jaclaz

Well, that is bearwindows' VBEMP, another page: http://bearwindows.zcm.com.au/vbemp.htm and some background: http://reboot.pro/topic/2325-universal-windows-9xnt2kxp2003-video-driver/ didn't know that it worked on Vista too (it is supposed to be for WinNT/2K/XP/2K3), as a matter of fact the Author states: jaclaz

At least the guy didn't clinch it firmly in his hand like a hot baseball in a catcher’s glove, eyeing the brass, ring-shaped safety clip like a groom having cold feet under a chuppah ... jaclaz

.. and ... ? jaclaz

Just in case/for the record, there is a known "issue" with bootsector code in 2K/XP (and likely as well in later OS), the bootsector code uses CHS and in some cases with non-matching geometry values it fails to boot, it is easy to patch it however so that only LBA is used, 2K and XP AFAIK actually only uses LBA as soon as booted: http://blog.clemens.endorphin.org/2007/12/removing-chs-based-access-from-windows_3170.html http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21702&st=129 *Almost* the same thing you describe for GParted happens with Windows Format.com (but only for partition that can be actually accessed through CHS): http://reboot.pro/topic/3191-mbrbatch-001-alpha/?p=44782 And now - for no apparent reason if not a shameless plug - a modified NTFS first sector capable - hopefully - of acting also as MBR: http://reboot.pro/topic/21332-bug-report-redundant-container-writing-and-possible-kernel-level-io-deadlock-with-hard-disk-hosted-ntfs-formatted-containers-on-windows-7/?p=201160 jaclaz

Ow, comeon. Excerpt (of the excerpt): ... dirt-smothered AND bullet-riddled? AND olive black? ... like a hot baseball in a catcher's glove? ... like a groom having cold feet under a chuppah? ... frantic AND shallow AND loud AND unsynchronized? In just three sentences I have enough adjectives and pointless comparisons to last me till Easter ... jaclaz

Well, something *like* that happened to me once, around 1994 (Heck! More than 20 years ago!). I had a ticket from Berlin to Florence with a new company (I seem to remember it was a sort of startup/spinoff of Lufthansa) that operated "regional" (EU only) daily flights cannot remember the name, using rather smallish jets (24 or 30 seats if I recall correctly) from Tempelhof (instead of Tegel). When I arrived at the airport it came out that I was the only passenger that day, very, very correctly I have to say and UNLIKE what most other companies would have done (either have the passenger go through a much longer route via Munich or Frankfurt or have dinner sleep at a hotel and leave the day after) they proposed me to get to Florence directly but with a smaller aircraft (a turboprop instead of jet) that would have taken some 1 hour more time and I accepted. I was given access to the business lounge, then were driven (with a car) to the plane (an eight seat), no need to check in the luggage. It was a tad bit more noisy than the jet, but all in all (thanks to the favourable winds) it wasn't much slower, and I remember it as a very enjoyable flight, I could chat with the pilot and co-pilot (this latter doubled as steward) was given excellent beverages and learned quite a bit of the operation of these smallish planes, and we landed in Florence only 45 minutes later than what the scheduled flight would have. jaclaz

Well if they (the files) were outside the target this also explains why bitlocker didn't work. The target of bitlocker or sdelete (and also of format) is the volume (or partition if it is primary) i.e. the thing that gets a drive letter in windows. The disk drive (whole thing or \\.\PhysicalDrive) contains partitions that contain volumes (\\.\LogicalDrive) to which filesystems are applied. The volume is what gets a drive letter. If you want to use the sdelete (or format) methods the areas to wipe need to be within the target, i.e. you first need to make a partition as big as you can then you run the tools, anything within the extents of the partition will be wiped or overwritten, anything outside it won't. 7 hours for a 3Tb disk was not bad however, it mans that the disk bus (and overall the PC) is fastish. jaclaz

Yes, a format (without the /q) on OS later than Vista is more than enough as it will 00 out all sectors within the partition extents. What remains outside is: 1) MBR and "hidden sectors" before the partition 2) spare/excess sectors after the partition 3) HPA (if any) Unless you wear 24/7 a tinfoil hat it is as secure as needed, the larger extension that Secure Erase covers is not *needed*in the real world, the advantage is that it is usually much faster than using the OS to wipe/format, particularly on large disks and with relatively slow bus this makes a noticeable difference. jaclaz

Well, with all due respect *somehow* *something* wasn't done "properly" in your case. And DBAN is not in itself the "best" solution. The "right way" to wipe a disk is to use the (internal) ATA Secure Erase provisions (I am assuming these drives are either P-ATA or S-ATA). Under Windows NT family of OS it is a bit more complicated, a hdparm: https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/ATA_Secure_Erase port may work, (or it may not depending on the driver used) see: http://reboot.pro/topic/13601-software-to-wipe-a-systemdrive-from-windows/ But it makes really little sense to wipe a disk from such an OS, usually a boot disk of some kind is used, see also: http://reboot.pro/topic/16812-best-disk-eraser-for-use-in-win7pe/ http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/erase-your-hard-disk You can try using Victoria (for Windows) , it should run fine in 8.x and since it bypasses the internal OS driver can initiate a Secure Erase, but in any case - just like you did - you should check that it worked, some disk drives have Secure Erase poorly implemented. Personally - short of Secure Erase - I would use a "plain" dd (or dsfo/dsfi). jaclaz

