jaclaz

The file format (i.e. them being one of the various .doc or .docx formats) is largely irrelevant, as there are many converters to plainer formats such as .txt or .csv(I have to guess Unicode as Swedish has a lot of "strange" characters), given the intended use, losing the formatting of the text might be not a problem (or it may be one, as usually bold and italic are widely used in dictionaries). The real issue is that if these .doc's are more "freestyle notes" than anything else it will be tough to write a program/script capable of separating properly the fields. Essentially a dictionary is structured as a two field database, term/definition or key/value, if there is a meaningful, possibly unique, delimiter between the two, importing/converting the files will be easy to script, still there wil be errors/edge cases and what not. Then, a dedicated "dictionary/lexicography" tool might be needed (example): https://tshwanedje.com/tshwanelex/ https://tshwanedje.com/tshwanelex/overview.html for editing/assembling/formatting. jaclaz

It has to be seen, of course, but the symptoms seem a lot like those of a defective PSU and/or of an issue with one of the disks. The idea - more or less - is that during boot all devices are powered at the same time and there is a "absorption peak" at the PSU. Even if hard disk motors are (should be) of types that minimize the initial start current, they will anyway need a supplemental amount of power when spinning up. In multi-hdd builds (with a much larger amount of disks) staggered spin-up is used normally, see: https://www.45drives.com/blog/storage/staggered-spinup-and-its-effect-on-power-draw/ Besides there could have been a problem on the bearing of the disk. Basically when a disk stays unused/not powered for a length of time, the bearing(s) of the motor (and platters) may be opposing a much higher resistance to initial spinning, thus attempting to draw much more current from the PSU, usually this condition is temporary and resolves by itself, as the lubricants/fluids in the bearings start heating and circulating again. I would test anyway the PSU, but the common, el-cheapo CPU testers around only detect (and/ or measure) the voltage on the various rails/connectors which may be just fine without load, but drop when the load suddenly increases so that test might not be conclusive.

You may also realize that you replied on an almost 21 (twentyone) years old post, and thus you have been automatically registered as a contestant for "The most late reply of 2024 award". jaclaz

Sure, if an authoritative source like that doesn't mention XP it won't work with them. The whole point is that the translation happens in the hard disk controller, the older OS's will only see 512 bytes sectors, some newer ones may be able to also see the underlying 4096 bytes ones (but they will anyway use the logical 512 bytes ones). The whole stuff was developed to maintain compatibility with older OS's and with BIOS (that actually *needs* the 512 bytes sectors to boot form a disk). XP can anyway access 4K sectors (but won't ever boot from one of them), very likely 2000 cannot. We have the working experience (thanks to Dave-H's abillties in choosing the most incompatible hardware existing) about a "queer" hard disk (and its external enclosure) that exposed 512 or 4K depending on the interface and at the time we put together a workaround, JFYI: https://msfn.org/board/topic/173265-formatting-an-external-drive-using-different-interfaces/ https://msfn.org/board/topic/173642-mkprilog-batch-to-access-a-same-disk-under-two-different-interfaces/ Anyway the clarification only about the term "cluster" that only appllies to file systems and their structure, not to the disks. jaclaz PS: only as a reminder, a "new alignment" partitioning scheme has very high probabilities of being corrupted by Disk Manager of XP (not the primary partitions, but the logical volumes inside extended). As long as you NEVER use the XP Disk Manager on that disk there are no issues: https://msfn.org/board/topic/176917-help-i-aligned-my-partitions-and-now-the-pc-wont-boot/

@Dixel Not really. Clusters are a feature of the file system and they represent a set of sectors of the hard disk, "physical clusters" do not exist.. The disk has only the sectors, that can be physical (actual size on disk) or logical (the size that is exposed to the OS or its driver). Older disks had 512 bytes sectors (physical) that were exposed as 512 bytes (logical) More modern disks have 4096 bytes sectors (physical) that are exposed (logical) either as 512 bytes (so called AF drives) or as 4096 bytes (so called Native 4K, still pretty much rare). AF disks have (internally, physically) 4096 bytes sectors, that are converted by the controller to 8x512 bytes sectors. jaclaz

Generally speaking access is denied should be actually called "insufficient permissions". These can be either permissions related to the file (so NTFS permissions on the file or the folder containing it) or to an operation performed on its settings (Registry permissions on involved/related keys). You should check both. jaclaz

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/4-TIMES-BEEP-RED-LIGHT/td-p/7451727 Power supply or graphic card?

Whose source code? You posted in "Install Windows from USB" which hosts a few different tools by different Authors... jaclaz

Only throwing things on the wall and see if anything sticks but for what it costs I would try both: [Keyboard] kbdhid = "USB Keyboard",files.kbdhid,kbdhid USB = "USB Keyboard",files.kbdhid,kbdhid and: [Keyboard] STANDARD = "USB Keyboard",files.kbdhid,kbdhid kbdhid = "USB Keyboard",files.kbdhid,kbdhid USB = "USB Keyboard",files.kbdhid,kbdhid and see what happens, though I remember seeing a lot of people having issues with attempts to install 2K with only USB mouse and keyboard on more modern hardware. I don't think a "working for all" solution exists, maybe - if you *somehow* manage to workaround the error - some "fully unattended setup" you may get past the text mode and hve later in the GUI a fully working keyboard, but cannot really say. Search on the board for related posts by bluebolt and tomasz86, they did a lot of work attempting to workaround similar USB keyboard issues, maybe some of those posts can provide some inspiration. jaclaz

