Multibooter

I assume your HP Laserjet 2420 is a black and white printer of the the year 2004. I have a color Laserjet 2605 of the year 2006 and have used it also via IP. Fiddling around with it is very time-consuming. Suggestions and thoughts, maybe they help: - reinstall the printer driver + create a NEW printer icon in Printers and Faxes - installing the older driver from the original driver CD had worked for me, but not a more recent driver downloaded from HP - I started to install the driver from the CD WITHOUT the printer connected during the installation a window came up: "Connection Type" -> Directly using a USB cable then a window came up "Connect your device Now -> power on the printer -> connect the USB cable - IEEE 1284 is Centronics [=slow parallel], the USB printer icon created for my HP2605 was originally named "HP Color Laser Jet 2605dn_2605dtn PCL6"

Experiment 2: How to reset the SMART values of a 4TB Toshiba HDD I was copying stuff under WinXP onto a Toshiba 4TB HDD in an external docking station. By mistake I pressed the wrong switch on the power strip and switched OFF the power supply of the external docking station, while the computer was writing to the 4TB HDD in it. After 3 seconds I noticed my mistake and switched the power supply ON again. WinXP on the desktop computer quickly froze and I had to pull the plug of the desktop computer. The activity light of the docking station with the 4TB HDD, however, kept on flashing (separate power supply), even after the desktop computer was powered off. I let the docking station flash for about 15 minutes, then powered off the docking station. I made several attempts to find out whether the 4TB Toshiba HDD was still OK 1) When I restarted the computer, with the 4TB HDD in the docking station, connected as before to onboard SATA, I got the BIOS message: "S.M.A.R.T Status Bad, Backup and Replace, Press F1 to Resume". 2) I then connected the external docking station to the ASM1061 SATA PCIe card set to IDE Mode. When booting I got the error msg by the ASM1061 card: Contact manufacturer. 3) I then booted the desktop computer with the Paragon Hard Disk Manager 15 and Acronis Disk Director 12.5 boot CDs (both Linux). The 4TB Toshiba HDD was NOT displayed anymore in their partitioning windows. BRICKED? 4) I then connected the external docking station with the 4TB HDD to the eSATA CardBus card in my old Inspiron 7500 laptop (Pentium III 650MHz, Phoenix BIOS of 1999, no detection of SMART values), and low and behold, the Acronis Disk Director 12.5 boot CD (Linux) displayed OK the 4TB HDD. I selected "Clean up" in the Acronis menu to set the 4TB to uninitialized. I then initialized, still with the Acronis boot CD, the 4TB HDD to GPT. My 25-year-old laptop can sometimes do more than a more recent desktop! The 4TB Toshiba HDD was displayed under WinXP by Hard Disk Sentinel as "BAD". The power failure while writing had also caused a reset of Power on time to "0 days 0 hours" and the Total start/stop count to 1. Hard Disk Sentinel has in its Information tab a Short Self-test and an Extended Self-test. I ran the Short Self-test, message after 2 minutes: HDD is OK, then ran the Extended Self-test, message after 3 minutes: HDD is OK. BUT: the health of the 4TB HDD was still displayed as 0%, with failure predicted. After these two OK tests I had my doubts about the "BAD" SMART status of the nearly new 4TB Toshiba HDD. I low-level formatted with my old Inspiron laptop under WinXP the 3626.0GB of the 4TB Toshiba HDD, with HDD Low Level Format Tool 4.50. LLFMT of this "BAD" 4TB HDD took 13:34:03 hours at 82.7MB/s, no error messages and the formatting time and average speed were about the same as when I had low-level formatted the 4TB HDD fresh out of the box. Extended Self-test OK, LLFMT OK and at the same speed as when the 4TB HDD was new. The 4TB HDD seemed OK to me. I decided not to run with Hard Disk Sentinel the -> Disk -> Surface test -> Reinitialize disk surface on the 4TB HDD because this would have taken 5+ days. ["Overwrites the disk surface with special initialization pattern to restore the sectors to default (empty) status and reads back sector contents, to verify if they are accessible and consistent. Forces the analysis of any weak sectors and verifies any hidden problems and fixes them by reallocation of bad sectors (this is drive regeneration)."] For resetting SMART I used the selections "Clear defect reassign list" and "SMART Reset Attribute Values" of DRevitalize v3.32 (DOS version, 12Jul2019) on a FreeDOS boot floppy. The initial attempt briefly displayed "ERROR" in the Result column, after repeated attempts "SUCESS" was displayed, maybe several sub-HDDs are inside the 4TB Toshiba HDD and required multiple attempts, no idea. In any case the SMART values were reset, no more "BAD" flag. The "BAD" Raw Read Error Rate, Power on time, Total Start/Stop and other SMART values were reset. The Paragon Hard Disk Manager 15 and Acronis Disk Director 12.5 boot CDs in the desktop computer displayed again the 4TB GPT HDD. After having reset the SMART values I re-ran the Extended Self-test, which took nearly 8 hours instead of the 3 minutes with the previous Extended Self-test. Message: Extended Self-test Successfully Completed. I have put a hand-written sticker "Self-refurbished OK" on the 4TB Toshiba HDD. DRevitalize v3.32 is a special build for WinXP, the preceding v3.31 and the subsequent versions require Windows Vista. The ability to handle Toshiba HDDs was added in this v3.32. DRevitalize v3.32 runs OK on a 4TB GPT HDD under WinXP with GPT Loader installed. The demo version 3.32 can be downloaded at https://drevitalize.com/current/Drevitalize332demo.exe Unfortunately the feature "SMART Reset Attribute Values" has been removed from the Windows demo version 3.32 and "license ordering is no longer available. Project is on hold" https://drevitalize.com/order/ The DOS version on the FreeDOS boot floppy, however, CAN reset the SMART values of a 4TB Toshiba GPT HDD, but is otherwise limited and cannot display the SMART values. DRevitalize v3.32 is of 12Jul2019 and still worked OK on the Toshiba 4TB GPT, manufactured in December 2023. DRevitalize v3.32 is a little jewel and has many other uses. Resetting SMART values with it is quite easy, other features are very advanced, highly recommended. Anybody here has experience with the non-demo Windows installer version of DRevitalize v3.32 ?

