jaclaz

There could be several different issues. First one could be the size of the stick (but if it works with FAT32 this is not possible). Second could be some "strange" incompatibility of the BIOS with the NTFS bootsector (or with the partition ID of 07 in the partition table). Are you familiar with using a disk/hex editor? (I need to know this if further tests are to be made= Get this thingy here Clonedisk: http://labalec.fr/erwan/?page_id=42 Click on the Tool tab, then Partition Table Editor, choose the USB stick (if you have a SSD and a HD it will be most probably \\.\PhysicalDrive2), you should see the first two lines filled with partition data, and the last two empty/all 00's. The first line will have 07 as type, change it to 0C. Save the edited partition table and reboot. Try connecting the USB stick to a port "on the back" of the PC (i.e. one of those directly soldered to the motherboard) and NOT on one of the "front" ones, and try booting again. Your motherboard most probably has a "hot key" to change boot order, you should try booting form the USB stick BOTH with USB set as primary boot device (in BIOS settings) and by changing the normal boot order "on the fly" through the hot-key. Report the exact wording that you see in the error message (if it fails booting). Another thing, get Chipgenius: http://reboot.pro/topic/4661-chipgenius/ and run it against the USB stick, post the results. jaclaz

Yes it is possible. Can you post the make/model of the PC that "fails" and the make/model of the USB stick? jaclaz

Try first thing with RMPREPUSB. http://www.rmprepusb.com/home/rmprepusb-manual You want to select "C: 2 PTns" (making a fake second partition seemingly helps with some BIOSes): http://www.rmprepusb.com/home/rmprepusb-manual#TOC-Boot-as-HDD-C:-2PTNS---Recommended- You may also want to test your stick before with the included in RMPREPUSB test utility: jaclaz

Why should they? I mean you have the stupid service tag (or whatever Dell calls it), the thing without which finding anything on Dell site is a nightmare, right? Now let's see how geekish and temerary you can be: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?196821-Dell-Inspirion-530-530S-Vostro-200-400-owner-rejoice http://web.archive.org/web/20101205045157/http://thelostbrain.com/post/2007/12/Raid-0,-1-,-5,-0-1-support-Dell-Vostro-200--400-and-Inspiron-530--530s-machines!-(Finally).aspx jaclaz

A very wild guess, but it could be something connected (pardon the pun ) with the actual device connection, i.e. (probably) with MTP/PTP (the *whatever* makes WPD or WIA) . Some (lousy ) explanation of the acronyms is here: http://www.forensicfocus.com/Forums/viewtopic/p=6563145/#6563145 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms630343.aspx In other words, it could be something similar to the (senseless) "What do you want to do with this?" kind of popup that may appear when you insert a CD/DVD or connect a USB stick/disk (windows 8, being more user-friendly may have added some), but something very like this has been reported since XP: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1912571?start=0&tstart=0 http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1500 http://www.kensfi.com/how-to-disable-select-the-program-to-launch-for-this-action-message/ http://windows.microsoft.com/en-id/windows-vista/troubleshoot-camera-connection-problems In your case this seems to happen at startup because you switch the PC on with the camera already connected and while starting up, it senses that the device is connected. If this is correct, try disconnecting the camera, reboot (the popup should not appear) then try to connect the camera (the popup should appear as soon as the device is "sensed"). Is it a USB webcam, right? jaclaz

Let's try and separate the issues, OK ? If for any reason you *need* FAT32 you need "split" files. The .swm files are "relatives" to .wim files but you cannot make a "set" of install .iso's with "partial" .swm files AFAIK. on a USB stick. This is usually the reference: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825096.aspx What exactly are you doing after having created the .swm files? Are you rebuilding more .iso's? Or where are you placing the various .swm files on the stick? (they should go in \source\) More generally if you could describe with more detail what you did, it would help. Ia m not at all sure to have understood what you tried. If for any reason you cannot boot your stick if it has a single partition NTFS formatted (but you do want to have it NTFS) it could be BOTH an easily solvable problem (re-partition/format with Rufus or RMPREPUSB or some of the other "specific" tools) or a limitation of your specific BIOS (very rare nowadays, but you never know), which may need some manual tweaking. jaclaz