Maybe useful, maybe not: https://github.com/adang1345/PythonWin7 jaclaz

Well, you are missing a large number of settings then (not only the Administrative templates/System). Check that you have all the .adm files in the right directories, this experiment to add gpedit to Home edition - as a side effect - provides all the needed info: https://www.oocities.org/kilian0072002/GPEditHome.htm This is more or less how it should look

Not necessarily on that model, but sometimes leds blinking mean "cannot boot". Sometimes these bricked devices can be resurrected with some magic spells (actually fiddling with inserting the power supply, pushing the reset button in a certain sequence, etc.), since it costs nothing you can try: https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=98742 jaclaz

As I cannot see, as in the screenshot you selected just the "root" aka "Local computer policy". Open "User Configuration", then: Administrative Templates System Not that it will surely work, but it should be there. jaclaz

@Dave-H My XP system is in italian, so I cannot make a direct comparison, but the italian version of that thing is there allright in the corresponding path to: User Configuration Administrative Templates System The one you found is in a completely different path. jaclaz

@Dave-H There should be an option to disable that message, if you are running XP Professional you can use GPEDIT: https://techjourney.net/disable-unsigned-driver-installation-dialog-prompt-in-windows-xp/ jaclaz

Then one could put on it this thingy here: https://www.startech.com/en-eu/cards-adapters/pex2mpex and use the Mini PCIE card I found before: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404735703284 A sort of PCI Rube Goldberg device... jaclaz

Not that much of a problem with around 11 (eleven! ) fivers: https://www.startech.com/en-gb/cards-adapters/pci1pex1 jaclaz

And searching for ASM061, I found this (didn't know that such small ones existed, 27mmx30mm or so): https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404735703284 AND (allegedly) compatible with: Mini PCIE, I know, still nice to know these exist. Back to topic, this is yet another (tiny) one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303881951057 with full and half height brackets, with drivers back to XP. jaclaz

Hmmm : 3 ports total - 1 external = 2 ports internal (and actually from the photo you can see those two internal connectors, the difference is that they are not one next to the other) I would describe it as "similar, but with an additional e-sata port" , but you are right that the stated compatibility is only for XP and Vista (though probably it can still work with the generic VT6421 drivers also in Win9x). jaclaz

I think that that SYBA card is SATA 1 (1.5Gbs), not exactly "bleeding edge": https://www.newegg.com/syba-sd-via-1a2s-sata-ide/p/N82E16816124009 It has a VIA VT6421(A) chip, so you should be covered: http://toastytech.com/files/w95stuff.html jaclaz P.S.: I don't think it will be much different from this one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166617600874 "Free 3 day postage Located in: Amlwch, United Kingdom"

Well, you don't really *need* a router at all for your use. Besides the "obvious" solution of a wireless card, or even a USB stick/adapter with wireless capabilities[1], what you need is a device that works as client, usually they are "access points" that can be configured in various modes: Access Point Client Repeater Wireless Bridge Some routers can be configured as well in those modes, but if you want to run OpenWRT or similar, you will need a (relatively) high end devices, as OpenWRT has grown in size and devices with 4 Mb storage/32 Mb memory are not anymore supported, and 8/64 devices cannot use latest versions: https://openwrt.org/supported_devices If you want an easy life, you can have a TP-Link TL-WAxxx for 30-50 Euro, if you want a nice little thingy that can also run OpenWRT, there are some nice devices from GL-INET around the same prices, if you are a little masochistic (or you simply want to try and learn new things) you can have a Mikrotik, there are end of line devices with AC (300 Mbit/s "target" speed) wireless (which are likely fast enough for your use) that are sold for around 20-25 Euro, whilst modern, small AX devices are in the 50- 60 Euro+ range [2]. jaclaz [1] that can be a PITA with drivers depending on the OS you are running [2] and that can do *almost anything*, learning how to make them do what you want will however be a challenge

These reports seem to lead to issues with some form of cache (or rather missing cache) and/or de-synchronization between device (and/or its driver) and application. It seems like the Quickmirror is attempting to send more data than the system can bear or the system cannot tell to Quickmirror that it should slow down the sending of data. The problem might be in any point of the chain, but it still smells of something software related more than hardware. On the other hand the chkdsk slowness and controller errors seem a lot like "pure hardware" error (flaky SATA cable or connectors?[1]). jaclaz [1] in the (good?) ol' SCSI times there was a saying - if I remember correctly originally proposed by Jerry Pournelle - to the effect of "when you have a disk problem check everything, but the problem is always the cable", with IDE those issues were rare (with the exception of the madness that was - for a period of time - the cable select often problematic implementation) with SATA they are far less common than SCSI in my experience, still I would try different cables.

Smart kids are smart, but when it comes to these technologies, all kids can do things you wouldn't expect. The advice the guy that runs a small phone (sales and repairs) shop around the corner gave to my mom last time, after having explained her how to change settings of her (new) smartphone was: "If you have issues, come here and we will try and solve them, if we are closed, ask the younger kids you can find, they will know how to ..." jaclaz

From experience, whenever someone posts "I am facing the same issue" it means that it is a different one, with a confidence level of 99.99%. This said, something completely different was reported to happen some 8-9 years ago to a poor chap. We have got by now the idea that that particular model of Seagate drive is prone to failure (particularly if run 24h/7 in a data center), but the one Dave-H has shows none of the signs of a failing drive, so, while it may fail tomorrow, it hasn't yet. jaclaz

Yep, but that is only due to February having 29 days this year. jaclaz