jaclaz

Cheers and Regards My bad , (though not really my bad , it did take where it should have taken when I posted it) try: and thus: http://reboot.pro/index.php?showtopic=82 Just in case it disappears, eaten by a white whale or whatever, here it is verbatim the relevant part: Which one? Just from memory I recall 3 or 4 versions of Windows 3.x, 4 or 5 of Windows 95, 2 of Windows 98, then Millennium Edition, NT 3.51 and 4.00 Workstaion and Server, Windows 2000 various versions, XP Home and Professional and of course Windows Server 2003... When reporting an error, the exact number and text is useful to understand what the problem might be, quite obviously, knowing that it is a STOP: 0x0000007B INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE instead of "something like that" will really help ... Which one, there are thousands of tutorials or articles on the Internet, how are we supposed to know which one you are referring to.... No comment .... e. Please, if you succeed in whatever you asked help for, do report this and the exact steps you took, it is a form of thanking the member(s) which helped you and to help other people that have the same problem you had. Note: The above rules have been almost entirely copied from the ones on MSFN forums, as I find them simple and rightful, but most other technical boards use similar ones. Amendment #1 to Rules June 17, 2007 - adding of point f. Special, more explicit, "common sense" advice, SUPPLEMENTAL to that already present in points a-b-c-d-e above. Mind you that this advice is given to HELP you solving a problem, and though not compulsory, it will help you more than you might expect in troubleshooting and (hopefully) solve your problem faster. f. Always think why you are here asking for help: Always think why other members might be able to try and help you: The above implies that AFTER you have done your best to comply with points a-b-c-d of the rules, if any member trying to help you asks you supplemental informations and details, to run one or more programs or to do a determinate series of actions and to post results, it is because there are REASONS for this procedure. (you remember, you weren't able to solve this problem by yourself and they know more than you do.) So, it would be VERY APPRECIATED, and, as said, it will better the quality of the assistance you might receive if you would: f1.- Post JUST the problem you are having, with needed details, but WITHOUT suggesting what the solution is according to you. f2.- Temporarily "disconnect" your mind from your idea of WHAT has caused or is causing the problem you have, and of HOW the fix should be made, solving a problem means finding it's SOLUTION, the method through which the latter is found is not relevant and viewing it from just one side can even prevent from finding the solution. f3.- DO AS YOU ARE TOLD, do not introduce variations of ANY KIND in the given instructions, there are REASONS why they are suggested, and REASONS why they are suggested in the given order and yet more REASONS why other procedures are NOT suggested f4.- DO NOT think you are smarter than the member who is trying to help you, even if generally speaking this might happen, it DOES NOT apply on the specific topic, nothing can upset more a willing helping member that someone that asks for advice and later does not try the given suggestions and/or does another thing. On the contrary, once the suggested steps have been tried and gave no result, your ideas are welcome, in other words we try to troubleshoot in a "logical" way, as in the famous Sherlock Holmes saying "when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth", but we like beforehand to exclude the possible, the common, the probable, and this approach solves problems in a MUCH faster way in a large amount of cases. f5.- BE PREPARED to spend some time interactively searching and (hopefully) finding a solution, remember it is you that are having the problem, the only reason why another member tries to help you is to share and expand his knowledge, and to be gratified by an even small thank you when the solution is found. There are a number of members that, as soon as they see that there is no pre-made one-size-fits-all solution one or a few clicks away, simply disappear from the board, leaving behind an unresolved problem and, possibly, a disappointed member who tried vainly to help. jaclaz

