jaclaz

Trip, you are missing a part. I am not saying this, is the "Finding on facts" in the known US vs. Microsoft case. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Microsoft#Licensing_agreements Basically till recently (and there are also some doubts after 2010) MS substantially forced the OEM's to ship PC's with their installed OS, jaclaz

Just to add to the collection: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57560912-75/windows-8-wrestles-with-pcs-legacy/ And this one is a good one: http://www.informationweek.com/hardware/desktop/microsoft-surface-rt-best-tablet-ever-re/240144582 jaclaz

The issue is not much about the software (a simple disk editor would do) but rather about finding out what actually happened. The MBR holds 4 partition slots. From what you report, you had three of them taken by the original install and the fourth one by the extended partition that contains the logical volume on which Windows 8 was later installed. The idea was to set the BIOS to permanently have the boot order as: CD first USB second Internal hard disk third then boot from the cd with the disk ALREADY connected (and needing NOT to press any key to select anything during boot). There is NO way on earth (if there is such a setting as Boot order in the BIOS and if the CD/DVD is actually bootable) that your laptop should boot to anything different from the CD/DVD. When you connect the hard disk to your desktop, you don't want to check if actual volumes are mounted in Explorer, you want to check if the added disk is found in Disk Management. If it is, use Hdhacker (or a disk editor) to get a backup of the MBR of that disk (first sector of the \\.\PhysicalDrive). http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/ Compress the backup in a .zip file and attach the .zip to your next post or upload it on some free hosting site and post a link, and' I'll have a look at it. jaclaz

I seem to remember that older versions of Vista transformation pack did support Windows 2000 . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vista_Transformation_Pack The actual reason why one would want to add some overhead to a clean, working system/UI to imitate an uglier, less efficient one, totally escapes me, though. jaclaz

Maybe what you want is to install from a .iso image. I hope we are not (again/still) in this situation : http://reboot.pro/topic/8043-booting-vista2008w7-from-usb-sub-folder/ See: http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/firawiniso and/or install from a minimal PE: jaclaz

As a matter of fact, we have a fixation for having working systems and our experience is that having them clean is often a key part of the success. If you prefer, our clean systems work, or, all our systems work (including their sound cards) and they are clean. Coincidence? Possibly. But the base fact remains (our systems, maintained/cleaned/fixed our way, do work). jaclaz

Usually issues with power supply give different symptoms, in most cases the PC simply shuts itself off when the issue is connected with power supply (and/or overheating of the power supply itself). What OP describes sounds a lot like RAM issues, what I would personally do would be (besides the memtest that is being carried) clean the contacts of the sticks. Easiest would be using some specific contact cleaner (spray) for the motherboard contacts (and blow away any residual with compressed air and make sure everytihing is completely dry before re-connecting mains) and a mildly abrasive eraser for the actual sticks contacts. BUT it could well be a number of other things, including a cold solder somewhere and/or the dreaded "failing capacitors" issue. jaclaz

As I see it, it is a perfectly legitimate desire, in the rare occasions when I have the same, I tend to open a command prompt and in it type: C: md I386 and when I am tired of it I do : rd C:\I386 but I am NOT a programmer. (though I did stay At a Holiday Inn) . I thought that long before "making sure programs work correctly which includes checking for conditions before the program starts" a programmer should be able to clearly list: the final goal the theory of operation devised to reach that goal AND when for whatever reasons the theory does not work and he/she needs asking for help, being able to communicate the above along the Standard Litany: http://homepage.ntlworld.com./jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/problem-report-standard-litany.html jaclaz

Be aware of bunnies Take care . jaclaz

I thought that electrons traveled INSIDE the components, NOT on the surface. Though it has ALREADY become a matter of joke . http://www.megavolt.co.il/humor.html (electrical jokes are rarely funny, however) Now, for NO apparent reason a pictorial message to Phaenius : jaclaz

Oh, yes , you have been contesting it since jumper initially suggested it , and there were a few posts (by me) detailing to the uttermost minutiae HOW exactly the cleaning and or washing should be carried, which I realize were just some wasted time on my side ... Re-read, possibly slowly, this thread starting form here: you have been doing nothing BUT disputing the theory (besides the practice) AND you still believe it doesn't apply to your case (pardon me the pun ). jaclaz

I dont' get it. What is actually your goal? I mean "update" WHICH system to WHICH other system visual looks? jaclaz

Well, just for the record, there is also a (still experimental/alpha or maybe early beta) LCARS Windows Shell here: http://www.lcarsx32.com/lcars/index.php http://www.lcarsx32.com/lcars/download.php being .NET based is IMHO "pure folly", but it does have a couple nice features . jaclaz

Yes. I don't remember other brands with the dual Master/single and Master settings. No, you are seemingly having problems in reading/understanding what is written. There exist (in 40 wires cable) BOTH Cable Select Enabled and "plain" NON Cable Select ones, on the 40 wires CSE cables the Slave is at the end of the cable . The 80 wires are all (or should be all) Cable Select Enabled and the Slave is in the middle. On *any* bus of *any*kind (and not only PC/Computer related) having an end of a cable "free" with nothing connected to it is NOT smart and it is a possible source of trouble. Do you remember the good ol' SCSI bus and it's "terminators"? jaclaz

Yep, you did not take into account Murphy's Law. What we don't really know is if the disk is still recoverable (by a "Pro" with tools like the PC3000 or similar), what we do knw is that "at the state of the art" it is NOT recoverable with DIY tools. You are welcome . jaclaz

