jaclaz

Most "live" Linux CD's (not all of them, only the "good" ones ) are loaded ENTIRELY in Ram and allow to eject the CD once they have booted. JFYI also any BartPE or similar using one of the available RAMDISK options will behave like that. Example: http://puppylinux.org/wikka/howPuppyWorks @submix8c http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/ Maybe it already exists. http://reboot.pro/topic/15252-picoxp/ Maybe you can make a "real" XP in 40 or 20 Mb or less: http://reboot.pro/topic/3717-xpsp1-with-full-commandline-and-ntfs-below-10-mb/ http://minixp.reboot.pro/docs/files/index.html jaclaz P.S.: Almost forgot : AND:

Good. Just for the record: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?s=&showtopic=14181&view=findpost&p=111204 jaclaz

Dir /x is the way to go . JFYI: page__view__findpost__p__842843 jaclaz

There are still valid version of OpenOffice available: http://www.oldapps.com/openoffice.php you may want to install ONLY the "word like" program "writer". I am not familiar with Abiword, but I peesume that even in older versions does produce a "compatible" .doc format. Alternatively there are other tools capable of creating a .doc compatible document, I remember that Atlantis Nova as an excellent freeware: http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page14.html particularly because it is "tiny". jaclaz

The provision should be in nlite alright. Just in case : jaclaz

Compare them in a HEX editor instead and post the offset at which the change occurs (it is likely to be a "fixed" address, but verify by checking more that on e "couple" of files). Even easier , use FC (with the /B option) and post results: http://ss64.com/nt/fc.html jaclaz

You shouldn' t be . There are MUCH BETTER cables than the Denon : the US $ 21,000 $14,049.75 new, $13,099.00 used for the Audioquest Everest say a lot : http://www.amazon.com/AudioQuest-K2-Terminated-Speaker-Cable/dp/B000J36XR2 Yes, but there was a scandal some time ago about bad reviews being written by other competing writers that took a lot of fun out of it. http://www.forbes.com/sites/suwcharmananderson/2012/08/28/fake-reviews-amazons-rotten-core/ jaclaz

Hmmm. I guess that the idea of "short" was not made entirely clear. If the TVS diode is shorted, then the corresponding line is in contact with ground. Try doing the following. Get a pair of tweezers and put them contacting the two ends of a TVS diode. Measure the resistance across the TVS diode (with the tweezers still there). Remove the tweezers and measure again. Did the reading change? Simpler, connect the hard disk to a PC power supply (one with protection from short circuits). Switch it on. Does it automatically and immediately shuts down itself? Yes=one (or both ) the TVS diodes are shorted No= The TVS diodes are not shorted jaclaz

Sure , let's start. I confirm that the programs you listed are well suited to make an image of a CD, BUT each of them does other things, IMDISK is a driver, IMGBURN, cdburnerxp, and IsoRecorder are "full" burning solutions (and are "installed", add right click associations, etc.), something that may be somehow an issue. Any of these would IMHO be better suited (in the sense that they are simpler, portable solutions that only do what they are supposed to do): http://www.dubaron.com/cd2iso/ http://www.softpedia.com/get/CD-DVD-Tools/CD-DVD-Images-Utils/CD2ISO.shtml http://sourceforge.net/projects/cd2iso/ jaclaz

Yes , you need to make an image of the CD for 7zip to work, but making such an image is anyway advised as it would "rule out" dirty or scratched CD. As well, attempting the install from the image in a simple VM (like Qemu+Qemu Manager) would definitely "rule out" each and every possible cause connected to the actual media. OT but not much, I have seen more than one "modern" DVD drives that manage to read ONLY either a DVD or a CD (but not both) because one of the two lasers are defective. jaclaz

Not completely unlikely getting a discounted car in a special promotion for (say) "assisting people hit by an earthquake" by faking that you are one of them even if you live in another country and you don't even know what an earthquake is. http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/software-assurance/faq.aspx#faq_3 Basically you can use the software legally as long as you are employed by the company that has a HUP agreement with MS. If you prefer, the money you pay doesn't actually buy you the license, any other "normal" company would have provided a certain number of "full" licenses to the employees of Volume Licensing for free or for a highly discounted price, but the good MS guys decided that you money is only a sort of "fee" for downloading the thingy and that the legal validity of the license is connected to your keeping that employment (and/or your employer continuing being part of the SA program). jaclaz

