jaclaz

I think noone said that, what has been said or just hinted is that you posted a series of contrasting statements and a number of plainly wrong data, i.e. you failed to fully comply with the Standard Litany: http://homepage.ntlworld.com./jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/problem-report-standard-litany.html and/or you falled by slipping on a chocolate covered banana : http://homepage.ntlworld.com./jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/put-down-the-chocolate-covered-banana.html If you prefer it was a (kind) invitation to better organze your reports, so that people willing to help you will need not to use their crystal ball or guess which among the contrasting statement or among the provided data is the right one. Mind you this will usually result in boith faster and "better" help/support provided, so ultimately it is an advantage to you . jaclaz

AWSUM EVEN IF I GUES U CANT MAK EVRYONE FINE jaclaz

I am not sure to understand (actually I am sure I don't understand ), you posted: In that occasion HOW (which media if not the CD) did you use to attempt installing the XP? But what I meant was that it is possible that you have "other" issues with booting from CD (such as BIOS settings, a "bad" drive or bad cable/connection) but that right now the culprit sounds being the non bootable CD, as that PC can boot from the CD device (if bootable media is used), and you actually booted from it recently, didn't you? jaclaz

The ONLY set of instructions we have are here (and they are not validated by any other member, so more than the usual YMMV ) (already linked to thread): specifically the quote in this post: jaclaz

IMHO this is - besides smaller - "plainer": 1.000 bytes instead of 1.356 BUT including 10 bytes for the "@ECHO OFF", so actually 366 bytes smaller or almost 27% smaller . @ECHO OFF&( ECHO ^If WScript.Arguments.Count ^<^> 2 then ECHO WScript.Quit ECHO end ^If ECHO Const ForReading=1, ForWriting=2 ECHO Dim i,j ECHO Set objFSO=CreateObject^("Scripting.FileSystemObject"^) ECHO Set objInputFile=objFSO.OpenTextFile^(WScript.Arguments.Item^(0^),ForReading^) ECHO Set objOutputFile=objFSO.OpenTextFile ^(WorkingDir ^& WScript.Arguments.Item^(1^),ForWriting,True^) ECHO Set objDict=CreateObject^("Scripting.Dictionary"^) ECHO objDict.CompareMode=1 ECHO j=0 ECHO On Error Resume Next ECHO While Not objInputFile.AtEndOfStream ECHO arrinputRecord=split^(objInputFile.Readline,"vbNewLine"^) ECHO strFirstField=arrinputRecord^(0^) ECHO ^If objDict.Exists^(strFirstField^) then ECHO j=j+1 ECHO Else ECHO objDict.add strFirstField,strFirstField ECHO End ^If ECHO Wend ECHO colKeys=objDict.Keys ECHO For Each strKey in colKeys ECHO objOutputFile.writeline objDict.Item^(strKey^) ECHO Next ECHO objInputFile.Close ECHO objOutputFile.Close )>yanklines.vbs jaclaz

Wouldn't it be protected by Copyright Laws? In any case you could have people to which you provide the install routine to sign a NDA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-disclosure_agreement You know, just to be on the safe side. jaclaz

Define latest. Googling for: "Download:" "visual c++ redistributable Package" gives results up to 2010 SP1, and also this search: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/search.aspx?q=Microsoft+Visual+C%2b%2b+Redistributable+Package gives more or less the same results. jaclaz

HOPE DAT LOLCAT SPEEK IZ STILL K? http://speaklolcat.com/ jaclaz

Where? EXACT model make of the PC AND of the graphic card, please. A plus would be having also make/model of the monitor/display. Explanation: you have not installed the proper graphic card driver and you are using the default "one-size-fits-all" VGA driver, which is limited in BOTH resolution and number of available colours. With the data you provide we might be able ot help you locating the proper drivers on the Manufacturer website or elsewhere. jaclaz