If I understand you right, the Toshiba 4TB HDD partitioned with both settings "Legacy" mode [unaligned] and "Vista" mode [=aligned] settings will work fine under WinXP/2003/Win10 because the firmware of the HDD will handle both aligned and unaligned partitions correctly?

A working browser, reliable virus-checking and the ability to work with 4TB+ HDDs make a computer/operating system useful in 2025 and later, at least for me. WinXP without these three capabilities is of limited use. Two of my computers work already fine with 4TB GPT HDDs under WinXP/2003 (read/write, partitioning. virus-checking, watching movies, Beyond Compare. Sandboxie, etc) WinXP on these 2 computers is "SP3-only", and does not contain "all updates until end of support" nor "all of the extended support updates". My first set of two 4TB GPT HDDs (Master+Backup) was created under WinXP SP3 and Win2003 32bit SP2, with both 4TB HDDs partitioned unaligned, i.e. by setting "Legacy" mode in Paragon HDM12 before creating the partitions. The first set of 4TB HDDs has worked mostly fine under WinXP/2003/Win10. I will now create more sets of 4TB+ GPT HDDs, containing different accumulations of stuff, mainly for use under WinXP/2003. Before starting to partition the 4TB+ HDDs under WinXP/2003, however, I will have to decide on the setting: Legacy [=unaligned] or Vista [=aligned]. The wrong choice may mean that eventually 100TB+ of stuff may have to be copied again Working under WinXP with GPT HDDs <=2TBs is easy, maybe a good exercise for getting acquainted with GPT under WinXP. Working under WinXP with GPT HDDs >2TB, however, is the tricky part. MiniTool Partition Wizard v11.4 (last version for WinXP), for example, doesNOT work under WinXP with GPT HDDs of any size (<=2TB and >2TB): an OK partitioned 4TB GPT HDD gets displayed as having a single partition and nothing happens when you right-click on it. My currently preferred software for creating partitions on 4TB GPT HDDs under WinXP/2003 is Paragon Hard Disk Manager 12 v10.1.19.16240 (Server, 25Nov2012). In PHDM12 the blue screen installer bug of GPT Loader of PHDM11 was fixed, it contains the last version of their old [=well-tested] partitioning engine, no .NET Framework. Paragon removed from PHDM12 the huge Total Defrag component, maybe issues defragging with PHDM11 under WinXP a 4TB GPT HDD?

