jaclaz

Hmmm. Contradictory statement, if the experience with DBAN indicates that it is sub-standard when compared to better tools. In any case: http://reboot.pro/13601/ http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/erase-your-hard-disk And NO, you cannot start another OS from a booted PE, while you can start DBAN (or a better/faster tool) from grub4dos or Syslinux (grub4dos in your case may be easier since you can add an option for grldr.mbr to your \boot\BCD, leaving the PE booting sequence substantially unaltered, i.e. introducing an option to the bootmanager you are already using). If you really-really want to (and of course it depends on the actual media you have your PE on) you may have an entry in your .cmd setting "next boot" to DBAN (or better/faster tool) and force a shutdown/reboot, but it seems to me unneededly complex, though possible. Some hints are given here: http://reboot.pro/16283/ jaclaz EDIT: This statement: needs a clarification, there is a way, though it is experimental, troublesome and I personally doubt it will work from a PE 3.x, but you never know: http://reboot.pro/7391/

Well NO , that is not what I said. I have NO idea of HOW the circuit is made, so I have NO idea whether you can simply replace the IC. The IC of course sets the TTL level, I pointed you to a (possibly working) workaround, MUCH SIMPLER (IMHO) than: tracing your adapter PCB find and analyze a compatible schematics, comparing it to the schematics you traced compare the datasheets of the MAX3232 and MAX232 verify which EXACT version of the x232 you have in your hands and which EXACT version of the replacement you can get your hands on (there are different versions which require different capacitors) risk burning the new chip or the adapter if a mistake happens in any of the above Putting a pull down resistor will not do any "damage" to anything, in the worst case it won't simply work. Sure, life is tough , BTW I am pretty sure many people share the feeling of not having hard drives failing on them and/or attempt DIY repairs on them . jaclaz

IMHO "repositories" are the "evil" part of the Linux world. An only seemingly unrelated report (for the fun of it): http://reboot.pro/15207/ jaclaz

I guess it would be easier to "dumb down" the Tx line, see here: If you check the links in READ-ME-FIRST, point #6, you will see: http://www.interfacebus.com/voltage_threshold.html how signals emitted from a 3.3V devices (the hard disk) are theoretically compatible with those emitted by a 5V device, so the Rx line of the adapter should have no problems. The issue is on the Tx line of the adapter that will probably "shout" at 5 V to the receiver of the 3.3 V device (the hard disk) that won't be able to "understand", by limiting the peaks of the Tx you may get it working. Are you sure you are an engineer? WHAT the heck makes you think that each and every phone USB cable uses the same standard? Anything that trasmits at 3.3V TTL will do, anything that does so at 5V TTL level WILL NOT. Does the CA-101 trasmits at 3.3V TTL? If yes, it mucht do, if not, it may not. As a rule of thumb experimenting on experimental procedures is not the smartest choice in the world, actually even the CA-42 (which is known to be a valid adapter) is NOT among the "suggested" choices because of the "fakes" and the general difficulty by a lot of people to find the right pins/cables. I have NO idea if the CA-101 is a TTL adapter or not, all references I have ever seen are about the DKU-5 or CA-42 cable, so I find it improbable that the CA-101 is a pure TTL converter like the other two mentioned ones. @BOTH, please DO READ the READ-ME-FIRST: PARTICULARLY, but not only, point #6. jaclaz

That's not in the least accurate. BTW that also takes into account the drive cache, you can have something similar using one of theose "turboUSB" enabled sticks. What is seemingly "way too much" is the slowness of the stick (which I find "exceptional") 700/240=~3 Mb/s. The speed of the disk 700/45=~16 Mb/s is anyway at the very low end of "common" speeds. Why don't you benchmark with Atto ir Crystal Mark (cannot say if either can run on W98, but probably Atto, which is around since the dawn of time, can) jaclaz

In some cases we have seen issues with the partitioning or filesystem. There are two "levels" of recovery needed sometimes: the disk is accessible (hardware) the disk contents are readable (software) the hardware procedure only fulfills (hopefully) "level 1", you will need a partition recovery (or file recovery) approach to get your data back if something in the procedure made one or more "key" sectors unreadable or modified it's contents. Here is an example of such a recovery: jaclaz

The difference you report sounds a bit too much , but of course if you use a hard disk the bottle neck is the USB bus, while if you use a USB stick, the actual stick itself is likely to be the bottleneck. "Normally" you would probably have on a "fast" USB stick anything between 12 and 24, and on a hard disk anything between 25 and 40 MB/s. Compare: http://reboot.pro/9347/ jaclaz

Yep , but it is "abby something" : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072431/quotes?qt=qt0504329 that you have two such issues in such a short time. If I were you I would check (and double check and triple check) the internal hard disk and ALL software you installed for any kind of Virus/malware. jaclaz

The good (but also sad) thing is that - completely missing any kind of fantasy - I did not invent anything, I simply faked the game basing myself on my actual experience in managing - all these years - to stay clear from crappy MS OS versions (yes, it means that I have been wise , but it also means that I am around since toooo much time ) jaclaz

Speaking of games, I just coded a new one , inspired by MS OS releases . (See attached Excel worksheet) jaclaz MS-Chess.zip

I am not sure to get the actual question. You should have TWO .reg files, one with the *whatever* switched ON, and one with the *whatever* switched OFF. As uid0 pointed out you can use both regedit or reg.exe to merge one or the other to the registry, but if you have .reg filetype registered correctly you can also double click on the .reg files, just in case: http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_get_a_reg_file_to_install.html But do you need a batch to right the value "on the fly " or to merge an existing .reg? REG ADD will write a key or value REG IMPORT will import a .reg file jaclaz

