Problem installing MASM32

[danielm]

When I run the 'install.exe' contained in m32v82r.zip, I get a diagnostic box with 'Data error in <filename>.  File is broken.' for 1808 filenames.  The installation program creates a masm32 directory on drive c (the drive I chose) and creates the directories and files I would expect for masm BUT all the files have length 0.  Can anyone suggest how to get past this little problem?

Potentially useful details:
- I have a Pentium computer with 32 Megs of RAM running Windows 95
- I have masm for DOS installed.  (I have written assembly programs in the DOS environment for years.)
- Installing to a drive with no version of masm leads to the same result.
- Clearing the existing environment variable prior to running 'intall.exe' does not help.

Thanks in advance for your time.

[hutch--]

daniel,

I have occasionally heard of this problem and it has always been a problem with the configuration of the machine. The files are actually written to disk with a 7zip SFX archive from within the installation so it is failing here. If there is something wrong with your machine configuration use this link instead.

http://www.website.masmforum.com/masm32/masm32ci.zip

Make sure when you install this version that you place it in the correct MASM32 directory straight off the root dir so that if you place it on drive C: the install directory is c:\masm32\

[danielm]

Thank you for your reply, hutch.

The 'masm32ci.exe' file you suggested does even less than the 'install.exe' from m32v82r.zip.  It creates the directory structure only.  No files are created.

Does anyone have any further thoughts?

Is there a .zip file that I can simply unzip to the desired location rather than a .exe file that installs?

This is a new one for me.  I haven't ever had problems with installation before.

[hutch--]

Daniel,

Se if you have enough disk space available, MASM32 is not a small package once its installed.

[danielm]

Hutch:

Thanks again.

I have about 2.0 GB of free space.  I can't imagine that MASM32 needs more than this.

Does anyone have an idea how much disk space MASM32 needs so I can rule this out as the cause of my problem?

[hutch--]

Daniel,

I have seen it install on a machine that only has about 100 meg free space but it can get into trouble if its a lot less than that. The effect you are getting wity empty files and similar says your machine is rejecting the disk writes that are happening from within the archiving software I use for the installation. This install has run properly on many thousands of Windows boxes from early win9x to current XP and server 2003 so I suggest there is something wrong with your Windows installation or configuration.

If you have AV software, try turning it off for the install as this can sometimes interfere with archiving software writing to disk. Usual things apply, make sure your machine has no viral or trojan infections and if you have to, do a repair on your OS installation.

[danielm]

Hutch:

Yesterday God graced me with a few moments when my second brain cell fired up.  I found the problem and now have MASM32 installed.  I thank you for your suggestions and provide this feedback for your information.

Years ago someone suggested I specify a fixed size for the Virtual Memory file rather than let Windows manage the file size.  The thinking was that the file would become defragmented as Windows changed the size, negatively affecting performance.  A fixed file would remain contiguous.

I did fix the size at 96 MB.  This has served me well but apparently was not enough for the MASM32 install.exe program.  Installation proceeded without a hitch as soon as I selected to let Windows manage the Virtual Memory file size.

Keep up the good work.


Dan

[PBrennick]

That is certainly an interesting bit of information though I believe your friend misled you as the virtual memory file is trashed at every boot so worrying about fragmentation would only be a problem if your hard drive becomes close to full or if you are contantly installing and deleting stuff without optimizing your hard drive.  Here is an idea.  Once a month do an optimization of your hard drive.  Start it when you don't need the computer as it can take a while.  Don't play with the windows settings.

Paul

[hutch--]

Daniel,

Thanks for the feedback, its always useful to know why there has been a problem with an installation and this is a useful one to know. My own solution to page file size is to put enough memory into a computer so it rarely ever uses the swap file. Fortunately memory is cheap enough these days to do this.

[Ian_B]

Hutch:Years ago someone suggested I specify a fixed size for the Virtual Memory file rather than let Windows manage the file size.  The thinking was that the file would become defragmented as Windows changed the size, negatively affecting performance.  A fixed file would remain contiguous.

This was not bad advice. It's best if you do this on a fresh drive or one that's been recently optimised so that the pagefile created IS contiguous, once it's been first allocated by Windiows the location of every part never changes. The other important thing to try and do is put this on a separate physical DRIVE, rather than just a different partition, from your Windows installation, so that accesses to both simultaneously are not hindered and can occur in parallel.

I did fix the size at 96 MB.  This has served me well but apparently was not enough for the MASM32 install.exe program.

I think that was probably just too low. The advice they gave in the MCSE program for Windows NT was to allocate the same size as your system memory plus 2Mb. I think XP may be a little more forgiving, but 96Mb is nowhere near enough compared to system memory sizes (512Mb? 1Gb?)

IanB