dencorso

The shortcut arrow is in IconGroups 30 and 31, when using Resource Hacker on SHELL32.DLL. See also this at MDGx's.

Well. If so, then, there's no problem whatsoever both with the laptop hardware, and with the external USB devices. Therefore, your problem is software-only. And, just for the record, your laptop has a "Serial Ultrabay Slim", so it is, for all purposes, an internal SATA HDD, when the HDD with Win XP SP3 CZ is inserted... So... Do you think you could, while booted in the "Work XP", create a full partition image from the "Personal XP" to an external USB HDD? If so, that'd be great, because then we could troubleshoot really aggressively, since if we messed up bad, we'd be able to fall back to the initial situation, just by redeploying the safety image initially acquired? Ghost, Acronis, or the free Partition Imaging are all adequate for doing this.

It seems to me the problem is not on your side, since you can connect and post here, but over at RESPeRATE's forums. I suggest you just wait for 24h, and check if it's gone... it very well might, if it's a problem on their side, as I'm guessing.

Just for the record (quoted from MDGx's Registry Guide): C:\>REGEDIT Imports and exports registry files to and from the registry. REGEDIT [/L:system] [/R:user] filename1 REGEDIT [/L:system] [/R:user] /C filename2 REGEDIT [/L:system] [/R:user] /E filename3 [regpath1] REGEDIT [/L:system] [/R:user] /D regpath2 /L:system Specifies the location of the SYSTEM.DAT file. /R:user Specifies the location of the USER.DAT file. filename1 Specifies the file(s) to import into the registry. /C filename2 Specifies the file to create the registry from. /E filename3 Specifies the file to export the registry to. regpath1 Specifies the starting registry key to export from. (Defaults to exporting the entire registry). /D regpath2 Specifies the registry key to delete. Win98/ME ONLY! /S UNDOCUMENTED [USE WITH CAUTION!]: executes all REGEDIT command line operations quietly, without ANY confirmation. Available ONLY in Windows GUI mode! There's still more at MDGx's Registry Backup and Restore...

The *same* laptop? You mean the same make and model, but actually another physical laptop, for sure?

Here's another one, nowadays only preserved thanks to the Internet Archive: the BalusC Server

Select a moment you're about to leave for some time (say, about 2h or more)... connect one of the problem USB HDDs when just about to leave and let it remain there. When you get back, 2 or more hours later, does the machine respond or is it actually still locked?

I have an External USB 2.0 Seagate Expansion 1500 GB, which works. So we know for sure that unpatched 9x/ME can work with up to 1.5 TB, but not as a single partition. For partitions larger than 1TB or HDDs over 2TB, according to RLoew, patching is needed.

Jeff Beck & Joss Stone - I put a spell on you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbLqGlxJsIw

No, I guess it's deeper. RLoew reminded me it's necessary to patch Win 9x/ME for it to be able to tackle 4 kiB sectors... But do give it a last try: start Paragon 1st, then plug in the USB HDD. If that also fails, then a non-free patch is required.

Yes, of course! And it may even work as a plain FAT-32 drive, too, if I'm not mistaken (but do not test this idea for the time being, please). Why, it may even work on 9x/ME, with some luck... Although Paragon NTFS for Win98 would be required for accessing NTFS, of course. Or Ext2 could be used... there're IFSs for XP and for 9x/ME to use Ext2...

With all due respect, what's the advantage of adding the ME USB 1.1 stack? I know they're designed to work with the ME USB 2.0 stack, but up to NUSB 3.3 we were using the 98SE USB 1.1 stack with the latest available hotfixes (some of which are compiled latter than the original ME files) and it worked all right (and was pretty well time proven). So, forgive me if this was discussed previously, but I confess I don't remember it ever having been discussed... Later edit: That's because I must be getting senile... These <link> <link> are the relevant posts, right? But I do think LoneCrusader's idea is worth a shot...

Where else can one see wookies eating noodles in full rooms and then having a beer in the breeze by the levee?

Thanks, Comos, you do rock! It's actually really 4 kiB sectored, as per the links you gave!!! Now I've seen the evidence. there no doubt about it! So, it seems we have the following: the (SATA) HDD is really 4 kiB sectored, but fakes 512 byte sectors, then the enclosure controller takes those fake 512 byte sectors and creates fake 4 kiB sectors, as described in the links you gave or (ain't there always an "or"?) the (SATA) HDD is really 4 kiB sectored, but fakes 512 byte sectors to everybody but to the enclosure controller (because it knows the secret handshake)... and, in either case, the USB interface presents 4 kiB sectors to Win XP (which is happy to accept them... I think this is undocumented behaviour)!

Please give me links to those files, so that I'll be able to see what's happening, and then I'll gladly do it. BTW, does it find the files with /g or /a? /a should give sort of the same output as the older version...

It sure does!!! BTW, since you're the 1st to get it, for the time being, *do* *not* reformat nor repartition it. I'd sure like to look at its first 8kiB, starting from LBA0. Would you kindly get a copy of that with an hexeditor, zip and attach the resulting binary image? TIA.

Not in full, but 7 of 'em actually are there.

That may be because there the masses can err, succeed or even do good, but cannot make mistakes.

If I had to pick one for me, I'd buy ASUS or HP. But that's me, and YMMV. BTW, Sony VAIO are good machines, too, besides the other brands already mentioned.

There are cuckoos, parrots and cockatoos galore, however...

I'm not aware of any, whatsoever. Sorry.

Unless they get bitten by those aardvarks and raccoons around there and blow to smithereens, of course.

In case you didn't grab Registry Concentrator when it was originally posted, I've just reuploaded them to zShare, so grab them while you can. The links are inside the quotes, which I've edited a little... the red highlights are mine.

Sure. And referees, but no umpires...

And many unneeded tools, too. Not to mention eggs with tatoos.