jaclaz

This should not happen. You should be able, running as Administrator, to Register and UNregister dll's allright. HOW EXACTLY did you run the command? WHICH EXACT error did you get? Well, then I guess you will have to live with that "smart" feature enabled. Out of curiosity, WHAT are the contents of the keys: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpeg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bmp on your system? jaclaz

No. I am pretty sure that you think you did that , but I asked the EXACT, detailed, down to the minutiae steps you executed, just like you did for this: namely I suspect that you did not set the partition as Active. Since this is delicate matter, where each single word has a definite meaning, and I am particularly "picky" you cannot "format a hard drive". You are actually: initializing a (hard) disk (drive) partitioning the disk into one or more partition(s) of which one is a primary, i.e. creating one or more drive(s) or volume(s) formatting the drive (or volume) by creating a filesystem on it Yes, it is a possibility , but the solution (changing the partition alignment settings in the Registry) has always been working. Try again, after having applied the Registry changes to the PE. You can use any MBR editor/disk editor/partition table viewer to check the actual alignment that was used and to check the Active status of the partition. A standard XP will make partition start at CHS 0/1/1 LBA 63. A standard PE2/3 will make partition start at CHS 0/32/33 LBA 2048 A PE 2/3 with the proposed mods to the Registry will behave as XP does. How big is the partition you create? Try doing it smaller than 128/137 Gb limit, just in case: http://www.48bitlba.com/ jaclaz

Then you can try to UNregister shimgvw.dll: http://www.msoutlook.info/question/9 BUT I have NO idea if there are any "strings attached" to such a removal http://tweaks.com/windows/36689/disable-windows-picture-and-fax-viewer/ and/or if the known ones are aproblem for you. jaclaz

The XP way was: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm #269 Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpeg] "PerceivedType"="" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpg] "PerceivedType"="" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bmp] "PerceivedType"="" And, to re-enable: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpeg] "PerceivedType"="image" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpg] "PerceivedType"="image" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bmp] "PerceivedType"="image" maybe it works the same on 7 jaclaz

No, you don't actually "know" ANYTHING (except from what you were told by those guys, which, for all you -or we - can say, can be an absolute truth or a big pile of b*ll§hit ) There is NOT *any* 'ST_M13FQBL' problem, that string simply means that the disk drive sends a "botched" string to the BIOS, this could be the symptom of several different issues. From the little I know, and without further data/details, it sounds to me NOT anythng connected with "swap the rotor chip, bufer chip and controller chip ", though. It is very possible that by reprogramming/fixing the contents of the ROM (provided that it was not fried in any of the previous attempts, the disk can be revived, but the problem is HOW would you do that? You could buy a PC-3000 (which last time I checked shipped for around US$ 3,000 ) or a similar tool from Salvation Data, slighlty more economical, or you could try (IF your disk is "covered") the SEDIV software: http://sediv2008.narod.ru/ If I were you, and if you actually are interested to retrieving the (important but not worth US$ 850) data, I would try checking other KNOWN, RELIABLE recovery companies/experts and see if you can find someone that is available to attempt the recovery for a smaller price, but do not expect anything below the US$ 350÷500 range. Just so you know, data recovery companies/experts inspire different sentiments, there are of course, and I presume the large majority, very good and nice guys among them :thumbsup:, but there are also (a few, but not so few) some of them that are in plain English crooks . I have had reports of people that were asked as much as US$ 500÷600 to "recover" data from Seagates with the "common" BSY/LBA, and had at least one report of a data recovery service that actually when asked to give back the disk "as is", actually sabotaged it. jaclaz

Hmm. I presume that, no matter which ramdisk it is, you should rather than Device Manager, use a tool like this (both Services and Devices): http://p-nand-q.com/download/pserv_cpl.html http://p-nand-q.com/gtools/pserv3.html disable the thingy, then delete it. jaclaz

I.E. EXACTLY you were told here a few posts above. So you LIED when you said that you had NO valid answers, you simply had (at least one) valid answer, that you decided to ignore in favour of another completely wrong answer (because it was simpler). You also said that you were going to do the Rom swap, now, evidently you changed idea and brought the HD to a recovery firm to do that work (which mind you, might be a wise choice). Now you whine about the (very high) price they asked you. You should rephrase this: "it's so important to the maximum extent of a commercial value of ........ (10/20/50/100) US Dollars" jaclaz

Maybe not the "best", but surely among the "eligible" ones, though of course in a Server environment you have regular and frequent backups, so, the data loss risk is not that much (and dynamic disks do offer some advantages/features that may be handy in such an Environment). @Basil I will make the previous advice a bit stronger : DO NOT EVEN THINK of using dynamic disks, EVER! jaclaz