I am about to combine software downloads, spread out over several smaller HDDs, onto a single 4TB GPT HDD. The 4TB GPT HDD will be read and written to mainly under Window XP SP3 (with Paragon GPT Loader) and under Windows Server 2003 32bit SP2, with occasional read/write access by Windows 10. The 4TB GPT HDD will be used only for data storage, and I will create both a master 4TB GPT HDD and a backup 4TB GPT HDD. Should I create aligned or not-aligned (=CHS-aligned) partitions on the 4TB GPT hard disk drives? The two 4TB GPT HDDs are Toshiba HDWD240, the label on them has an "AF" symbol and Hard Disk Sentinel displays under WinXP "Bytes Per Sector: 4096 [Advanced Format]". Victoria v5.23 displays under WinXP: "Sector: Logic 512 bytes, Phys 4096". PartitionGuru v4.7.0 under WinXP displays "Sector Size: 512 Bytes, Physical sector Size: 512 Bytes". A major criteria is backward compatibility. Which Windows XP software doesNOT work with aligned partitions? Which Windows 10 software doesNOT work with not-aligned partitions? Which hardware or driver doesNOT work with aligned/not-aligned partitions? Does Windows XP/2003 have serious bugs when using aligned partitions? Does Windows 10 have serious bugs when using not-aligned partitions? Does boot-time/startup CHKDSK of WinXP/2003/Win10 have issues with aligned/not-aligned partitions on a 4TB GPT HDD? Is the question about partition alignment on a 4TB GPT HDD irrelevant? Do both aligned and not-aligned partitions work OK on a 4TB GPT HDD under WinXP/2003/Win10? Is there a worth-while increase in computer efficiency/speed, with a 5400rpm 4TB data storage HDD, when you use aligned partitions under Windows XP/2003? If the 4TB GPT HDD should ever go bad, is it easier to recover data from aligned or not-aligned partitions? When the onboard SATA controller (e.g. the Intel ICH5 onboard the Asus P5PE-VM motherboard of 2006) incorrectly detects under WinXP a disk geometry of 855388/121/34 (instead of 219051/255/63) for the 4TB GPT HDD connected to onboard SATA, will aligned or not-aligned partitions work OK? In Paragon Hard Disk Manager 11, 12, 14 and 15 you have the choice of creating aligned or not-aligned partitions under WinXP, with the selection -> Tools -> Settings -> General options, section Partition Alignment Mode. You can also create a mix of aligned and not-aligned partitions on a GPT HDD with Paragon HDM under WinXP/2003 by switching between "Legacy" and "Vista" Alignment mode in Settings -> exit PHDM -> restart PHDM -> create partition. There are several alternatives: 1) create not-aligned partitions on both the Master and Backup 4TB GPT HDD 2) create aligned partitions on both 4TB HDDs 3) create aligned partitions on one 4TB GPT HDD, and not-aligned partitions on the other 4TB GPT HDD 4) create a mix of aligned/not-aligned partitions depending on e.g. the file system (FAT32/NTFS) Answers to the various sub-questions above may help find an answer to the main question here: Should I create aligned or not-aligned partitions on the two 4TB GPT hard disk drives?

I am using under WinXP on my i7 desktop: Foxit Phantom PDF v7.0.8.1216 and on my old 700MHz Pentium III laptop: Foxit Phantom v2.2.3.112

www.rt.com still crashed on my computers, after 3 days, so the crashes, on both an i7 desktop with the 32-bit version of the release of 26Jul2025 of New Moon and on an old SSE-only laptop with the SSE-version, were not caused by some rapidly changing content of the rt.com newspage. Both computers have WinXP SP2 installed plus the update to SP3, which does NOT include Internet Explorer 8. Because the crash msg was by MS, I installed Internet Explorer 8 IE8-WindowsXP-x86-ENU.exe (8Mar2009). During the installation of IE8 I de-selected "Install Updates". New Moon, release of 26Jul2025, subsequently did NOT crash at www.rt.com anymore. So the release of 26Jul2025 (only of New Moon, not of Serpent) seems to require a component of IE8 which is not contained in IE7. Can you fix this? There are various flavours of WinXP SP3, by installing the complete package or by going the upgrade path, e.g. WinXP SP2 plus the SP3 upgrade. I have preferred the upgrade path because I have no use for IE8, included with the complete package. I will restore the IE7-only version of WinXP SP3 on my computer, so if you fix the issue, I'll be glad to test it on my IE7-only version of WinXP SP3.

