jaclaz

Good to see you around and know everything is fine. But don't be too proud about hard disk manufacturer change, though the 7200.11 (and to some extents the 7200.12) have been total crap, we do have the deskstar/deathstar preceding issue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitachi_Deskstar so I won't bet against the possibility that sooner or later another disk manufacturer will fall in a similar issue. jaclaz

You are not the only one: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dumb%20phone http://news.yahoo.com/stubborn-pride-dumbphone-owners-171852131.html http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/PR_pro_I_own_a_dumb_phoneand_Im_proud_of_it_11560.aspx and a nice picture from the latter: jaclaz

I'll put the seed for a nice flamewar (the usual NT vs. 98, NTFS vs. FAT32, King Kong vs. Godzilla one) starting from a statement by Multibooter : You are talking like you were an editor making a review of a couple "new" OS's. You are - just like most of MSFN members, an OS tweaker! It is 10 years + we do have XP, and we do have "fixes" for most if not all it's drawbacks (as much as we have them for Win98). You don't want the stupid search look into .zip's? Get rif of zipfldr.dll . You want to compare Search speed between 98 (on FAT16/FAT32) to that of XP (on NTFS)? Get rid of the stupid XP search and get a good app (some examples): http://reboot.pro/index.php?showtopic=6848 , Come on , there are tens of things that suck big , both in 9x/Me and in NT/2K/XP (not necessarily the same ones ), but for almost *any* of them there is a way out/workaround/better solution! jaclaz

In the meantime I have a "logical possibility". The 2K/XP boot CD's do when booting attempt to load (or however read) the contents of the MBR, this is the way the BOOTFIX.BIN works, it checks if the disk is partitioned and if not does not prompt anything, if yes starts the five seconds timeout before booting from hard disk. This is something that most other boot CD won't do and could be the reason why booting from a XP install CD makes a difference (but of course says nothing about the actual cause, nor WHY this MBR access may make a difference) . jaclaz

Hmmm. What about "Fone+"? : http://phys.org/news98525702.html http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/07/05/16/2236230/microsoft-says-your-phone-is-your-next-pc What about this? Seriously now, news from 2002 : http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1001925,00.html jaclaz

I am not familiar with 7, but I think it works like Vista or you can try this approach (HUGE .wim): http://www.windowsvalley.com/create-windows-7-aio-all-in-one-dvd-or-merge-all-editions-of-windows-7-in-single-dvd/ Or this one : http://it.megocollector.com/?p=1510 Check also this (i presume you might need Google Translate): http://www.megalab.it/6697/windows-7-aio-il-supporto-d-installazione-unico-32-64-bit-si-crea-cosi jaclaz

At the very beginning of the first post there is printed in BIG LETTERS: Now, had you actually READ it, you might have seen how (point #3) the RECOMMENDED method to be followed is: http://www.mapleleafmountain.com/seagatebrick.html WHY would we be RECOMMENDING that guide and not first post of this thread? BECAUSE it is CLEARer, it is step-by-step, has detailed images (including those of connections), and more generally, unlike the first post of this thread it includes a number of "tricks" and suggestions that were found out after the first thread was initiated. In any case even in first post, the reference to the "yellow" cable is in the context of "how to power the USB/TTL or Serial/TTL converter" and has NOTHING to do with powering the HD. Try re-reading the whole part in this highlighted version: The idea was to prevent people from frying the adapter by supplying it 12V instead of the 3 or 5 V required by it (depending on adapter model) jaclaz

It is very possible that nlite does not support MUI releases as these are normally "corporate only" and nlite is NOT for commercial use. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb688178 If it's a OEM MUI, the OEM may have introduced even more changes/whatever that may cause nlite to choke, the "subinacl" fix - if I get it right - is the one needed on some DELL OEM versions : http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=15138&st=29 jaclaz

Naah : IC=Home IP=Pro The guide IS about having BOTH Home and Pro in a multboot DVD, though http://flyakite.msfn.org/xphomesp1.htm http://flyakite.msfn.org/xpprosp1.htm Explore the D:\ here: http://flyakite.msfn.org/mydvdlayout.htm jaclaz

Yes. BUT .....(isn't there always a but? ) The idea (that you are strongly advised to follow, though most probably seemingly more complex) is: FORGET (temporarily) whatever you have read, here an elsewhere, on the XP install topic FOLLOW (to the T) the given guide (adapting it to the various XP's you may have) and "to the T" means DO NOT introduce ANY change of ANY type to the given procedure hopefully you should be able to have a separate DVD capable of booting ONLY the XP's THEN, (only once you have succeeded in replicating the guide) introduce your own variation (making use of the 7 BOOTMGR) It is seemingly longer, but since quite a few steps are involved in replicating what is explained on the cited guide, IF - by any chance - you commit a mistake in any of the step (and/or anything needs to be tweaked for XP SP3) AND add to it your variation in one go, noone will be able to help you as the possible issue cannot be "traced" back to either the guide, your replicating it or your introdiced variation. jaclaz