Which is of course VERY different from the sticky here : (which supposedly, being a sticky, congnt92 should have at least already peeked at ) jaclaz

Well, at least jaclaz has nothing to add to what Wonko the Sane posted on reboot.pro. And you'll have to define "big part". If we are going on the way of number of posts, out of the currently 89 posts: popov 29 Wonko the Sane 21 Steve6375 21 Medevil 14 Others 4 Considering that it's you that are having a problem, and that you posted more than once two times consecutively, and that most of your posts are about (correctly ) reporting what happened when following some instructions and a few more on how to perform some instructions received, I would say that you have very little to whine about the kind of support you received/interest your issue raised on reboot.pro, let alone about the number of posts you had to write. jaclaz

Well, the "new" version is actually: If you do a hex compare of the two 2048 bytes files, it is evident that they are actually the "same", most probably compiled with some different switch or on different machines. Most probably user CNexus simply uploaded a couple MD5 tools that he/she had around. Since the existance of two ("same") builds of the same MD5sum.exe exists should mean that the Source Code is *somewhere* around, and it would be probably useful to Glen9999. jaclaz

It is EXACTLY as fast as FCIV! A few runs place it within +/- 2 hundredth of seconds with FCIV, well within the possible timing/repeat loop error Now, it would be interesting to understand why exactly it doesn't work on 2K. A quick run of BINText seems to imply it uses the procedures: MD5init MD5Final MD5Update which possibly belong to Advapi32.dll, compare with: http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/topic/112711-gui-md5forfile/ Which should mean that blackwingcats' Kernelex: would do. I found here: http://d-h.st/bk4 a "very similar" 2048 bytes program, actually I believe it is the same one re-compiled (and possibly "optimized", but it is as fast as the one bhplt found) jaclaz

I will tell you this ONLY ONCE again, READ the given thread : Check the USB_MultiBoot.cmd: each and every "trick" needed (and used) is there, publicly available, you cannot really pretend that any of us will go over that again after 5 yerars, nor that we can remember exactly each and everything. STOP nagging us , START reading! jaclaz

Well, this option/possibility is relatively recent in many countries, and I presume that it is still the "norm" in some If you prefer it is a lot like a "back to the past". To give you an example, in Italy (which has been a democracy since WW2) until the 1980's there were just three channels (all "national" i.e. controlled/provided by the government), actually only 1 between 1954 and 1961, 2 between 1961 and 1975, in 1975 the control passed from the government to the parliament, but from this to "plurality", especially related to News, it has been a looong way. jaclaz

This is not really "good news" for a "supporter" of Vista . The data can be read in terms of "diifferential interest" over the "previous OS" . Vista -> slow rate as perceived as not much an improvement over XP 7 -> fast rate as perceived as lots of improvements over Vista 8 -> slow rate as perceived as not much an improvement over 7 Though we all know how 7 is a further Service Pack to Vista actually bettering it and 8 is a further Service Pack actually MUCH worsening it (at least when it comes to interface). jaclaz

This one: still seems the winner (re: size) BUT the one by Glenn9999 is MUCH FASTER and actually almost as fast as FCIV. On a 512.000.000 bytes file: md5file.exe 2.67 md5_file.exe 1.75 fciv.exe 1.58 dsfo.exe 2.03 (but it also shows progress and time) On a 2,615,529,472 bytes file: md5file.exe 37.49 md5_file.exe 19.92 fciv.exe 19.71 dsfo.exe 35.45 jaclaz

Well, as a matter of fact we have had this for years, it is called "television". It's interesting while the manufacturers made TV sets into (Linux running) PC's, someone is going to dumb down back the terminal. JFYI: http://reboot.pro/topic/9915-the-good-thing-is-that-engineers-never-stop-to-surprise-me/ jaclaz

There must be some "basic" issue with MMC. You can try opening the event files with the nice Nirsoft tool: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/my_event_viewer.html see also these: About re-registering dll's, the trick of re-registering each and every .dll has traditionally saved more than one installs If you can do a "parallel" install of Server 2003, you might be able to do something along the lines of this: http://reboot.pro/topic/3717-xpsp1-with-full-commandline-and-ntfs-below-10-mb/?p=154017 which made use of another nice Nirsoft tool, dllregview: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/registered_dll_view.html that would give you more control (as opposed to registering *everything*) jaclaz

