jaclaz

Things to check are/can be: Disk signature.Offset to active partition (if you prefer partition alignment) and active statusVolume serial.Volume label.CHS geometry (but that should not be anympore an issue with Windows Vista and later boot code)Basically all you have to compare are the MBR's and the VBR's of the two .vhd's for any difference, *everything else* is within the "normally accessible" areas of the filesystem and won't make a difference. jaclaz

Still, nothing tells me which actual advantages you expect from this approach. But it's not my business at all, anyway. What I would do right now if I were you would be to (temporarily) forget about your approach and see if you can find the *whatever* you are missing into the procedures used for native or non-native VHD booting, like: http://reboot.pro/topic/16557-vhd-based-windows-to-go/ http://reboot.pro/topic/18467-vhd-w8-compact-make-mini-8/ Maybe the step you are missing is correcting/updating the MountedDevices key? Or *somehow* your procedure changes the Disk Signature of the .vhd? Maybe if instead of "directly" on the Surface2 you try your test inside a "more normal" VM, you can get a BSOD or however an error that could give hint of what is the actual problem. jaclaz

OK, now I understand better, still I miss why exactly you want to "install to C:\" and later "move" this install "to Z:\" (but leaving the "program files, users, etc. folders" on C:\). I mean (just an idea) why not installing to the VHD and later move the "program files, users, etc. folders" to C:\? And, if I get this right, the "final goal" is to have (besides the "boot" partition with the BOOTMGR and the \boot\BCD which may be either a separate one or being your same "C:\") all the actual Operating System, exception made for "program files, users, etc. folders" inside the .vhd while having the "program files, users, etc. folders" still resifding on C:\. But I am still failing to uinderstand what would be the advantage use of such a setup. Saving hard disk space? Allow for a (better) multibooting? As a side note, if you are into Windows 8.1, the new Wimboot approach may interest you (if the scope is to save hard disk space). Also, more generally, if you capture a Wim image of the C:\ and apply it ot the .vhd, what happens? (without any third party tool and rather simple). jaclaz

Well, you can say the same about "Windows Operating Systems" and "Computer technology" (and almost anything else). jaclaz

3. This is important to know, post this info when you are back. 6. but you have an available USB stick, right? How big in size? How big do you want to make the NT 4.00 install? 7. This will be easily fixed, get it from links posted here: http://reboot.pro/topic/18163-memdisk-limit-creating-bootable-dos-image/?p=167861 and play a bit with it. The reason I am suggesting to you Qemu is that it uses a "most plain" virtual hardware and can use directly dd-like images (without the complication of .pln or .vmdk descriptor files, thus avoiding th eneed of *any* conversion). 8.not relevant, if the USB stick is big enough to contain a plain dd-like image (as-is or gzipped) as we can use grub4dos dd to restore it to the laptop hard disk. jaclaz

Good , but we still don't know if the "original" mechanism was (it can be anything of the following): "custom" Asus BIOS that provides F9 option (if a given set of conditions are met) before the hard disk is even accessed "custom" Asus MBR code that provides the F9 option before passing control to the VBR "custom" Asus change in the "standard" Microsoft Windows Recovery providing F9 option instead of the more common F8 (and this happens in the \boot\BCD, i.e. well after the MBR and VBR code have done what they are supposed to do.Searching a bit for your issue I have seen - among the usual bunch of completely unuseful or plainly wrong threads on the matter - a couple ones hinting that the recovery partition is a bootable partition and that all is needed is to make it active and boot from it (to start the factory recovery process), but cannot say how reliable they are. In any case, even if that works, it would mean to restore the thingy (at least the "C:\" drive) to factory settings (and most probably the F9 thingy will be back), but if the mechanism is in the MBR or elsewhere, it is very possible that only through a "full factory restore" you can get back the option. Also it seems that pressing the F9 is particularly tricky (due to timing problems with the fastish booting machines), how exactly did you get to the: ? Also I am not following you with the reagent.xml file. Where did you find it? How/why do you believe that it needed editing/adding that line? Another of the threads I found talks of a AI (whatver it is) program and of a "changehd.exe" program that should re-connect the recovery disc making utility with the recovery image, see: (but have no idea if this is what you are missing and/or if it is suitable to your specific model) jaclaz

Maybe you could expand a little on: Why exactly you want or need this particular setup (i.e. what is the intended final goal)What exactly you have tried, exact meaning exact, as opposed to "vague", i.e. "I used program xy wit this specific command line w z as opposed to a program that preserves security and hard links on files, so everything is "original"Right now I cannot understand what is your expected final result . jaclaz

Well, without ANY conspiracy approach, you will have to admit that: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2952664/en-us and the "tagging" of it as "Update type: Recommended" could have been better rendered as: and tagged as "Update type: Unneeded for normal functioning of the OS". "make improvements to the current operating system in order to ease the upgrade experience" Let's call things with their names: "preventively fix possible errors during the upgrade" Gotta go, I have to "ease my wife's driving experience in the morning" <- I must replace her car battery because it does not start if it's cold in the morning . jaclaz

