Multibooter

Thanks dencorso, this shows the big plus of sdelete being open source.I just finished re-running sdelete with the "-c" switch on the 30GB FAT32 partition with the same 700MHz laptop under Win98. sdelete took 89 mins with the "-c" switch [0.34 GB/min], compared to 133 mins with the "-z" switch [0.22 GB/min].

BTW, I was running sdelete under Win98SE in a DOS window yesterday, it had looked like a DOS program. sdelete seems to work fine on FAT16/FAT32 partitions under Win98SE, even if the text "Cleaning MFT.../" came up for a long while. The docu page http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinte...s/bb897443.aspx lists as system requirements WinXP and higher. Would this mean that sdelete doesn't work properly under Win2k or with NTFS 3.00 partitions by Win2000?

Now I am completely confused. I don't believe in the usefulness of "secure overwriting" either, and maybe their docu and /? help is mixed up, it just doesn't make sense for "c" to stand for "zero", and "z" to stand for "clean"=secure delete(??). I'll make another test with "sdelete -c", and check whether that is faster than the "sdelete -z" yesterday. The faster one should be the simple overwrite of the free space with zeroes. In any case, the "-z" parameter yesterday didn't do any harm to the System Commander HDD.

@dencorso and @jaclaz Thanks for noting my mistaken parameter, I must have been distracted last night . In any case, the deed is done and the .gho image just finished. The resulting compressed split .gho image files are altogether 21.6 GB, huge, possibly also because I did not zero out partition I: SWAP_FAT32 with remnants of swap files on it. In any case, using sdelete and the .gho file were an experiment on a test computer, to find out whether System Commander works with a .gho image created with the "-ir" switch. On my main computer I wouldn't make dangerous experiments. Here the positive news: sdelete didn't cause any damage to the original System Commander HDD. When I inserted the HDD, which had been worked on by sdelete, back into the computer, the operating systems on it came up fine, sdelete didn't do any damage to the possibly atypical "multiFAT" boot partition. Later edit: I was checking on Ghost while it was creating the .gho file, and for long periods of time the .gho image-in-process didn't increase in size. During that time Ghost was probably reading and compressing identical characters, so the -z switch probably hadn't caused sdelete to overwrite the empty space with random characters. The parameters used (see docu http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinte...s/bb897443.aspx ) is also kind of counter-intuitive, with c="zero free space" and z="cleanse free space" Also, I'm not sure about the difference between zero and cleanse. Does c="cleanse" mean zeroing free space on a virtual drive (???), and z="zero" mean zeroing free space on a physical drive? BTW, I did read the /? of sdelete before using sdelete, maybe I just used the switch which looked best ...

Hi jaclaz,I was first following dencorso's suggestions and ran sdelete -z on the original System Commander HDD, in preparation for a sector-by-sector cloning with Ghost "-ir". sdelete was very slow, about 0.22GB/min with my 10-year-old 700MHz laptop. I cleaned with sdelete 3 partitions (C: BOOT_FAT16, H: XP_FAT32 and J: DATA_FAT32, altogether 72GB), which took about 5.5 hrs. I then started to create a sector-by-sector image file with Ghost "-ir". The old laptop has been running for the past 12 hrs and will have finished creating the image file in about 2 more hrs. Restoring the image file to the 750GB HDD will probably take another 14 hrs, so please be patient with further feedback. In the meantime, here some speculations about the "atypical" System Commander HDD: 1) The authors of System Commander called their boot partition the "multiFAT" partition, so possibly the difficulty of cloning a System Commander HDD has something to do with a special FAT created by System Commander on C:, not with the MBR or partitioning 2) This may be confirmed by my experience described in posting #7 here "...Then all files were gone from C:, C: was corrupted with 2 different FATs." 3) System Commander does not detect the installation of a new operating system if the newly-installed operating system is of the same type as a previously installed operating system (e.g. 2 instances of Win98SE, or 2 Win2000s with different service packs). For detecting the installation of the 2nd instance of an operating system you have to boot into DOS, run SCIN.exe -> Special Options -> Alter Current Boot Record Serial Number. Upon removing the boot floppy and rebooting from the HDD, System Commander then comes up with screen "Possible new operating system detected". I have no idea where this "Current Boot Record Serial Number" is stored, I would speculate somewhere related to the "multiFAT" FAT. The same screen "Possible new operating system detected" comes up after starting a computer with a cloned System Commander HDD. When Ghost has finished creating the image of the original System Commader HDD, I'll check whether the file-cleaning by sdelete has destroyed something "atypical" on the original System Commander HDD, like this "multiFAT", whatever that is.

