dencorso

Wow! I think RLoew may just have hit jackpot! It might very well be that! Great catch, RLoew!

GRUB4DOS can be installed in an OS Partition, in a Partition Boot Record, in the MBR, in its own (hidden) private partition, and even in a CD El Torito boot loader. Do you need more versatility than that?

Way to go!!! Thanks! You do rock, MDGx!

Way to go, cluberti! Thanks! That bug is quashed! OsInfoNu2.VBS goes much farther now, finds all the drive letters, then the network card and then... barks again! Now it says, just after printing the Subnet Mask: OsInfoNu2.VBS(601, 13) Microsoft VBScript runtime error: Invalid use of Null: 'Join' Wait! That's the bug Yzöwl had found already, isn't it? So, now we know what was wrong there... It's just another missing value, like the other one, this time in the query for the Default Gateway... Anyway, we're just about at the end of the script, let's hope this is the last one. Right. ipconfig /all shows a blank Default Gateway for one of my adapters... Yes! I've added the same type of workaround you just used, and now it reaches the end, without error!!! Not so fast... There's still one more, when I change which adapter is connected: OsInfoNu3.VBS(620, 13) Microsoft VBScript runtime error: Invalid use of Null: 'Join' It's one more missing value, like the others, this time in the query for the now missing DNS Server... Now, to me, this means those unprotected 'Join's are a liability, because you cannot guarantee that the values joined will still exist on alternating conections! I think you'll have to revise the code to guard against these joins all over the Network Adapter part, at least, I'm sorry to say. But, in any case, with two workarounds I was able to get the code to run OK in my machine, with every configuration I could think of. I made the code echo blank values for Gateway and DNS Server, to have a similar output with that returned by ipconfig /all. The revised script is attached below. But I'm not at all confident all possible similar issues are caught already, except for my specific machine configuration. Thanks a lot for the great script! You do rock! OsInfoNu5.7z

No. Prozactive is right! You'll just need t2embed.dll, v. 5.0.2195.7348. Win 9x/ME don't use fontsub.dll.I don't know either whether that file works in 9x/ME or not, but I almost bet it will. So, let's stop discussing in circles and start testing it? What do you all say?

Done. Same error. But, I bet you didn't test it with anything near as ancient as my video card! It's a true MSI MS-8817 V1 nVidia GeForce2 MX400 PRO32S (32 MiB; AGP 4x), made at the turn of the millennium!!! See the relevant last few lines of the report: Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400 Adapter DAC: Integrated RAMDAC PNP Device ID: PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0110&SUBSYS_88171462&REV_A1\4&1FEB96E4&0&0008 Video RAM: 32 MB Driver Version: 6.14.10.4523 C:\WINDOWS\OsInfoNu.VBS(546, 9) SWbemDateTime: Generic failure I got the driver from Windows Update, so it's the one it thinks best for the card but, this nonetheless, its a: according to the Product Name in the nv4_disp.dll (PE Timestamp: 07/28/2003 10:53:44 PM) Properties Tab... So it's quite possible the installer simply didn't create at all the value it's trying to grep. You said it wouldn't work in a 2k machine... but I guess a 2k driver also fits the bill, don't you? It's a bug, all right! You could add some code for it to behave gracefully, in the absence of that value, in a nod for way-backward compatibility. Now, seriously, if that value should be in the registry, do tell me where it should be and I'll have pleasure in creating it just for the sake of testing this theory.

The only thing we need, at this point, is a raw image of the whole pendrive, that is, the usual dumb sector-by-sector full-disk image. Now, since the pendrive has 8 GB, the program to be used must be able to span the image in parts smaller than 4 GB (or, even better, 2 GB), because of the FAT-32 max file limit of 4 GB. Then, using 7-zip, it's easy to compress the image (to a very tiny size, because hopefully there is mostly zeros in the pendrive) and upload it for us somewhere, so we can all look inside it and reach an opinion. Of course, the above is the most paranoid way of doing it. We could, for a start, limit ourseves to two 1 GB partial images, one from the begining and the other from the end of the pendrive, and it probably would be enough. All the programs suggested are good ideas, in principle. The first one jaclaz pointed to seems particularly adequate to this task, but I'm not familiar with it. And I asked about an hexeditor, because you'll need one to look inside the images, and also might, all else failing, use it to generate the images themselves (of course, I doubt that it should ever be the case). So, as soon as you have time for it, let's start with the two 1 GB images, and see what we learn from them, OK? Good luck!

Er... cluberti... we have a problem... osinfonu.vbs(545, 9) SWbemDateTime: Generic failure in Win XP SP3. All previous versions worked without errors. But I think you've also just hit something unsuported on older OSes. But I'm confident it'll be easy to fix that. Thanks a lot for the new version!

