jaclaz

@jumper It is IMHO NOT a good idea to fiddle with BIOS updates using ReactOS or Linux+Wine, BIOS updating is pretty much "low-level" stuff, you never know what can happen. @skamarla Can you post a link to the actual files you are/were using? I believe that laptop uses an Insyde BIOS, but it can be flashed from FreeDOS on a .iso/CD, see: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1043129 http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14099789/FDOS_v1_43.iso.tar.gz (the above is a bootable .iso containing FreeDOS, the FLAs***.EXE (DOS flashing tool) and the CL50143A.fd BIOS file) The batch uses these parameters: flas*** CL50143A.fd /fe /b so if you have a different (later) BIOS file you can replace that. jaclaz P.S. STUPID board word filters, of course the FLAs*** above means FLAmanure we need to use l33t5p34k for that FLASH1T

Good, so the "normal" IF test finds the drive. I personally would change the "logic" of the batch, having it trying to find the drive with the "wim" label BEFORE asking the user to choose between #1 and #2 (as a side-side not you don't need a /I switch in IF if the comparison is with numbers, there is not a "small case 1" and a "CAPITAL CASE 1 ), I mean, if the drive is not found, there is not much sense in asking the user to choose between 1 and 2 and provide an error after the choice. Then, I would probably want to disallow *anything* but 1,2 and q/Q in the SET /P, you can do this with something *like*: @ECHO OFF SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION :loop SET "Nums=" SET /P "Nums=Please Enter 1,2 or Q: " IF NOT DEFINED Nums echo Invalid input & goto :loop SET "Nums=!Nums:~0,1!" for /f "delims=12qQ" %%? in ("!Nums!") do echo Invalid input & goto :loop SET Nums GOTO :EOF jaclaz

Maybe you should take a step back and provide some info. What is the output that you have when running this simple batch: @ECHO OFF SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS FOR /F "tokens=1,2 " %%A in ('wmic logicaldisk get caption^,VolumeName 2^>NUL') do ( ECHO %%A %%B IF /I "%%B"=="wim" SET wimdrive=%%A ) SET wimdrive (possibly the "equ" test is not working in your batch ) BTW there are a few things that can be bettered in your batch, and seemingly it is missing the appropriate bcdboot command (after the imagex one, otherwise how is the system made bootable?) jaclaz

The "normal" way is to look into *all* drive letters and look for a "tag" file. See starting from here: jaclaz

The point is how EXACTLY (with which specific tool, under which speciifc OS and with whihc specific command line or GUI options) you "clone" the HDD (and of course you need to be sure that you can revert the process). If you make a true, dd-like, forensic sound image or clone of the whole disk you shouldn't have problems, of course, but a number of tools may use some "shortcuts" (which usually do not affect the result as you are not actually needing a forensic sound image) so you need to make sure. See for some further explanation/details: jaclaz

I don't understand the problem, not the solution, not the whatever you have done, I totally lost you. Maybe you could take a step back, re-read what you have written and - honestly - check whether it is understandable to anyone but you, and - should you by chance happen to believe that it is unclear and contradictory - possibly attempt to explain it better. jaclaz