Thanks a lot dencorso, Russinovich of 2005 sounds good. I'll clean the original System Commander HDD with pre-Microsoft sdelete v1.51, then I'll create a sector-by-sector image file with Ghost "-z9 -ir", as an over-night job. I was lucky to have used for my experimentation a 200GB HDD, not the 750GB one.This disk imaging problem makes me question my whole partitioning plan. Maybe, for easy sector-by-sector backup of the System Commander "multiFAT" boot partition C:, I should use a very small HDD with a tiny single 2GB FAT16 C: partition, and a 2nd HDD containing the logical partitions. This 2nd HDD could also contain a primary NTFS partition for Vista/Win7. Such a 2-HDD-setup should work with an SSD disk in my desktop, and also with my 10-year-old Inspiron 7500 laptops, which can hold up to 3 internal HDDs, and I had recently bought 20 right-bay-modules, to hold a 2nd internal HDD .....

PartionMagic v8.01 -> right-click on NTFS partition -> Properties -> NTFS Version (displays 3.0 [=3.00] for original HDD, 3.1 [=3.01] for cloned HDD. Paragon Partition Manager 9.0 also displays the NTFS version (same results). Acronis Disk Director v10.0.2089 does not display NTFS version information. System Commander does have a learning curve and there are a few essential tricks for using it. For example, I don't use the suggested way of "preparing a new operating system for installation", but my own way.After System Commander was set up properly, it kept working invisibly for me, without major problems (except for this deployment/cloning problem). I am using 100+ applications on my computer, many of them replacements of older stuff. I have kept only 3 older applications, in use for about 15 years: InfoSelect v3, with my personal notes of the past 15 years, System Commander and DCF. At this stage I don't want to give up on System Commander; I have purchased over the years 4 different versions starting with v2, as a recognition of its usefulness to me. Even if you don't use System Commander, the 2 docu .pdf files in it may be useful to you as additional reference material about the quirks of PC operating systems. MBRwizard http://www.mbrwizard.com/ backs up/restores easily only track 0, any other tool you could suggest for easy backing up/restoring of more tracks? How do I back up/restore the actual partition Volume ID's AND Disk Signature? I had created with Partition Table Doctor 3.5 a "Partition table backup" of the original System Commander HDD and of the HDD cloned/restored with Ghost, and then made a binary compare of the 2 partition table backup files (10240 bytes each) with Beyond Compare, and there were many differences. PartitionMagic 8.01 does give phony error messages. I have 3 partitioning utilities installed (PartitionMagic, Paragon Partition Manager and Acronis Disk Director), because none of them works to my full satisfaction. I would be glad if a single partitioning utility were fully satisfactory. I have just recently used Ghost again, and am a little disappointed with the results here. Which one would you suggest for my next cloning attempt of the System Commander HDD?

Macrium Reflect Free does apparently not run under Win98, so it probably has not been tested sufficiently with partitions created under/for Win98.

