jaclaz

Yep. Try this instead: @ECHO OFF SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS PUSHD C:\Users\myusername\mydirectory FOR /F "tokens=* delims=" %%A IN ('DIR /B /A:-D') DO ECHO "%%~nxA" %%~tA POPD The "created" date is not "available" normally (the one expanded by ~t is the "last modified" one). BUT, try this: @ECHO OFF SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION FOR /F "tokens=1,* delims= " %%A IN ('DIR /T:C /A:-D C:\Users\myusername\mydirectory ^|FIND "/"') DO ( SET Cdate=%%A SET Fname=%%B SET Fname=!Fname:~24! ECHO !FnamE!@!CDate! ) (the above assumes that your date settings use "/" as separator) jaclaz

Confirmed working on XP too. : What I intended was something slightly different than having the actually used command line (but thanks anyway for that ), I was hinting how, using the same "codebase" we could have a more "generalistic" approach, i.e. something that could accept user parameters for *other* files and *other* .iso's. As a side note (and not actually specifically needed for this) one of my semi-random thoughts : Could we get the "initial" part of *any* .iso and analyze it with isoinfo or a similar tool (to get a specific file address/offset/etc.)? In other words this nice app is "very vertical" (UNlike the httpdisk approach that can potentially get *anything* from *any* .iso), you analyzed a set of specific "full" downloads and created this thingy that is able to replicate the very specific "relevant" part. Maybe something more "wide scoped" could be of use.... As an only seemingly UNrelated example, see how a little, very specific tool/approach was later made into a more "general" approach: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16745 jaclaz

Not really, as it distributes Curl without the required COPYING text: but this is easily correctable . I am much more puzzled by the fact that his nice : idea has been implemented as a 650 kb .exe that seemingly does the same as chosing between a set of three one liners similar to this: curl.exe <some options> <some http address> and a few "bells and whistles" around them. Maybe, it would be nice if the <some options> were explicited and the same approach could be re-used easily for other tools/files, etc. In a first test after having a nice looking green progress bar across the screen showing the download progress, I got "Checksum mismatch" and no files were downloaded (actually they were most probably downloaded but immediately deleted). Is there any particular trick involved in using the thingy or it only works if you run Vista or later, or what? jaclaz

What happens with: FOR /F %%A IN ('DIR /B /A:-D C:\Users\myusername\mydirectory') DO ECHO %%~nxA %%~tA >>ListofFiles.txt jaclaz

Hey, it wasn't me suggesting hdparm as a benchmark tool, was I? Most Linux distro's will have hdparm included, BUT (isn't there always a "but") probably it won't get you much nearer to your goal. You can try parted magic (which is a fairly "light" LiveCD): http://partedmagic.com/doku.php JFYI: http://www.linuxinsight.com/how_fast_is_your_disk.html http://www.coker.com.au/bonnie++/ and (for NO apparent reason - if not to scare you some more after the "equipment price shock" ): http://etbe.coker.com.au/2009/04/22/vibration-strange-sata-performance/ jaclaz