The point is the difference in the booting sequence between a BIOS and (stupid) EFI/UEFI. The BIOS one (on MBR style disks): BIOS->MBR->PBR of active partition->*whatever* loader/bootmanager is called by the PBR/bootsector code The EFI one (on GPT): EFI->look for suitable EFI loaders (on accessible partitions)->(save them in NVRAM)->allow user to choose->call directly the chosen loader Since 7 if you install normally (on BIOS) on a brand new disk the Operating System using MS "standard setup", it will create TWO partitions, a "boot" one (that MS calls "system") containing the boot files and a "system" one (that MS calls "boot") containing the operating system file, the former is then hidden and NOT given a drive letter. Still, it is possible to create manually a single partition (that needs to be primary, active, NTFS) that contains BOTH the "boot" and "system" files (as often previous NT Operating Systems have been installed before ). The above usage of a multi-partition setup is "normal", "re-known", described a zillion times, were you not around here in the last - say - 7 years? With EFI the possibility to have a single, monolithic "boot" and "system" volume has been removed in practice because EFI has usually ONLY support for FAT32 filesystems, on the other hand the Windows OS's (since Vista) cannot be (unless a number of tricks are used) be installed on anything but NTFS, so you CANNOT have a "monolithic" volume containing BOTH the bootloader AND the operating system. You can't use NTFS as the EFI won't be able to read/access a NTFS volume, you can't use FAT32 because the filesystem has limitations that make the OS install invalid . So you need - as per MS "standard" install - a "system" (please read as "boot") volume containing just the bootmanager and BCD formatted FAT32 and a "boot" (please read as "system" ) volume containing the Operating System files formatted as NTFS. To make things simpler , the good MS guys also add a "MSR" volume (that noone will ever need and that has no actual practical use whatever), and (optionally) also a WinRE one (actually useful) and one for Recovery partition (which as well might be useful, particularly on a netbook/tablet) Please note how the articles date back to 2009): https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd799232(v=ws.10).aspx https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744301(v=ws.10).aspx Check also this: http://reboot.pro/topic/20595-what-is-significance-of-msr-sys-efi-partitions-for-win-81-native-boot-vhd-how/ You need to study a bit the whole concept of EFI booting and GPT partitioning and formatting before being able to use diskpart/Dism/bcdboot effectively and as hinted in my previous post workaround if necessary the (stupid) limitations of the EFI/UEFI and those of the GPT (and the ones of newish Windows OS's connected with those). Alternatively, wipe the first and last (say) 1000 sectors of the disk, and install normally from an install disk and setup will make the partitions along the "standard" guidelines mentioned above automatically. jaclaz

Maybe unrelated, but are you running the VM as Administrator or as "normal" user? See: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/virtual_pc_guy/2007/04/27/virtual-pc-shared-networking-and-the-problems-with-ping/ Still possibly unrelated, have you installed the service to the (wireless) network card? https://claytonj.wordpress.com/2007/02/02/connect-virtual-pc-to-internet/ jaclaz

I would say that there is a need for some benchmarks in order to provide an objective reason for this (or that) preference, a $MFT search is usually "instantaneous" or "nearly instantaneous", and the "separate database" approach need to beat that (besides somehow the time taken to index needs to be taken into account). I presume that on a "very static" filesystem there may be some advantages with the "external database" approach, whilst on a filesystem where files are continuously deleted/moved and created/copied the direct $MFT search would be faster overall, as the "indexing service" would eat CPU cycles. While we are at it, some previous discussions and pointers: http://reboot.pro/topic/18855-windows-file-search-utility-that-is-fast/ jaclaz

Why (the heck) are you using GPT? Is it EFI/UEFI ? (if it is it won't EVER boot unless you make a "boot" - what the MS guys smartly call "System" - FAT32 partition[1]) Is it BIOS? (if it is it won't EVER boot from a GPT disk unlesss a few tricks are used[2]) jaclaz [1] Ok, I am lying , but you will need a NTFS EFI driver, which is rather uncommon in "standard" EFI implementations. Luckily, you can get one from the Rufus project : https://github.com/pbatard/uefi-ntfs [2] JFYI, it is entirely possible, though you won't probably like the way it can be done: http://reboot.pro/topic/19516-hack-bootmgr-to-boot-windows-in-bios-to-gpt/ Of particular interest around these posts (shameless plug): http://reboot.pro/topic/19516-hack-bootmgr-to-boot-windows-in-bios-to-gpt/page-9#entry193659 http://reboot.pro/topic/19516-hack-bootmgr-to-boot-windows-in-bios-to-gpt/page-9#entry193947 AND: http://reboot.pro/topic/19516-hack-bootmgr-to-boot-windows-in-bios-to-gpt/?p=197690