Look, I don't want to seem grumpier than what I actually am. I perfectly agree that 1 K bucks is an inane amount of money for a disk, but calling for the rights of backing up purchased software is IMHO pure bull§hit. Complex systems and (particularly the market) are self-regulating. If in the last few years you payed 50 grands for 50 lousy Maxtor 40 Gb disks, it means that you could afford it. (straight and simple) If you prefer the related coin-op games made you gather much more than the 50 bucks, covering the actual buying of the original games, their maintenance and made a living for you and the other peeps in your firm. Is US $ 1,000.00 an unfair price? Very possibly. But don't whine about it, you are not Robin Hood, and they are not the Sheriff of Nottingham. They - like any other Commercial enterprise - do their business (which actually is trying to get the more money they can) exactly as you are doing yours (trying to make more money by saving on spare parts), that's the game and the way it is played. This said, I believe you when you affirm that you are doing it without any nefarious design (if not to save some US $ 950 apiece for any of those spares ), but you still have to understand how - setting aside the legal aspects that may or may not be relevant - this topic conflicts with Rule #1.a, and as such cannot and won't be further continued. jaclaz

Is this the same board or you have found a scrap yard full of Asus boards? What you report NOW sounds a lot like a "botched" IDE bus. jaclaz

Wild guess, mind you, but try running (double click ) artgalry.exe, it may re-register correctly. See also: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.ms-windows.apps.misc/browse_thread/thread/b36e86e6a5014e83 I seem to remember it was an issue in the good ol' days.... jaclaz

Yep, we miss some info on that part of the world, maybe blackwingcat may provide some insight. (he is the only very active member I recall being from Japan) For NO apparent reason (if not adding to the confusion) : jaclaz

My impression is that the good Japanese guys think very like us: http://yaokou.cocolog-nifty.com/yaotyan/2011/10/windows8windows.html http://www.sd-dream.com/pasocompass/neta/11111201Windows8.html?cat=Windows8+DP%E7%89%88%E3%83%AC%E3%83%93%E3%83%A5%E3%83%BC Usual (absolutely faked ) possible Japanese translations : 名も無きクラップインタフェース 名無しのインターフェースくだらないこと jaclaz

I am confused by this? According to tutorial #30 and unless I am mistaken the title states: There is no reference to using a F6 floppy with the drivers. No, but there is a way to use floppy images INSTEAD of a "physical" floppy for "F6" install of the drivers, which is actually the point. (hint: search on the page for string "F6" ) The F11 menu sometimes does not work, try changing boot order in the BIOS, also try "cold boot" physically removing the power plug and reinserting it. How big is the USB stick? Some motherboards won't like a "big" sized USB stick. Of course it is possible that something went wrong when using RMPREPUSB, do the following: Get hdhacker: http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/ use it to make a copy of both the MBR and the PBR of the active partition on the USB stick (respectively \\.\Physicaldrive and \\.\LogicalDrive) compress the two files together and attach the resulting archive, so that I can have a look at them. My head is spinning There is a limit to attachments, just delete the screenshots you previously attached and you will have the capacity restored. A good idea would be for future screenshots to upload them to a free fiel hosting service and post a link instead of attaching them. BUT, I am lost, please answer these: Can you now boot (in IDE mode) that XP install? Can you access a USB stick from it (I mean from the booted XP in IDE mode)? jaclaz

Thanks for coming back and detailing the solution (or workaround) to the issue . As a matter of fact, you might have documented something that could be turned to an advantage in a few "narrow" fields: http://winfe.wordpress.com/ jaclaz

Wait a minute. It seems to me like you have an issue copying the drivers to the CD. What program are you using? The drivers, which I verified you can get from here: ftp://134.100.120.22/pub/mirrors/3com_nic/3c3fe575c/fe575291.exe are inside a (self-extracting) Winzip archive. What you should do is (on the "other" computer) create a new directory , let's say C:\3comNic\ and extract to that directory the archive, you can dobleckick on the downloaded file and tell it to extract to that folder. Then, you burn the whole folder to the CD. A recommended app is IMGBURN: http://www.imgburn.com/ but you can use *any* burning tool you are familiar with, since you are going anyway to "waste" a CD, you could add to the new CD also a copy of the contents of the windows CD, the screenshots you posted seem to say that a missing file is inside the actual Win98 CD, but this could also be because you have (seemingly) NO files in the "driiver" CD you made. jaclaz

Yes, really sorry if my link to that site has offended anyone, it was not my intention, we were just having some "generic" fun, and we mocked a little bit everyone, including the good Polish , but absolutely no particular meaning was given to any of the post. Just not to be accused to be partial, a (completely off-topic ) representation of a dangerous e-mail Irish virus: and the usual approach to work in Italy : jaclaz