Some "random" considerations. Once upon a time the good MS guys made available DOS (and Windows 3.x). Then time passed and at a certain point they did understand that DOS (and Windows 3.x) was not suitable anymore for some corporate uses, and made NT (3.1/3.5 and finally 4.0). Then came WIn95. The idea at the time was clear: have the NT family for the "business". have the DOS/WIn9x family for "home users". Windows 2000 was a bettered NT 4.0, actually better, reserved to "business use", Windows ME a bettered WIn98, only worse, reserved to "home users". The "deviation" came with XP (a bettered Win2K, only worse ). For the first time EXACTLY (please let's not discuss the senseless and very minor differences between XP Professional and Home edition, whih are much more "commercial" than "technical", like the various editions of NT 4 an 2K were before, tweakNT being the living proof of this) the same OS was "pushed" to both kinds of "end users" (and BTW Server 2003 is a bettered 2000, actually better): business users were "forced" to have a somehow "less-secure-than-2K" OS home users were "forced" to have completely meaningless for them "features" such as authorized login, NTFS with ACL, Quotas and what not The decision, like it or not, makes a lot of sense from a business standpoint, instead of needing to support and develop two largely different "codebases", you had to support only one (though they failed to have this fully implemented, and there were some issues of "portability" from the "base XP" to the "Server 2003" OS). No need to talk about Vista . Windows 7 is/was another step in the same direction, though I am far less familiar with this OS and it's Server 2008 R2 counterpart then I am with earlier versions, from what I can see the differences between the two are reduced when compared to previous corresponding versions. (talking about the numberless and senseless versions of Windows 7 - all evidently motivated by commercial reasons would be a digresssion). So, in the "old days" there were two completely different kinds of users which were little by little forced to use the "same" OS. Until, say, XP, the hardware available to each group was substantially the same as well as the software (meaning not so much the actual programs, but rather the "scope" of the programs) and the usage paradigm was also very similar. At the office, you used a word processor, a spreadsheet, and one or more very vertical app (possibly written in FORTRAN or COBOL), later some e-mail program and a browser were added. A reduced subset of the "corporate users" might have used a graphical program, let's say conventionally either of Photoshop or AutoCAD. At home, you used a word processor to write (completely useless) letters complaining to the municipality for this or that, a spreadsheet to keep your bank account balance, a graphical app to remove red eyes from the poorly shot photos you took, later an e-mail program and a browser were added (and the municipality saved a lot of money by directly deleting your protests from the server without producing the huge amount of waste paper as before, and you lost a lot of sleep hours by browsing the internet in the night). Then came the "broadband" internet and the multimedia, so you spent most time at the office trying to download through your employer's faster connection all kind of software you won't ever need and sending to all you ever increasing e-mail contacts funny (mostly actually NOT funny) videos you got from the internet. At home you spent all your time looking for more NOT funny videos, to get some (usually LOTS) of free p0rn, and the like. Then you started converting all your VHS and Vynil to digital (and this kept you busy for some time), and downloading all the MP3's and moviesyou could get your hands on. For the record most of the above were lost forever in a hard disk crash, those that survived you cannot anyway find anymore as they are backed up "somewhere" and you cannot find anymore those CD0s, DVD's, disks, whatever where you surely have them (a situation NOT much different from all the other stuff you have in your basement or attic or your lost during your last move). Now, you have different devices: A desktop at the office. A laptop at home. A smartphone that -between ringing for incoming calls - keeps beeping and senselessly forwarding you all e-mails. A tablet. The idea (completely senseless of course) is that you should be able to do the "same" things on all these different devices, and eventually have only one: a tablet. Yes, I have seen the "tablet" version of AutoCAD on the iPad, I won't comment on the usability, set apart "pure browsing" of .dwg's..... To do the same things on all these devices, the way the good MS guys chose was to "dumb down" the "better working" ones so that your "experience" will be the same on each of those. For a very large part of the user base (those that passively use whatever they can get from the internet - made/produced by the minority of the "active users") this is an advantage. For the very smaller part of the user base (those that actually "work" and create things) it is a big nuisance. But again, from a purely business standpoint, it makes sense. If you have a product that is (in theory) suited to (say) 95% of the target and is a big PITA for the remaining (say) 5%, would you discard it in favour of continuing your old product that suited the minority but was increasingly - no matter if rightfully or wrongly - frowned upon by the majority that wowed at the iPhone first and then is now wowing at the iPad? Same kind of people that would say "Isn't it cute?" So, the point is, what will the "active" 5% (if you prefer the very few that actually "work") do ? : keep hang to the "old" OS and continue producing *something* change OS to another one and continue producing *something* stop being active (what the heck, I'm done with this) ... jaclaz

