jaclaz

Sure , possibly Ubuntu jaclaz

JFYI, discussion about correcthorsebatterystaple and similar : http://www.forensicfocus.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=10675/ BUT, IF the password is actually stolen, it can be as "strong" (or "supposed to be strong") as much as you want, it will still be a stolen password, i.e. it will offer the same security as "Goofy" or "MickeyMouse". jaclaz

... and you have also a Vista license "lying around", and you have not a 7 license "lying around" ... jaclaz

And I agree with you on this . But it is well possible that the "more" was that they needed to find a way to spare a few dollars of royalties without getting US$ 10 of additional income, or - even better - manage to get a whole additional US$100. IF this was the plan, they succeeded at it (at least with you ), but still, making your otherwise perfectly legal and payed for license not activated and providing no way back likens the matter to asking for a ransom. jaclaz

Often news reports are incorrect, but IF the article is correct, it says: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/raju-crying-elephant-new-home-article-1.1893552 Also http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/seize http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cease jaclaz

Hopefully, but traditionally unlikely/improbable. IMHO, the complete failure of Windows 8/8.1 has not been - incredibly - severe enough. The good MS guys have not yet fully perceived how they have a complete design flaw and they are trying to patch it as opposed to either (their chioice) create a new working UI or get back to the good ol' one. I have seen the other day on TV a documentary about a (much respected) German scientist testing a newly designed "hybrid" TIR (18 wheeler in the US) in which he implemented a "drive by wire" technology (which is good) BUT decided to remove the steering wheel and pedals replacing them with a sort of joystick with brakes activated by three fingers of the left hand. The only issues in the test was that he couldn't brake (and steer) properly/accurately. Technically , there are two ways to survive a storm First one is to (boldly) stand in the midst of it, attempting vainly to mitigate it's effects using an incredible amount of survival tricks, second one is to stay in a safe place and wait until it passes (or move to somewhere else). I believe that the second approach leads to being more relaxed and less tired (and/or wet) when the sun starts shining again, and the sun will shine equally above both kinds of survivors. jaclaz

Which is good, though jaclaz needs to disagree with you on this: MS could in theory be sued for this, but it would be necessary to prove that MS intentionally put a too weak protection or however did not exercise the normal, expected, diligence in protecting access to the software, and that this behaviour caused a loss in royalties. Suing for damages instead of the one(s) that cracked a protection, the ones that put the protection on the product because it is inadequate would be an interesting legal exercise , similar to the case where someone leaves a car parked with doors open and keys in the ignition and the car is used by a minor (or however someone not authorized or not licensed to drive the car) and it is involved in an accident. But what if the car was started without the keys? Could you sue (say) Mr. Ford or Mr. BMW because the ignition can be operated by cleverly using a bent hairpin? jaclaz

Yes, possibly you have been misinformed. Or you have fallen victim of one of the zillion senseless FUD spreading articles by MS shills , you know, like : http://www.pcworld.com/article/2068300/windows-xp-holdouts-3-reasons-you-must-upgrade-now-yes-now-.html On supported hardware (i.e. where a proper XP driver is available), a USB 3.0 device connected to a USB 3.0 port, with the proper USB 3.0 driver properly installed will transfer data at USB 3.0 speed. But however there is some truth in the XP being actually slower in benchmarks than Windows 7 (which does not automatically mean that Vista will behave exactly like the latter) as actual results may vary greatly on specific hardware (and "quality" of drivers) and may be affected by differences in other OS subsystems/caches and what not, see: http://www.passmark.com/support/usb3loopback_benchmark.htm jaclaz

Actually the "real" issue (besides your misadventure, which is IMHO proof of a rather serious bug) is the procedure that seemingly changes your original Windows 8/8.1 key to add a "feature" (which essentially is nothing but an "add-on" or a "same-party program) that is "crazy". Imagine that if you want to repace as an option steel wheels with alloy ones to your car the procedure is removing engine and transmission and remounting them, after having re-flashed both the ignition computer and the navigator. It simply makes no sense. (though to be fair I seem to remember that on some cars changing a burned xenon lamp needs to have the car computer register the change ) jaclaz

