1881 British Census and National Index

[Murf Oscar]

The system requirements for this application are Windows 95 (or higher) or Windows NT 4.0+. It ran successfully for me, and others, back in that era, but not so under Windows 10. The application runs under the control of a viewer program which reads data from 23 very high capacity CD/DVDs, 8 for the national index of individuals and 15 for the census data by region.

The viewer program installed and ran under Windows 10 to the point of asking for a disk but rejected every one inserted. In an effort to have the program execute have worked my way down through Windows XP which I had, and then onto Windows NT 4.0+ complete with SP 6a which I found on Amazon. Both Windows XP and NT installed under Virtual Box and ran but with the identical result as obtained with Windows 10.

This has caused me to consider the possibility that the solution lies in mounting another CD/DVD with different specifications, for example the Sony developed high capacity optical disk. Am thinking it is the case this development made the application with its high data load feasible.

Am attaching copy of the Virtual Box log for your consideration, and will look forward to receiving comments.

Thank you.

[Murf Oscar]

There is a message below the file attachment box that the log file (97.64 KiB) is not downloaded yet.
Checked before hand with Thunderbird that message size was 4GB.
Here's hoping!

[BillG]

The last post in this thread might help you.

http://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine. ... 14617.html

[Murf Oscar]

Am aware of this post, and in fact sent a private message to the author without getting a response. Perhaps he's no longer with us.

In the message I asked if he could point me in the direction of Viewer 4.2 so no advance on that front. The Church of the Latter Day Saints have washed their hands of the product; 2 requests for info with no response (and I'm not the only one who has received this treatment). As for Folio who developed the product in conjunction with the Church, its been taken over and taken over again ad nauseum. Even IBM had it at one stage. The reality must be that the developer knowledge is spread to the four winds.

What really gets me is that the application I ran successfully in the past is today not running under one of the operating systems mentioned in the System Requirements on the covering of the packaging. Its not obvious to me how this situation can arise.

I see that the log file has not downloaded yet. Does the Forum have an email address, and is there a message size limitation. Will happily forward the log in parts.

Will appreciate your thoughts.

[mpack]

... asking for a disk but rejected every one inserted.

A precise error message might help.

Are the data disks you have intended to be used with the viewer version you have?

[Murf Oscar]

Thank you for your interest.

No error message. Prompt to insert a disc reissued

Yes the data discs came with Family History Resource File Viewer 2.0. As per the System Requirements "To most effectively run the FHR File it is recommended that you use the FHRF Viewer 2.0+ which is included within this package".

Any thoughts on how I can upload the System Log for consideration?

Also any thoughts on this entry in the Log, of which there are quite a few similar:

00:00:31.303548 supR3HardenedErrorV: supR3HardenedScreenImage/LdrLoadDll: rc=VERR_SUP_VP_NOT_OWNED_BY_TRUSTED_INSTALLER fImage=1 fProtect=0x0 fAccess=0x0 \Device\HarddiskVolume2\Users\Ian\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\18.091.0506.0007\amd64\FileSyncShell64.dll: supHardenedWinVerifyImageByHandle: TrustedInstaller is not the owner of '\Device\HarddiskVolume2\Users\Ian\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\18.091.0506.0007\amd64\FileSyncShell64.dll'.

[mpack]

Unless you are accessing data files remotely via OneDrive I would not have much interest in those warning messages (*), nor am I very interested in a VirtualBox log since this is certainly not a VirtualBox problem. IMHO it's almost certainly some kind of data protection feature on the CD, or a proprietary filesystem, or both. Either of those would make it unusable in a VM.

Is the CD browseable in the Windows host file explorer? I don't mean can you access the data, I mean can you see the files on the CD. I assume we're talking a physical CD rather than an ISO.

(*) However they point to a problem with out of date certification issues on your host PC which could lead to future problems. If you already had those problems then the VM would not even start.

[Murf Oscar]

I see from the BBC code instructions that I need permission to create attachments. Guess that explains why log has not been uploaded. Bit of contention with the guidance on posting which suggests always including a log with your post.

Have prepared a directory listing for you of disc 4 of the National Index. May I have permission to upload it as an attachment?

[mpack]

You don't need any special permission to create attachments, I don't know what gave you that idea. The only blocks are on external links which you shouldn't want to use anyway. Local attachments will work just fine, provided you zip the file to keep below the size limit. See the "Upload attachment" tab below the text window when composing a forum post.

You can provide log files as zip attachments, and PNG is the ideal picture format if you want to attach a screenshot. To provide a VM log: with the VM fully shut down, right click it in the GUI. Select "Show Log" and save "VBox.log" (no other file) to a zip file. Attach the zip here.

[Murf Oscar]

Got the idea from BBCode writeup - Adding attachments into a post.

Not into zip files, but as an indication the data file on disc 4 of the national index is 635,695,104 bytes.

[mpack]

"Not into zip files"? All you have to do on a Windows host is <right click file | Send to | Compressed (zipped) folder. I'm not into speculation, so I will not say anything more until I've seen a log and a screenshot.

[Murf Oscar]

Herewith zip files of log and snapshot.

[mpack]

Try enabling "Passthrough" mode in the VM settings for storage|CD. If the problem is a copy protection mechanism then that should expose the expected physical drive errors to the guest and enable it to proceed.

Another thing you could do is try imaging the CD with something like ImgBurn: given that I suspect copy protection I'd be surprised if this worked, but at least it would be confirmation (if you get sector copy errors then either the CD is defective, or it's a copy protection measure). If it worked then the ISO image would be far more convenient to use than a physical CD in a host drive.

[Murf Oscar]

Enabled "Passthrough" mode in the VM settings for storage|CD but yet again application failed to accept data CD.

On the other hand imaging a data CD with ImgBurn completed successfully, to accompanying ringing sound at the end!

Now I'm getting beyond my level of competence, eg, in the application, how is input redirected away from CD to disc?

[mpack]

Just go into VM settings, Storage tab. Currently you have host drive E: mapped to the VMs virtual CD drive (see panel on right while CD drive is selected). Map it to the ISO file instead.