Yes and no. Meaning that the hard disk in itself behaves like a "full system". What is in the EEPROM you dumped and what is actually on a set of "reserved/protected" sectors on the actual platter of the hard disk is "unknown". The hard disk "boots" (just like any system) with a sort of BIOS/firmware and - at a certain point - reads (and writes) data to the disk. Actual info on what is where is nowhere to be found, AFAIK. jaclaz

Z. Heimer, (just found his visit card ). jaclaz

Well don't put you too down either, wait at least until you (hopefully not) meet that German gentleman I continue to forget his name Alfred, Al something ... jaclaz

Well, in this case "volume" is even worse than partition. What you connect to the VM is always the whole device, the disk or \\.\PhysicalDrive, then VMware (but not all other VM's) allows to chose which partitions (and not volumes) to be accessible/usable inside the VMware VM. The volume - particularly if NTFS - is "inside" the partition. Disk (whole thing) contains partition(s) that contain volume(s). What is connected to the VM is the whole thing BUT the specific VMware has a trick or two that "filters" the MBR partition entries to only show the selected partitions. jaclaz

Usually not really "from a partition" but surely connecting a \\.\Physicaldrive to a VM it is possible. Specifically in VMware it is possible to use only one (or selected) partition(s) of the "connected" physical disk to the VM: https://www.vmware.com/support/ws5/doc/ws_disk_add_raw.html It is not however the "best" idea around to run an existing install (needs specific testing because the virtualized hardware may be largely different from the host's one, so unless the OS install is something *like* Windows To Go it is likely that there will be driver issues). jaclaz

What is the "e2prom" you are talking about and attached as .rar? how did you get it? The "usual" issue with the whole family of Barracuda/F3 disk drives, i.e. the 7200.11, the 7200.12 and the LP (which is something mid-way) is a corruption of some data in the firmware. The symptoms are either: 1) the disk is seen in BIOS but with 0 capacity (LBA0) 2) the disk is not seen as it is in busy state (BSY) These two symptoms (and only these two symptoms) may (or may not) be solved through known procedures. Any other symptoms is outside (and beyond) our experience and - potentially - may need specialized hardware mcuh more costly that the US$ 10 or so that a plain TTL adapter costs. (we are talking here of thousands of dollars for a PC-3000 or similar hardware) Do take some time to review the Read-Me-first and the FGA's: Then, read these topics (all we have about the LP drives): Once you will be familiar with the "previous art", you should be able to check the disk drive (not necessarily to "repair" it or to recover the info, unfortunately). jaclaz

From the readme.txt of the chipset drivers Chipset_Intel_9.4.4.1006_W81x64_A.zip: BUT - at first sight - they seem to include XP drivers. Most probably the readme is the usual meaningless/outdated crap by Intel where you can find everything (and the contrary of it). jaclaz

Nice Maybe you could spend a few words listing the features you changed/added/updated... jaclaz

Yes , but you create a (temporary) file that - before or later - you will need to parse in order to use the information in it. The output of that on my machine: jaclaz

Yes , I hadn't noticed (if the OP posted it ) that the BSOD STOP ERROR was 0x000007e. That is different from the 0x0000007b (which is the one that a missing or not working SATA driver will produce). #Kmuland The F5 (to be pressed at the time setup asks you to press F6 for SCSI drivers) should allow you to choose a different HAL, this may (or may not) avoid the 0x0000007e error, you can try also F7, see: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/299340 jaclaz

I don't understand. Make a batch, get the CSName first, then get the Java version (or viceversa), then output these two pieces of info together. However you will need some further "filtering" of the results, running "wmic product where "name like 'java%'" get description" produces: Description Java(TM) 6 Update 24 Java 8 Update 66 Java Auto Updater on my machine. The "base" should be more or less: @ECHO OFF SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS FOR /F "USEBACKQ TOKENS=*" %%A IN (`WMIC PRODUCT WHERE "name like 'java%%'" GET DESCRIPTION /format:list^|FIND "="`) DO ECHO my%%A FOR /F "TOKENS=*" %%A IN ('WMIC OS GET CSNAME /format:list^|FIND "="') DO ECHO my%%A FOR /F "USEBACKQ TOKENS=2 DELIMS==" %%A IN (`WMIC PRODUCT WHERE "name like 'java%%'" GET DESCRIPTION /format:list^|FIND "="`) DO CALL :Print_and_set myJava "%%A" FOR /F "TOKENS=2 DELIMS==" %%A IN ('WMIC OS GET CSNAME /format:list^|FIND "="') DO CALL :Print_and_set myCS "%%A" ECHO. SET my GOTO :EOF :Print_and_set ECHO %1 is %2 SET %1=%2 (for some strange reason - at least on my machine - there is a display glitch and the "m" in my%%A for the description is omitted, so I used the CALL) jaclaz

I am failing to see where dencorso suggested using a USB floppy. He mentioned the F6 driver install method, that nowadays is usually implemented using grub4dos and a (virtual) floppy image. jaclaz

jaclaz

As always, first thing to try is to thoroughly clean the USB connected devices database in the Registry. Only seemingly unconnected: jaclaz

And the point is? jaclaz

Naaah: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/12608-when-i-use-a-word-humpty-dumpty-said-in-rather jaclaz