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

Yep, good , but how are the jumpers set? A disk (or more generically a SCSI device) may have an internal terminator, so called on-board terminator (that may conflict with the cable one). The "new" Quantum has a scheme of jumpers, The "old" IBM seemingly not, this should be it (or however similar): https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1396588/Ibm-Ultrastar-9es.html About size, it may depend exactly how you are going to mirror them (I mean is it a feature of the Adaptec card? or a software mirroring?) jaclaz

No. SCSI is dependent on ID's (read as jumper or rotating selector or dip-switch) and (it depends on the specific device/model of the cable(s) used) also in some cases on a terminator. The card manual should be this one: http://download.adaptec.com/pdfs/installation_guides/29160_install_guide.pdf read attentively pages 7 and 8. This should be the user's reference: http://theor.jinr.ru/guide/archive/dxcore/29160_users_reference.pdf And this the manualfor the software/driver/firmware you are using, right? http://download.adaptec.com/pdfs/user_guides/ultra160_fms_v110_ug-b.pdf The SCSISelect should allow you to change the SCSI ID of the card (leave it alone, set as 7) and to choose which SCSI ID disk to set boot from, that's it, all the rest is via jumper/dip-switches/selectors. What are the "old" disks? (EXACT make/model) How (EXACTLY) are they configured? What is the "new" disk? (EXACT make/model) How (EXACTLY) is it configured? How (EXACTLY) are you connecting the devices? (I mean are you sure they are connected to the cables properly and that last device or the cable itself is properly terminated)? jaclaz

Is it the LCD or the actual backlighting? The latter is more probable, old laptop used CCFL's it is possible that the "inverter" does not provide (anymore) enough "juice" or that the lamp has lost some of its lighting power. Replacing with spares is doable with a minumum of dexterity and a LOT of patience, *like*: http://www.laptoprepair101.com/replace-laptop-backlight-ccfl-lamp/ http://www.laptoprepair101.com/replace-screen-inverter-fix-backlight/ the issue is understanding if it is the inverter, the lamp (or both ) and finding proper spares. If you go down this rabbit hole, you could also look for led replacement kits, see this as a reference: or - but it costs more - replace the whole screen with a new (or used) one, it is much easier. Being (notoriously) cheap I would procure an inverter board (you should be able to get one for anything between 8 and 16 USD + shipping and try replacing it (it is much easier to replace than the actual lamp) and if it doesn't work, get also a suitable CCFL lamp, that will set you back another 15-20 USD. BUT from time to time you can get an used replacement screen for roughly the same amount of money a the inverter+CCFL lamp on e-bay and similar, example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Compaq-Armada-E500-Original-Display-14-1-Zoll-LCD-LT141X7-124/163916560120?hash=item262a3036f8:g:ENwAAOSwTbFfNgtv if you can find one of these, go for it, the amount of trouble to replace a CCFL lamp is huge. jaclaz

Generally speaking, capacitors should be seen as "quick-self-discharging accumulators", when the power is on they are fed some voltage and thus they hold a charge and after the power is switched off this charge fades a way, in a time (that depends mainly from the capacitor value) that may go from fractions of a second up to several seconds for larger (electrolytic) ones. The rule of the thumb is to wait some 10 seconds after having disconnected power (physically disconnect the plug, as common ATX power supply are always partially "on", even if they are switched off for a part of the circuits). The idea is that by fiddling in the inside of a just switched off PC you may (besides getting an electrical shock, which is not the case unless you touch a capacitor inside the PSU that may be storing mains level voltage) you can inadvertedly give (say) bridge a 12V to a component that should have 3.3V or 5V with the risk of "frying" it. Taking the CMOS battery out, wait some time like 5 minutes or so, and then re-connect it should do a CMOS reset, it may be unneeded but it won't make any damage. As well, (again with the PC disconnected from mains for at least a few seconds) removing and cleaning thoroughly the RAM sticks contacts may not fix anything but it won't make damage: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/clean-ram-56720.html jaclaz

What do you mean about commands were not able to be registered? regsvr32 /u is the command to unregister .dll's. Check the status of those .dll's with the nifty Nirsoft tool: https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/registered_dll_view.html According to the given thread those .dll's need to be unregistered and - after a reboot - re-registered. jaclaz

The quick test to do is: 1) unpack the original stuff 2) re-pack it using whatever program, method and settings you believe you should be using WITHOUT modifying it is running/installing the result exactly the same as the original? If yes, the methods/tools/settings are fine otherwise they aren't. Do review the thread I posted a link to, that same error seems to come out even with the original package in certain conditions and once it happened it will re-happen over and over unless you clean/delete a number of files. jaclaz

SCSI devices have an ID. Check ALL your drives for what ID they are set to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCSI https://www.pctechguide.com/how-to-install-a-scsi-device/scsi-internal-configuration http://www.obsolyte.com/faq/ jumpers may be different on different devices. The SCSI ID, as well as the controller/BIOS, may affect the order in which disks are seen in NT. jaclaz

Come on do you really think that the (approximate) sizes of the archives can affect the behaviour? (that is the only data you provided). There are possibly a zillion commands/parameters/settings in cabmaker or Winrar (which version BTW?) that may (or may not) be connected to the error. Check this: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_other/a-cabinet-file-necessary-for-installation-cannot/9b007762-f6be-4837-928d-59a98378e465 it is possible that it is simply a leftover from a previous attempt. jaclaz

Just in case: http://www.retroarchive.org/garbo/pc/connect/index.html http://www.retroarchive.org/garbo/pc/connect/pktd11.zip jaclaz

No prob , but the difference - besides the "t" - is that nlite (which is/was for XP) is freeware (and this is the right forum for it), whilst ntlite is releaed under a different license (Commercial). No idea how exactly it works, it is possible that the feature you cannot find needs to be unlocked by a license but antway it has a dedicated forum here: https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php where you may search for an existing thread on the matter or ask a new question. jaclaz