Yes, but you see, this has always been. We (the western) are taught that a number of symbols in a given order is associated to a meaning, they (the eastern) use single pictograms/ideograms to express basic "concepts" and when these are assembled they associate the concepts to the meaning. It is an entirely different way of the brain to react to written text, it provides a definite advantage where icons (or tiles) are used, and they tend to develop a superior capability to identify shapes, and identify "patterns" and connect them to meanings. See, as an "extreme" example: http://advanced-japanese-for-beginners.blogspot.it/2012/04/longest-word.html We (at least myself) find this way extremely difficult, and to understand (a very few) kanji I need every kind of trick/mnemonics. There are interesting approaches in this particular field: http://www.vizcabulary.com/ http://www.tofugu.com/2012/05/29/the-kanji-that-look-like-their-meanings/ http://www.logobird.com/japanese-kanji-food-pictograms/ jaclaz

Let me doubt that a "custom firmware" is used. It is much more likely that some space in either the hard disk board eprom/flash chip (if any) or in the reserved sectors is used to store a challenge code or serial. Even more likely it is that an HPA is created on the disk. You do understand that what you have described is EXACTLY a copy-protection scheme? The *whatever* is clearly put there in order to avoid UNauthorized duplication, and suggesting ways to work around it would perfectly fit the mentioned Rule #1.a. The issue won't be discussed further what I can tell you is that this is the kind of problem that you either solve yourself, and everything is up to your conscience or it should be taken to the Commercial level. In my experience companies using similar approaches tend, if asked nicely but firmly, to make a provision for the replacement of burned hardware for a more reasonable fee (you physically deliver back to them the failed hard disk and they send you a new one for the cost of the hardware + moderate technical/handling fees). Of course it all depends on the numbers your company makes with that supplier. There are tens of tools, some "software only" and freeware, most hardware/software and Commercial, a few ones selling for several thousands of bucks , able to dig much deeper then you might ever want inside a hard disk, usually they are oriented to data recovery, if you want to go ahead, search for them, no more hints/ideas from me, 'nuff said. jaclaz

No need to further comment, just look at his "page": http://www.neowin.net/profile/brad_sams Besides the actual photo, which represents clearly a typical Fortune 500 consultant/Wall Street Journal reader Or the linkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/brad-sams/10/849/8b9 It sounds a lot like the guy is an "aggressive" kind of consultant, strongly interested in the financial part of everything. , most probably he is a very nice guy , but the image he projects is definitely a bit yuppish and (let's say ) "non-unbiased". jaclaz

That is: NOT a version of grub4dos (grub4dos version after 0.4.3 have a date 0.4.4 2009-10-16 being the ONLY recommended version of the 0.4.4 series it is SEVERELY outdated Get LATEST "Featured" from here (NOT any among the TestOnly version): http://code.google.com/p/grub4dos-chenall/downloads/list Then follow this gude: http://diddy.boot-land.net/pxe/ If you want to better understand how grub4dos works, besides the readme.txt, do check the guide: http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/Grub4dos.htm Though many new features were added to grub4dos the "base" is still valid. Check also on reboot.pro, example: http://reboot.pro/15821/ On UNrelated news , fresh of today, iPXE+http boot: http://reboot.pro/17520/ jaclaz

I cant do this without having access to an ODD. Please re-read: If you use USB install (of course if it works) you need NOT ANY ODD (nor IDE/PATA nor SATA) as everything you need to install is on the USB stick. BUT if your system is already working in IDE mode, as well, the instructions you got from Asrock are not really-really limited to an ODD, you can access the drivers from the USB stick (in IDE mode) and copy them to a folder on the same SATA hard disk, then after having switched ports, follow the instructions but getting the files from the SATA hard disk folder INSTEAD of the SATA ODD (step B.8) jaclaz

...and thus most probably made a non-bootable CD.... Well, it must have booted before to allow you the now botched install Try again, after having READ what to do and how to do it: http://driverpacks.net/docs/beginners-guide-windows-xp nlite (as in the above) is possibly the easiest tool to create the CD image, which can also be created manually, in any case IMGBURN is advised to actually burn to CD: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2325399,00.asp NO prob . jaclaz

Well, due to the success of the thingy (and the huge bandwidth used) the good guys turned to use bittorrent which is an alternate approach, technically "peer-to-peer", depending on the browser you are using it may have a bittirrent client (Opera comes to mind) or you might need a specific bittorrent tool. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_BitTorrent_clients jaclaz