Hi jaclaz, I am so glad that you joined in. I have tried out Clonezilla, recommended by net user in his posting #2 at the parallel topic http://www.msfn.org/board/boot-sector-prob...tml#entry902053 Clonezilla clones the System Commander HDD from an image file with much better results than Ghost: 1) PartitionMagic v8.01 does not find anything wrong with the HDD produced by Clonezilla, in contrast to the HDD produced by Ghost 2) Clonezilla reproduced the two FAT32 partitions correctly in the original cluster size (2k), while Ghost changed the cluster size to 4k 3) Clonezilla, like Ghost, changed the partition type from NTFS 3.00 to NTFS 3.01 4) The image file produced by Clonezilla was about 50% smaller than the image file produced by Ghost Unfortunately, the HDD produced from an image file by Clonezilla, did NOT work either. System Commander still came up with the window "Possible new operating system detected". I guess this window is loaded by a component program of System Commander, CHKMBR.EXE, which "verifies that System Commander's MBR has not been destroyed by a new OS installation and corrects the condition if necessary". So CHKMBR.EXE detected something on the cloned HDD which led it to believe that the "System Commander's MBR", whatever that is, had been destroyed. When CHKMBR.exe detects "a new operating system", I select "Bypass". The "OS [=operating system] Selection Menu" then comes up, as usual. But when I select the last active operating system (e.g. Windows XP), I get an err msg "NTLDR missing", then "Boot 2> error". Then all files were gone from C:, C: was corrupted with 2 different FATs. When I select "Save", instead of "Bypass", and then select the newly detected operating system, Windows XP loads Ok. But when I reboot and then select in the "OS Selection Menu" any of the previously existing operating system selections, System Commander goes on its destructive path and damages the boot partition C:, with a similar "Boot B1 error". The user manual of System Commander v9.04 states (p.289): "The capacity of the MBR is not sufficient to place sophisticated boot programs. This means that the on-boot software uses the entire track 0 of the hard disk in addition to the 0 sector because it's not included in any partition. For example, boot managing utilities such as LILO, GRUB, and VCOM System Commander are located in the 0 track." I then - saved the whole track 0 of the original 200GB HDD, inserted in a USB enclosure, with MBRwizard: [mbrwizd /disk=1 /sector=head save=a:\track0.dat /ignore] - restored the Clonezilla image onto a 750GB HDD - wiped track 0 of the 750GB HDD [mbrwizd /wipe=head] - restored track 0 [track0.dat had 32768 bytes] of the original 200GB HDD to the 750GB HDD [mbrwizd /restore=a:\track0.dat /ignore] BUT: System Commander again detected a new operating system, then the "OS Selection Menu" came up etc, just as without the restored track 0, and then I got the boot error message plus a damaged boot partition C: The problem might let one think of a sophisticated copy protection scheme, preventing a System Commander HDD from being used on a cloned HDD, but I doubt this was the intention. Also, I don't think that System Commander is reading hardware details from the HDD, since I had the Boot xx error msg also when I restored earlier with Ghost an image back onto the original HDD. In summary: I don't know how to get the various operating system selections to work again on a cloned HDD. Up to now (except when I installed Vista experimentally on another computer) I have been using ancient System Commander 2000 [v5] and was able to get the opsys selections to work after cloning sector-by-sector from one disk to another [i.e. not from an image file]. The last version 9 of System Commander [i am using here v9.04] claimed to have a "super-hiding feature", to facilitate multitbooting with Vista; could that have something to do with the difficulty to clone/restore a System Commander HDD? BTW, when I restored the Clonezilla image, 2 msg lines appeared very briefly on the screen, maybe about partitions D and E, it was too fast to write down, something like: "Error, could not create an identical partition... 4294MB... 6410MB") Which one should I try first, before trying to make a sector-by-sector clone? Should I make a sector-by-sector clone with Ghost using the "-ir"switch? I doubt whether Clonezilla can make a sector-by-sector image: "Clonezilla saves and restores only used blocks in the harddisk." http://www.clonezilla.org/

Hi dencorso, I did read the docu of the Ghost "-ir" switch (p.476) before starting my imaging/restoring attempts:"The image raw switch copies the entire disk, ignoring the partition table. This is useful when a disk does not contain a partition table in the standard PC format, or you do not want partitions to be realigned to track boundaries on the destination disk. Some operating systems may not be able to access unaligned partitions." I guess I was wrong in interpreting this to mean that the original partition table does not get copied (I assumed "ignoring" means "except"). This might apply to UDF-formatted HDDs, which contain no partition table. My System Commander HDD probably contains a "partition table in standard PC format", whatever that means. If I: - create with Partition Table Doctor 3.5 a "Backup partition table'" file on a floppy of a System Commander HDD - then remove the System Commander HDD from the 1st computer - insert the System Command HDD in an USB enclosure of a 2nd PC - in that 2nd PC, under Win98, Clear the System Commander HDD with Acronis Disk Director + reboot (i.e. the whole HDD is unallocated now) - power up the 2nd PC and restore the "Backup partition table" from the floppy with Partition Table Doctor 3.5 RESULT: The System Commander HDD with the restored "Backup partition table" works fine again, so it should probably have a "partition table in standard PC format". Are you sure that Ghost with "-ir" copies the partition table via sector-by-sector copying of the entire disk, and that the partition table is not skipped? Is it possible to image/restore the 1st primary partition (=boot partition) sector-by-sector, and the remaining partitions in the normal way? With a single image file for the whole disk, in one step? Is there some reliable software which can wipe unneeded leftovers, before creating an image with Ghost? This would at least keep the size of the resulting compressed archive file smaller.

