jaclaz

Why don't you check the original forum for the thingy? https://www.prxbx.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=48 https://www.prxbx.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2191 https://www.prxbx.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2172 jaclaz

Is that a "clone" or an "image" (they are not the same thing, the clone is directly on disk, the image is inside a file). Whenever a NT OS is booted with connected two hard disks with the same Disk Signature one of the two is changed silently to avoid collisions. Since it is a dual boot system, you can use the ubuntu to check for the Disk Signature. The disk signature is 4 bytes at offset 440 in the MBR. It is normally not possible to boot a NT system on a disk where the disk signature was changed without either correcting the disk signature on disk or correcting it in the Registry (or clearing the key and let the OS recreate it) in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices jaclaz

I don't know, both? The only difference between the midway and the midway "clean" seems to me (besides the set command for ocount, which I cannot believe can be relevant) the removal of the (unneeded) "cat --locate=\x22 --replace=\x00 (md)%mdmem%+1", so that it must take some time, but it is only run once, so? In a "direct comparison", the "tokenize" *needs* it and with it the cat in the subroutine is faster than dd (QED ), BUT as you correctly did, by removing it (as it is not needed in the dd version) the batch regains some speed, or maybe the difference is all in the insmod loading? Side note about the 255 chars limit, I don't see it as a real world limitation, though of course it is not "fully" universal. I like to see this kind of stuff (when talking with "real" programmers, which would obviously consider it a serious flaw[1]) like doors . The size of a door in an apartment is normally WxH 80 cm x 210 cm. It has been de facto standardized as it is "wide enough" and "tall enough" to let 99,9 % (say) of people go through "comfortably", beside having a "pleasing to the eye" ratio. If you are a basketball player or a seriously obese person they won't be good. Still, we cannot make all doors - still say - WxH 120 cm x 250 cm to take care of the exception and if we add a control of some kind to prevent large people to go through (nowadays that would be an IoT device, a 3D scanner that assesses the size of the person approaching the door, sending it to a central server where an AI would then - in case of need - return to a speaker either a "Duck!" or a "Stop right there, fatso!" [2] vocal warning) that would be inconvenient. Anyway the exercise confirmed the base assumption, to know which is faster/better/whatever you need to test. jaclaz [1] typical is "you cannot use Excel for that, you need a proper database such as SQL", and BTW by the time they setup their "proper" database and the forms and the connection, I usually already have the results, printed and faxed to destination [2] my imaginary IoT devices are not politically correct

This could be a "midway" version: !BAT setlocal set /A mdmem=0x3000 > nul set /A myskip=0x600000 > nul set myvar="something" with space and two spaces aND "" quotes" set myvarnq= set myoffets= echo -n > (md)%mdmem%+1 write (md)%mdmem%+1 %myvar%\0 cat --locate=\x22 (md)%mdmem%+1 | set myoffsets= cat --locate=\x22 --replace=\x00 (md)%mdmem%+1 cat (md)%mdmem%+1 | set myvarnq=%myvarnq% set ocount=0 if not ""=="%myoffsets%" call :noquotes2 %myoffsets% set myvar goto :eof :noquotes2 set seekbyt=%1 > nul if not exist seekbyt && cat (md)%mdmem%+1 | set myvarnq= && goto :eof set /A seekbyt=0x%seekbyt%-%ocount% > nul set /A "skipbyt=%seekbyt%+1" > nul dd if=(md)%mdmem%+1 of=(md)%mdmem%+1 bs=1 skip=%skipbyt% seek=%seekbyt% > nul shift set /a ocount=%ocount%+1 > nul goto :noquotes2 that should be good to compare the "pure" speed of cat vs. dd. jaclaz