It is not about "teacher" and "student" (that implies a different level of knowledge AND someone who is paid to teach while the other one pays and has - in theory - all the interest in listening). It is about exchanging knowledge on technical issues, or solve a problem, there is no teacher nor pupil, and this is not a class, there is a question, and (if there is a known answer about that question) someone that hopefully provides the answer. If the answer is not understood, further questions in order to clarify the obscure parts may well be asked, and actually common politeness requires to ask these questions (that will also hopefully be answered) before putting aside the answer as nonsense. EXAMPLE: I do perfectly understand the attitude of the OP, which is a very common one, so common that long before this thread was started it was "coded" in the linked to "common sense advice" (a remarkably UNcommon quality of people) in the already given link: http://reboot.pro/82/ and it exists since the dawn of internet, in the X/Y/Z issue: http://homepage.ntlworld.com./jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/put-down-the-chocolate-covered-banana.html particularly, but more generally in the "How to ask questions the smart way": http://catb.org./~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html jaclaz

Get the UBCD and use the appropriate Manufacturer testing tools for your hard disk: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ briefly, scandisk, disk doctor and the like are at a "higher" logical level. The "click (if any) comes from a "lower" physical level that only the Manufacturer tools (and some third party that you should NOT attempt using for the moment, such as mhdd, Victoria, hdat2 and the like ) can access/inspect/verify/diagnose. Before ANYHTING else, procure yourself another disk and image the one that is presumably clicking. jaclaz

@dencorso In this specific case I disagree . The setting for a pagefile (not system managed) has to be chosen between: fixed size (like 1024-1024) <-Smart IMHO "dynamic" (like 1024-2048)<-Senselsss IMHO The third option "dynamic with no slack" (like 1023-1024) is one that makes even less sense. The idea with "fixed size" is that when the pagefile is hit AND it's fixed size is filled, the system will nicely crash. The idea with "dynamic" is that once pagefile.sys is "hit", AND it is filled for it's minimum size, it starts expanding until it reaches the maximim size, THEN the system will crash nicely of course IF there is enough available space for the pagefile to "grow". The foolishness of the "dynamic" is that it takes time (and system resources) to resize the pagefile, so, in a situation where the system is on the verge of crashing you add some stress to it. That, in determinate conditions (and with the big caveat of available space) may make some (little) sense if the "expansion range" is "big". With 1 Mb difference it makes not any. BTW, on low memory systems, it makes sense to make a dynamic pagefile, say, something like 100-2048 in order to test the system (intentionally loading it to the max/overloading it) to find a more accurate value for the max range used, lets'say 1536, and then set it fixed to 1536-1536. Additionally a "dynamic" pagefile, if "hit", will contrubute to fragmentation, and for any "diagnostic" use of the pagefile.sys as "dump" it is much more convenient to have it in "one piece" as only the "fixed" setting may guarantee. With today's hard disk sizes, it makes no sense however to "spare" a few Mbytes of hard disk space anyway. @bhplt someone else - in perfect good faith - provided 5 partial or unrelated answers to the original question. OP - remarked this in a somewhat "I know more than you do" approach, and reiterating the question as "So again, we are right back to the question, is there a way to get XP x64 to be able to use a USB as VM?" I initially answered to that question (and nothing else), and I did it VERY accurately, it was NOT my intention to make a course on vityual memory or pagefile.sys and from the approach of the OP, my intention was to post EXACTLY what I posted, and I also explained the reasons why I did post EXACTLY that and not nothing else in post #30 and also some "what if" I want to re-affirm the fact that I am NOT binded by any contract or agreement to spoon feed anyone, particularly when I feel like not doing it, nor that I need to "make friends" with anyone, hence I feel free to post whatever I like to, in the EXACT way I like to, within the limits of Board Rules, of course. Of course you are perfectly free to tell me what I should have posted and how I should have worded it, but I find it a perfect example of exercise in futility. Let's use a carpenter's comparison : a fictional_customer goes to the hardware store and: (fictional_customer' walks away, coming back the day after with some photographs of a steel plate with a hook welded to it nailed to a wall) (fictional_customer' walks away, coming back the day after) And, still just for the record: jaclaz

It's a bit complex for a newcomer. There are so many "important" Win9x/Me topics that they cannot be made all "sticky". You should first thing check this: And from that you should get here easily: And then you will have a lot of reading to do..... jaclaz