That is the advised approach. The original theory of MS is that you have one (and only one) primary partition and one (and in this case only one is possible anyway) extended partition containing all the other volumes. And yes, you can have four primary partitions but unless *needed* for *any* other reason, this way you will *never* be able to change the partitioning scheme without deleting at least one partition (as you will have all 4 entries in the MBR "occupied"). Please take note that - as soon as you can - you *must* have an install CD slipstreamed to the SAME SP that is installed, otherwise in case of trouble the "repair" won't work. jaclaz

Try asking yourself this question: Is "copy" an internal or an external command? Then you will probably also understand why it desn't start. A general good "rule of the thumb" is to ALWAYS provide a "title" to the start, see: http://ss64.com/nt/start.html About your other question read first: http://www.robvanderwoude.com/ntfor.php http://www.robvanderwoude.com/ntfortokens.php jaclaz

Well, then you have NO 48 bit LBA access (and you are prone to all kinds of related problems): http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305098 The best choiice IMHO is to create an integrated SP4 2K cd and re-do form start the install. jaclaz

Plenty of them. The XP Setup is HARDCODED to <root>\I386. BUT, the solution to this issue has been found since several years, you evidently missed the good ol' guide: http://flyakite.msfn.org/ jaclaz

As Bloubul said try connecting it directly, additionally, and in any case, DISABLE autoplay for the USB. Basically, the "recovery" procedure in most cases renders the disk as it was before (usually when the "reason" why it was bricked was actually the original "firmaware log at position 320") but in many case, for a numebr of reasons, once "unbricked", partitions and/or filesystem on it may not be anymore recognizable. In this case (and IF this is the case, it means that you MUST have a non 0 result in BIOS when the dik is connected directly to the motherboard, i.e. the disk is not still - or has reverted to - LBA0 state) the next steps are: imaging the RAW disk recover the partition(s), filesystem(s) and if this cannot be done, attempt recovering the files (the above is fully "software" and not anymore "hardware") jaclaz

Sorry, my bad , posted the "wrong" link, Bloubul posted the right one , that's exactly what I meant. (getting old, and forgetful.... ) jaclaz

First thing that comes to mind is that the command is Ctrl+Z, not Ctrl+z. Is it not - by any chance - and ES2 drive? You may want to try with all THREE different approaches: Head contacts insulated Motor contact insulated PCB completely detached You may also want to try with a a N1, see: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=152456431478526 jaclaz

AND, the one you may learn (the hard way) the first time you open a power supply or an old monitor is: WAIT 15 minutes after having pulled the plug, as the biggish capacitors may hold a not-so-trifling charge for a few minutes . jaclaz

Yes, it is possible. A lot of circuits in a MB are protected by "electronic fuses" (they normally take 5 or 10 minutes to reset when completely UNpowered). jaclaz

I could, were I not a grumpy heartless bastard , compare with: JFYI, this thread has two hundred pages because tens of people, just like you, did not READ the READ-ME-FIRST, and asked AGAIN, and AGAIN and AGAIN, always the SAME questions, which are ALREADY (I hope clearly ) explained in the READ-ME-FIRST and/or in the FGA's and/or in n previous posts. You might understand how the Read-me-first, the FGA's and, more generally all the help, support, advice and answers given on this thread (BTW extensively contributed by yours truly) was provided in order to easen life of BOTH the "newbies" AND of the "experts", by giving useful info to the former and to let the latter need NOT to repeat, over, and over and over again the SAME things. It is frustrating how this effort not only is not appreciated, but from time to time a "newbie", just like you, comes here: hinting - not so subtly - that I am not as friendly as I should asking questions already asked again and again (and duly replied to over and over again) demanding personal assistance for issues already talked over and over n times jaclaz

If I may, simpler : But what was the actual question? jaclaz

Please , do review the READ ME FIRST: particularly point #6: you want a TTL adapter working at 3.3V TTL level (AND NOT one working at 5 V TTL level). Ask the seller if the device is selling is suitable to operate at 3.3 V TTL level <- you are going to give money to someone in exchange for a device, it's their responsability to guarantee that the device is suitable, if you don't get a clear, baked up by a return guarantee, answer, find someone else willing to sell the device AND guarantee it's specs.. There are tens of posts in this thread with reports of success and links to working adapters, as well as tens of people asking the SAME questions you just posted, come on . jaclaz

JFYI, the "standard" tool to recover from damaged USB sticks is something like this (example): http://www.flash-extractor.com The idea is to access the memory chip directly with "independent" hardware. Maybe you could drop a couple of enquiry lines to those guys (or the makers or similar hardware) and ask for some names of their customers. (or ask on their forum): http://flash-extractor.com/forum/index.php?c=2 jaclaz