You didn' t receive the e-mail from MS reminding you that it was either "activation before January 31, 2013 or nothing"? The one reproduced here: http://www.edbott.com/weblog/2013/01/deadlines-loom-for-cheap-windows-8-upgrades-and-media-center-pack-keys/ jaclaz

See if this applies/works: http://winaero.com/blog/fix-mouse-pointer-sticks-on-the-edge-when-moving-between-multiple-monitors/ jaclaz

Well Vista was not "misunderstood". It sucked (and sucked big ) at the time it came out and was senselessly pushed to customers on generally much underpowered hardware. After 2 (two) SP's it became "good enough" , but that took 3 (three) years (and in the meantime the "average" machine became much more powerful in terms of processor and Ram available), which is - in operating system terms - an eternity. JFYI (about the USB3.0 assumed "superiority"), it makes no sense, there are XP USB 3.0 drivers for *some* hardware/controllers and there are missing Vista drivers for some other controllers, examples: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=19880 http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/usb3/sb/CS-033072.htm But it is IMHO true that nowadays a Vista SP2 is not much different from 7 (please read as Vista SP3 ) and that it can represent a valid OS . jaclaz

@Ponch Our friend submix8c had an accidental bricking of these E521 (or however managed to transform them in doorholders): http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/162807-asus-bios-update/ and while he brilliantly went over denial and anger : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kübler-Ross_model simply cannot get to the acceptance stage . Sad to say so , but he has not been the same since , we must try doing our best to support him until he manages to get through the mourning for this loss, he is simply not ready yet for jokes on Dells. jaclaz

@Trip I mean crime as crime (meaning #1): http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/crime/ A crime is prosecuted under criminal Law by the State. A violation of terms of service is - before anything else - a civil matter, that may additionally involve a crime. The first is something the provider may react directly to by suspending service, cashing the deposit (if any), suing the violator, etc., all in all it is about money. The second is something that the police or competent State agency will take care of, and it is mainly about sending violators to prison and protecting other people from their criminal actions. jaclaz

Well, you could at least detail WHICH driver is working, possibly also providing a link to them, so that other people in a similar situation as you were will benefit from your findings. The issue with the "can't allocate an IP address" may be connected to those drivers (then thus are pretty much useless) or to *something* else, you will need to provide some more details and possibly someone can help you solve this latter issue. Still, if you can find the "right" drivers for *another* OS, let's say Windows 7, it would be a good idea to try (even a PE 3.x would do) if the NIC's are actually working with it, as it is possible that the issue is actually in some form of malfunctioning. jaclaz

Trip has brought the issue a little sideways from what I meant. Terms of service abuse is one thing, CP is another (and it is in most countries a crime). Point is not about UNauthorized access (though technically feasible, either leaving or not leaving traces of it) to someone's e-mail(s) or mailbox, but rather about authorized access and extents of this access, and by whom is this access performed. The theoretical procedure for a digital forensic investigator, at least in the US, read this thread (one of the two stickies on Forensic Focus Forum "General" section): http://www.forensicfocus.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=1431/ is quite simple: If - while doing forensic (or data recovery) work - you happen to find even a single image that you suspect could represent Child Pornography, you should immediately stop whatever you are doing and call the Police and Federals, that will seize the storage device and any copy you have made of it. In the UK, though seemingly "softer", there are similar provisions. Since the view and possession of a CP image happens "by accident" and while doing some professional activity, civilians (computer technicians and similar) are generally - as long as they report the matter in a timely fashion - held safe from prosecution. Of course different states may have different provisions, see: http://www.ndaa.org/pdf/Mandatory%20Reporting%20of%20Child%20Abuse%20and%20Neglect-Nov2011.pdf As I see it, verifying whether an "automatic alarm" was triggered correctly or by mistake would imply checking the actual contents of something that is ALREADY likely to contain CP, it is not anymore an accident (unless of course the "automatic alarm" is way off and has - say - 99% of false positives), it is more like a concrete possibility. Now, the process of "manual review" of the "automatically triggered as suspect" e-mails or mailboxes is something that someone must do, i.e. in practice someone is employed to commit on a daily basis one or more crimes connected to CP. While it is largely possible that the good MS or Google guys managed to get by a Court some form of specific exoneration from prosecution, all the good LE guys (which are actually authorized -within limits - to deal with this material in connection with an investigation or trial) have a specific training and psychological assistance, see this (the other sticky on Forensic Focus Forum "General" section): http://www.forensicfocus.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=2329/ it is not something that you may allow an intern or a non fully trained, not fully cleared and deemed psychologically suitable to do as a job. So, the question remains, Who are the watchers? jaclaz