OK, I won't suggest it then. Cannot help for: Windows have firefox 11 acrobat reader my custom login screen. my custom boot screen . custom theme. almost 10 themes installed. minimum 20 new wall paper installed. previous boring windows wallpaper must be removed I may with: or some other software. or something more. once you have solved the previous list. If you would take a suggestion (exception made for nlite) you should downgrade the expectations of your project and do things one at the time (and only later assemble the bits and pieces together), i.e. learn ONLY how to add (unattended) Acrobat Reader (and the same method - when you will have learned it will be good for many more apps), then do a build with just your customized login screen, etc., etc. jaclaz

The world is so nice because everyone can have his/her opinions , OT , but not much , and JFYI: http://sourceforge.net/projects/winlockpro/ jaclaz

Memdisk is part of Syslinux. @spacemonkey I do not understand what your GOAL is. If PXE booting a .iso file ir if mounting a .iso file AFTER booting. In my experience "vague GOAL"+"declared stubborness"="Issues". If you want help for pxeboot/memdisk, you may possibly get it here: http://reboot.pro/forum/92/ http://reboot.pro/forum/12/ or here: http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/The_Syslinux_Project If you want help for your GOAL (and NOT for the way you think you should reach it), maybe I can help jaclaz

It must be something connected to Codepage (or NLS, or *whatever*) . You can try using instead of the "§" an "unlikely to be used character within the first 127 ASCII: http://www.asciitable.com/ A good candidate (actually two of them could be "{" and "}" (with the side effect of looking more nice) jaclaz

And the easiest way to check if something can be done is simply to check whether you are using: OHCI = USB 1.1 UHCI = USB 1.0 EHCI = USB 2.0 drivers (i.e which kind of chipset you have). If you have EHCI chipset BUT your BIOS does not use them with USB 2.0 speed, THEN PLoP (or other solutions) my be useful, if the chipset is OHCI or UHCI, there is no way you can speed it up. jaclaz

Unless I am mistaken, you are using the disk under Win98 in "IDE emulation mode". Are you doing the same on Win2k (or are you using "AHCI" drivers)? If yes, the difference is likely to be NCQ . jaclaz

Sure, you meant well : but the result is currently : (possibly) *fast* NOT working vs: (possibly) *slow* working I would rather have the Win9x actually working (no matter whether *slow* or *fast*) and only later see if it can be sped up..... jaclaz

BEFORE that: Back to the origins... Something you, like the vast majority of people, might be unaware of, is that the original design for the wheel was a square. after a very unfortunate attempt to reduce the number of bumps by using a triangle as shape.... ...it was later re-invented as an octagon, with the new approach of reducing the magnitude of bumps.... ....then the latter idea evolved into a dodecagon.... ...and only relatively recently it was fully developed as a circle ... Why, in my day, all we had was...: http://reboot.pro/1908/ and we LIKED it! Me wasn't actually that bad, it was a bettered Windows 98, only worse. (BTW not as bad as Vista - a bettered XP, only MUCH worse ) jaclaz

beginning? The PLoP DOS USB driver is by design Read Only. Once it has been used for the first part of booting it is normally replaced by ANOTHER driver (capable of R/W operations). This happens "by default" when you boot a NT based system (which "protected mode" part loads it's own drivers) : http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/plop (or any Linux distro) up to you to find a way that may work in DOS (and/or Windows 9x/Me), here is some loose info: http://forum.plop.at/index.php?topic=92.0 BTW there is NO actual need for you to use PLoP, it was dencorso's idea to try using it..... (but - to be fair - only in order to test the USB booting speed of your mothrboard ). jaclaz

Hey guys, do you have an idea of HOW bootfix.bin works? The CD bootsector (the 2048 byte file sometimes referred to as "Arnes Boot Record" or "Microsoft Corporation.img") innvokes TWO files: bootfix.bin setupldr.bin to use bootfix.bin on a FAT or NTFS filesystem, all you have to do is to write a bootsector capable of invoking TWO files (instead of one). But if grub4dos (or similar) bootmanager is used there are ways..... Here is an old example: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16980&st=5 WinsetupfromUSB, not-so-casually, has a suitable (more complex) menu system exactly for this reason: jaclaz

Read here: jaclaz

You find another "rarely" used character and it will do. I have it (the §) on my keyboard, so I tend to use it. Though I cannot see how it can become "butchered", as it is simply an intermediate step, and it is "added" bu a batch and "removed" by the next. In any case the idea of §<n*#>§ is simply that of having an "unlikely to be present in a .inf/.ini/.sif" string for substitution, to reèplace characters that are not parsable by a batch. The: is most probably a =\CR+LF" sequence. If yes, you can use gsar allright. jaclaz

Hmmm, you guys had way too much fun while I was away. @Dave-H Start form scratch. Just partition/format the thing with RMPREPUSB. For the record RMPREPUSB was developed - among other reasons - to correct a number of misbehaviours of the HP Format utility, and applies a couple of "tricks" sometimes useful. Using the HP Format utility in 2012 is "looking (UNNEEDEDLY) for troubles. jaclaz

Why should anyone help someone that SHOUTS at us, not-so-hiddenly hinting that we are a bunch of heartless bastards that are not willing to help? Personally I am a grumpy heartless bastard, so that's allright , but I usually try to help people that don't shout and have the patience to wait. As you might know, there is something that is called "professional help", given in exchange of a commodity called "money", which is an alternative to "free help" given by people for no money that do so in their free time at at their own pace. If the amount of money is big enough, then - and still within limits - with "professional help" you may be allowed to be impatient and also to shout. jaclaz