Yes, you are right, it is the opposite of what I said , the more quotes there are, the more should be the difference, I was thinking of the "cat --locate=\x22 --number=1 (md)%mdmem%+1 | set seekbyt=", you get just the first occurrence at each loop, while the "cat --locate=\x22 (md)%mdmem%+1 | set myoffsets=" gets all the quotes in one read, then you re-write the whole part up to the quote, my guess is that the cat --locate is very fast, whilst the dd might be a "slow" command, particularly with bs=1. About insmod use, I don't know, I remember an issue with a grub4dos batch, some time ago, where insmod made a huge difference. I'll see if I can find a reference to it. EDIT: Found it, never mind, it was about insmoding WENV: http://reboot.pro/topic/17728-release-mbrviewg4b-a-bat-tool-for-grub4dos/ jaclaz

What you should compare would be the "dd" approach against the "tokenize" one with a myvar with long text and only one double quote, i.e. set myvar=something strupidly long and with a single double quote " placed around the middle of the string, this should choke the dd approach The difference in timing should increase, the more double quotes are in the string the more loops the tokenize will take while the dd approach with only one quote should loop anyaway all n chars times. I believe that the strings passed to the routine in real world will be (invented data): 1) 90% no quotes <- no difference between "dd" and "tokenize" 2) 9% 1 or two quotes <- advantage of "tokenize" over "dd" 3) 1% several quotes <- very slight advantage, if any at all, of "tokenize" over "dd" and anyway 3 seconds over 50000 loops is a very small difference, but the real test would be on a real system (not a VM) where "real" disk latency, let's say on a slowish device such as an USB stick might make dd much slower. jaclaz

Also make sure you have a suitable witty 404 page, that was a must have at the time. jaclaz

In case, you can get inspiration from the original, you need blinky GIFs AND moving text: https://www.theworldsworstwebsiteever.com/ jaclaz

Well, only for the record, it wouldn't be that much a limitation to need to enclose the variable in quotes before calling the subroutine, but you are right that we can do "better". This is more what I had in mind and needs not any exoteric function (and it is - I believe - actually readable/understandable). !BAT setlocal set /A mdmem=0x3000 > nul set /A myskip=0x600000 > nul set myvar="something" with space and two spaces aND "" quotes" set myvarnq= set myoffets= echo -n > (md)%mdmem%+1 write (md)%mdmem%+1 %myvar%\0 cat --locate=\x22 (md)%mdmem%+1 | set myoffsets= cat --locate=\x22 --replace=\x00 (md)%mdmem%+1 cat (md)%mdmem%+1 | set myvarnq=%myvarnq% if not ""=="%myoffsets%" call :tokenize %myoffsets% set myvar goto :eof :tokenize set /A start=0x%1+1 > nul cat --skip=%start% (md)%mdmem%+1 | set myvarnq=%myvarnq% if not ""=="%2" shift && goto :tokenize goto :eof About timing, it is like in batch, you need to put the routine in a loop (x100, x1000, x10000, whatever) and then the seconds are enough. I would bet on this latter code, as there is no call to subroutine if there are no quotes and only as many calls as there are quotes in the variable. Try it and see if it fits the bill. jaclaz

Yep, it needs to be timed, but it is likely that the write to (md) works faster, though (with all due respect ) you made it more complex (and slower) than needed with your dd loop (as it goes one char at the time). Likely (but again it should be timed) something more like this (as well really "ugly") should be faster (less loops, hopefully only the needed ones): !BAT set /A mdmem=0x3000 > nul set /A myskip=0x600000 > nul set myvar="something" with space and two spaces aND "" quotes" echo -n > (md)%mdmem%+1 write (md)%mdmem%+1 %myvar%\0 cat (md)%mdmem%+1 echo cat --locate=\x22 --replace=: (md)%mdmem%+1 set myvar= call :Function13 set myvarWq="%myvar%" set myvar goto :eof :Function13 call Fn.13 %myskip% ":" set /A myskip=%@retval% > nul cat --skip=%myskip% (md)0+0x3001 | set mytoken=: set /A myskip=%myskip%+%@retval% > nul set myvar=%myvar%%%mytoken:~1% call Fn.11 %myskip% ":" && goto :Function13 goto :eof jaclaz