Well, I can assure you that jaclaz did know about that (for XP 32 bit) AND posted a number of external sources in #18 to that effect, the actual behaviour might be slightly different depending on a number of factors, but the simple description in post #24 should be accurate enough. But if you think a bit about it, set aside the foolish (and deceiving ) way that MS used to implement the Virtual Memory Control Panel and the mechanism, the "decision" to NOT put the pagefile.sys on an "external" device makes a lot of sense. The pagefile.sys is "hooked" at boot time (and thus changes to it require a re-boot), what will happen if you have a pagefile.sys on a USB stick or HD and you decide "mid-session" to disconnect it? You have to consider that while nowadays a pagefile, and much more than that a pagefile 1.5 to 2 times the size of RAM is rarely (please read as "almost never") used if not if there is an issue with the system, like an app going beserk and eating all the RAM, or if there is a crash and a dumpcheck is created, in times of machines with 256 or 512 Mb and possibly 1 Gb of memory it was very frequent that it got "hit". As a matter of fact - and I don't want to start yet another "is pagefile needed/no it is not" or "it must be 1.5 or 2 tiimes the RAM/No, that makes no sense" usual flamewars - I have machines with "enough" memory that run OK since years without a pagefile set. There are few things as "personal" as the choice on how exactly to set a pagefile : And it is often used by IT admins as one of those stories you tell kids around the fire or fireplace in a rainy winter evening : Back to the topic of having a pagefile on something that you can remove "live", more or less on a low memory machine you would be telling to a booted system that it has available 256+512 Mb of memory and after it is "convinced" of this you can (by accident) hot-unplug 2/3 of memory..... as one of the given liks states kernels tend to like not this kind of tricks. The actuall DiskMod filter driver was developed for a specific use, when you actually boot from USB and you may have two different kind of problems: no pagefile.sys at all because the machine has no suitable "internal" disk "polluting" an internal disk filesystem with a pagefile.sys automatically generated jaclaz

Still off topic . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_to_me BUT : http://legalminds.lp.findlaw.com/list/oklahomaattorneys-l/msg00203.html jaclaz

Hey guys, are you hinting that Mr. Sinosky actually lied here?: http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/windows-leadership-changes-part-2 jaclaz

That's why modded sources are not supported. ...and particularly those integrating IE9, I presume .... http://www.zdnet.com/blog/networking/five-reasons-not-to-upgrade-to-windows-internet-explorer-9/817 However, running a silent install at first boot shouldnt' be an issue: jaclaz

BOTH your oven and dishwasher, of course. (releases 3.11c and 3.24b of some Whirlpool dishwashers are known to be buggy ) Then maybe the specs/data of the "some models that this happens" and of some of the laptop models that do work. There aren't "universal" USB 3 drivers, WHICH specific ones have you added to your WinPE and HOW exactly you "added" them? jaclaz

If I may, in this screenshot: the ONLY productivity tool I can identiify is the calculator. I am - admittedly - an old timer but I do: wear a watch that I can have a look at (with a swift movement of my wrist ) when I want to know what time is have always with me a (several years old) handy which I use to synchronize with my agenda on the PC and that emits nice alarm sounds when told to do so do work in a place that has things called windows (wthout ™) that I use to sometimes look outside (this time with a quick and swift movement of my head/eyes) to see what the weather is have on the desk an (old but nowadays) incredibly valuable HP RPN pocket calculator with which I can do 56-6*9+(22/6) in half the time you could to say Jack Robinson What remains as "productivity tool"? Bing and Facebook Owww, comeon guys let's be serious. Let's say that they could have used better examples for that visualization of "productivity tools" ... jaclaz