Hi submix8c,Thanks for your suggestion, I'll try it out tomorrow, I am stuck right now emptying a 750GB PATA drive for further experimentation with the image restores. I currently don't have any other empty PATA HDD for testing the image restore, only empty SATA drives Yes, I am not backing up a running system, but have removed the HDD and put it into a USB enclosure, to be cloned/restored on a 2nd computer. Yes, kind of, it consists of a set of files from the live update to v11.0.2.1573 of an older legal version. Works under Win98 and WinXP from a single set of files, no installation. Under WinXP this set of files had cloned fine another HDD (of an Asus Eee with a special non-MS partition type), but under Win98 there were issues cloning the Asus HDD, that's why I cloned the System Commander HDD under WinXP. These errors are mainly relevant in a multi-booting environment. When I put the badly cloned HDD in a USB enclosure and ran Checkdisk under WinXP, WinXP found everything Ok. But WinXP Checkdisk does NOT check whether the HDD layout is compatible with other operating systems.My main operating system is Win98SE. I use 2 programs under Win98SE to check whether a HDD has a clean layout, compatible with Win98: - PowerQuest PartitionMagic v.8.01, which is the ultimate tool for checking Win98 compatibility (it has a 192GB FAT32 partition size limit, which I am also respecting, mainly because Xrayer also uses 192GB partitions) - Partition Table Doctor v3.5, which can fix errors reported by PartitionMagic, but which PartitionMagic cannot fix (e.g. disk geometry errors) 2 years ago I had installed Vista on my desktop, onto a primary partition on the 2nd HDD, keeping the layout of the 1st HDD (a primary FAT16 partition + several logical partitions for Win98, XP etc). I removed Vista again because PowerQuest PartitionMagic v8.01 and Partition Table Doctor v3.5 were not able to handle the Vista partition type. Eventually I'll try to install Vista and Win7 again, but this time into LOGICAL FAT32 partitions on the 1st HDD. There is a good chance that System Commander, R.I.P., will be able to do it.

Hi LoneCrusader, I just posted a related problem here, I didn't see your earlier posting. My problem is with Symantec Ghost v11, yours with DriveImage, I am trying to clone a HDD with System Commander stuff from an image file. 6 years ago I gave up with DriveImage 2002 v6.0, I couldn't clone a HDD with System Commander boot stuff on it. I switched over to Acronis True Image v9.1.3887, then switched over to Paragon Partition Manager v9.0.4156 with which I was able to clone a HDD disk-to-disk. 1) Careful!! First create a good clone of your original HDD with Paragon Partition Manager and only work on the clone. If the "OS Selection Menu" doesn't come up when the the cloned HDD is inserted in the computer, boot with a DOS floppy, and under DOS run C:\SC\Scin.exe -> Enable System Commander.2) Try to select in the "OS Selection Menu" -> Settings -> General -> select "Automatic Win Boot Repair disabled". 3) Try to get System Commander installed under DOS, not under Win98/XP: - copy C:\SC to C:\SCOLD - uninstall System Commander via Add/Remove under Win98 (not just disable) - copy the content of your System Commander CD to a temporary directory on C: - make sure the last booted system is Win98 or WinXP (i.e. the boot code on the HDD on C:\ should be Win98 or WinXP). - boot from a DOS boot floppy - re-install System Commander under DOS from the temporary directory on C: with the following command: "Scin.exe install" (this gets the alternate DOS installer) A possible explanation of why this occurs under WinXP, but not under Win98, is in the help text in the System Commander menu: "Automatic Win boot repair disabled - Windows NT through 2003 can get confused if the partition table changes and may refuse to boot (Vista doesn't have this issue). The Automatic Win boot repair will detect this condition and when next booted into one of the problems OSes, it will hide all primary partitions other than the booting one. Windows will then correctly assign drive letters and the page file so Windows runs correctly"Booting from a DOS boot floppy with fdisk on it and running FDISK /MBR should also bring up the last loaded operating system; running SCIN -> Enable System Commander should bring back the OS Selection Menu You are missing a major advantage of multibooting, which is to be able to work under opsys A on the files of opsys B. But you probably can't reverse that anymore because of the drive letters used for installing Windows and applications.Nice to have another user of System Commander in this forum!