It depends on what was the original cause of the BSY or LBA0 issue (or other issue) you had and that the procedure managed to re-set. The general idea is that "unbricking" a disk is just a possible way to recover data from it, once you managed to recover the data, you do BOTH the short and long test with Seatools, and if any of them fails, you simply throw the disk in the dustbin (or if the disk is still under warranty, RMA it for a replacement). Actually repairing or reconditioning a disk (apart from the "reset" done through the described procedure) is simply outside the scope of this thread and well beyond the knowledge/experience/capabilities of anyone taking part to the thread , is a "professional" chore to be carried by a pro, with professional software and hardware/tools (and with professional level knowledge). To give you an example, if something has gone wrong with one head (electrical/electronic) it is very possible that the disk will work alright for a few more years (in the reduced at 62% status), but if a head has touched a platter (mechanical damage), the disk working status will likely come to an end within days or weeks, possibly enlarging the 38% bad area, and thus corrupting data in the currently good 62% area. As a matter of fact, I have read how it is possible that a reconditioned disk can sometimes be made out of a larger disk with one or more heads disabled in firmware. (but this is again "reserved" to manufacturers/professionals) jaclaz

Well, I did my best to try and avoid you fall for the chocolate covered banana trap : http://homepage.ntlworld.com./jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/put-down-the-chocolate-covered-banana.html but you apparently are very convinced of the method you chose, which is good as one should always defend his/her beliefs. Still, if you want to do that, you will have to go through the historical thread and understand what winsetupfromUSB 0.2.3 actually does (which as said would be much easier to understand reading the batches that USB_MultiBoot.cmd is made of). You might also be interested in this thread: which is about installing XP from USB without using any third party tool. And in this one: Which here: page__view__findpost__p__842814 reveals one of the "tricks" used to avoid the deletion of the $WIN_NT$.~LS folder. jaclaz

Naah it's only because it is easily available on my italian keyboard, as said it is up to you to find a character that is not used in "Korean" (or "other rare language" files). BTW it is possible (but you will have to experiment) that you can use one of the "lower" ASCII Characters, in the range 0 to 31 decimal, really cannot say. jaclaz

Sure , but WHAT is the reason why you should use this "mixed mode"? If you want to make manually something, you NEED to study the mentioned "historical" thread and then INSTEAD of winsetupfromusb 0.2.3, you should use as "base" wimb's USB_MultiBoot.cmd: as it is written in batch, so you can better analyze the steps it makes and either change them or replicate them manually. jaclaz

Yes, the semicolon is the default EOL of the FOR, you can do something like: FOR /F "eol=§ tokens=1,2 delims=, " %%a in ('TYPE 1.inf') do echo %%a,%%b The § character is in "Windows", in command line it will "look" different, it's ALT+0167, but you can use any other "extended ASCII" character that won't be normally used in a .inf. jaclaz

I am not getting it. What is the problem? You want to make manually something that WinsetupfromUSB already does? Then you will need to go through ALL the "historical thread": Which version of WinsetupfromUSB are you using? I presume the old 0.2.3, try the 1.0 beta 8 instead: DO NOT double post. (your post in the main thread was merged to here). jaclaz

Due to the stupid board software all links that contains brackets are parsed incorrectly. Here are the two cdob posted in a clickable format (it is needed to post them using the little icon looking like a chain): http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd799299(v=WS.10).aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365449(v=vs.85).aspx A set of refereces should be also: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825689.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825691.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825709.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825691.aspx This is the refeference to set id: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753840(v=ws.10).aspx ... but if you are not an OEM, additionally experienced with GPT disk, you cannot use it : jaclaz

Yes it is, one uses TYPE, the other uses FINDSTR More seriously, try them on a UNICODE .inf and check the differences. See here: http://www.robvanderwoude.com/type.php Convert Unicode to ASCII vv TYPE is UNICODE compliant (and the result will normally be "plain text"), FINDSTR is not. jaclaz

Well, the perplexing thing is that you doubted my word for it. I stand by my comparison to exposing merchandise in the shop window but require that passers have special glasses/viewers to see it: jaclaz