If you followed the instructions "to the T", the problematic step(s) should be this one(s): Given for assured that Step 4 is OK, i.e. that image capture is successful, the problem might be Step 5. Can you try describing in your own words and EXACTLY, down to the minutiae, what you did with regards to this step? (it seems to me clear enough, but maybe I am overlooking something or the instructions can be interpreted differently from what I do) WINFLP is an entirely different thing/approach from the one referenced to. And yes, it is possible to create a hardware independent XP image, a good way is to use Offline Sysprep: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showforum=43 If you want, once solved the issue you are currently having, we may talk about it . jaclaz

A (German) bunny added to the basket! : http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128727&st=10 jaclaz

Leave it/them as "basic". Dynamic disks features make sense (if any) in a Server environment. http://www.petri.co.il/difference_between_basic_and_dynamic_disks_in_windows_xp_2000_2003.htm http://www.techrepublic.com/article/understand-the-use-of-basic-and-dynamic-disks-in-windows/5034875 jaclaz

Actually this is most probably correct. The USB protocol prevents some "data structures" to "pass through". As an example, try accessing an hard disk with Victoria for windows when it is directly connected to the MB (Pata or Sata) and when it is connected through a USB adapter/external case. See above. The "Sectors before" are data stored in the MBR, you can (obviously) access these no matter the interface/connection. If you prefer this kind of data is "public". Manufacturer proprietary tools, generally speaking use different ways to connect to the device, having access to other, proprietary, settings. Even if there is no need whatsoever to use those to align or re-align a partition, it is very possible that they have a "base" program using this kind of "privileged" access instead of "standard" reading/writing, and they made the aligning tool out of this "base". Because that data is NOT in the S.M.A.R.T. set of attributes, but in other data structures (no, don't ask me where exactly) and these latter data structures are anyway "publicly" accessible. jaclaz

What you posted makes NO sense whatsoever. You EITHER use a Usb to TTL adapter OR a RS232 to TTL adapter OR a USB to RS232 AND a RS232 to TTL adapter. WHICH wires? Have you tried a loopback test? This is written ALL OVER the place as a VITAL step to ensure that the adapter and hyperterminal are working properly. Re. read (or read for the first time and ATTENTIVELY the READ-ME-FIRST: and the FGA's: ALL of them, and particularly pont #8 of read-me first and #4 of FGA's. Then, post again and describe EXACTLY WHICH adapter are you using and EXACTLY WHICH wires are you talking about AND more generally HOW EXACTLY you connected all the equipment involved (besides results of loopback test). @smandurlo If you take your time reading the zillion reports on this thread, you will see that the actual output after the m0,2 .... etc. command can vary. This may depend on pre-existing firmware but also from the actual issue the drive has (had) before the fix. Again, we have no way to know what EXACTLY is the issue, we only observe the appearing symptoms (BSY or LBA) and apply to the thingy a "generic" fix or, more exactly, a form of "general reset", so the different output may mean different issue, anyway fixed by the cure. jaclaz

No. http://homepages.tesco.net/J.deBoynePollard/FGA/questions-with-yes-or-no-answers.html How would knowing if anyone else used it help you in following it? However, basically that post is about a way to deploy a XP initiated-from-hard-disk install. The imagex and wim usage are just means to replace *any* disk/drive imaging software. Just as an example, you could use DRIVEIMAGEXML to the same effect. (and you would note need a PE 2 or higher). jaclaz

Since the BIOS is flashable and available, it could be interesting if you could detail HOW exactly the driver is matched to the BIOS. http://www.wimsbios.com/forum/topic10688.html jaclaz

Egg nog is basically .... worse than the devil in "The devil egg nog made me speed so much, officer." jaclaz

I am not sure to get it right. Here: http://it.us.syba.com/support_download/download/73-0203-1.html There are two files liinked to mentioning Windows98: http://it.us.syba.com/bin/silicon_image/sil3112-raid/sil3112-raid_drv_winall_v1.0.0.40.zip <- sil3112-raid_drv_winall_v1.0.0.40.zip and: http://it.us.syba.com/bin/silicon_image/sil3112-raid/sil3112-raid_medley_v1.0.0.19%20.zip <- sil3112-raid_medley_v1.0.0.19%20.zip On page: http://www.sybausa.com/resource/SD-SATA150R/ there is (including the one you mentioned) these three: http://www.sybausa.com/resource/SD-SATA150R/SD-SATA150R_Windows_98SE-ME-NT4-2000-XP-Server2003-XP64-bit-Vista-7-MacOSX-Linux-Netware.zip http://www.sybausa.com/resource/SD-SATA150R/SD-SATA150R_Windows_98SE-Me-2000-Server_2003-XP-NT_4.0,-Vista-7-_Linux.rar http://www.sybausa.com/resource/SD-SATA150R/SD-SATA150R_Windows_98SE-Me-2000-Windows_Server_2003-XP-NT_4.0-Vista-7-_Linux.zip None of these contain a suitable Win98 driver? I would also chek here: http://www.wecandobetter.com/dnload/BartPE/SourcefilesBkup/drivers/SCSIAdapter/SYBA-SATA-3x12-RAID-2P/ jaclaz

