jaclaz

Replace WHAT? With WHICH version? It seems like you are not very familiar with the concepts of partitioning and formatting (USB) devices and with the ideas behind the mentioned filter drivers. jaclaz

Yep , but I was asking if this happened on a non-partitioned device (a "Normal" USB stick which normally comes from factory as "removable") i.e. a device which first sector is the PBR or it it happened with USB hard disks (that are always a "fixed" device) i.e. a device that has one or more partition created and that has the MBR as first sector and the PBR at a given offset (typically 63 sectors) or if it happened with a "removable" but partitioned device. The reference by Dybia to the HP USB Format utility is "queer" as that tool does not do the same things as the built-in Windows XP tools. By default in Windows XP: 1) if the device is "removable", the USB device is given "directly" a drive letter and is formatted (by format.com) as "superfloppy". 2) if the device is "fixed", the USB device needs to be partitioned (by diskpart or disk manager) then format.com is used on the partition(s) The HP USB format tool creates (often with wrong, unbalanced CHS/LBA data) a partition on the ("removable") device, then formats it, the result is DIFFERENT from what you can do with built-in tools. If you prefer, maybe using a filter driver like cfadisk.sys or dummydisk.sys or diskmod.sys would change something (or maybe it won't) . Anyway, I failed to understand that once USBPORT.SYS from Windows 2003 is used the problem is solved . jaclaz

I would be curious to know something more about this "formatting" problem. What it is related to exactly? 1) formatting a volume on a USB partitioned device 2) formatting a USB "removable" device 3) partitioning a USB device What is the error/problem? Using disk manager or diskpart or format.com? Does it affect all USB ports or just USB3 ones? jaclaz

So, the given article is just rubbish? http://searchitchannel.techtarget.com/feature/How-Windows-7-hardware-upgrades-affect-licensing jaclaz

The XP "votes" mechanism was detailed here (just for the record): http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm and the XPINFO (and related papers) are here: http://www.licenturion.com/xp/ The Windows 7 mechanism (not as detailed as in the above): http://searchitchannel.techtarget.com/feature/How-Windows-7-hardware-upgrades-affect-licensing I don't know if anyone already tried doing something like xpinfo for 7. jaclaz

And now, if you think that Windows 10 is bad, meet Finch which is what the good Google guys can use to change your chrome (or Chromium) remotely (separate from the "normal" upgrade/update engine): https://sslmate.com/blog/post/ct_redaction_in_chrome_53 in a nutshell: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12953172 jaclaz

The decimal separator is a convention, but, unfortunately for you (US and for some other English speaking countries), the international ISO standards use the comma. though *like* 99.99% of the people (please note the comma as decimal mark) simply ignore that, it is a requirement for international standards: http://www.iso.org/sites/directives/2016/part2/index.xhtml#_idTextAnchor098 As Oracle puts it: https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19455-01/806-0169/overview-9/index.html But in practice scientists tend to be smart enough to understand which is which : https://web.archive.org/web/20130228062258/http://www.councilscienceeditors.org/files/scienceeditor/v31n2p042-043.pdf jaclaz

What about the remaining 90,000%? jaclaz

I think in my simplicity that a good idea would be to set a couple of conventions: 1) NOT promise any date <- for the developer 2) NOT ask for delivery <- for the final user When (and if) it will be released it will be released, no need to promise, no need to ask or press for release, no need to provide justifications for non-matched dates. jaclaz

Is that BIOS or UEFI? IF UEFI, check NVRAM, maybe that disk boot manager was added to it, and now it looks for it and throws a fit http://superuser.com/questions/930725/how-to-delete-os-from-boot-menu jaclaz

Good examples, though overall I find faster to list the times they did communicate properly .... jaclaz

Eugene Kaspersky is not happy: https://eugene.kaspersky.com/2016/11/10/thats-it-ive-had-enough/ jaclaz

