dave343 wrote on 2021-02-01, 15:27:

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Hi, what computer are you using?
808x, NEC V20/30, 80186, 80286, 80386, 80486?

I'm asking, because Pkunzip/Pkzip can detect the CPU type and EMS/XMS..

Speaking of EMS, XMS, you can try loading the updated versions of MS-DOS 6.x, they should work as well on v5.
If not, please try the versions of Win9x.

If the issue still persists, the cause might be the ZIP file itself.
Maybe a modern ZIP algorithm was used (Deflate64 etc) which old Pkunzip simply doesn't know of.

Good luck! 🙂

Jo22 wrote on 2021-02-01, 15:39:

Hi, what computer are you using? 808x, NEC V20/30, 80186, 80286, 80386, 80486? […]
Show full quote

dave343 wrote on 2021-02-01, 15:27:

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Hi, what computer are you using?
808x, NEC V20/30, 80186, 80286, 80386, 80486?

I'm asking, because Pkunzip/Pkzip can detect the CPU type and EMS/XMS..

Speaking of EMS, XMS, you can try loading the updated versions of MS-DOS 6.x, they should work as well on v5.
If not, please try the versions of Win9x.

If the issue still persists, the cause might be the ZIP file itself.
Maybe a modern ZIP algorithm was used (Deflate64 etc) which old Pkunzip simply doesn't know of.

Good luck! 🙂

It's on my 386 system. But as for the ZIP file, I actually used Windows 10 built in compression to zip the file... I just assumed PKzip would be able to unzip it 🤣... but maybe that's the problem?

dave343 wrote on 2021-02-01, 15:27:

To install PKZIP, I just copied all the files from the PKZIP Install Floppy to a folder on C: \pkzip as I did try to run the Install.bat file on the floppy but it just threw out a tone of errors about not being able to find files.

The ton of errors might be an indication that the copy of PKZIP, as your 386 PC read it from the floppy, is severely damaged, such that even the file names in the INSTALL script are messed up. It is normal for a computer to lock up of you run a damaged EXE file.

Maybe your system has hardware problems reading data from floppy disks correctly. Try comparing the output of "type a:\install.bat" to what you see on your modern computer when you open the disk image (e.g. using 7-zip).

The last official DOS version of PKZip was 2.50. It's oddly difficult to find. Try http://wiki.oldos.org/Downloads/MSDOS.html .

(While you may find downloads for later versions of PKZip, those versions are hacks and may be potentially harmful.)

mkarcher wrote on 2021-02-01, 16:15:

dave343 wrote on 2021-02-01, 15:27:

To install PKZIP, I just copied all the files from the PKZIP Install Floppy to a folder on C: \pkzip as I did try to run the Install.bat file on the floppy but it just threw out a tone of errors about not being able to find files.

The ton of errors might be an indication that the copy of PKZIP, as your 386 PC read it from the floppy, is severely damaged, such that even the file names in the INSTALL script are messed up. It is normal for a computer to lock up of you run a damaged EXE file.

Maybe your system has hardware problems reading data from floppy disks correctly. Try comparing the output of "type a:\install.bat" to what you see on your modern computer when you open the disk image (e.g. using 7-zip).

The "floppy" install disk was actually just my GoTek USB key floppy, so I don't know if that would be causing the errors, however I agree maybe the download from WinWorldPC was bad, would make sense that it's locking up. Do you know if I zip a file using Windows 10 built in compression, if any pkzip program in dos should be able to work with it ok? I've always taken modern zip software for granted and just assumed zip a file in Windows 10, and pkunzip from 20yrs ago could unzip it.

dave343 wrote on 2021-02-01, 16:29:

The "floppy" install disk was actually just my GoTek USB key floppy, so I don't know if that would be causing the errors, however I agree maybe the download from WinWorldPC was bad, would make sense that it's locking up. Do you know if I zip a file using Windows 10 built in compression, if any pkzip program in dos should be able to work with it ok? I've always taken modern zip software for granted and just assumed zip a file in Windows 10, and pkunzip from 20yrs ago could unzip it.

I downloaded the image from WInWorldPC, and it looks fine on first sight. It is a 720K image. I hope your GoTek is compatible with that, because otherwise you will get a a big mess of corrupted data.

As far as I know, the default settings of Windows 10 still create standard compatible ZIP files. Even if those files were incompatible, you should just get an error message when you try to extract them (as Deflate64K has a different method ID), and no system crash.

mkarcher wrote on 2021-02-01, 16:41:

dave343 wrote on 2021-02-01, 16:29:

The "floppy" install disk was actually just my GoTek USB key floppy, so I don't know if that would be causing the errors, however I agree maybe the download from WinWorldPC was bad, would make sense that it's locking up. Do you know if I zip a file using Windows 10 built in compression, if any pkzip program in dos should be able to work with it ok? I've always taken modern zip software for granted and just assumed zip a file in Windows 10, and pkunzip from 20yrs ago could unzip it.

I downloaded the image from WInWorldPC, and it looks fine on first sight. It is a 720K image. I hope your GoTek is compatible with that, because otherwise you will get a a big mess of corrupted data.

Annnnndddd there's my answer 🤣. Nope, my GoTek is NOT compatible with 720k images but I put that image onto my USB stick anyways *because even though the image was for 720k floppies, it was 1.38mb in size so I assumed it was a mistake and was a 1.44mb floppy image. But that makes sense, so I guess even though I could copy and read the pkzip files in Dos, the files themselves are corrupted.

dave343 wrote on 2021-02-01, 16:58:

Annnnndddd there's my answer 🤣. Nope, my GoTek is NOT compatible with 720k images but I put that image onto my USB stick anyways *because even though the image was for 720k floppies, it was 1.38mb in size so I assumed it was a mistake and was a 1.44mb floppy image. But that makes sense, so I guess even though I could copy and read the pkzip files in Dos, the files themselves are corrupted.

Ah, I see. You're running a Gotek with the standard firmware..
Yes, there are weird things happening.
Since there are separate versions for 720K and 1.44MB, the corruption might be a feature. 😉

In such a case, you can try to up-convert a 720KB image to 1.44MB using WinImage and save it under a separate file name (so you won't loose the original file).

Alternatively, you can try installing Flash Floppy firmware.
But beware, going back to the Gotek firmware is not possible right now.

Jorpho wrote on 2021-02-01, 16:27:

The last official DOS version of PKZip was 2.50. It's oddly difficult to find. Try http://wiki.oldos.org/Downloads/MSDOS.html .

(While you may find downloads for later versions of PKZip, those versions are hacks and may be potentially harmful.)

I should clarify: you can download the official self-extracting distribution of PKZip 2.50 for DOS from that site, copy it however you like to your other computer, and then unpack it on that comptuer. No installation floppy required.

Jorpho wrote on 2021-02-01, 16:27:

The last official DOS version of PKZip was 2.50. It's oddly difficult to find. Try http://wiki.oldos.org/Downloads/MSDOS.html .

(While you may find downloads for later versions of PKZip, those versions are hacks and may be potentially harmful.)

https://www.sac.sk/
https://www.searchftps.net/

But I would go for the sac one: Slovak Antivirus Center 😉

I think 2.04 was the version I registered (first time I paid for software, and the last time until relatively recently, when I decided to dump all my pirated sw). Can't find it these days, I think it was among the stuff an ex dumped when I was out of the country.