I see you are not familiar with Candy Crush, according to the clever design, you don't get Microsoft reward points, but - when you make a mistake - you loose one "life", say you send an e-mail to a non-existing address, you lose one life. You attempt to login and make a typo, you lose one life. You print a document and the printer has no paper in the tray, you lose one life. After you have lost five lives, you either wait for them to be re-generated or you buy some gold bars and with them buy some extra time to complete the task .... There are of course two basic schemes (depending on the level - rectius task - at hand: 1) Time limited (as an example you have to complete an e-mail within 120 seconds) 2) Number of moves limited (as an example you cannot use more than 8 clicks or 3 drag 'n drops to copy contents of a directory) ... after all working is boring, and it was just about time someone found a way to make it more "fun". jaclaz

And SIV and SIW remain the suggested tools (though SIV went Commercial): jaclaz

For the record the "native" link format is (and has always been) of the kind: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=175991 (just in case). If anyone wants to update/extend my board link converter (or rewrite a properly written, better one) he/she would be welcome, right now it manages the topics, but not those direct links to posts. jaclaz

Maybe it is the dawn of a new computing era. Moving from merely deterministic computing (the user clicks on something and that something does what the user expects) to probabilistic computing (the user clicks something he/she cannot see and that unknown something does something - not necessarily what the user wanted - some of the times). Progressing from mere discoverability to semi-random effects of invisible buttons... jaclaz

And mind you I have been for years a big fan of HP hardware, I used to say "there are just two brands for printers (and hand calculators), Hewlett and Packard", the Laserjet's starting from the II and all the way through the 4, 5 and 6 were exceptionally sturdy, very economical and in practice never broke, or even in the rare case they did, fixing/repairing them was easy and economical, higher level printers, such as the HP 2200, were almost unbreakable. When it came to inkjet (but this is common with any other inkjet printer) things started to go downhill, maybe it is some sort of voodoo, but I seem to never have an inkjet printer working for what it is supposed to do (which should be to print a document on paper) at first try, and don't let me start with (inkjet) plotters . I tend to say that an inkjet printer has a value corresponding to its price , you buy an inexpensive printer (but don't worry, you'll pay for ink cartridges alright) and you start being able to print nice, coloured documents and WHEN ALL the following is true: a. print head is not too hot b. printer has been recently used (no later than one week) c. there is ink in ALL 4 cartridges and ALL 4 of them work correctly d. the paper is not too smooth, not too coarse e. the paper has been freshly, neatly, inserted in the tray, PERFECTLY aligned f. the calibration has been carried on recently you manage, at the second or third attempt, to have an almost decent printout (and normally you are so excited by the result that you manage to put your big fat fingers on it smearing the still fresh ink and need another attempt). But the software, ahh the software, particularly for all-in-ones or however combined printer/scanners, I still remember the nightmare it was to have the HP 1100 properly installed on 2K ! You needed the original CD (fair enough), two updates (almost impossible to find on the HP site, those were the years when they seemingly moved contents all the time), had to run part of the install program with the printer/scanner disconnected, and part once it was connected, then it would not work, you had to reboot, and start again, and ended up with two devices, one working and one not working, (usually you deleted by mistake the working one and had to restart again). To be fair in recent years things were made easier, you download several hundreds of megabytes of bloat (containing any kind of unneeded "side" software) and you run it, in - say 60% - of cases everything goes well and it takes you only half an hour or an hour to remove all the software that has been installed and that took possession of your file associations, in another - still say 30% of cases - you will be in the situation the OP is, with something working and something not, particularly with network printers or Wi-Fi enabled ones. The remaining 10% of cases will require you to either install or upgrade (or downgrade, it depends) things, like Flash, IE, .Net, and/or some other windows subsystem (and this is likely to break some other software you have already installed . jaclaz

I beg your pardon? Those are AFAICT Zyxel drivers alright, on ftp.zyxel.com jaclaz

Try here: ftp://ftp.zyxel.com/G-202/driver/ ftp://ftp.zyxel.com/G-202/driver/G-202_2.0.2.5.zip And maybe you need a "fixed" ndis.vxd: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/243199 jaclaz

Weren't they all in the same package? https://web.archive.org/web/20040805192136/http://www.atheros.com/pt/AR5005GS.htm What is PCI/DEV of your card? However, it is strange that *all cards*, even those for which you found the Windows 98 drivers result in a Code 10, it sounds like there is a "common issue" somehow related to the PCI bus or to some other subsystem. jaclaz