NO need to. That value may depend from a number of factors, some BIOS may detect the stick as HardDisk1 even if the PC was booted from it (in some cases, on the same machine a USB stick may be HardDisk 0 or 1 depending on the exact way the USB stick was booted, like changing BIOS boot device order vs. press F12 (or whatever key) to change it "on-the-fly": jaclaz

You mean this? A summing up is here: http://virtualcustoms.net/showthread.php/70885-Need-help-with-UxThemeSignatureBypass-tool?s=3e3d9d321a3f4dfb7ac9de1d2579d6ea&p=311154&viewfull=1#post311154 jaclaz

NO need to be pardoned, it's OK not everyone can know everything, just provide the make/model of the PC (or of the motherboard), as said 99% it is booting via BIOS services, the machine may be either "pure" BIOS or UEFI and using the BIOS services of the CSM (Compatibility Support Module) in it, the first is "standard" and "easy", the second, depending on the actual UEFI and CSM implementation may be a bit trickier when it comes to re-installing, but now this has become a secondary problem. The disk in itself is not necessarily "dead", as it boots and via F8 accesses the recovery/emergency partition/PE, what has happened is that the filesystem of that particular volume is corrupted. This may be due to a bad sectors (which depending on the number of them could be a huge issue) or a simple corruption of just one or a few bytes (that may be solvable in no time), the issue here is that there is no way to know in advance and that you have on that volume some valuable data, so the priority needs to be shifted to first thing attempt to salvage the data (or as much data as it is possible). jaclaz

... or one of the several other tools and methods now available, many of which have a dedicated topic in the sub-forum, but - out of sheer curiosity - which part of "WITHOUT EXTRA TOOLS" in the topic title made you post about an extra tool? jaclaz

Summing it up: 1) you are currently running from X:\Windows which plainly means that you are running some form of PE, which could be located on the D: drive (the one labeled Wininstall, removable, FAT32 and 119 Gb in size) 2) you are 99% running in BIOS mode (or UEFI/CSM) this is important to understand as the re-install may be automatically be somehow triggered to the "other" mode. 3) the result of DIR C: is expected and "right", trying DIR C: /a:h /S or DIR C: /a:s /S should allow you to see the \boot\ folder and the files within it. 4) the result of DIR E: is instead "bad news", together with the fact that you can only "see" directory names but cannot access them and with the CHKDSK result. BTW since windows 8 a number of other command options were added to it, running CHKDSK /F /R /X has anyway always been "wrong" (/R implies /F, /X implies as well /F and forcing the dismount of the volume is never a good idea), just for the record (and for next time) the "right" way to run CHKDSK is to run it once, twice or thrice: #1 run CHKDSK without parameters #2 depending on output of #1 and only if needed, run CHKDSK /F #3 depending on output of #2 ad only if needed, run CHKDSK /R Whenever possible never run CHKDSK on the actual volume containing the OS from the OS itself, boot from a PE and run it from there, the boot time scan (which is forced when you try to chkdsk the system volume from itself is much slower). 5) There is something "serious" on that hard disk or volume, it could be something "fixable" or it could be something that has made your data gone poof The "right" procedure is the following right now (details may be slightly different if the PC is a desktop or a laptop): 1) stop fiddling with the disk 2) connect it (through a USB bridge or directly through an unused SATA or eSATA port) to another working computer[1] 3) connect to this other working computer another (new or however surely good) disk with the same or larger capacity 4) clone or image the disk through dd or however making a forensic sound clone or image 5) examine the filesystem of the volume on the clone or image with a suitable program (I personally recommend/use DMDE, but there are others) 6) depending on results of #5 above, either salvage the data (as much as you can) or attempt fixing the filesystem I know that it looks daunting, but it is all in all simpler to do than what it seems in the description, BUT you will need at the very least another (new or surely working) disk same size or bigger and additionally enough space to save the data (or yet another disk same size or bigger). In any case, you NEED to definitely confirm if it is booting via BIOS or UEFI (or UEFI/CSM), possiby post also the EXACT make/model of the PC (or of the motherboard). jaclaz [1] or get another disk installed on that computer and install to it a new copy of the OS

