[Airidh]

Hi, folks.

Main problem: Attempted to transfer files from my W98 PC (ONYX) to my XP one (AMETHYST). I have done this many times before, but not for about 2 months. Working from Windows Explorer, AMETHYST appeared, Network Neighborhood, Amethyst; expanded it to access the partitions, but when I tried to expand one of them, got a box:

\\Amethyst\backup2(m) is not accessible
Not enough memory is available. Quit some programs.

So I quit everything except Explorer, Systray, Atiptaxx and ATI Launch Pad (since I wasn't sure what the last two did), tried again and got the same result.

ONYX is a PIII 866 with 512MB ram, 1x80GB HDD and Windows 98SE. My C: partition has 3GB free; E: and F: are for programs and data respectively and have plenty of space. I invoked System Monitor: not quite sure what I was doing with it, but checked cpu, allocated memory, locked memory and the page file. The first two seemed very high - the first hitting 512, the second around 150 and the page file was empty.

Here's what else I did. I checked SysMon, attempted the transfer and rebooted every time I changed anything; always got the same message:

1. pinged AMETHYST - no trouble there. As I could see its partitions that was no surprise.

2. Uninstalled RealPlayer and anything else I felt I could do without. (Didn't realise Real P was so HUGE - it won't be going back!

3. Removed everything possible fron the Startup menu in msconfig.

4. Fixed the size of the swap file at 1GB.

5. Edited sytem.ini to fix vcache to MinFileCache=MaxFileCache=131072. This did make a difference to SysMon, but still got the error message. The page file showed nothing - odd?

6. Defragged the C: drive from Safe Mode.

Returning from Safe mode - here's the secondary problem - System Monitor showed only a blank panel with a menu bar. Up to now it had come back each time the way it was when I closed it. However, the menu bar seemed to work, so I though I'd try monitoring something else, chose Page Faults, Allocated Memory, Swapfile in Use and Swapfile Size. Page Faults was very busy with lots of spikes, Allocated Memory constant at around 370, Swapfile Size 1000 (well, I had set it to that) and SwapFile in Use was completely empty. Also the menu bar disappeared and I can't get it back, so can't try anything else.

At this point I was tired so moved to AMETHYST and transferred the files without difficulty.

So - any ideas, anybody? What is wrong with memory? - definitely something odd about the swap file, if Sys Mon is to be believed, but I'm not familiar with it. I did try shifting the swap file to other partitions, leaving size variable, and it grew to about 150MB each time.

And how to get Sys Mon's menu bar back?

Thank you.

Edna