This would also do (not that it is particularly elegant, actually it is awful to look at, but it seemingly works): !BAT set myvar="something" with space and two spaces aND "" quotes" echo %@retval% | set myvarl= set myvarnq= set myvar echo set /a counter=0 > nul call :de_quote set myvarWq="%myvarnq%" set myvar goto :eof :de_quote call set thischar=%^myvar:~%counter%,1%: set /a counter=%counter%+1 > nul #echo %thischar% if not \%thischar%==\": set myvarnq=%myvarnq%%%thischar:~0,1% if ":"=="%thischar:~0,1%" set myvarnq=%myvarnq:~0,-1% if %counter%==%myvarl% goto :eof goto :de_quote jaclaz

I don't understand. Can you post some actual examples? Normally (in "normal" batch) one would work "internally" without quotes and add them only once when needed in the actual "final" command . Double quotes are however a large PITA in *any* script. To write a string as is to a (md) you can use write, adding a string terminator, i.e. set myvar="something"" write (md)0x3000+1 %myvar%\0 cat (md)0x3000+1 but then ? jaclaz

...because Dell is Dell, they simply have their own ways to do things AND mis-documenting the *whatever* they do, not necessarily worse (nor better) than any other OEM/laptop manufacturer, only *somehow* different. jaclaz

Yes and no, Dell is Dell, it is very possible (actually probable) that your touchpad is actually an Elan one and I thought wrongly that it was a Synaptics one. jaclaz

Historical downloads, per: https://blog.windirstat.net/ have moved to: https://osdn.net/projects/windirstat/ jaclaz

If you can run it, good ol' Sequoia View is the most easy visual way to check for large files. https://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/ The FTP is down, get it from here: https://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/SequoiaView.shtml jaclaz

No I haven't, I asked you instead, as I had a doubt. Now, can you provide the VEN and DEV? And also, if you have a reference for them which drivers are working for you in 8.1. jaclaz

The VEN_DLL is seemingly used by some Synaptics? devices (on DELLs). The actual DEV_08CA I cannot find much about. That laptop seems to be using (on Windows 10) the "Driver Intel HID Event Filter" which - whatever it is - doen't seem like a hardware touchpad driver. Versions of this driver can be found for 8.1, but they are probably only a part of the story, the Windows 10 must be using a "generic" driver, the Windows 10 one should be: https://drivers.softpedia.com/dyn-search.php?search_term=dell+synaptics&p_sortby=0&p_category=7&p_picks=&p_license=&p_lastupdate=0&p_whatos=0 https://drivers.softpedia.com/get/KEYBOARD-and-MOUSE/Synaptics/Dell-Synaptics-Touchpad-Driver-1921736-for-Windows-10-64-bit.shtml which is a "complex named" .cab, (and not the usual installer) which should mean it comes from Windows Update or similar but the 08CA is not in the SynPD.inf Do you have the driver that was used on your Windows 10 install? You will need to check the SynPD.inf of the 8.1 drivers you can find here: http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/dell-touchpad-drivers/ if there is no 08CA entry in the .inf, maybe it is possible to add one, but without a "reference" working Windows 10 driver, under which "group"? Or possibly the device is not a Synaptics one? jaclaz

@yoltboy01 The ASUS Vivobook S15 has not a touchpad, it has a sort of secundary touchscreen, so-called "screenpad 2.0". Is that what you have? @Jaguarek62 Other more "normal" laptops have touchpads that are usually either ELAN or Synaptics, these - generally speaking - have been around since a lot of time and usually suitable drivers/configuration tools can be found for older systems. Two finger scroll is typically something that is set by the configuration tool in the Registry and that the driver reads Post the EXACT make/model of your laptop and - possibly - also the device VEN/PID. If the thingy is ELAN, we already have a thread where we "dissected" the settings (to achieve XP compatibility, but the settings are OS independent): https://msfn.org/board/topic/181673-solved-elan-ps2-touchpad-driver-for-xp/ jaclaz

