted to install this application within Safe Mode. Now, maybe, if any part of this application loaded into the Pavilion but the installation did not complete, this may have initiated the error message.

To kill two birds at once, I would suggest downloading [Add/Remove Pro and confirming that no part of this application is in your computer. Before you run the Add/Remove Pro, I would restart the computer in Safe Mode. Once you use Add/Remove Pro to verify that the application is not within your computer, double check by opening up the Program Files folder (C:Program Files) and confirming that no folders were created for PageMaker 5.

Once you have done this, attempt to install PageMaker 5, from within Safe Mode and into the C: drive.




I know I have thrown a lot at you but I think we may be close to cracking this one. :-)

[xcalibr39]

mph> Okay, I'm just going to through this one out there. In the first quoted snippet, you pose the question why the application does not install itself to the I: drive of the Pavilion computer. In the second quoted snippet, you indicate to us that the I: drive is an optical drive. My question to you is why are you trying to install an application into the same drive from where it originated?
You have 178GBs of space on the Pavilion C: drive. This is where the application should go. <mph

That's not quite what I wrote. On my previous machines, I ran ALDSETUP.EXE from the CD drive, which was always D:, and it installed PM5 automatically to the C: drive. On the Pavilion, the CD drive is I:, and It is the Pavilion which insists on trying to install back to the I: drive instead of C:, and that's the problem. (I did try again a few moments ago in Safe Mode, with the same result.)

The 'EAccess Violation' is a separate matter, not relating to PM5. It relates to Startup Optimizer, a splendid program that examines all those horrid startups and tells you which ones can be disabled or deleted. The Pavilion is the first and only machine I've had that won't allow Startup Optimizer to run.

[mphenterprises]

Okay, well, to be blunt, this is a mind-boggling situation. I really have never heard of an application trying to install itself into the optical drive. As was said previously, you want want to look into upgrading from version five to either version six or version seven.

Below are links to a couple credible eBay auctions for PageMaker 6 & 6.5.

Adobe PageMaker 6.0

Adobe PageMaker 6.5

Also as Smax offered, PageMaker 7 can access previous versions. The hyperlinked phrase will take you to the site Smax offered. This link will take you to the PageMaker 7 upgrade page.

Additionally, this all leads back to what RGreen mentioned, "...we are talking about a program that was designed for Windows 3.0/3.1, installing it on a machine that is 15 years newer and an OS that is at least 10 years newer may be a challenge."

[smax013]

xcalibr39 said:

That's not quite what I wrote. On my previous machines, I ran ALDSETUP.EXE from the CD drive, which was always D:, and it installed PM5 automatically to the C: drive. On the Pavilion, the CD drive is I:, and It is the Pavilion which insists on trying to install back to the I: drive instead of C:, and that's the problem. (I did try again a few moments ago in Safe Mode, with the same result.)

The only thing that I can think of is that the I: drive is not right "next" to the C: drive and the installer is somehow having trouble "finding" the C: drive. This would be strange if it was the case...and I kind of doubt it, but then I have seen some pretty strange things before with computers. You could try changing the letter of the optical drive to something closer or "next" to the C: and see if that helps. But, then I believe you tried copying the install folders to the hard drive and installing from there and that did not work either.



The only other thing that I can think of is that PM5 does not like XP Media Edition for some reason.

[xcalibr39]

sma> You could try changing the letter of the optical drive to something closer or "next" to the C: and see if that helps. But, then I believe you tried copying the install folders to the hard drive and installing from there and that did not work either. <sma

That was my first thought, and as a DOS maven of yore I tried to use ASSIGN I D Z and discovered XP no longer recognizes ASSIGN. Then someone here pointed me to the turtuous way Windoze achieves the same thing, and I assigned D: to Z: and I: to D:. But the machine still redirected ALDSETUP back to a then nonexistent I:.

BTW, how do you select text and quote so it appears in a cross-haired box headed by "smax013 wrote:" ?

PS Interestingly enough, when I insert a jump-drive in one of the USB slots, it becomes J:

[smax013]

xcalibr39 said:

sma> You could try changing the letter of the optical drive to something closer or "next" to the C: and see if that helps. But, then I believe you tried copying the install folders to the hard drive and installing from there and that did not work either. <sma

That was my first thought, and as a DOS maven of yore I tried to use ASSIGN I D Z and discovered XP no longer recognizes ASSIGN. Then someone here pointed me to the turtuous way Windoze achieves the same thing, and I assigned D: to Z: and I: to D:. But the machine still redirected ALDSETUP back to a then nonexistent I:.