I am using WinXP SP2 + the KB936929 upgrade to SP3. Internet Explorer is v7.0.5730.13,128bit, i.e. Internet Explorer 8 is not installed.

I have test-installed the preceding 32bit New Moon releases of 28Jun2025, 5Jul2025, 12Jul2025 and 19Jul2025, everything fine. Then, after restoring the release of 26Jul2025, again crash. So the bug at www.rt.com is definitely caused by changes in the release of 26Jul2025. I have only 2 add-ons installed, HTTPS Always 5.2.27 and NoScript 5.1.9; the release of 26Jul2025 still crashed after disabling both add-ons. The crashes occur on both a more recent desktop with an i7 and on my old Inspiron 7500 with a Pentium 3 (SSE-only). www.rt.com and www.aljazeera.com are the only news sites I use with JavaScript enabled, www.aljazeera.com does not crash. When JavaScript is disabled, www.rt.com does not crash. Interesting: when New Moon of 26Jul2025 with Javascript enabled, is run in a sandbox of Sandboxie v5.40: www.rt.com doesn't crash on the 1st run, crashes on the next run, then doesn't crash anymore on subsequent runs

I don't update that often. The previous version of New Moon I have been using until today was the release of 17May2025. I just re-installed it, the release of 17May2025 doesn't crash, while the release of 26Jul2025 does crash at www.rt.com. This is the error msg I get with www.rt.com under the release of 26Jul2025: "palemoon.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience. ... Please tell Microsoft about the problem. Details: Appname: palemoon.exe AppVer 4.8.7.8956 ModName: xul.dll ModVer 4.8.7.8956 Offset: 006eccac The following files will be included in this error report: C:\DOCUME~1\Expert\LOCALS~1\Temp\5b61_appcompat.txt" So something doesn't seem to run under WinXP. Serpent of 26Jul2025, in contrast, does work OK with www.rt.com.

First of all: A big thank-you for your great work! New Moon of 26Jul2025 crashes when www.rt.com is loaded, tested with both the 32bit and SSE versions, Serpent of 26Jun2025 does not crash. When JavaScript is disabled with NoScript v5.1.9, New Moon does not crash.

