jaclaz

I am particularly rusty on VBA, however I happened (while attempting to write *another* thing) to find a piece of nice VBA code for opening files, here: http://forums.codeguru.com/showthread.php?499395-Reading-binary-files-in-VBA-quickly! which I of course right away stole for my project. As often happens, in order to understand how the snippet worked I did some tests completely unrelated to the original goal, and by pure chance I (half-@§§edly as usual) put together something that may be of actual use. Find attached a simple spreadsheet that counts bytes in a file and draws a quick graph of their frequency by value . Such graphs are normally part of some disk/file/hex editors, among them I will cite X-Ways (commercial): http://www.x-ways.net/ and (freeware) HXD: http://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/ and sometimes are useful to analyze "unknown" files. Only very BRIEFLY tested on "smallish" files, YMMV. Have fun . jaclaz Bytecount.zip

Yep , of course "been there done that" here is the actual "howto": http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16713 JFYI that thread more or less originated, see also this: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/81788-installing-unattended-from-a-usb-thumb-drive/?p=563654 the "whole" section: http://www.msfn.org/board/forum/157-install-windows-from-usb/ The current version of WinsetupFromUSB is however 1.4: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/120444-how-to-install-windows-from-usb-winsetupfromusb-with-gui/ http://www.winsetupfromusb.com/downloads/ and hopefully it works "better" than WinSetupFromUSB_1-0-beta7 (and BTW also includes the DPMS drivers, so, normally you should not need to integrate your drivers). The very queer thing as said is that you have the same result with the BIOS set to "IDE compatibility mode" (and if this is the case *any* "normal", "untouched" XP source should give not the 0x0000007b error - if not because of the NTDETECT.COM) or, if you prefer, there must be something not related to the SATA driver integration if the result is the same 0x0000007b with the integrated source or with the "plain" one. jaclaz

I know , the main point was, as someone else said particularly because the OP talked of a DPMS folder....and the readme.txt in it contains: OT , the DPMS.ISO could be a very good target for the COSMIAS approach . (which would allow easier "moving" it) Reboot.pro is down right now , but when it comes back it may interest you. http://reboot.pro/topic/17807-release-cosmias-a-new-approach-to-g4d-images/ in the meantime (JFYI): https://web.archive.org/web/20130507103634/http://reboot.pro/topic/17807-release-cosmias-a-new-approach-to-g4d-images/ jaclaz

It's a largish file, around 10 Mb, cannot attach it. I uploaded it on filedropper, here: http://www.filedropper.com/uniextract17 jaclaz

Which exact driver(s) are you trying to integrate with nlite (or which specific computer is it)? I mean, it makes little sense to test in virtual box something that will behave differently when (if) the actual specific hardware is detected. There are tens (or more) different SATA drivers, and the installation of the one (or the other) will be "triggered" by the install routine hardware autodetection. If you are trying to make a (almost) "universal" Windows XP install disk, you'd better go for the DriverPacks (the site does provide detailed instructions for use with nlite): http://driverpacks.net/ http://forum.driverpacks.net/index.php jaclaz

Sure, but the point remains. Do they provide free, countless bananas? It's binary, 0/1 or Yes/No. Potatoes might do jaclaz

#1 Get a recent grub4dos (or even a non-recent one) and read it's Readme, or check here: http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/menu.htm#default The actual reason why the file has been chosen with a fixed size of 2048 bytes is that this way it is surely accessible by grub4dos on a NTFS filesystem. Small files, full details here: http://www.forensicfocus.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=10403/ are "embedded" in the $MFT entry on NTFS and grub4dos cannot see/access them. #2 WHY? Please provide a good reason for this change. However the DPMS are taken (without modifications) from: http://driverpacks.net/ so maybe you will have a better answer if you ask that question there: http://forum.driverpacks.net/ jaclaz

Well, this omission can be easily fixed. Why the heck Trip is allowed to post "Project Shiva" here? : http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/142204-project-shiva/ but, much more than that, why is he allowed to not merge his own posts? http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/173051-kb3000850-big-update-windows-812/?p=1089342 and use the thread "as twitter"? jaclaz