Just to understand how common is this misunderstanding : http://www.hdtvsupply.com/hdmi-to-5rca-component.html jaclaz

Easiest: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/172357-aero-glass-customizer-for-win8x/ jaclaz

Sure, all new OS's starting from Windows NT 3.1 in July 1993 ..... (though at the time you didn't actually *need*/*want* to make them "lite", the game was to add to them things you needed). A few years later I had a NT 4.0 with only the help/doc files deleted and slightly optimized on a ZIP 100 disk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT#Hardware_requirements jaclaz

The point is that - particularly for the "real" BSY that happened on SD15 - the "User Partition Format Successful" (and having it with a few seconds delay or immediately, i.e. 0s, or having to wait for it a couple minutes or more) is only a "message" . What actually matters is "exiting the loop" due to the stupid LOG data pointer (you can read a detailed explanation see the link in the Read-Me-First to the 40 posts of so talking of the matter) and thus "moving" the pointer (or resetting the counter) from the 320 value (or multiple). So it should work at first attempt (but trying it again won't make anything "worse") what is happening to your disk is likely to be (while still a BSY) a busy state caused by a completely different issue (for which we have no knowledge on it's diagnosing ). jaclaz

Yep, we made a sticky for it : http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/150215-dont-even-think-of-swapping-pcbs-on-720011/ Of course it is possible to replace the PCB (but ONLY if the "ROM" is transplanted from the "old" PCB to the "new" one, but your PCB is fine, at the most it is not working becuase of a corrupted ROM, so it would be a nice Catch 22.... Since it is a SD15, you can then use the "diagnostic" command Aviko posted, see: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/128807-the-solution-for-seagate-720011-hdds/page-22#entry832876 but cannot say whether it will be of any use. jaclaz

There is a known misconception/misunderstanding. SOME (which means "a few", not "many" and definitely NOT "all") readers/devices/whatever may have a HDMI connector on which the device (outside any standard) outputs composite (analogic) signals on some pins. Cables (NOT converters) are simple "pin adapters" connecting these pins to RCA jacks, they will ONLY work on these particular devices (if they exist at all). A HDMI to AV converter (NOT "cable") is an electronic (powered) circuit that takes a digital HDMI signal as input and converts it in a composite video + audio signal. Cables are "cheap" (but useless), converters not so much, but still they can be found for less than 50 bucks. jaclaz

Lot's of ideas point being if any of them are good ideas. Resetting the G-list ( the i4,1,22 command) is not something that I believe can help, I would do it as a "last, desperate" kind of attempt. Which firmware is the disk drive/which model? The original FD15 500 Gb one had a "diagnostic" F712 command (search posts by user "Aviko" containing "F712"), but even if it applies cannot really say how much it could help... jaclaz

Hmmm. It's likely that it is a Walmart conspiracy to have you spend more than 100 bucks for a converter, like: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Startech.com-HD2VID-HDMI-to-Composite-Converter/26957555 jaclaz

Let's see. Before anything else, WHAT is the actual problem? I mean, restoring/resetting to factory is probably what you think is the proper way to solve a problem like "Cannot boot from disk" or "Cannot find BOOTMGR" or some other issues that - hopefully - can be repaired (as opposed to go through a factory reset). If, on the other hand, you really *need* or *want* to do a factory reset, try doing according to Toshiba instructions. What happens if you follow (before anything else) the recovery procedure in the manual? http://cdgenp01.csd.toshiba.com/content/support/manuals/userguides/su3396343/GMAD00306010_Sat-SatProP800_12May16.pdf You want to check pages 54 to 69. First try the recovery through F12 from the recovery partition. What happens? Describe EXACTLY the steps you took and what you got back as result. If it doesn't work, try with the discs, but before answer please the following questions are they "factory" discs or did you "burn" them? are they CD's or DVD's?have you them numbered in such a way to know which one is first, second, etc.?did you test each of them on another PC and made sure that the files on them are read without errors? jaclaz