Thanks GrofLuigi.Very positive aspect of the Look 'n' Stop Firewall: apparently compatible with Win98 http://www.looknstop.com/En/index2.htm But ???: distributor is "la Société Anonyme NEXWAY, au capital de 37.500 €..." http://lookandstop.telechargement.fr/aide_cgv.html I don't need many features in a firewall. A firewall can be very basic: to keep Microsoft and installed software from calling home, and to protect against government spyware, even if possibly built into respectable software and hardware chips ("made in China, but designed in the US"). For how long have you been using the Look 'n' Stop Firewall?

I created an image of a HDD, in an external enclosure, with Ghost v11.0.2.1573 under WinXP SP2, then: - wiped the HDD - restored the .gho image onto the same HDD - inserted the restored HDD back into the original computer BUT: 1) System Commander v9.04 on the restored HDD comes up and detects a new operating system (i.e. the boot code is not what it was originally). Regardless of what I select, Save or Bypass, System Commander eventually stops loading any operating system at all and displays a cryptic err msg "Error Boot 2>" or similar. This may be caused by System Commander detecting a changed partition table. I had not changed an obscure default setting in System Commander, effective for WinNT thru 2003 [not for Vista], "Automatic Win Boot Repair" enabled, instead of disabling it. In any case, System Commander does not work with a HDD restored from a .gho file. System Commander is my preferred boot manager, and I have been using it for about 14 years. 2) When I checked the restored HDD with Partition Table Doctor v3.5 under Win98 it didn't find anything wrong. But PartitionMagic v8.01 displayed 10x [maybe because of 8 logical partitions + 1 extended partitions + unallocated space??] the err msg: "Error 114 on the partition starting at sector xxxx. The EPBR is not positioned at the beginning of a cyclinder. If this is not corrected the operating system could cause data loss. PowerQuest Partion Magic can easily fix this problem by moving the EPBR to sector yyyy." If I don't let PartitionMagic fix this, the HDD is displayed as "BAD" by PartitionMagic. If I fix it, I get 10 msgs: "Success. The partition table error was successfully fixed!". 3) Furthermore, FAT32 partitions, originally having 2k clusters, now had 4k clusters. Also, an NTFS partition, originally in NTFS 3.00 format [Win2k], now had NTFS 3.01 format (WinXP] The original HDD was partitioned in an external enlosure with PartitonMagic v8.01, before WinXP was installed onto it on H:. The cluster sizes were set automatically by PartitionMagic. This is the partition layout: C: BOOT_FAT16 FAT 2.047.3 Active Primary 32k D: BLANK1 FAT32 2.047.3 Logical 2k E: BLANK2 FAT32 2.047.3 Logical 2k F: DIAG_FAT32 FAT32 8.189.4 Logical 4k G: 98_FAT32 FAT32 12.284.0 Logical 8k H: XP_FAT32 FAT32 30.710.2 Logical 16k I: SWAP_FAT32 FAT32 15.359.0 Logical 8k J: DATA_FAT32 FAT32 40.946.9 Logical 32k K: DATA_NTFS NTFS [v3.0] 30.710.2 Logical Default=4k Unallocated [for Linux etc] 50.124.7 I had created and restored the .gho image under WinXP SP2 via a desktop shortcut with the following target: H:\Ghost\ghost32.exe -z9 -ib -szee -fatlimit -fdsp -align=chs -fmbr Why can Ghost not create a useful image? Did I miss any parameters? I did not use the sector-by-sector forensic -id option because creating and restoring an image in this "forensic" way may take 24 hours, with unknown results. Is there other software which actually can clone from a file a HDD containing tricky boot code by System Commander, and which doesn't alter important partition characteristics?