That's another reason to go the GRUB4DOS way. It'll allow you to include an option to boot also, say, Vista PE or Win 7 PE or Bart PE, straight from an almost damage-proof ramdisk-maped .ISO image, to use as a last line of defence, in case all else fails.

@Multibooter: I think now is the proper moment to suggest that you reread my post #29, above, in this thread, and also do reread from post # 166, to the end, of Dave-H's recent thread, where we last discussed imaging at lenght, to form a good picture of it all (BTW, I've sent you a PM, too). With the added experience you've just amassed, I'm sure it'll be worth it. Of course, I'm also writing this here to leave a pointer to help any future reader to be able to easily find that other thread, where those posts are somewhat hidden at the end of a long discussion on not obviously related matters.

Hi, Glen! Well, before anything, welcome to MSFN! I cannot help but notice that you have also this thread Laptop doesn't work!, about a Toshiba Satellite, which you opened in Jan 12 2010, in which you said you were about to start a reinstall. However, the next I see your name in another part of the Forums, it this thread, about problems with a Viglen laptop... Were I you, I'd let this one sit on the bench for a while, finish the installation and configuration of the first one, and let this one worry me only after I was pretty well sure the other was already running solidly. Doing too many things like those, all at once, with two different OSes at the same time, would make it much more painful than it need be. Please do heed this friendly advice, take your time, and hasten slowly. Good luck!

Well, I, for one, definitely recommend GRUB4DOS. It opens one so many possibilities, besides and beyond its original intended use, that I think it's clearly the way to go. You intall it, and it'll serve you well for a long time. GRUB4DOS rocks!

"Curioser and curioser", as Alice would put it! Let's sure investigate further your finding. So, while we're at it: 1) Don't write anything to it. 2) Don't format or reformat it. 3) Don't partition or repartition it. (I'm sure waitng a few days before starting to use it normally should be bearable, since you've just bought it and are as curious, as I am to figure out what's happening. Knowledge is sure worth the wait ). 4) Can you create a full-disk,blind sector-by-sector image of it? As it's new, most of it probably is already zeroes, so it ought to compress nicely, for us to be able to peruse its internals... What imaging software do you have at hand? And, last, but not least, what, if any, hexeditor do you have at hand?

Do give this thread a good read: SSD vs RAMDrive... while not focusing on 9x, there's a lot of interessting info on SSDs in it, some of it quite up-to-date.

It's not OK in XP SP3, just yet, sorry! It loads. Then I press "Scan Computer" and get, right away, an Unhandled exception... It says: Public member 'OperatingSystemSKU' on type 'SWbemObjectEx' not found. cluberti's OSInfo.vbs (if run with cscript) runs OK, though. So it may be simple... But if it proves not to be, then I suggest using the older, but trusty, GetVersionEx(), instead, at least to see where is it going wrong.

Before anything, apply KB240075 UHCD.SYS hotfix and see whether that solves your problem (read also these 3 posts: link and the original KB240075, thanks to the Wayback Machine)... It seems newer Kingstons don't merge well with the original (v. 4.10.2222) UHCD.SYS.

If I remember my own code spelunking right (I did that way back when), the Start --> "Restart in MS-DOS Mode" option reappears if you manage to coerce Win ME to use the Win 98SE Shell32.DLL. However, even then, when you attempt to use it, it'll call Kernel32.dll, which will thunk it down to KRNL386.EXE, which will pass the command to VWin32.Vxd (see Matt Pietrek's great "Win 95 Sys Programming Secrets" for much more details about the interaction of Kernel32/KRNL386/VWin32), which will call VMM.VxD, which will fail the call, unless you use all these modules from Win 98SE, too. But, in case you manage to do that, you'll be using a less well-known variant version of Win 98SE with 98SE2ME, not Win ME anymore. In short: no, Win ME cannot do it because the code to do it is absent from its two key VxDs, period. Sorry. On the other hand, the true MDGx's 98SE2ME might be a viable addition to your project...

What else might not work on a poorly cloned HDD? Is the System Commander cloning problem just the tip of the iceberg?Of course it's just the tip of the iceberg, but you might have to wait a long time before uncovering more of it. My rule of thumb is this: ONE single flaw detected means: image rejected, no exceptions. It helps avoid a bucketfull of grief later. Ghost is powerful, and can do lots of interesting things, but can only be mastered through long and careful experimentation, on a case by case basis. That's why a full True Image (blind sector-by-sector) is the one you do first, in the general case, when you simply cannot afford to make any assuptions. BTW, a true forensic image is a True Image (that ghost calls "raw", "-ir"), and the fact they call "forensic" the "-id" is most unfortunate, because "-id" normalizes the disk structure, on the basis of suppositions that may (and as we saw, more often than not, actually do) render the clone it generates unbootable... in fact, it's faster and preserves (hopefully) all the data (most of the time), but introduces bias, that, IMO, taints the proof-value of such images, so they are not truly forensic, at all.