BTW, how do you select text and quote so it appears in a cross-haired box headed by "smax013 wrote:" ?

PS Interestingly enough, when I insert a jump-drive in one of the USB slots, it becomes J:

It was worth a try. I am only left with the thought that PM5 & its installer does not "like" XP Media Center Edition...but that does not seem "right" to me.




As to the quoting, if you are using the Rich Text post ability, there should be a little "quotation bubble" icon (looks like this: !http://forums.pcworld.com/legacyimages/
1! )...click on it is and it will "bring" in the entire post that you are replying to using the "quote" format. If using the Plain Text mode, then the icon will look like this: !http://forums.pcworld.com/legacyimages/
1! ).

As to the flash drive or adding other drives, that is I believe Windoze's typical "response"...it will add the new drive at the end of what exists, which in your case is after the I: drive.

[Adama]

Hi, smax !http://forums.pcworld.com/legacyimages/
1! Love your new avatar! I like it much better than the last one, did you get it from Photobucket?

[TechyGuy]

(Off-topic) How do you get an avatar off Phobu?

[Adama]

(Off topic, again) Have no idea, Techy. Maybe smax can answer that for us.

[xcalibr39]

[quote name='smax013']It was worth a try. I am only left with the thought that PM5 & its installer does not "like" XP Media Center Edition...but that does not seem "right" to me.
Doesn't look right to me either. I've been out of the loop since DOS6.22, or I'd try examining the installation on the Gateway, then unzipping the files myself on the Pavilion and doing my own Registry-editing. But I'm constantly reading that editing the Registry in XP is a quantum leap ahead of editing .INI files in Win3.x.

[xcalibr39]

Oops. Can't even get my quoting right. So much for thoughts of messing about in the Registry.

[smax013]

Adama said:

Hi, smax !http://forums.pcworld.com/legacyimages/

1! Love your new avatar! I like it much better than the last one, did you get it from Photobucket?
Nope. I got it from your Happy Birthday post to Kellie. It was one of the smilies in your post. I felt it reflected "me" well, so I took a screen shot of the post and then editted down the smilie in a photo editor...and then uploaded it.

[smax013]

xcalibr39 said:

Oops. Can't even get my quoting right. So much for thoughts of messing about in the Registry.

Be very, very, very careful with the registry. If you are going to mess with it, then you should back it up before messing with it. One wrong step in the registry and computer no work anymore!



As to quoting, just make sure that you have a couple of blank lines between the quote and your typing. Sometimes the system goes a little screwy and "merges" stuff if they are too "close" to each other.

[rgreen4]

Xcalibr39 - you have one problem that may or may not be the cause of the immediate problem, but will most certainly cause other problems down the line. Somehow, your CD/DVD drive is listed as "I:" instead of "D:". I recommend that you rename D: to J: temporarily and then rename I: to D:, after which you rename J: to I:. This will give you a problem in reinstalling any software that was originally installed from D: and will look to D: by default.

As to the PM5 issue, I don't recall any program installer that did not give you an option of redirecting the install partition and directory.

However, it may not be XP MCE that is the problem but the SATA drive controllers. MPH and Smax can recall the document I wrote about those who wanted to revert to XP from Vista and the orderly way to do it. When I wrote it, the only Vista machine I had was my HP MC that originally came with XP MCE and I upgraded to Vista. So in a way of testing, I put in another drive and took an XP upgrade disk I had that had never been activated, and attempted to install it. It started, appeared to start the installation and the BSOD. The disc was good because I had done a test install on a machine that is normally XP Pro (HP OEM install). Norton's Ghost didn't like the SATA controllers on this machine either, which is OK because I went to a better program.

To change the drive letters, you need to go into disk management, a program that is fairly well hidden. Click Start -> Control Panel -> Performance and Maintenance -> Administrative Tools and then Double Click Computer Management, and in the left pane click on Disk Management. To change the drive letter of an actual drive (other than A: or C:), right click in the colored area, but to change the drive letters of the others, right click in the left hand description

I appologize for coming late to the party, but earlier this afternoon, I was on my older XP machine which seemed to take forever to boot, and then when I rebooted, I got the message that the HD had died. I swapped my clone into the case in a few minutes, but then had to go take care of an issue at work.

[xcalibr39]

I finally solved it. I simply fired up the old PC from the garage, burned all the Aldus & PM5 directories to CD, and copied them to the new HP. I also took a look at the INI files on the old machine, and edited WIN.INI on the HP to include the Aldus section. (Aldus is in square brackets, but I discover that putting those in a RTF message here causes "http://" to appear.) PS I took the precaution of creating a Restore Point first <g>.