It's all a matter of preferences, Syslinux or grub4dos. The latter has different GUI modes, see (as an example): And check also @ded-lego@ thingies: http://reboot.pro/15689/ current projects to "install windows from USB" use grub4dos, so choosing it might prove to be easier for you. *any* you like. jaclaz

Good . Just for the record, when using a heat gun, it is quite easy to make a "protection mask" out of a piece of cardboard covered with some aluminium foil, with a hole in it slightly bigger than the chip+pins. jaclaz

Possibly , there are several ones, the issue is that "real" compilers usually do not understand "properly", batch that use complex syntax or some (working) "strange syntaxes" here is one that claims to keep the actual batch encrypted: http://www.battoexeconverter.com/ The PRO version (that allows redistributability of the "compiled" .exe) is NOT free (so most probably I never actually tested it) I have *somewhere* a folder where I stacked a few that I actually tried, but cannot remember one that worked "as it should" (at least with my batches). I'll let you know if I can find that folder and (hopefully) some notes about th tests.... jaclaz

Hey, wait a minute , you did not mention "compiling" the bat to exe, you used "encrypt or hide". Have you actually analyzed the tool you mentioned? Are you really-really sure that the way it works is suitable to your "encrypt" or "hiding" needs? Hint: look carefully in the Temp directory of the user running the compiled batch.... Just for the record program homepage is here: http://www.f2ko.de/programs.php?lang=en&pid=b2e jaclaz

If the drive/laptop is off, you should have NO fear whatsoever (most if not all 2.5" disks use a "parking ramp" or however a "safe parking zone" when off). With the laptop on, there may be moderate reasons to worry, nothing will happen on a "normal" railway, maybe if the line is particularly "bumpy", though many laptops, besides using disks that can stand that kind of stress, have particular "mounting hardware" that insulates the disk from vibrations, and a few models additionally have sensors that simply "cut off power" if a definite G variation (such as a fall) happen. Maybe if you post exact make/model of your laptop (and possibly also make/model of the disk inside it) we may give you some more - if not certainties - accurate estimations of the possible risk. A good idea (indipendently from the planned trip) is to make a full backup (or image of the disk, even better), a hard disk 6 years old may well fail independently from the vibrations and bumps (mind you it is perfectly possible that that hard disk will survive for another 10 years, but the only thing that I have learned - in some cases the "hard way" - is that *any* hard disk can fail at *any* time for *any* reason). The three golden rules: backup backup again while considering the consequences of first two rules, BACKUP AGAIN! jaclaz

Cannot say about it, in the sense that Windows 7 and "direct disk" access are "long time enemies" , but yes, there is a Hdparm port to win32 (cannot say about 64) see: http://reboot.pro/13601/ http://reboot.pro/13601/page__st__125#entry119855 http://hdparm-win32.dyndns.org/hdparm/ that does work under Windows 7 too, but really cannot say if *all* functions will be accessible/working/whatever. jaclaz

Just for the record there are reports "here and there" that besides the difference between "good" brands and "bad" brands, there are other two kinds of issues: a "same brand" CD/DVD may have been manufactured in a "good" factory and as well in a "bad" factory (there is a way to identify media, see later in this post) more then the above it seems like a given brand/model of burner will work "better" with a "given brand/make" of media and "worse" with "another brand/make" of media In other words I have seen more than one report that: burner model A+media type B=good result burner model A+media type C=bad result BUT: burner model D+media type C=good result burner model D+media type B=bad result There is some info "hard encoded" in the media, called "ATIP", (Absolute Time in Pregroove) or ADIP (Address in Pregroove), and quite a few programs capable of reading it, such as: http://dvd.identifier.cdfreaks.com/ If you analyze this info on a few different media, it will be evident how a same "good" or "bad") factory/manufacturer may make a disc that is sold as either "good" brand A or "bad" brand B, i.e. you can easily find two differently branded disc's (often payed a very different price) having been actually manufactured in the same factory. It is not at all clear if (as it happens in other industries) there are (within the same factory) "better" batches (which are then marked with "good brand" name) and "bad" batches (which are then marled "no-name" or "cheap brand") jaclaz

Maybe, just maybe, this fits (if you have a suitable nvidia chipset): http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/127138-what-actual-sata-tranfer-rate-real-world.html And now, some BAD news, actual instruments needed to actually measure Disk/SATA speed (among many other things) (example): http://www.lecroy.com/oscilloscope/oscilloscopeseries.aspx?mseries=343 http://www.lecroy.com/oscilloscope/oscilloscopeseries.aspx?mseries=331 Please take a seat before reading the price tag jaclaz.