Hi dencorso, I have installed Kerio Personal Firewall v2.1.5 on the dual-core machine under WinXP, instead of Tiny v2.0.14, for the time being. I don't have a single-core desktop with a similar motherboard at hand, so my experimentation with Tiny has temporarily come to a halt. Also my best wishes to you for the new year! Thanks cluberti, you provided the decisive argment for not using Tiny under WinXP on a dual-core.Since Win98 apparently works only with one core, Win98 may have another special use on a dual-core machine: To run software which is not threadsafe, i.e. software with serious problems on a dual-core under WinXP. Any recommendations for a simple firewall NOT made in the US, besides Kaspersky?

I was able to install Kerio v2.1.5 of 30-Apr-2003 under WinXP on the dual-core motherboard, but not Tiny v2.0.15A of 22-Oct-2001 or Tiny v2.0.14.I would still prefer to use Tiny v2.0.14 of 5-Jun-2001 under WinXP on the dual-core. Any other ideas about how to bring about a successful installation?

Thanks GrofLuigi. I added HKEY LOCAL MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement\EnforceWriteProtection with a DWORD value of 0, then re-installed Tiny. Same startup problem. I then changed the DWORD value to 1, to see what happens, uninstalled Tiny and then installed Tiny again. Same startup problem. In between I also got upon reboot for the 1st time the msg "Reboot and select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected boot device and press a key". After disconnecting then reconnecting the HDD, the msg "Reboot and select proper Boot device..." didn't come up anymore. Any other suggestions?

I have used Tiny Personal Firewall v2.0.14 of 5-Jun-2001 under WinXP SP2 on an old laptop without any problems for the past 2 years. I have now tried to install it on another computer, with a freshly installed WinXP SP2, but the installation failed. The installation did not complete properly. When rebooting after clicking on "Finish" in the InstallShield v6.30.100.1255 installer: - the BIOS POST came up (is Ok) - then the Windows logo came up, for about 3 seconds (is Ok) - then the computer crashed (the Windows screen "welcome" did not come up anymore) - then the BIOS POST came up again - then a B&W DOS-type screen came up: "We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this..." The screen displayed is the same as displayed in Figure 29-1 WinXP could be loaded Ok only by selecting "Last Known Good Configuration", but then Tiny did not work, even if it was listed in Add/Remove. By selecting any of the Safe Mode selections on the B&W DOS-type screen, the computer would just crash again and the same B&W DOS-type screen would come up again. Here some possibly relevant characteristics of the 2 computers 1) Successful installation of Tiny under WinXP - 10-year-old Inspiron 7500 laptop with last BIOS update of 28-Nov-2000 - single-core CPU: the installed ntoskrnl.exe is 2.180.992 byes, 19-Jan-2005. hal.dll is 81.820 byes, 19-Jan-2005 - WinXP SP2 was originally installed under Win98 to an NTFS partition, which was converted with PartitionMagic to FAT32 some time before installing Tiny 2) Failed installation of Tiny under WinXP: - newer Asus P5PE-VM desktop motherboard with BIOS update of 4-Jul-2007 (the BIOS could be updated to a newer version of 25-Jan-2008, but probably useful only for newer CPUs) - dual-core E2200 CPU: the installed ntoskrnl.exe is 2.148.352 bytes, 19-Jan-2005. hal.dll is 134.400 byes, 19-Jan-2005 - WinXP SP2 was installed, by booting from the installation CD, to an empty FAT32 partition on an empty 200GB pre-partitioned HDD - Tiny installs fine on this newer motherboard under Win98 (but not under WinXP) My fiddling around included the following, to no avail: 1) I added the parameter /bootlog in boot.ini, but no file ntbtlog.txt was created in the Windows directory H:\WINXPSP2\ 2) I uninstalled the failed Tiny installation, then put the HDD into another perfectly working desktop computer which uses the same Asus motherboard model (but an E4500 dual-core CPU), removed all cards from the computer and installed Tiny again. The installation on that other computer also failed, so the possibility of a hardware malfunction causing the installation problem can be excluded. I have fiddled around a lot, but have not found a way to install Tiny on the newer motherboard under WinXP. My suspicion is that Tiny installs Ok under WinXP with a single-core CPU, but not with a dual-core CPU. Does Tiny install Ok under WinXP on other computers with a dual-core? Tiny can he downloaded here Any other ideas about getting Tiny to install under WinXP?