Then I believe you just add the drivers to Make_PE3\PE3_mod\WIN7_drivers\x86 (or \amd64) and build normally. jaclaz

I don't think that a PE 3.x made with Make_PE3 is particularly different form *any other* PE 3.x, you should be able to add the drivers "normally" via DISM *like*: http://www.pixelstech.net/article/1419908117-Install-Windows-7-with-USB-3-0-ports-only or you can use (if the "target" is also Windows 7) win7drv.cmd: http://reboot.pro/topic/12660-produce-their-own-pe3/?p=117562 or you mean that you want to re-build a new PE with those drivers added? jaclaz

Usually scanners use a "TWAIN" or "WIA" source, but the HP drivers[1] should provide/set that properly. Have you tried the "HP Print and Scan Doctor for Windows" ((under Utility Diagnostic tools)?: http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/HP-ENVY-7640-e-All-in-One-Printer-series/6617267/model/6617268 Typically you open a graphical program, enabled to scan, and try to scan, if the scanner is not present as source there is an install problem of some kind, if it is available, it will either just work or provide an error that may help to troubleshoot the issue. Usually HP provides also a few programs that can acquire an image, something like "Printer Assistant". Basically the issues can be related to: 1) drivers (not properly installed) 2) WIA subsystem not started or corrupted It could be also a connection problem, how do you have it connected? jaclaz [1] Generally speaking the HP drivers are a mass of bloat squeezed by a decerebrated IT guy into an automagical install package (which still is a huge mass of bloat) that almost never works properly on real world machine and that needs every kind of tweak/unusual sequences/partial reinstall/what not to (sometimes) install properly.

That is not a solution, it is a workaround. jaclaz

I don't think you can do much form a Guest account, if you have a Windows 8 bootable media (the install DVD) or you can make one, there is a procedure to bypass the login, or - still IF it is a 8, depending on version PassPass (shameless plug) might work fine to the same effect. The good ol' utilman trick: http://reboot.pro/topic/17872-reset-a-windows-8-password-without-using-any-third-party-software/ unfortunately the images have been lost in the interweb, but here: http://reboot.pro/topic/17872-reset-a-windows-8-password-without-using-any-third-party-software/?p=171014 I posted links to the same approach for the previous systems, the idea is exactly the same, this one particularly is simple and clear enough, and though it is for 7, will work the same for 8: https://www.technibble.com/bypass-windows-logons-utilman/ And this is specific for 8: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows-8/a/reset-password-windows-8.htm Maybe (but I doubt it) you can do the same from the guest account, otherwise you will need an install media or a PE. If you don't have one, PassPass may be used as long as you have a USB stick that you can format and setup: http://reboot.pro/topic/18588-passpass-bypass-the-password/ You may want to use Stever6375's version that can be inegrated in his E2B nice tool to make the USB boot stick: http://www.easy2boot.com/ http://rmprepusb.blogspot.it/2014/09/passpass-for-win-81-x64.html jaclaz

That is something dating back to Windows 2000, corresponds to alternative shell, just like you can set CMD.EXE as shell, at the end of the day it is a key in the Registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell or HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\Shell And typically you would use a dedicated program, such as Carapace or ShellOn: http://blackbox4windows.com/index.php?/topic/40-how-to-install-blackbox/ There are not that many alternative shells available, though good ol' BlackBox/BBlean (now BBzero) is reported to work fine, at least on some versions of Windows 10 (cannot say speciifically latest ones/AU): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_alternative_shells_for_Windows jaclaz

Well, to be fair to the good MS guys , they have made it so all your customers will soon also have no way to fine tune their screens colours, so they won't notice that, they are actually doing a favour to you... And soon everyone will get used to the dumbed down settings and looks, unfortunately, and the few guys that know what they are doing and that still resist will likely become - before or later - so overwhelmed by needing to periodically re-revert the changes that MS reverted to default that they will leave the UI to the stupid, ugly default. Also, listing everything that is wrong with Windows 10 would make a looong list, maybe it will be easier to list what they got right. jaclaz