So, if it is the BT series (and not the FP) one, this should be latest version of drivers: http://www.lsi.com/downloads/Public/Obsolete/Obsolete%20Common%20Files/aspi420g.exe.zip or this one: http://www.lsi.com/downloads/Public/Obsolete/Obsolete%20Common%20Files/aspi410k.exe.zip Can you try the above ones and report? jaclaz

You cannot imagine HOW MUCH it is for me. An example of what your posts/reports are NOT like: http://homepage.ntlworld.com./jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/problem-report-standard-litany.html jaclaz

@ppgrainbow We won't go very far this way. FORGET (tempotrarily) about Windows 3.x, and let's see what happens with "pure" DOS. HOW exactly are you loading the drivers? The readme.txt suggests these two lines in config.sys: are you using them? Or *something else*? WHAT the heck do you mean "I don't know where I got the BTDOSM.SYS from?" did it matrialize by sheer magic on your hard disk and config.sys? HOW MANY similar drivers "materialized from thin air" into your config.sys? (in other words, use the plainest possible config.sys when experimenting, disable each and every *other* driver/device in it ) jaclaz

Cannot say specifically, but first thing, simplify your environment (have ONLY one SCSI disk connected). Then, I cannot see why you don't follow (at least initially) "to the T" the contents of the README.TXT within the given fpdos302 archive. Particularly WHY you did not set to load FLASHPT.SYS (which AFAICU is the "main" driver). WHERE does the btdosm.sys come from (it is NOT in the referenced archive)? Are you using "something else" form what was suggested? jaclaz

The "size" of 1.5x to 3x the available RAM is within the "normal" settings. Personally I would never run a "dynamic" pagefile on any of my machines, i.e. I would use a "resonable" sized fixed size, like, on a 512Mb machine, a fixed 1024÷1024 one or a 1536÷1536 one. This said, the issue you are experimenting is quite common with "modern" browsers, and I don't think you can do much about it (if not fixing the size of the pagefile, which does help). You could monitor memory usage of the browser, you will see that the slowness when the pagefile is hit will be a little less with a "static" pagefile. See: http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_can_i_fix_too_little_virtual_memory_in_windows.html jaclaz

Not that I know of, those ARE the LSILogic DOS drivers. jaclaz

Naaah, not at all , just showing you another "classical" destructive tool. Yep : jaclaz

JFYI : http://www.marriedtothesea.com/041808/this-is-what-i-get.gif jaclaz

Hmmm, I doubt you have actually READ carefully the article , item #7 in the references is particularly interesting . And, JFYI: http://www.marriedtothesea.com/062810/compact-disc-research.gif jaclaz

Are you using the SCSI drivers? http://communities.vmware.com/message/83153 Should be these ones: ftp://pds.tcrc.edu.tw/Hardware/mylex/archive/fpdos302.exe Earlier versions: ftp://pds.tcrc.edu.tw/Hardware/mylex/archive/fpdos301.exe ftp://pds.tcrc.edu.tw/Hardware/mylex/archive/fpdos201.exe Other drivers (if needed): http://www.scampers.org/steve/vmware/ jaclaz

CD/DVD's in the microwave is NO laughing matter. http://raptor.physics.wisc.edu/wacky/cd/ but hardly a desired target for scientific studies I have always thought that most Youtube videos are produced by people with too much free time, but seemingly also respectable scientists have plenty of it. jaclaz