A number of people would call that "looking backwards", JFYI . jaclaz

I am not sure to understand your current situation (correct me if I am wrong in the following summming up). for *whatever* reasons your OS/PC was rendered unbootable you installed to it (temporarily) a "common" OEM Windows 8 everything works now but the feature to re-install from scratch from the recovery partition (i.e. go back to factory settings) as in: http://support.asus.com/Troubleshooting/detail.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=G73Sw&os=&no=1775Is it possible that the re-install overwrote *something* in the boot sequence that prevents you from F9 successfully. I am not at all familiar with the Windows 8 recovery, but I presume it won't be that much different from the Vista/7 one, if this is the case, you may find some info here: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/128727-cant-access-repair-my-pc-option-via-f8-startup/ First thing to understand is if the F9 is something "built in the Windows 8 \boot\bcd" or it is a "special MBR code form Asus". What happens when you boot? Are you actually prompted for the F9 option and then it doesn't work? (ora are you not prompted anymore)? Can you actually access the "recovery partition and list the files in it? jaclaz

Queer. Have you checked the BIOS battery? jaclaz

flasche, you are doing it wrong. (no offence intended). Basically you get *some* (and *some* only) info from this thread, then "go astray" looking elsewhere for procedures/tools/whatever that you think will fit your needs (but that may not or that may make this NT 4.00 install more complex than needed). Please, answer these questions: How big is the laptop hard disk? Is it Pata or Sata? If Sata, does it have the option in BIOS to use "IDE compatibility mode"? Does the laptop have a USB port? Does it's BIOS allow booting from USB? Do you have a "bigger-than-the-laptop's hard disk" USB hard disk? Are you familiar with Qemu (actually Qemu Manager)? Are you familiar with making a USB bootable PE of some kind?jaclaz

I can confirm that here is nice , there is a bit more detached. jaclaz

I thought Roadkill cuisine was rather common : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadkill_cuisine particularly in West Virginia: http://pccocwv.com/roadkill jaclaz

You will need to make a detailed list (with avatars ) of the people included in the "we" jaclaz

I am pretty sure that this applies to *any* hardware, speed=power=heat. Think of all the 64bit processing power (and unused RAM, and increased power consumption) in the world because of the senseless shift ot 64 bit computing on "end-user" machines (used daily to do mainly e-mails, badly written reports on Word and lousy spredsheets on Excel, besides some browsing on the Internet). Fortunately this is probably somehow compensated by the increase of smallish, less powerful, portable devices and the overall decrease of desktops. jaclaz

To answer you question, no, I didn't notice that particular article, though I did knew that the technology existed, cannot really say where exactly I read/learned about it, most probably some article here in Italy, however this was some time ago, possibly the source being these much older NBC news: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/43400428/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/t/cold-put-jacket-hot-put-jacket/#.U1gK4b0Zk_g About the linked to article IMHO the best part is in the comments : Now we are really, OT, but you made me do it . jaclaz

No pun intended with boars (they are a real issue, particularly at night, as well as deers <- again just the plain animal, no pun intended). But you will have to bear with me : jaclaz

..and...? I am failing to see the point (unless you really want to know if I read it or not) jaclaz

Back on topic (almost), I just checked the price list from a small local OEM (for OS to be installed/shipped with one of their desktop systems): Windows 8 "Home" Euro 91.83Windows 8.1 "Home" Euro 92.35Windows 7 "home Premium" Euro 100.16It must be be because of the "Premium" jaclaz

Poor Peltier. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Charles_Athanase_Peltier so many years of work in physics and people still considers water running through valves and heat trasfer methods, instead of his nice effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_cooling http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peltier_effect#Peltier_effect jaclaz

@Stefan43 It is "rare" to find an user of 9x/Me these days unaware of Mdgx's site : http://www.mdgx.com/ This is the page related to my comment: http://www.mdgx.com/9s2m/ but the WHOLE site is a mine of infos and tools for the "modern" 9x/Me user. jaclaz

Just look a bit "around you" in this same sub-forum. Understandably , most people here run 98SE, some with the 98SE2ME Mdgx's recommendations, and only a few run "pure" Me, but the differences with 98SE are not that much (or are you going to racistly tag those using 98 as "retrocomputing geeks"? ) jaclaz

It's all a matter of styling. Trip prefers "casual cabling" to more formal styles, it just like hairstyle, beauty is in the eye of the beholder: OT , but not much, an useful tip : jaclaz

We are nowadays all familiar to *any* kind of crazy project involving a RaspberryPI, but I find this so nice that I thought it worth being shared here: A 1:3 Macintosh replica, actually working and running (through minivmac http://minivmac.sourceforge.net/ ) an actual Mac OS :: http://hacknmod.com/hack/functional-13-scale-macintosh-replica-using-a-raspberry-pi/ http://retromaccast.ning.com/profiles/blogs/honey-i-shrunk-the-computer jaclaz