It seems to me like you are also missing some point. "with CD-ROM" hanging = missing "appropriate" driver for the CD-ROM drive or hardware issue with the actual CD drive (if the disk is not read properly one would more likely have the CD-ROM continuously turn at a zillion RPM's or spinning up and down like mad, etc.). "without CD-ROM" doesn't access the CD-ROM (hardly a surprise). There is no need (JFYI) to have BBIE today, simply open the .iso in 7-zip and you can extract the El-Torito Floppy Emulation image from the [bOOT] (virtual) directory allright. There is a possibility (not so remote) that if it is (as it should be) a IDE CD-ROM there is something involved with Slave/Master/Cable detect AND the presence of two hard disk *somehow* involved in the issue. The most logical next step (to troubleshoot the issue) would be IMHO to remove the second hard disk (disconnect it) and verify cables and jumper settings on CD-ROM and remaining hard disk drive. If the scope is just to install the Me to the PC, the most logical step would be to boot *any* minimal Linux distro (if it boots) from CD and then copu the CD contents on the hard disk, finally install form the files on hard disk. jaclaz

The tricky part is finding the ones actually worth reading . Example : http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/B001648ZGA/3952612-20 Here is a good source for them: http://rivercrap.com/ jaclaz

Is there a new report out? The old one doesn't say exactly that. It says that they found no correlation (but the report is from 2005-2006 - newer hard disks are much "hotter" that before - and their disk base is/was "obviously" kept at reasonable temperatures). http://research.google.com/archive/disk_failures.pdf jaclaz

I presume that you are going after the wrong wild goose. A TVS diode (though being a diode) behaves more like an "inverted" fuse. The idea is that (in normal operation) it "bridges" the power line (either +5 or +12) to ground with "infinite" resistance. If *something* triggers it then it shorts the power line to ground (thus switching off the PSU - if it has short protection - or nicely blowing some components on it). You cannot actually test a "not triggered" TVS diode with an ohmeter (like you can't *any* diode) untill it is soldered to the board, of course if it was triggered and became a short you can detect the short. The usual "repair" done when a TVS is shorted is simply that of removing it. The board will have no protection anymore from survoltage or spikes, but it should work alright. A drive not spinning is more likely to be an issue with the spindle bearing itself (but you had it spinning before) with contacts to the motor (but I guess that by now you have thoriughfully cleaned and checked them) or - as you fear - another component in the "motor driving electronics" that has blown up (current return, overcurrent due to poor contacts, etc.). If the latter is the case, your best next move is doing a PCB swap, BUT you NEED and IDENTICAL PCB AND you MUST SWAP the ROM from the old board to the new one, something that is usually well beyond the soldering/desolering/resoldering abilities of the average DIY guy. jaclaz

Well there are a few pre-made ones. Looky here: http://www.multibooters.co.uk/multiboot.html jaclaz

Yes, as long as you can boot . But don' t worry you are set in such a way that you can always boot *something* with any of the two bootsector codes in effect. And even in the case of Murphy's Law events, like (say) a power outage in the exact split millisecond the code is being written to the disk, there is always a way back by booting to the Windows 7 DVD, or to a USB stick, etc. jaclaz

The issue is not only that they all look alike, they additionally have NO MEANING whatsoever . Download the image, and print it in several copies, once "as is" and many more after having removed the explicative text. Then try giving one of the copies without text to anyone you happen to meet and ask them to write below each of them what they think the icon/pictogram represent. You will have on average 4 or 5 "correct" answers (correct in the sense that they will express the same concept of the original text). Another good question could be: What happens when a "live tile" crashes/loses connection? Possibly jaclaz