Nice , though it seems like "limited": http://web.archive.org/web/20040619083303/http://home.tiscali.de/zdata/hdcopy_e.htm to copying the WHOLE CONTENTS of a drive to another one (and it has to be found if the result is a "copy" or a "clone", it sounds more like a "copy"), it is thus corresponding to: http://www.icompute.info/xcopy_drive_copy.htm http://www.duxcw.com/digest/Howto/hd/cpyhd/cpyhd2.htm I SERVe Kentucky Fried Chicken Hot! (though possibly this won't work in Me, while it does on 9x) Or to xxcopy /CLONE (which does not really-really "clone"): http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy10.htm http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy11.htm jaclaz

Good to know , it seems that even the good Kaspersky guys have gone the IMHO "downhill" path of making their tool grow up to the point where they don't even know anymore for sure what it does. JFYI , recent issues with Avast : http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/173051-kb3000850-big-update-windows-812/page-2 jaclaz

Oww, come on. What do you mean by "reputable"? Random idea: http://sourceforge.net/projects/flacsquisher/ jaclaz

Yep , unfortunately the .NET bloat is infiltrating everywhere corrupting every system around (besides the minds and souls of otherwise very good and nice developers) . jaclaz

At "first sight" I wouldn't think there is a connection with an antivirus kind of software, I was thinking more about Virtual Machine or virtual Cd/Virtual disk kind of software, as an example this is something that has been reported on some machines when using Alcohol 120% or Daemon Tools and a "failed" or "botched" install or however whn some other software related to accessing "foreign" filesystems/disk images/etc., one for all: http://forums.techguy.org/windows-xp/819552-phantom-drive-letters.html Still the "virtual device is usually found in the Registry or in device manager. This one is another "queer" one (card slot on wi-fi printer ): http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/173677-bizarre-local-disk-showing-up.html Can you try (as Trip suggested before) to boot into safe mode and check if those "ghost drives" are in there too? You could try running WinObj: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896657.aspx but I have no idea if it can find anything related or how to interpret what it may find . jaclaz

Probably NOT what you asked for , but some related info/links are in this thread: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/171184-microsoft-ipd-intra-package-delta-compression-tool/ Maybe you are looking after this: https://github.com/taspeotis/DeltaCompressionDotNet Warning : .NET jaclaz

Try re-checking also under CD/DVD drives (i doubt that it can be a floppy). A drive letter can be (ghost or real) assigned to: a floppya cd/dvda hard disk volume (internal)a hard disk like or superfloppy external (USB connected)a media card socket (on many laptops these are internal but USB connected)a virtual drive software (i.e. a virtual device)a network shareonce the first five will be excluded, only the last two can be the issue, unless I miss something. But you should know if you have installed or run "strange" software when the issue began. On some desktops I have seen (curious as it may be) "ghost" devices (but never that I recall a mass storage device) appear from thin air due to failing/bad PSU's (hardware fault) but I don't think that it can happen on a laptop. I will think about some other possible cause but right now I'm stumped. jaclaz

Please read as "the stupid thing botched the OS" http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/173051-kb3000850-big-update-windows-812/ jaclaz

This may mean that they are *somehow* recreated at boot time. After having run both drive cleanup and devicecleanup, check in Regedit the mentioned hives there should be no traces of *anything* besides C:, D: E: (and related volume ID's). Then reboot and check if *anything* has been added to them. If not (and you are still having the "fake" devices), it means that we checked in the "wrong" place. Open a command prompt, follow this KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315539/en-us (you have to keep the command window open while accessing device manager) Select one by one the "greyed out" entries under "Disk Drives", right click and uninstall each one, do the same under "Storage Volumes", and under the "USB Controller". (cannot say the exact names in French, they should be Lecteurs de disque, Volumes de stockage, Controleurs de bus USB) See: http://www.generation-nt.com/affichage-des-peripheriques-caches-astuce-24581-1.html jaclaz

