[ The PC Guide | The PC Guide Disk Edition | General Information ]

Disk Edition System Requirements

The PC Guide Disk Edition will work on most systems, but not all. This is for two main reasons. First, the site was created using long filenames that are not compatible with standard DOS or Windows 3.x (I never anticipated creating a Disk Edition when I put the site together, and the use of these older operating systems is declining rapidly). Second, the site requires a web browser to use, despite being off-line, which rules out certain older or non-graphical PCs.

Here are the specific requirements for using the Disk Edition:

• PC running Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT or Windows 2000.
• If installing to hard disk--mandatory if opting for the download version, optional for the CD-ROM version--a hard disk volume formatted using the FAT32 or NTFS file systems is strongly recommended. NTFS is available on NT or 2000 systems, and FAT32 on Windows 98/ME/2000 or Windows 95 OEM SR2.x systems. About 50 MB of hard disk space will be required if installing all of the Disk Edition and the PDF file of the site to hard disk on a FAT32 system. On a large FAT16 volume however, due to the thousands of small files that comprise the site, significantly more space would be wasted due to slack. See this discussion of slack for an explanation of this phenomenon. Note that most newer PCs sold in the last two years were configured with FAT32 hard disk volumes by default. To check your hard disk volume's type, try this procedure.
• Additional hard disk space if installing any of the "extras" provided with the Disk Edition.
• Web browser (frames-capable preferred).
• Internet connection capable of handling a download of several megabytes, if downloading the Disk Edition. At present, the Disk Edition download itself is about 16 MB in size. The compressed PDF file is about another 12 MB, and is downloadable separately or together with the main files.
• CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive for the CD-ROM version. Note that the Disk Edition CD-ROM is created using CD-Recordable technology. The disk should be usable on most CD-ROM drives, but there may be compatibility problems with some very old 1X and 2X drives. I have successfully tested the CD-ROM version on two different early 1990s 2X drives with success. There have been very few reported problems in the several years that the Disk Edition has been available.

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