Experiment 1: Exsys EX-3595 ExpressCard under WinXP NOTE: 2 screenshots, originally in this posting, were deleted on 4Aug2025 because of limited upload space. The posting with these 2 screenshots can be seen at https://web.archive.org/web/20250804204137/https://msfn.org/board/topic/186840-experimenting-with-gpt-and-hard-disks-2tb-under-winxp/#comment-1280846 I was looking for a SATA ExpressCard (i.e. for a laptop) which would be "compatible with GPT HDDs >2TB under WinXP" Cixert in his posting of 23Jan2025 https://msfn.org/board/topic/181911-read-gpt-hard-disk-on-windows-xp-solved/page/28/#findComment-1277131 had asked chatGPT about SATA cards with WinXP drivers and supporting MBR >2TB. chatGPT indicated that Marvell 88SE9230 and ASMedia ASM1061 have drivers for Windows XP and suggested 4 sources for buying the PCIe cards (i.e. for a desktop). I had bought the Exsys EX-3595 ExpressCard because I have been very satisfied with the Exsys EX-1093 (PCI) and the Exsys EX-11494-2 (PCIe) USB 3.0 cards, both Renesas chips with WinXP drivers, in my desktops. The Exsys EX-3595 ExpressCard contains a slightly earlier Marvell chip 88SE91xx, most likely 88SE9123. The Marvell Storage Utility under WinXP indicates Device ID 9123. The Device Instance ID displayed by WinXP Device Manager is PCI\VEN_1B4B&DEV_9123&SUBSYS_91231B4B&REV_11\5&63CF550&0&0048F0 The EX-3595 ExpressCard comes with a driver CD which contains a working WinXP driver, WinXP Device Manager indicates: Marvell 91xx SATA 3G Controller, Driver Provider: Marvell Inc., Driver Date: 11/6/2009, Driver version 1.0.0.1030, Digital Signer: Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher I have connected the EX-3595 ExpressCard (i.e. for a laptop) in an old desktop with an Asus P5PE-VM motherboard, which has only PCI slots, no PCIe slots, as follows: - in PCI slot: StarTech PCI to PCI Express adapter card - in PCI Express adapter card: the PCIe connector of an SCM ICS-D1 PCIe-to-ExpressCard adapter (has a front panel like a floppy drive) - NOTE: this PCIe-to-ExpressCard adapter supports BOTH USB-based ExpressCards and PCI Express-based ExpressCards (most ExpressCards, like the EX-3595 SATA card, are PCI-Express based) - in the front panel of the PCIe-to-ExpressCard adapter: the Exsys EX-3595 SATA ExpressCard - in the Exsys EX-3595 SATA ExpressCard: an eSATA cable to the eSATA connector of a Sharkoon Combo eSATA/USB 2.0 HDD docking station - in the eSATA Sharkoon docking station: a 4TB Toshiba HDWD240 HDD, GPT with 4 partitions, filled with data beyond the 2.2TB boundary In short: PCI slot => PCI-to-PCIe adapter => PCIe-to-ExpressCard adapter => eSATA docking station => 4TB GPT HDD The BIOS utility of the Asus P5PE-VM motherboard (has an Intel ICH5) does not have a selection to set onboard SATA to AHCI Mode or IDE Mode; instead in Main tab -> IDE Configuration -> Onboard IDE Operate Mode: -> set to Compatible Mode and IDE Port Setting: -> set to Primary P-ATA+S-ATA. The ICH5 was the first Intel chipset with onboard SATA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_chipsets During POST, after pressing Ctrl-M, the Marvell BIOS Setup menu comes up displaying Configure SATA As: AHCI Mode [The PCIe Speed Rate is displayed as 2.5Gbps, not 5Gbps, probably because of the ExpressCard is ultimately connected to a PCI slot on the motherboard, not to a PCIe slot.] Unfortunately, the Marvell BIOS Setup menu of the EX-3595 [Marvell 88SE9123 chip] canNOT Configure SATA As: IDE Mode. Device Manager of Windows XP displays the 4TB GPT HDD as Unreadable, Capacity: 0MB and the 4TB HDD is not displayed by MS Disk Management. The Marvell BIOS Setup menu indicates that a 4TB HDD (3,815,447MB) is connected. So this older Marvell 88SE9123 chip works with HDDs > 2TB [chatGPT had only found the more recent Marvell 88SE9215 and Marvell 88SE9230 chips], but not under WinXP. When I insert a 320GB HDD with 9 primary GPT partitions into the docking station, with the same hardware arrangement as above, WinXP displays and accesses the HDD OK with the Paragon GPT driver. So the issue with the 4TB HDD under WinXP is caused by the AHCI Mode setting of the EX-3595. The Paragon GPT driver seems to work OK in AHCI Mode with HDDs up to 2TB and seems to require IDE Mode (or no boot) for larger HDDs. "... 9120 and 9123 do have those details while being just AHCI" ... "... The RAID mode can be selected from the same screen, from "Configure SATA as:" field, by playing with Tab/Enter or by reading the bottom suggestions. from: https://winraid.level1techs.com/t/discussion-firmware-update-of-the-marvell-91xx-sata-controller/30492?page=13 [OT: the web page displays OK under WinXP in Mypal68, but not OK in New Moon or Serpent] If I interpret the comments at winraid correctly, maybe SATA cards with the more recent Marvell 88SE9235 chip can be set to IDE Mode in the Marvell BIOS Setup menu, while the older Marvell 88SE9123 chip is only AHCI??? I have not found an ExpressCard (i.e. for a laptop) with the more recent Marvell 88SE9235 chip. Flashing SATA cards to IDE Mode, if possible, is perhaps a way to make SATA cards, which do not have a physical switch for AHCI Boot/No Boot/IDE Boot, compatible with GPT HDDs >2TB under WinXP. Maybe somebody else can experiment with flashing SATA cards to IDE mode. It looks like laptops cannot access, under WinXP, files on a 4TB HDD. In other words: files which you wish to access on a laptop under WinXP have to be an a 2TB or less HDD, NOT on e.g. a 4TB HDD. This limitation reduces substantially, at least for me, the usefulness of HDDs >2TB. I will return the EX-3595 ExpressCard in the next 2 days. QUESTION: Any ideas about how to set the EX-3595 ExpressCard to IDE Mode?