Good, you have googled the problem , but what of the results you found and solutions you tried/attempted? It seems like that kind of error is due to four possible causes: malware/virus hard disk filesystem corruption Windows Update malfunctioning (which I personally believe is caused by one of the two above) defective hardware (like RAM or motherboard or hard disk) See: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/corrupt-file-at-startup-can-not-start-up-win-7/b7129bd4-abf5-44e8-b136-9d9bb9a22c60 http://forums.techguy.org/windows-7/1000897-windows-7-problem-signature.html http://forums.techguy.org/windows-7/1055175-windows-running-very-slow-please-2.html http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/209884-stuck-startup-repair-loop-norootcause.html http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/startup-repair-cannot-repair-this-computer/718e1c0c-a907-404e-b48e-700e4e65c248 The "general" and "basic" procedure is always the same: boot from alternate means/OS (Windows PE or Linux CD/DVD/USB) backup any important data scan the system for viruses/malware verify (from a suitable Windows 7 install DVD/USB)filesystem integrity (CHKDISK) do (from a suitable Windows 7 install DVD/USB) a "startup repair" if it boots repeat checks on filesystem and files integrity (CHKDISK, SFC) and for viruses/malware if the above don't work re-install Windows 7 in a "parallel" install and see if it boots/works normally if it still doesn't work it is likely that there is a (more or less serious) hardware problem that you must solve before attempting again If the "parallel" install works and you cannot repair the "original" one, then you can only (your choice) either re-install Windows 7 (and all apps) from scratch and restore the backed up data or install the apps to this "parallel" install. jaclaz

Now, now, don't be silly OBVIOUSLY you cannot patent "rectangles with rounded corners" , what you may attempt doing, if you are so clever as to call it "A rectangular, biaxially symmetrical slab with four evenly, slightly rounded corners" is this latter.... According to the UK judge , if you attempt to do so, you fail anyway . jaclaz

Yes and no. The issue is not so slightly different from the ones that the suggested remedies may "fix" because of the two disks. The normal boot sequence is this one: First disk (in BIOS) MBR on first disk PBR of active partition on first disk BOOTMGR on active partition on first disk /boot/BCD on active partition on first disk WINLOAD.EXE (that can be on *any* disk/partition set in /boot/BCD) rest of Windows (Vista or 7) on same *any* disk/partition as above So, a number of requisites on the "2 Tb disk" need to be fulfilled to have it work "independently", i.e., on the "2Tb disk" the MBR code must be present and suitable to chainload active partition there must be at least one active primary partition on it the PBR CODE on that partition should invoke BOOTMGR BOOTMGR must be present in the root of the active primary partition a /boot/BCD (or more generally a whole copy of the /boot/ folder must be present in the root of the active primary partition on the "2Tb disk" the /boot/BCD must have a suitable entry to boot the Winload.exe and "rest of windows" The easiest (IMHO) way to recreate this situation is to disconnect the "320gb" disk, boot from a Windows 7 install disc and "startup repair" the install: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/ss/windows-7-startup-repair.htm To do so, only the pre-requisite of a primary partition existing should be needed, and the "startup repair" should take care of all the other points. jaclaz

... possibly because jaclaz hinted the procedure to do this kind of tests.... To hopefully close this issue, once and for all, my post was not meant to be an "everything you ever wanted to know about pagefile and Virtual Memory and you never dared to ask" kind of post/tutorial/guide, it was a simple, plain answer to the question you asked, meant as a three step procedure: hinting the possibility that your initial beliefs were not entirely correct: stating the actual facts: providing a possible solution or anyway iinformation corroborating the previously exposed facts: Now, re-reading the post for the nth time, following your critics on it, I am actually patting myself on the shoulder for having been able to sum up so well in a few lines all the essential points. Now let's play "what if" .... Could I have been more verbose and explicit? Yes . Am I actually obliged by signed agreement to be more verbose and explicit when attempting to help people for free on the forum? No. Could you have been more "open" to suggestions (since you came here asking for them)? Yes . Could you have been more convinced (as said I believe in perfect good faith) of your experience with Virtual Memory? No. Was such experience with Virtual Memory on 32 bit XP representing actual facts? No. Now, that is anyway the past, the actual issue has been cleared, let's get over it, OK? jaclaz