You still seem to be not fully "convinced" or have fully grasped the concepts, trying to be more explicit. You can run bootsect from either of XP or 7, as long as that drive is the one which gets the letter C:. As a matter of fact, there is NO WAIK for XP (and if it were it would not contain bootsect.exe), bootsect.exe was evidently developed AFTER XP (because all NT based systems up to XP/2003 ONLY used the "NT52" bootsector code) in order to fix the possible issue that Vista (which is the first NT based OS using the "NT60") install may cause. By pure chance the bootsect.exe that you got (from the Windows 7 WAIK) runs as well in prior systems (both Vista and XP), but it was "designed" to run under 7. Since now when you boot you get to the BOOTMGR->\boot\BCD choices, you have NOW the NT60 bootsector and you want to CHANGE that to the NT52 one, so that instead when booting you get to the NTLDR->BOOT.INI choices. To recap, if you run: bootsect /NT60 C: NOTHING will change as the command will re-write over your current bootsector code an identical one. if you run: bootsect /NT52 C: the bootsect.exe will replace your current bootsector code with the one invoking NTLDR (which is what you want). jaclaz

Strange that it is not in Home Premium There is no "real" need to install and not even to download the "full" WAIK, just for the record, it is possible to often get "parts" of it, but it is more complex. You can do with another tool, bootpart: http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm Unzip the bootpart.exe in a convenient path, let's say C:\bootpart. Boot to the XP. Open a command prompt and navigate to c:\bootpart (or whatever). issue the command: BOOTPART (without parameters), you should see a list of the drives, then run: BOOTPART WINNT BOOT:C: No WAIT, your volume is NTFS, right? Then bootpart will not do. You'll need to either download the whole WAIK or use the httpdisk driver, see: http://reboot.pro/topic/13049-extract-files-out-of-waik-without-downloading-whole-waik-first/ http://reboot.pro/topic/13049-extract-files-out-of-waik-without-downloading-whole-waik-first/?p=114118 jaclaz

Yeah, sure, do you remember how much that floppy drive did cost at the time (and how much the floppy disc was)? (and no, mass production has little to do with costs in this case) In those floppy disks you could actually align the heads (last ones I disassembled had not any provisions for that), they weighted, they were "sturdy", etc., etc. jaclaz

A floppy cleaning disk should clean the heads. I doubt that the surface of a 3.5" disk is dirty. The innovation (at the time) was the automatic shutter to prevent dirt to enter it. It is more likely that the floppy drive is clogged with dirt/dust and everytime you insert a disk in it some of this is carried to the heads. My advise would be to clean the inside of the floppy disk drive first thing, then get a (new or anyway "disposable") floppy disk and format it, write some files to it, re-read them etc.. There are serious risks that by putting the "good" floppy with software in a dirty or defective floppy disk it will be ruined for good. It is also possible that the original floppy lost some of it's magnetic "strength", but the steps above won' t make any harm anyway, whilst attempts to clean the actual floppy surface have good chances to make it unreadable. jaclaz

No. Meaning that *something*, *somehow* needs to "listen" to the keyboard checking if by any chance the user actually pressed the F9. This can be set to be the least "intrusive", but you have anyway to "pass through" a "special" MBR or a bootmanager of some kind. Sure, why not, a SSD is hard disk like device, only faster. No problems adding to the mix a Windows7. jaclaz

No. Drive letter assignnment may vary depending on which system is booted, it might be the same in your configuration, but you need to make sure that the "right" partition gets the "right" drive letter under the OS under which you will run bootsect.exe (which is the Windows 7), or alternatively change the C: drive letter in the suggested command to the one assigned to the (hd0,0), or, still alternatively, run the command from the XP (it should run as well but you will need to either copy to the XP the bootsect.exe program - which comes with Vista and Windows 7 but that is NOT included in the XP - or run it from a command prompt after having navigated to the Windows 7 System directory). To recap: there is NOT a bootsect.exe in XP it should run from XP alright nonetheless you need to run it (up to you deciding if running it from XP or 7) with the RIGHT drive letter (the one that is assigned to that partition under the booted os under which you run the tool) jaclaz

Sorry, but you got it wrong. The "icons-with-meaningless-initials ®" are reserved to the Japanese, Korean and Chinese editions. All western editions will use pictograms instead. Now, since the number of envies were not enough and not enough cross-linked, they will use as "creative base" for "free inspiration" the CLEAR design Ubuntu has recently adopted (without the English text, of course): jaclaz