The focus of this topic is on experiences, experiments, issues and solutions under Windows XP; related postings about other old operating systems are also welcome. Postings here may also be about specific hardware, with the objective to identify hardware "compatible with GPT HDDs >2TB under WinXP". Please share your experiences!

Edited on 13Oct2025: The screenshot in this posting was deleted because of limited upload space. The posting with the screenshot was archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250818043629/https://msfn.org/board/topic/176299-latest-version-of-software-running-on-xp/page/75/ DiskGenius v5.6.1.1580 1) The Free = Lite version is portable, works under WinXP and can be downloaded from https://web.archive.org/web/20250604191504/https://download.eassos.com/DGLiteEng5611580_x86.zip [8,619,143 bytes] 2) The unregistered, full portable version which works under WinXP can be downloaded from: https://web.archive.org/web/20250306141906/https://download.diskgenius.com/DGEng5611580_x86.zip [34,571,542 bytes] -> Help -> Register displays "Thank you for upgrading the software" To register, Options.ini, containing the registration code, has to be copied into the folder of the unregistered portable version. 3) There is also a repack of full v5.6.1.1580 which installs and works OK under WinXP. The .exe contains the full installer and full portable for 32bit and 64bit [61,461,381 bytes] The main difference between the full portable and full installer versions is the \dos\ subfolder, contained only in the full installer version. \dos\ contains DiskGenius v5.2.0.878 for DOS (8Oct2019), a specced-down build. 4) I have created a 1680kB boot floppy containing DiskGenius v5.2.0.878 for DOS. On a FreeDOS 1.4 (2Apr2025) boot floppy https://freedos.org/download/ containing only COMMAND.COM and KERNEL.SYS, I edited CONFIG.SYS and autoexec.bat, and then added from \dos\: diskgen.exe, CTMOUSE.EXE, himem.exe and fdapm.com (not sure whether fdapm.com is needed). Altogether 71,680 bytes are still free on the 1680kB floppy, e.g. for partition table backups (12+2kB each). If the repacked installer of v5.6.1.1580 cannot be found, there is an alternative for finding the \dos\ folder: The \dos\ folder in the repacked installer of v5.6.1 is identical to \dos\ contained in DGEngSetup520884.exe [DiskGenius v5.2.0.884 (installer, 8Oct2019)]. DGEngSetup520884.exe can be downloaded from https://web.archive.org/web/20200110041301/http://engdownload.eassos.cn/DGEngSetup520884.exe The \dos\ folder can then be extracted with UniExtract [v1.6.1.2035 (koros mod, 13Dec2018)] from DGEngSetup520884.exe. Alternatively, the \dos\ folder can be obtained by installing DGEngSetup520884.exe under WinXP, e.g. into a sandbox for not adding stuff to the registry etc This DiskGenius boot floppy still needs a lot of testing, Some uses could be to create and restore partition tables on very old computers, or to access GPT HDDs >2TB under DOS. The photo below shows that DiskGenius can correctly access under DOS a 4TB GPT HDD.The 4TB HDD is nearly full (light brown=free space).The file 22dsk144.zip is displayed by DiskGenius in the final 1200GB partition, i.e. past 2.2TB. The 4TB HDD was in an external eSATA docking station, connected as secondary master to the motherboard. The last version of installed/portable DiskGenius [formerly named PartitionGuru] for WinXP on very old computers with an SSE-only CPU (Pentium 3) is PartitionGuru v4.7.0.105 (7Feb2015). The DiskGenius v5.2.0 DOS boot floppy, however, does work with SSE-only computers. Unfortunately, diskgen.exe does not run under Win98, there seems to be an issue with CTMOUSE.EXE (screenshot deleted)

In my view the topic is far from solved, but I am optimistic that eventually it may be solved. For example, what about using a GPT HDD >2TB with WinXP on a laptop computer?