jaclaz

More good BCD editors (just for the record): http://reboot.pro/7476/page__st__-7#entry112164 http://www.zezula.net/en/fstools/bellavista.html http://reboot.pro/index.php?showtopic=10003 jaclaz

Yep , but still far less "professional looking" than : http://www.weiku.com/products/9454199/PC3000_COM_Port_Cable_Seagate_COM_Port_Cable_PCI3000_ST_COM_Port_Cable_SeagateUSB_Terminal.html http://www.asianproducts.com/product/A13033796936098483_P13038787980643304/pc-3000-adapter-pc.html http://www.donordrives.com/other/seagate-terminal-adapter-pc-3000-compatible-usb-to-sata-and-ide.html http://www.ecrater.com.au/p/16019821/pc-3000-pc3000-adapter-converter-for-usb?keywords=seagate BUT: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:DH0G2jbpyMkJ:http://www.ecrater.com.au/p/15286631/pc-3000-adapter-for-usb-terminal-seagate%2BPC-3000+connector+seagate&hl=en&client=opera&rls=it&ct=clnk AND: http://www.blujay.com/item/PC-3000-Adapter-for-PC-USB-TERMINAL-SEAGATE-HDD-Hard-Drive-9080000-4317313 (actual clone of the "real thing") Seemingly the good winter guys are willing to sell this item for anything between 10 and 15 bucks (and I am pretty sure that they have some profit on it). http://www.winter-con.net/home.html http://www.winter-con.net/catalog/item/6654756/7838776.htm (of course cannot say anything about the actual "quality" of this thingy, but it does "look better") jaclaz

JFYI, new approach in the works: http://reboot.pro/17520/ (boot a PE through iPXE + http - FAST - and from it do "whatever you want") or possibly this thingy: http://reboot.pro/16967/ http://www.toolwiz.com/products/toolwizremotebackup/ might be suitable (this is more like a Remote Control, you can do *whatever* from the "server" side, you only need to PXE boot the client) Otherwise the "normal" RIS/WDS deployment can be made through this other newish kid on the block: http://www.vercot.com/~serva/ http://www.vercot.com/~serva/howto/WindowsPXE1.html See also: http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/serva jaclaz

Maybe we are seeing the matter with the wrong perspective. Windows XP and conversely Windows 7 (sorry MagicAndre1981, but Vista doesn't count) are/were SELFISH OS's. Windows 8 is a PLURAL OS. Let's see what Dell has to say about their ST2220L 21.5" LCD screen priced at a nifty US$129.99: http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=320-1629 And what about the - I presume corresponding - ST2220T (touch screen) 21.5" LCD screen priced at a mere US$329.99: http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?sku=320-1819&cs=19&c=us&l=en&dgc=CJ&cid=24471&lid=566643&acd=10550055-1727683- For only 200 bucks more, you can include your friends and family in the FUN. BUT still.... .... please note how all the activities described by the good Dell guys are NOT IN ANY WAY connected with WORK. Now I find this appropriate, with the world crisis, a lot of families (and some of their friends) will have MUCH more time to stay at home and entertain themselves with Windows 8 and touch screens, whilst the very few with still a job will continue working with the antiquated, but still good enough XP's and 7's in their gloomy, lonely cubicles..... And, just to show to some miscreants how my crystall ball (from time to time) is accurate let me present you two brand new apps for Windows 8: http://www.windows8apps.com/apps/games/family/simon-says/ http://www.windows8apps.com/apps/games/puzzle-trivia/simon8/ foreseen evolution from: http://www.windows8apps.com/mobile/windows-phone-7/games/simon-said/ (please do take some time to appreciate the essential pureness and modernity of the lines and the new Bauhaus look) To be fair, some "serious" apps are also coming out, example: http://www.windows8apps.com/apps/government-politics/government-resources/taxsoftware-com-2011/ jaclaz

Of course whatever is already in the "standard" setup is tested and works OK "as is" (no need to change it) BUT, if you want to make changes/additions, if you follow the given advice you have less risks of having a "botched" install or to find later issues when using the program or burning a CD or Example (obviously exaggerated), if you install (unattended or attended) a program, if it is in: and the executable is called you have a "safer" approach than having it in: Possibly everything will work OK nonetheless , but is there a real reason to risk it? jaclaz

You might need to better vigilate... http://speccy.piriform.com/results/zHreUVFNiGnGmJNmIe2FH2c Try running that same program: http://www.piriform.com/speccy jaclaz