Just for the record, from http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-steve-ballmer-explained-that-steve-sinofsky-is-leaving-2012-11 compare with http://reboot.pro/2398/#entry15859 jaclaz

HWPNP? PENETWORK? http://reboot.pro/7036/ jaclaz

NO, it isn't or it it isn't "only" for that. That's normal as there isn't any. No, there isn't, the way you have ben doing it. The way you have "backed up files" till now is "wrong" in the sense that you are using a feature of the OS that is NOT aimed to create "efficient", "compact", results. If you take some time to read about SAO writing mode, this would become evident. Imagine that you work in a (crazy ) company delivering (say) TV's. Your job is to load on a truck a TV (in it''s box), drive the truck, get to the customer house, unpack the TV and deliver/install it. Noone ever disposes of the empty packagings that remain on the truck. You will soon find out how once you have delivered a small number of TV's you cannot load anymore a (filled) Tv's box on the truck as all the space is occupied by the empty boxes. Now what a SAO writing approach behaves is more or less like this: you package the initial (first sesson) files in a (virtual) cardboard box complete with polystirene fillings you load the box on the CD on next session you take the contents out of the first box, and add them together to some new contents to a new, larger box you load this second box on CD and so on soon the CD will be full of empty smaller boxes and one large box, this latter being on top of all the other ones and the only one you can open and access, and that contains all what was once stored in the "previous" boxes Just as it is in the case of the truck, the right "strategy" is to put aside the filled box, empty the truck, then load again the larger "last" (filled) box on the truck. Translated it means: copy (temporarily) the CDRW contents on another media (hard disk) re-format/re-initialize the CDRW disc copy back to it the temporarily copied contents The alternative being used a "packet-writing" software/tool that allows to add data to a CDRW with less "overhead" (but this solution is less than optimal because of possible later reading issues of the CDRW). Some other news (good or bad it's up to you to decide) is that Optical media (like BTW *any* media) is not particularly reliable in the long term, and particularly "standard" recording apps and CDRW media are not the best choice. Burning apps dedicated to create backup media store additional (redundant) information on the media so that in case of mis-readings the errors are more likely to be corrected. As an example Infinadyne makes a (Commercial) tool called Accuburn-R: http://www.infinadyne.com/accuburn-r.html which adopts - among others - this "better be safe than sorry" approach. But there is also an excellent Freeware/Open Source tool, DVDisaster: http://dvdisaster.net/en/ to the same effect. jaclaz

Well, I thought that my post #9, which I will re-quote for clarity: was as plain as possible both in the terms used and in the concepts, and I don't see it as coming from any presumed "upper level" or "ladder", it represents a set of plain statements, coming from someone that not only - as it has later become evident - found those same facts before you did, but additionally provided relevant links/info specifically targeted to the matter leading to a possible solution. It is not like I posted (and I actually could have posted this , though I did NOT ): nor I did post (and again I could have done that) post a link to the known chocolate-covered banana issue: http://homepage.ntlworld.com./jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/put-down-the-chocolate-covered-banana.html I mantain that what was posted was: accurate written in plain enough English providing you a correct answer to the question you asked As I see it the actual issue is/was simply that you were (BTW in perfect good faith ) so positively confident in your experience (both in the specific matter and in your general experience as machine language programmer or whatever) that you didn't contemplate in the least the possibility that your initial statement was the effect of your perceptions being deceived by the Virtual Memory control panel and more generally by the XP OS behaviour. In another place, in another time, this was actually pre-coded in "Common Sense Advice", JFYI, point #f4.: http://reboot.pro/82/ You may also want to notice how I never stated a particular experience in anything, nor a particular "superior" state (possibly the board "status" of Developer and the 10,000+ posts speak by themselves to this regard) whilst you stated: so, if someone has attempted to, directly or indirectly, provide "credentials" to support his statements, and more loosely "self position" himself at a given level, that has not been me. To be fair, you did post: which is exactly what has been demonstrated by the evolution of this thread, notwithstanding your good experience on other (albeit similarly technically oriented) fields/topics, you knew nothing about pagefiles and Virtual Memory and were tricked by the behaviour of the OS. But now everything is (hopefully) clear and "cool", if any feathers were ruffled, they have been smoothed down again, and outside (at least here) though cold, the sun in shining.... jaclaz