An internet link not surviving a mere 11 (eleven) years? How queeeer ... Hey wait, what could be the use of the Wayback Machine? But hey, no, that would mean taking some more time than just clicking a link and start whining because it doesn't work anymore ... Since in this particular case it is not exactly straightforward to find the file via archive.org, and exceptionally, here it is: https://web.archive.org/web/20051208023845/http://www.lucifiar.net/enhance/download/xpack.zip The linked article (without images, so worth next to nothing) is however easily retrievable: https://web.archive.org/web/20060522045534/http://www.tcmagazine.info/articles.php?action=show&id=204&perpage=1&pagenum=1 as well as the relative download page (not working): https://web.archive.org/web/20060613192458/http://www.tcmagazine.info/modules.php?modid=4&action=show&id=427 without any particular trick/without much work. jaclaz

Ok, now it makes much more sense, "System Rese" is 11 characters (short for "System Reserved"). That 100 Mb partition (which is NTFS, which should mean BIOS - or UEFI/CSM boot) probably contains the boot files. What happens if you issue: CD /D %systemroot% (I mean which drive letter gets the prompt to?) and what happens with: CD /D %Windir% (they should logically bring you to either C:\Windows or E:\Windows ) What can you see if you issue DIR C: and DIR E: jaclaz

Needed reference: https://tinyapps.org/blog/misc/200702250700_why_in_my_day.html ... kids today ... jaclaz

What you report is a bit confused (and a number of needed informations are lacking). If - even after some (seemingly A LOT in your case) time - you can boot to *something*, it means that the *something* is actually there. A volume label should be able to be at the most 11 characters, "windows rese" is 12 most probably it is a part of "Windows Reserved". Can you post some actual screenshot of the output of: diskpart list vol Which machine is it? Are you booting UEFI or BIOS (or UEFI/CSM)? It is "normal" in the case of both a BIOS "default" install and of a UEFI (in UEFI mandatory) that there is another smallish partition holding the boot files (MS calls this "system") besides the large one that contains your "system" (which MS calls "boot"). Normally on BIOS this small partition is NTFS, while on UEFI it is (obligatory) FAT32, and it has NOT a drive letter assigned (in both cases). In UEFI (according to MS) amd Windows 10 there should be a 100 Mb partition and also an unused additional "MSR" partition: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/commercialize/manufacture/desktop/configure-uefigpt-based-hard-drive-partitions of 16 Mb. If - for whatever reasons - your drive letter assignment was damaged/deleted/etc., it is possible that the OS mistakenly assigned the C: drive letter to that volume/partition and thus "shifted" other letter assignments. Since a number of paths are (again "normally") hardcoded to the drive letter C:, if this drive letter assignment has changed the OS won't boot properly (if at all). Do you have in that machine a CD/DVD drive (and can you burn a CD/DVD in case of need) or do you have handy a USB stick that you can use (again if needed)? jaclaz

... meantime nVidia ... http://www.majorgeeks.com/news/story/nvidia_adds_telemetry_to_latest_drivers_heres_how_to_disable_it.html some more details: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/5bcppp/nvidia_has_added_telemetry_to_their_windows/ jaclaz

A fresh update : https://thehftguy.wordpress.com/2016/11/01/docker-in-production-an-history-of-failure/ jaclaz

Good, then all is fine. jaclaz

Yep, at first sight that new settings should skip files where size and contents (I presume that some form of hash is performed and checked ) have not changed. I have NO idea what "Windows Offline Files" is, let alone how it works (or completely fails to work ), isn't it a Windows 7 (and I presume later) "feature" only? https://helgeklein.com/blog/2012/04/windows-7-offline-files-survival-guide/ jaclaz