Maybe obvious, but that is a known issue when attempting slipstreaming a service pack running NOT under XP (i.e. running under Vista or later). http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/117515-slipstreamed-sp3-product-key-now-invalid/ jaclaz

I wonder which was the difficult part in: jaclaz

So, the actually assigned letters are actually C:, D:, E:: Open device manager and check that you don't have "strange" devices in it (possibly with a question mark or an exclamation mark)Open Regedit and check the contents of hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices delete all keys NOT corresponding to C:, D:, E: or to the corresponding volume ID's in the above. Do the same for the keys in hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MountPoints2 see if anything changes (you might need to "kill" explorer and restart it or reboot). If you don't feel confident in doing the above manually you can use drivecleanup: http://www.uwe-sieber.de/drivetools_e.html#drivecleanup and the "companion" app devicecleanup: http://www.uwe-sieber.de/misc_tools.html#devicecleanup jaclaz

That is very queer. The 0x0000007b is "inaccessible boot device" and it is normally caused by a missing driver for the hard disk, but in IDE mode it should not happen, at least, not even on pesky BIOSes, when the modified NTDETECT.COM is used. Try again integrating the SATA drivers, after having read this: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/107504-integration-of-intels-sata-ahci-and-raid-drivers/ http://www.win-raid.com/t22f23-Integration-of-Intels-AHCI-RAID-drivers-into-a-Windows-XP-W-k-W-k-CD.html Would it be possible that for any reason you are providing a set of "wrong" drivers? (or that they were modified in a incompatible way by Acer or something like that) Alternatively, you can try one of the "alternate" ways: http://www.msfn.org/board/forum/157-install-windows-from-usb/ if you can make a 7 PE of some kind, or even tty the good ol' USB_MultiBoot.cmd: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/111406-how-to-install-xp-from-usb/ Or try with RMPREPUSB in a more "manual" way: http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/install-xp-from-an-iso jaclaz

That seems the effect of using some kind of virtual disk driver that *somehow* let the drive letters "hooked" to non existing devices, BUT it could be also a completely different issue. Open a command prompt. In it run: mountvol>c:\mountvol.txtPost the contents of files C:\mountvol.txt. Before that (if you haven't already done so, do try rebooting, more often then not this kind of drive letter mis-attribution is "volatile" and does not survive a reboot. jaclaz

And don't forget good ol' powerprompt: http://www.grubletrang.com/SoftwareList.aspx As a side note, about directly logging in as system, if anyone has the guts (and time ) to experiment, this might be of interest http://reboot.pro/topic/18792-if-anyone-is-up-for-a-challenge/ jaclaz

1. Not really. There is no need for XOSL, the trick is to rather to install on a primary partition and later convert the primary to a logical volume inside extended. This can be done in a number of ways, nowadays I would use grub4dos for this, it is not particularly complex, once you get the hang of it and if you plan your partitioning accurately. There are of course no problems in having it installed to a primary while the NT's are on other logical volumes, the only "drawback" is that you will have 1 less partition slot available in the MBR (which is not a real issue if you do not plan to use other OS's needing primary partitions. 2. Essentially double boot and triple or n-boot are the same, you only have more items to choose from. You may want to consider separate steps: dual boot between 9x and NT fake that you forgot about the 9x install and dual boot between NT and 2K fake that you forgot about both 9x and NT and dual boot between 2K and ...if this makes it easier. You will find here a number of informations for simpler dual or n-boot setups: http://thpc.info/dualboot.html As hinted before, many of the "rules of the game" have been changed since the release of grub4dos with direct disk access, nowadays you can do *anything* or almost anything with this single utility. jaclaz

Sure , roughly at the same time I thought supercalifragilisticexpialidocious was a really cool word. And this shows, besides how old I am, how there are still chances for old words to surface back (since the marketing already used ALL more common adjectives/synonyms of exceptional or smart) . jaclaz