On the OT news, the actual UK sentence (Apple vs. Samsung) reachable through one of the links by Charlottethehariot: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Patents/2012/1882.html is a masterpiece of clear, documented logical thinking really interesting to read. The essential points (bolded italics in the original as well): that were analyzed in detail and led to the: confirm the IMHO good synthesis provided by the Samsung guys about the US decision: jaclaz

jaclaz

A quote from: http://www.microsoft.com/about/technicalrecognition/julie-larson-green.aspx To which jaclaz has to say: (and jaclaz didn't get any "Common Sense Recognition Award" for this comment ) jaclaz

AQM, if you want tips about starting to learn programming, you could start a NEW thread here: http://www.msfn.org/board/forum/66-programming-c-delphi-vbvbs-cmdbatch-etc/ About the issue you had with WinNTSetup v2.3 cannot say by what it was caused, most probably by a "wrong" way with which you have partitioned/formatted the hard disk. The MBR you posted had the starting address of the volume at offset 0x3F (63). The PBR/VBR/bootsector you posted had the starting address of the volume at offset 0x00 (0). Of course such a disk won't boot, as these values should be the same. This has actually nothing to do with programming, but rather with knowing how hard disks, partitions and volumes "work". Go here: http://thestarman.pcministry.com/asm/mbr/index.html and read EVERYTHING on it. If you have doubts, question, feel free to ask them, in a NEW thread, the most suitable forum for these kind of questions is: http://www.msfn.org/board/forum/169-hard-drive-and-removable-media-issues/ jaclaz

Good , so now everything is hopefully clear ,.not very different from what initially stated: actually exactly as it was . JFYI, the working is more or less like this: the Virtual Memory Control Panel is nothing but a nice GUI interface to a few keys in the Registry. when you change settings in that, the corresponding keys in the Registry are actually changed. at reboot *something else* reads those keys and does what is written on them, BUT IF what is written on them makes no sense (like making a pagefile on an "external" device), the *something* tries to do it's best, like interpreting that the user wants a pagefile of a given size and actually makes one, only it makes it on the first device it sees as fit. on the other hand the *something* does not notify anyone about the interptretation it put into practice, leaving the related Registry keys "as they are", thus if you re-access the Virtual Memory control panel you see the same settings you input earlier Seemingly the 64 bit version is a bit smarter and doesn't list the external drives in the Virtual Memory control panel, thus preventing this form of miscommunication between the System and the user. The good news are that the "Kingston DataTraveler DTI / 4GB" that you used for the last several years has not suffered ANY wear due to the paging file rewrites and will probably last forever in that role . Slightly OT, but JFYI: jaclaz

Good, if you say so I am happy for you. Just as a check (that by any remote chance what the Virtual Memory control panel does not actually represents fully what is happening): Can you open that "USB card" in explorer and see if there is in its root (possibly hidden/system) a file named "pagefile.sys"? Which size is it? Can you resize the size of the pagefile (a few megabytes will do) in the Virtual Memory panel (and reboot) then check again the size of "pagefile.sys" on the "USB card"? (please check as well the Hitachi 61.4 or 'Old IDE' for the same file in root and do the same test resizing it) As I see it, if a pagefile.sys exists on the volume and it can be re-sized through the Virtual Memory control panel, a pagefile exists, otherwise it could mean that what you see in the Virtual Memory control panel might be deceiving) If you happen to have one of those IDE to USB cnverters/enclosures, can you try placing the pagefile on the same Hitachi HD, this time connected through USB? jaclaz