OOOT (but not much) I was wrong . SCOOP! http://bit.ly/UY9kBO jaclaz

Before I forget about this, I'd better make a note. Nice experiment (that should be done "mentally" before actually replicating in practice). Take a floppy. Format it under DOS 7.x, give it not a label. Copy to it a single file (whatever smallish file, let's say 2048 bytes or less, like an AUTOEXEC.BAT for example, would do) Make a dd-like copy of the floppy. Format the copy under the same DOS 7.x, still not giving it a label, but this time using the /q switch. Make another dd-like copy of the floppy made in points #1-3 Format it from XP command line, stil not giving it a label and use as well the /q switch Compare the two latter floppies with the first one in a hex editor or similar. Of course the same can be done in a VM and/or using a virtual disk drive with floppy images instead of real floppies. Questions: Q1. How many different sectors there are between first and second disk? Q2. How many different sectors there are between first and third disk? jaclaz

Sure, the guy is a marketing genius, buying adapters at US $ 4.99 or less and re-selling them for 19.99 by advertising them as "7200.11", you cannot pretend that he is also an artist at web design . Now, guess WHY exactly Opera has a nice button to switch any html page from "Author" to "User" view? But actually, the is yellow on black, even if you dont' see the blue on black link below it, the suspect that a link should be there should have crossed your mind..... Just for the record, Italians are better at it as a few can get as much as 30 Euros: http://www.ebay.it/itm/INTERFACCIA-USB-3V-TTL-per-HD-Seagate-7200-11-no-rs232-/190512846745?pt=Accessori_per_Radioamatori&hash=item2c5b735799 by fitting to another 5 buck value converter the appropriate connector for the Seagate, let's say 1 addtional buck, though affirming (as he does) that i.e.: is "psychological terrorism". jaclaz

Yep , he also said (among many other things): The essence of my post is that things must be placed in context. IF you think that Windows phoning home for validation is a treat to your freedom (and to your privacy and to your security) you may be right or wrong, and as Voltaire said: BUT you need to touch the ground with your feet and understand how Windows 2000 was the last MS OS that doesn't phone home, and - as said - (and of course to my best knowledge ) the nature and amount of data exchanged is not different from what MS is receiving now from Windows 7. BTW, in case you missed this piece of knowledge (having just awaken after a 20 years sleep à la Rip Van Winkle) you are ACTUALLY already tracked by at least: your credit card payments your browsing and searching on the Internet your cellular phone something that seems to me like much worse issues concerning privacy. JFYI, Velostat seems effective to prevent other forms of depriving you of your freedom: http://reboot.pro/13177/ jaclaz

It is possible that grldr has a modified embedded menu.lst. You can check this by opening that file with any hex editor and xhck near the end (and compare with the corresponding "original" grldr). From what you post it is likely that the grub4dos MBR is installed to that stick. grldr (renamed as NTLDR) is then "hardcoded" to chainload NTLDR (renamed as $LDR$) bypassing the bootsector. From the BOOT.INI you posted: Choice #1 is NTDR chainloading the actual partition bootsector (evidently a DOS or FreeDos one, that then boots a DOS and executes AUTOEXEC:BAT). Choice#2 is NTLDR chainloading a copy of the bootsector which likely invokes SETUPLDR.BIN Since from what you post these are the only choices you have, it means that NTLDR/BOOT.INI are used (besides as bootloader) as bootmanager. What you are seemingly missing is that the tool you used/are using uses a (very old) approach, described here: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16713 and one of the others that originated the search for "better methods", see: page__view__findpost__p__563654 (methods #1 and #4 respectively) From that thread originated the search for alternative methods: because of the inconvenience of the already known ones. But anyway, and basically, any install is made of two parts, a part in which the needed files are copied to the destination hard disk (Text Mode) and a GUI part which is run booting from the destination hard disk, the tool you used has not a provision to automate the boot device shift and thus after having completed the text mode part you need to reboot AND remove the USB stick, other apps have a menu.lst that allow to leave the USB stick connected and "exchange" disk order (thus booting anyway for the GUI part from the destinatin disk). So you can study the .lst that these other apps use and adapt it to your setup (and "correct" the booting sequence that IMHO makes little sense and needs the renaming of files - which is never a good idea). jaclaz

No. http://homepage.ntlworld.com./jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/questions-with-yes-or-no-answers.html What we can say is that on the page you linked to there is a link to a driver. jaclaz

Which brings us "back" to: http://reboot.pro/3095/ but it can't be made in scripting (withour the third party program posted on reboot.pro) without a MD5 hash calculator (a third party in itself) jaclaz