But this is true also in the othe other half of the world. Really coincidentally yesterday I had to re-install an XP on a AMD motherboard with a ATi Radeon 9600 Pro video card. (second hand, low cost machine, to be used for office use only) Besided the fact that finding the drivers (now they are in the "legacy" part of the AMD site was a far-less-than-easy chore, I learned that to have the lousy ccc catalyst control panel you need .Net 2.0 . No big problem, but once the thingy and the driver was installed (and working allright) at a certain point the video switched off itself. No way to re-access it, needed to cut power off and re-boot. So I said to myself, I must have set the "normal" power saving profile and for *any*reason it switched video off after 20 minutes, and right I was, so I set it to "Always on", and after some other 20 minutes, the video switched off itself again. So uninstalled the stupid drivers, and tested the machine with the standard Vga one: no problems at all. Tried installing a slightly previous version of the drivers, same video switch off. BTW uninstalling a Radeon video card driver and reinstalling another one is not for the very faint of heart, as it involves some small trickery (I had to do quite a few searches to find the keys in Registry that remained "set" after uninstall). Continued searching the internet and found quite a number of reports of people with this exact issue, with "expert" replies such as "You have been playing a game that needs a lot of video processing power and the CPU is overheating" (the OP having reported he was playing a golf game), "Check the fan, it is not spinning" (the card has a passive cooler) and similar pearls of wisdom (sigh ). Finally I found (on an italian IBM dedicated board) that the issue could be a stupid service "ATi Hot Key Poller" that has issues on some motherboards (coincidentally AMD based). Disabled the service and everything works. Not being at all an expert on video cards, I instinctly always got (when not using the motherboard integrated one), Nvidia ones, evidently my instinct has helped keeping me out of troubles for several years . Anyway once upon a time you had a diskette (or directory on cd, or local directory created from a download) with a simple .inf file, you pointed the NT system to read the .inf file and the driver was installed, at the most a reboot was needed. Now the "legacy" set of drivers ran on me a program to register at ATi site, besides a temporary free acceess to play "lord of the rings" and even without the stupid ccc panel, forced on me a stupid service that switched off video after 20 minutes or so. There is no way you can convince me that this is "the right way" to do things, as opposed to the nonsensical complexity of Linux drivers, as I see it BOTH "models" suck big. jaclaz

It was intended just as a provocation. Of course there is nothing really "evil" , it is simply foolish the way some (read most if not all) programs are distributed (in the Linux world as well as in the MS one). You hit the nail right on the head. :thumbsup: If you check the thread I linked to you will see how I documented an adventure of mine looking for a specific tiny app (and it's source code and a way to re-compile it easily). In French a computer is called "ordinateur" something that could be translated into "organizer", and as a matter of fact a very big part of the computing activities are about using one form or another of database (be it a filesystem, a search engine, an Excel spreadsheet or your collection of MP3's). So it would be expected that the two major players in the field (the "private" MS guys and the "public" Linux guys) would compete in having their things "organized" and easily accessible this is not the case for either, of course for very different reasons, but if someone for another planet would peek on the Earth Internet and check the way things are organized he/she would postpone "first contact" to at least year 2500 as our information technology (actually the way it is filled with redundant data all messed up) shows how retarded we are. As I see it the great advantage (theoretical) of Linux over MS thingies is freedom to have a system exactly the way you want it, so the key would be (IMHO) to be "highly" modular (think of a form of LEGO with very tiny bricks) easily assemblable together, what we have in reality is a number of huge pieces of bloat (the so called "main" distros) very difficult to "componentize", often using an outdated (or custom updated) version of a given app, that you cannnot easily replace with another one. Then you have the "direct derivatives" basically you take a "main" distribution, you remove something, you add something else, you change it's name and voilà, here is a brand new (senseless) distro, which has more or less the same functionalities of the "main" one but soon will become (or already is) partially or totally incompatible with the "original". Now, it is good to have choices, but so many of them? IMHO they only "make noise", and everytime I think of the hours of work the good guys put into doing something substantially unuseful and the amount of "duplicate bytes" that are senselessly moved over the internet Look at the (partial) list of derivatives from Ubuntu: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DerivativeTeam/Derivatives How many can you count on that page? Are we really sure that each one of them makes sense/has any advantage over the "main" one/will be there tomorrow? Then you have a number of "minor" distributions, mainly of two kinds: the highly specialized ones (i.e. targeted at a given scope and with no provisions for *anything* else but the intended scope) the "fluff" ones (that some kid ripped from a "main" distro, only changing some details of the interface/looks, ususally very poorly mantained, outdated, sometimes "vanishing" abruptly from the internet, normally not updatable from the corresponding "main" distro as some senseless forks were introduced) Whilst the first ones may have some merits, I really cannot see why they cannot be organized as "add" or "subtract" packs from a same "main" distro. The result is that anyone approaching Linux will download a few tens of distro's, will get confused among them and will in the end choose to have more than 5 or 6 distro's, with - say - 90% of files duplicated (because each distro has a single or a few thingies he likes or has learned to use well) and will never learn to put together a single customized system that suits his/her needs or - on the opposite side - he/she will choose a single distro (and often become a fanboy/fangirl for it) and never change it (thus losing the advancements a "competing" distro might in the meantime offer). As I see both the above are exactly the opposite of "freedom". A few peeps with more time and dedication then the average will learn the innards of the OS, with lots of blood and sweat, and will finally manage to know the OS and be able to run a "decent" system, and then - possibly - this wil result in yet another distro . jaclaz ...and, for no apparent reason , check the way to fix computers: http://theoatmeal.com/blog/fix_computer (thanks to breaker http://reboot.pro/16794/ )