Short answer: Yes. Long answer: .... Fact: YMMV Sure. I have used ALGOL programs punched in cards. I have used QEMM. And I like a finely optimized DOS setup with UMBs. But, by now, as most of the time I'm in Windows (9x or XP), when I do want such a setup, I boot from a floppy. I have banished EMM386.EXE from my config.sys some years ago and have no regrets whatever about it.

Short answer: No. Long answer: If you have EMM386.EXE loaded from config.sys and DOS=UMB, they may, space permitting, load things in the UMBs instead of in low memory, releasing more conventional memory to DOS applications. Most of the time you'll not notice any difference with that, unless you go out of your way looking for it. On the other hand, if you really have a line like DEVICE=EMM386.EXE ... in your machine's config.sys (give it a look), you might as well edit it to read instead REM DEVICE=EMM386.EXE ..., to test your setup without it, because, generally, Win 9x/ME is much more stable without EMM386.EXE loaded, and Windows really doesn't need EMM386.EXE at all.

It depends of where you look, it seems. In all cases we're talking about v.1.51 and look what was claimed about in the SDelete v1.51 Info Page (as it was in Jan 02 2008): "SDelete works on Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0 and Win2K". So I think you've just stumbled in a case of previously-documented undocumented behaviour! Changing subjects somewhat, seriously, there are various builds of the sdelete v. 1.51, which are best diferenciated by their PE Timestamp (which one can easily read with the MiTeC EXE Explorer): Notable builds of sdelete.exe version 1.51 ========================================================================== PE Timestamp: 07/09/2005 08:00:48 PM Size: 49,152 bytes Pre-MS (-c does nothing, non digitally signed). PE Timestamp: 11/17/2005 03:31:42 PM Size: 49,152 bytes Pre-MS (-c works OK, non digitally signed). PE Timestamp: 08/16/2006 05:33:17 PM Size: 166,712 bytes Available now from MS (-c works OK, digitally signed). So, except for the earliest build I've just mentioned (which is buggy and used to be distributed alongside the source, way back when), all other pre-MS takeover (Jul 18 2006) versions are, in truth, documented to work with Win 9x/ME... and since the code probably didn't change significantly, because the version is still exactly the same, all later builds still ought to.

Windows cannot uninstall itself. It can only get corrupted and become unbootable at most. Yep , but a number of laptops have a "recovery option" on hard disk, which, if run will re-make the drive just as when it came from factory, some use a pre-configured drive image while some simply have a half-pre-configured image that automatically starts the installation of windows, which would look to the (unsuspecting) user who somehow "triggered" the recovery, as if Windows had UNinstalled itself and then tries re-installing itself from scratch.Sure. I've seen that happen more than once, since last year or so. Now... *that's* spooky! It's the most auto-boycotting feature I've ever knew of!!!

I must say that I find your system of allowing all the operating systems to see one another and having all these partitions visible at once very bizarre. I do it too. I first setup my 4 HDD machine with the slave IDE as the boot device and true DOS 7.10 boots from its 1st (primary) partition, and lauches Win 98SE or GRUB4DOS. If GRUB4DOS is launched then it'll let me boot XP SP3, from the 1st (primary) partition of the master IDE or TinHat Linux or RIP Linux from images or go to the GRUB4DOS prompt. All four HDDs have extended partitions further subdivided in several logical partitions, althou the SATA HDDs lack any primary partitions on purpose. I let the DOS/Win 98SE assign the letters to all disks, and jotted them down together with their labels. Then, in XP SP3 I've used the "Disk Management Console" to assign all letters just as it is on 98SE, except for the boot disk, so that my boot partition is always C:, the inactive other OS partition is always D:, and all other partitions always get the selfsame letters. I also turned off System Restore in all partitions in XP SP3, but I've kept the Recycle Bin active on both OSes. This presents no problem when I boot XP after 98SE, but I have to delete (with deltree) all the Recycled folders during AUTOEXEC.BAT, before booting to 98SE after XP. I take the oportunity to delltree and recreate the Temp folders also, at the same place. And all partitions are FAT-32 and all OSses see every one of them. And no file from one OS is in the partiton belonging to the other, so even if I remove one of the bootable HDDs, the other continues able to boot as it is. In my eyes, its also quite straightforward... But, in any case, as always, YMMV, of course!

Ther's nothing complex to it. DOSSTART.BAT only exists if you create it. That's all. And, in fact, by my method, you don't even need it, unless you want the automagic. Otherwise, just type DOSDVD <Enter> ant the prompt, when you get to it, and you're all set. BTW, using Exit to DOS.PIF is yet another of the many possibilities to do it, and ought to work, as well.

Great news, Ninho! You rock!