Thanks jaclaz,I installed the initial release of Windows 2000 and then tested FixUDF! and FixDVD!. Both programs could then check and repair errors on a UDF-formatted ATAPI 120GB HDD in the left bay of my laptop. This is a break-through, it was the first time that I got this software to check and repair a UDF-formatted HDD. Under the initial release of Win2k these 2 programs, however, cannot check/fix USB mass storage devices (e.g. a USB HDD or a SDHC card-reader), their drive letters are not displayed in the drive letter selector of FixDVD!/FixUDF!. Also, under the 1st release of Win2000, the SAI UDF file system driver (read/write) does not work on USB mass storage devices: a UDF-formatted HDD attached via USB is read-only (the read-only MS UDF file system driver is probably active there), while at the same time a UDF-formatted ATAPI HDD in the left bay of my laptop is read AND write, i.e. the SAI UDF file system driver works there. So FixUDF! and FixDVD! do work with UDF-formatted HDDs, if you use a specific version of Windows and a specific interface. I will eventually check whether these 2 programs work also with Win2K SP1 and SP2 and with the 1st release of WinXP. Under which of these 3 versions of Windows might FixUDF! work with UDF-formatted USB mass storage devices (USB HDD, SDHC cards, CF cards)? BTW, the file modification date of the files installed by the 1st version of Windows 2000 is 12-7-99 12:00 PM, so WINDOWS 2000 is exactly 10 years old today!

Hi jaclaz,1) I am not sure how to install rdummy.sys on an already installed WinXP. - I booted into WinXP with a UDF-formatted USB HDD connected (displayed as "Local disk"), - copied rdummy.sys to \WinXP\system32\drivers\, - made a .reg file from the code in posting #418, http://www.msfn.org/board/boot-install-usb...4-page-398.html - ran the .reg file. But upon rebooting into WinXP the USB HDD is still displayed as a "Local disk". Any suggestions? 2) If I could make the "Local Disk" appear as type "CD Drive" in My Computer under WinXP, FixUDF! will possibly swallow the USB HDD. Is there any way to make a "Local Disk" appear as a "CD Drive" in My Computer? In this way a LOT of other old/abandoned UDF/DVD-RAM software might possibly work with UDF-formatted HDDs (The revision UDF v2.01 was released on 15-Mar-2000, so it's an old standard, the current release is 2.60. "For next releases of UDF, changes are discussed in relation to using UDF on very large hard disk media, and using UDF on holographic storage media.") http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Disk_Format 3) An old product description of FixUDF! stated that it works with HDDs and removable drives, but this info has been deleted from newer product descriptions of the same product. The modification date of the last version of FixUDF! v2.0.0 I have seen is 12-Dec-2001. Windows XP was first released on 25-Oct-2001. Could it be that FixUDF! only works on HDDs with the initial release of WinXP, not with later SPs? I have been using SP2 Pro. Could it be that the msg "Unable to lock the disk. Scan aborted" is caused by something in the SPs?

