[aelarson]

Running Win98 on a Intel PIII 600 MHz clone with
256 MB of RAM and two HD, 30 GB and 10.2 GB.

Rearranging the partitions on my 30 GB HD.

Developed an error opening the OS on
one of the partitions.

Single stepped through the opening sequence.

Found the error was associated with a line in
the single step of the CONFIG.SYS file of the
form

"DEVICE = I:\Win98\DBLBUFF.EXE" which was NOT
in my original CONFIG.SYS file. Plus the par-
tition reference "I:" was incorrect. Should be
"J:" to match the other entries in the
CONFIG.SYS file. The original CONFIG.SYS file
doesn't change. The added line appears only
in the single step sequence.

Why does the OS add this line item ONLY to the
single step of the CONFIG.SYS file and even so
why doesn't it add it with the correct partition
reference.

[Dan O]

Windows 98 generally does not need a CONFIG.SYS and you don't need to run DBLBUFF.EXE. I would rename CONFIG.SYS, i.e. CONFIG.SAV.

[aelarson]

I tried renaming the config.sys file but the OS
still insists on injecting DBLBUFF.EXE lines
which cause errors and are visible only when I single
step through the opening sequence. I notice that the
same thing occurs even with an error free opening
sequence except in the error free case the DBLBUFF
statements have the same partition reference as
the other statements in the CONFIG.SYS file
whereas in the error case the DBLBUFF lines have a
DIFFERENT partition reference than the other
statements in the CONFIG.SYS file. Why the
lines that cause errors should have a different
partition reference is beyond me.

[LarryCore]

Check for a DBLSPACE.INI or DRVSPACE.INI in the root directory of the drive. It will be a hidden, system file. See if the references are in there. Also check your MSDOS.SYS file (another hidden system file)

[Dan O]

You can also rename DBLBUFF.EXE, so it cannot load.