You are asking here for help about a program that we don't use normally, so, unless you provide information, we cannot help you. Now that you have posted the reply from the Author of theat utility, it seems like it does NOT provide that feature you asked for at all, this: more or less means that you boot first time from the USB stick, and then, to complete the install, you start from the hard disk, removing the USB stick. ANOTHER utility (which incidentally is developed and supported here by ilko_t) WinsetupFromUSBwithGUI does provide a grub4dos menu for Windows install from USB, to which you can manually add other boot items: BUT, while it does not need the .Net Framework 4.0 to run, I doubt it does clean compatible OS transload, nor it defuses code (but it does have provisions for Memory protection ) From what I can get by your report you have the "normal": $WIN_NT$.~BT $WIN_NT$ .~LS install directories on the USB stick, these somehow get transferred to the hard disk, and then you (as the Author told you) have to boot directly from the hard disk for the second part of the installation). Since the homepage of that utility mentions grub4dos, and you talked about having a menu, I asked you two questions (menu.lst is the file normally useb by grub4dos for it's menu, whilst BOOT.INI is the file normally used by NTLDR for it's menu): Unless you answer it, I have no way to help you. Good . This is another question. JFYI a "universal" XP installed on USB is a rather difficult thing to make and you may prefer a XP based PE, such as UBCD4WIN, or any BartPE or Winbuilder project LiveXP. In case: http://reboot.pro/9830/ http://www.ubcd4win.com/ http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?&showforum=30 http://reboot.pro/index.php?showtopic=4111 If you go on the rmprepusb site: http://www.rmprepusb.com/ you should be able to find tutorials on how to make multiboot USB sticks jaclaz

Not that easy IMHO. http://www.ebay.com/sch/sis.html?_nkw=Dell-Windows-XP-Professional-Service-Pack-2-Reinstallation-CD-SP2- There are at least three of them (green ones): U957G UT993 U5183 and dont' think there is info to know if a given P/N is suitable with the D830. And yes, they may have slipstreamed different SATA drivers, see: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/software-os/f/3524/p/19258369/19430194.aspx If the case it would be a better idea to contact Dell directly: https://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dellcare/en/backupcd_form%20 (though cannot say if they still provide those discs and at which cost) jaclaz

Additionally some CA-42 need to be powered (by an external 3 V battery or similar). See: http://mennucc1.debian.net/lacie_network_space/nokia-ca-42/DD-WRT%20Forum%20%20%20%20View%20topic%20-%20CA-42%20cable%20-%20%20Serial.html http://buffalo.nas-central.org/index.php/Use_a_Nokia_Serial_Cable_on_an_ARM9_Linkstation jaclaz

Maybe you can save a little time ... http://solair.eunet.rs/~janko/engdload.htm jaclaz

http://www.joshcellsoftwares.com/2012/06/WinUSBMaker.html Wow! @jimsallo With all due respect , but why don't you ask the Author of the tool you used? Do you have a grub4dos menu.lst on that stick? If yes post it's contents, as well as contents of BOOT.INI (if any). jaclaz

Well, of all the available tools, clonezilla is the LEAST advised, not because it's not good , but because it is (nicely) named BUT does another thing from what people would associate to cloning. You can just dd it without any need for Clonezilla, if you want a clone, otherwise for supported filesystems the result is NOT - normally - a clone. But this: tells nothing. WHATis the "everything tried"? What EXACT hard disk is it? WHERE it is coming from? WHO is "someone" that "told about embed file"? Standard Litany: http://homepage.ntlworld.com./jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/problem-report-standard-litany.html jaclaz

Until the good MS guys decide to remove it..... If possible it is always better (iMHO) to use freely redistributable tools. jaclaz

Good . Choosing the RED pill has traditionally been more interesting..... but rabbit holes are deeep jaclaz

Yes . http://homepage.ntlworld.com./jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/questions-with-yes-or-no-answers.html See if you can use this installer (reported as working on 98SE), then see if you can manage to "tweak" it to accept your alternate .klc file: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~johns/kbukint.html Also you can try this: http://www.klm32.com/index.html the Lite edition is freeware though cannot say if it's "enough" for what you need/want to do. jaclaz

Good. You won't, once we have found the issue, you will still be able to re-install the "proper" version (correcting or re-doing the CD your son-in-law provided, if that is the cause). Imagine that you go to your neighbours and you ask them to lend you a (spare) TV, you get it, get home and try connecting it to your antenna, if it works it means that the issue is your old TV (and not the antenna) if it doesn't the old TV might still be OK but you have to fix the antenna anyway. In any case you will need to return the TV and ether fix your hardware (TV or antenna or both ) or procure new one(s). jaclaz

Then, no need to reply to #3 and #4. The plan (failed) was to connect a PS/2 mouse and completely uninstall (and later re-install) anything USB related. Do you have another PC (and a home network)? If yes, you can try Sinergy (still with the idea of having "something else from USB" pilot the mouse on screen, and thus allowing safelu the uninstall of the USB drivers): http://synergy-foss.org/ jaclaz

Yes, I understand, that's why I suggested a test in a VM, but it's better if you don't install *anything* on your friend's PC. Yes , it is very good to check if the setup goes further than "2:20", thoigh the actual "edition" of the XP might not be "corresponding" (and thus the product key may not activate), but this is the least of the problems, the product key is asked for well after the "Text mode" part (inside the "GUI" part of the setup, as a matter of fact, if I recall correctly, a SP3 disk will also allow to go on without a key), if the issue is actually missing driver you won't ever get that far. jaclaz