Sure, creating a dd-like image before fiddling with ANY disk tool is ALWAYS a good idea . First thing I would try would be FIPS . You can get it from the UBCD (which contains several more possibly useful DOs/FreedDOS utilities) allright: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ Or from here: http://ftp.dk.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/tools/srcs/fips/ Some instructions/info: http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=32084&seqNum=2 http://www-uxsup.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/doc/redhat/redhat7.2/rhl-ig-x86-en-7.2/dualboot-fips.html jaclaz

Who knows? Now that we have found a "common language" to exchange ideas and reports, it is time to troubleshoot Test #1 FORGET the hard disk Connect the CD/DVD drive (to the black connector AND jumpered as "Master") with a "single" cable to IDE0 (the blue side to the motherboard) Does the BIOS see the optical drive? Test #2 FORGET the hard disk Connect the CD/DVD drive (to the black connector AND jumpered as "Master") with a "single" cable to IDE1 (the blue side to the motherboard) using the SAME cable used in test 1 Does the BIOS see the optical drive? Test #3 FORGET the CD/DVD drive Connect the hard disk (to the black connector AND jumpered as "Master/single") with a "single" cable to IDE0 (the blue side to the motherboard) using the SAME cable used in tests 1 and 2 Does the BIOS see the hard disk? Test #4 FORGET the CD/DVD drive Connect the hard disk (to the black connector AND jumpered as "Master/single") with a "single" cable to IDE1 (the blue side to the motherboard) using the SAME cable used in tests 1,2 and 3 Does the BIOS see the hard disk? jaclaz

Sure , JFYI, I personally "abandoned" quite a few distro's the exact moment they became "gnome" only, as I personally prefer (and have always preferred) KDE (though what I actually use is blackbox and/or Enlightenment, even on Windows I use bblean on quite a few machines) Also, not really "news", in the sense that Linus' perplexities (IMHO well justified) on Gnome date to at lest more than one year ago: http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/linus-ditches-kde-and-gnome-so-what jaclaz

Unfortunately, yes. For the record a thread dedicated to the "green" series does exist: and the *NOT* confirmed method DOES HOWEVER SAY: page__view__findpost__p__990707 The general idea is to ask for help/suggestions BEFORE doing something that is IRREVERSIBLE or that you are anyway not sure, double sure AND triple sure about.. jaclaz

Also WHY there are so many keyboard shortcuts (undocumented officially)? NIce list here thanks to wimb: jaclaz

Oh, yes, it is mentioned alright in the given links: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/conf_Cable.htm http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confCable80-c.html 18"=457.2 mm jaclaz

Besides the fact that you failed to provide a link to your "reputable source", no actual problem, it's most probably this one : http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/other/52 I will re-state the whole base idea. You come here with a problem. You ask for suggestions on how to solve the problem. <- Mind you that the sheer fact that you are asking for these suggestions here implies, that you are NOT able to solve the problem yourself AND that you trust the knowledge/experience of other members to be superior than your own one. You are given a suggestion and some links to read that are by definition the most reputable/reliable ones available. If you prefer, by definition it is assumed that we are right and you are wrong (if and when doing anything not suggested) These links tell you to connect a Master to Black (end), a Slave to Gray (middle) and the motherboard to Blue with 80 wires cables, going into even the smallest details, including pinouts, history of the interface and what not. You would then be supposed to just §@ç#ing jumper and connect the drives as explained in the given links. What you do INSTEAD? You insist on connecting the cables "casually" and find a "reputable" source that is much more vague than the given one (and it is clearly referring in the "main" part to the 40 wires cable), and that you ADDITIONALLY FAIL to READ accurately. Here is the part that you completely missed: EDIT: @submix8c No, no, NO. 40 wires cables: one end to motherboard, other end to slave, middle master. 80 wires cable: Blue end to motherboard, other end Black to master, middle Gray slave. You know, like in the above: or in: To re-cap: With 40 wires cable in case of cable select the end is slave, the middle is master and the "further" end goes to the motherboard (ONLY on 40 wires cables the three are interchangeable if you don't use cable select though in practice when you mount drives in a traditional cabinet it will come "natural" to connect the lower hard disk to the middle connector and the higher CD/DVD drive to the end one and the motherboard to the further end) With 80 wires cable in case of cable select the Black end is master, the Gray middle is slave, the Blue end goes to the motherboard. (even if you do not use cable select you should NOT change these connections, you can actually exchange Black with Gray BUT it is very likely you will have signal issues as current disk drives in use are using ATA 5 or 6 which use DMA modes 3 or 4 times faster than what originally prompted for use of the 80 connector cable with the master device on the end) In practice, initially fake that you are setting up a cable select system and connect connectors as per specs , then do not trust the devices , nor the cable, nor the BIOS, nor anything else but the jumpers of the devices and set anyway the jumpers properly. jaclaz

@CharlotteTheHarlot Re: facepalm You are missing the point completely jaclaz

You may know , but unfortunately you completely fail to show your knowledge , in the sense that you haven't (yet) found a way to properly communicate your experiments. Because they tend to NEVER work properly/because it's not just your motherboard IDE ports (or BIOS) that are particularly fussy. Thus DO NOT use Cable Select, in most cases it resolves to a vain attempt. WHICH colours are the connectors on that single cable? WHICH colours are the connectors on that double cable? ALL THESE make little of NO sense: Examples of something I (and I guess I am not the only one complòetely failing to make head or tail of yourt reports) can understand: or: jaclaz

Another reason to read the given post and links. 80 wire cables are colour coded, you cannot "invent" a master or slave, if the connector is gray, it is for a slave device, if it is black it is for a master device, the blue ONLY goes to the motherboard and still using cable select is NOT recommended (by me). jaclaz