Please be aware that Ghost (besides being a Commercial software) is not necessarily a sector based tool for disk imaging (it is , but only if use the right switches/settings). You want to image the WHOLE disk from it's first sector to it's last one, and NOT "only" a partition on it. It is debatable whether you can use software capable of skipping blank/unindexed sectors, but to be on the safe side there is ONLY the INTEGRAL "dd-like" or "forensic sound" approach. I strongly doubt that if you - by accident - delete a partition or wipe the whole disk it is in ANY way considered a voiding of a warranty. If you open up the notebook and change internal parts, it SURELY is. jaclaz

Having backed up the license does not really mean that you will be able to re-install Windows 7 using a "generic" media, Sony, HP and similar "large OEM's" have a knack for adding *any* type of "road-blocks". It is very possible that your backup is only valid for the specific install that you can get through the recovery partition. BTW YB15FG is not found on the Sony site, are you sure about the model number? http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-find.pl?mdl=YB15FG can you try and find it? jaclaz

Yep , and this provision makes a lot of sense. Since it was not clear what exactly maanu was meaning, I posted a general kind of warning. The idea of by-passing the license limitation is "in the air" since a few days, so IF that was the idea, THEN it won't be acceptable/accepted on MSFN, there is an Italian (actually tuscan) proverb: [italian] [/italian] to the effect of: jaclaz

It depends on the specific "mechanism" the "Recovery partition" is actually started on your specific machine. Basically there are THREE main "ways" a provision to boot the "recovery" partition: from an internal BIOS provision from a "special" MBR code provision from the BOOTMGR provision If case #1 you can do whatever you want. If case #2 you MUST backup the MBR code "as is" and restore it after having installed the XP. If case #3 you NEED to have the BOOTMGR still be the "main" bootmanager (i.e. you will have to backup it and the BCD and restore it after the XP install AND add to it a provision to boot XP). Additionally to the above the actual program that restores the system may "want" some specific settings in the partitioning scheme, or a given (hardcoded) size for the "target" partition or *whatever* else . To find out which is which, the only thing is experimenting, to do this SAFELY you will need a dd-like (or "forensic sound") image of the disk, so that IF anything bad happens you have a way out. AT THE VERY LEAST, you will need to backup a bunch of sectors, including the MBR the PBR's of the current partitions, the BOOTMGR and the \boot\BCD before even thinking of messing with that hard disk. Also, those laptops should have a provision to make a set of "recovery" CD's or DVD's, if this is the case, NOW it's the perfect time to create them (itf you haven't already done so. Even better, - IF possible - would be to create ADDITIONALLY a 7 install media, something like what is detailed here: jaclaz

Most of these chipset specific utilities for reprogramming USB Flash drives only work under XP. They don't work under Vista/7/SVR2k8 as the drivers are written for XP. But this has to be tested specifically. Some utilities need to install a particular driver, but many will work through the "standard" USB driver (these one seems to be of this latter type). The issue is rather which settings are needed to be changed. In that tool the capacity is on the THIRD tab "Factory settings". I would try this version of the tool: http://flashboot.ru/Files-file-415.html If you get this one: http://flashboot.ru/Files-file-262.html it has inside some quick instructions (in Chinese) that may (or may completely fail to) be useful. Understanding how these tools work is often a nightmare and a hit 'n miss game. jaclaz

I am not sure I get it. The actual problem in your setup is preserving (if needed) the "recovery partition" (AND the whatever way it is used to access it if needed). Is it a laptop? (usually desktop don't have "recovery partitions") Which EXACT make/model? Are you sure you want to delete Windows 7? Basically on some setups Windows 7 uses two partitions (the "system reserved" and a "normal" one) instead of a single one. There is no problem (if you REALLY want to get rid of Windows 7) to delete both partitions and install XP. jaclaz

I am not going to have Uncle Norm on Christmas Eve this year.... jaclaz

Filename NOT FolderName... Yep . Example: C:\somefolder: <- means "a suffusion of yellow" C:\somefolder\ <- means a path to a folder C:\somefolder\filename.ext <- means a path to a file C:\somefolder\filename.ext:mystream <- means a path to a stream named "mystream" attached to file filename.ext To view (and delete) streams, you may want to use STREAMS : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897440 BUT also directories can have stream attached, i.e.: C:\somefolder:myotherstream <- may mean a path to a stream named "myotherstream" attached to directory "somefolder", BUT it should be: C:\somefolder\:myotherstream INSTEAD (with the backslash) Only IF that is the case (C:\Documents and Settings\Elkian\Local Settings\Temp:winupd.exe meaning a stream named "winupd.exe" attached to the directory "C:\Documents and Settings\Elkian\Local Settings\Temp") the DEL command won't have any effect (since you would need to delete the directory, with RD) jaclaz