You needed a Microsoft account to switch off S mode? https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4020089/windows-10-in-s-mode-faq https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4456067/windows-10-switch-out-of-s-mode https://www.techrepublic.com/article/windows-10-s-mode-pros-and-cons/ Maybe it is "normal"[1], you need to get *something* from the App Store (to be able to not use it anymore) , it is not entirely unlikely cancelling a subscription, you need to subcribe to be able to unsubscribe, but the switch should be available through the built-in MS account (to which the license is linked to ) see this (Acer) video; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX-LwZZVQT4&vl=en But why/how (the heck) was the device in S mode to start with? The culprits in this case are not the good MS guys (i.e. they are ALWAYS to blame for *something*, but the S mode is something that the manufacturer/OEM or company issuing the device may decide to implement). S mode is connected to the license/activation, so most probably it is cheaper for the manufacturer/OEM to use it. Besides the Store App procedure, you can also enter a "real" license key (option 2 here): https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/90846-switch-windows-10-s-mode-windows-10-pro.html jaclaz [1] "normal" in the sense of "expected", not that it makes much sense, actually it is stupid beyond description, a a lot of people had issues with it for one or the other reason: https://sea.pcmag.com/microsoft-surface-go/33557/some-users-are-stuck-in-windows-10-s-mode https://community.windows.com/en-us/conversations/can-t-switch-out-of-s-mode-help/31421b2e-b8cd-4a1b-b3a9-6dfd678c9bd3

You can use *any* tool capable of making a dd-like copy,such a dd or dd for windows or similar probably the simpler tool would be Clonedisk: https://labalec.fr/erwan/?page_id=42 or DMDE. You will need anyway to run the tool of choice from another OS (CD/DVD or USB booted) because you want to make a copy of the disk that contains your operating system volume and so it is constantly "in use" for both reading and writing. There are speciifc Linux based distro's, or you can build your own PE. a suitable project is the WinFE: http://www.mistyprojects.co.uk/mistype/mistype.docs/readme.html which is actually designed for forensic use jaclaz

As ED_SIn hinted, it is possible that the BIOS has a few settings (advanced) that are "hidden", i.e. are not visible in the BIOS pages. If one of these is - for whatever reason - changed/corrupted this would justify the behaviour and a reset to default values would solve the issue by magic. jaclaz

Only for the record, not really (it is advised, for obvious reasons, to use identical disks, also exact same make/model, but it is not obligatory) , usually you can hardware-raid different sized disk drives BUT the actual accessible size will be that of the smallest disk drive. https://ask.adaptec.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2409/~/can-different-hard-disks-be-used-to-build-a-raid%3F jaclaz

Perfect . A mechanical and electrical engineer might tell you that you are either extremely lucky (and the two surfaces match perfectly) or you are compensating the lost efficiency of the thermal exchange with (unneeded) increased ventilation (i.e. fan spins more and faster than it could be enough). I will only invoke Dhukat : https://jdebp.eu/FGA/dukhat-on-foolishness.html jaclaz

IF the IBM doc I found is the right one or similar, it has jumpers allright, only they are in the "inside". BUT IF ( it normally is) it is already set to be ID 0, it is fine and you can leave it as is. About the Quantum: https://www.seagate.com/files/staticfiles/maxtor/en_us/documentation/quantum_jumper_settings/atlas_ii_scsi_jumpers.pdf The "spare" jumper on the left should be left as it is in the scheme. The other spare jumper should be set vertically on the fourth column of pins from left, that should make it ID 1. OR vertically on the third column of pins from left, that should make it ID 2. Try connecting one drive at the time first the Adaptec BIOS extension SCSIelerct (Ctrl+A) should be enough to see the ID of the connected drive. About the mirror, the software one should mirror volumes, so, as long as the size of the volume "fits" it should be fine. We need to check the volume(s) size(s) and offset(s), to the byte, with *any* MBR/partition table viewer. jaclaz