Thanks dencorso, thanks jaclaz, it looks quite involved. I was just trying to find a quick way to get some old software to work perhaps.Specifically, I am currently trying to get 2 old programs, FixDVD! and FixUDF!, to diagnose and repair UDF-formatted non-CD/DVD media (floppies, zip disks, jaz disks, LS-120 disks, HDDs, SDHC & CF cards) using various interfaces under Win98SE and WinXP (ATAPI, SCSI, parallel port, PCMCIA, Firewire, USB and eSATA). FixDVD! and FixUDF! are comparable to Chkdsk under FAT. Up to now I have only been able to make FixDVD! and FixUDF! diagnose and repair UDF-formatted Jaz and zip disks. These are removable media, so I speculated that by making other UDF-formatted media appear removable, FixDVD! and FixUDF! might swallow them. When I attempt to diagnose under Win98 or WinXP UDF-formatted HDDs or UDF-formatted SDHC cards, FixDVD! and FixUDF! terminate with the message "Unable to lock the disk. Scan aborted". BTW, I had gotten the same message when trying to diagnose a DVD-RAM disk in a USB DVD-drive. These 2 old disk utilities require direct disk access, like chkdsk, but running them with parameters in a Win98 DOS window between LOCK ... UNLOCK commands didn't help. If you have any ideas about how to chkdsk UDF-formatted HDDs, or about UDF-formatted mass storage devices in general, please post them at http://www.msfn.org/board/udf-formatted-ha...98-t139363.html I myself will eventually add more articles there. A little OT, it looks like the sluggish-file-delete problem under Win98-cum-IE6 http://www.msfn.org/board/98-FE-98-SP1-98-...fix-t84451.html does not occur (or occurs in a much less severe form) when deleting e.g. 6000 files from my UDF-formatted HDD.

The Hitachi Filter Driver can make a specific device appear as "Local Disk" instead of "Removable Disk" in My Computer. I need to do the reverse: Make a a "Local Disk" (ATAPI, SCSI, Firewire, USB, SATA/eSATA) appear as a "Removable Disk" under WinXP. Here an example: How can I make the internal HDD appear as a Removable Disk in My Computer? Could one change some parameters in Cfadisk.inf to make the Hitachi Filter Driver work the other way around? Under Win98 it is quite easy: Device Manager -> Disk drives -> right-click on specific drive -> Properties -> Settings tab -> select "Removable". Any ideas on how to change the disk type under WinXP?

Hi Dave, Another thought about your non-functional audio: maybe you can run Driver Cleaner v1.5, remove all vestiges of your audio driver, and then re-install your audio driver.

(left free for an index of postings)

UDF is known as a file system for DVDs. But very few people know that hard disk drives can also be formatted as UDF. A UDF- formatted HDD can be read by Windows 98 and Windows XP without any special drivers, Windows Explorer seems to work fine with it. A special file system driver by SAI allows to read and write UDF-formatted HDDs under Win98 and WinXP. The UDF file system allows theoretically very large file sizes, and it is not Microsoft, but open. A UDF-formatted HDD can be set from read-write to read-only by turning off the special file system driver. I have attached 3 screenshots of the properties sheet of a UDF-formatted 80 GB HDD, under Win98 and WinXP. Under Win98 the UDF-formatted HDD has 2 drive letter (one is not accessible) when the special file system driver is active, but only 1 drive letter when the MS read-only driver is active. Under WinXP a UDF-formatted HDD has always a single drive letter, regardless of the driver. SAI refers in their documentation to CDs and DVDs, not to HDDs. UDF-formatted HDDs seem to be uncharted territory under Win98. There are very few software tools for UDF-formatted HDDs. Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0, for example, displays "File system error: Invalid format", Norton Disk Doctor displays "Unable to read from drive J:" and ScanDisk "cannot check this drive because there is no disk in it, it is not formatted or a disk utility has locked it". Are there tools to handle UDF-formatted HDDs? Are there any horror stories about them? Does anybody have any experience with them? What are the benefits or disadvantages of a UDF-formatted HDD vs NTFS or FAT32? Could there be any special uses? Win98 Explorer has a major problem with file deletes when IE6 is installed - but maybe there is no such problem on a UDF-formatted HDD? Maybe some bugs of Win98 occur only on FAT/FAT32 partitions, but not on a UDF-formatted HDD? I seem to come across multiple-drive-letter problems quite regularly, do they occur also with a UDF-formatted HDD, which can have only one partition? Can USB sticks and SDHC card be formatted as UDF and be read and written to under Win98? Any ideas and suggestions about UDF-formatted HDDs are welcome.