jaclaz

You need to put *something* in them. Your script on my machine, bolded the relevant parts: jaclaz

I really hate these dialogs between deaf people . From what I understand (as said very little) of VBS, you make a WMI query on the whole Win32_directory space and find in it (in column "Path") strings containing "recy". Is the above correct? I can seemingly replicate the behaviour in my "dinosaur's" command line approach with this one-.liner : wmic path win32_directory where(Path like '%recy%') get Path BUT, if I create directories like: $recyclable recycling 1recy and put some contents in them, I get them listed allright, even if they have nothing to do with the actual recycle bin. Doesn't your VBS do the same? IMHO one should add additional code to check whether a file "INFO2" exists (which would cover up to XP/2003) OR BOTH a file $Ixxxxx.xxx AND a file $Rxxxxx.xxx (where xxxxx.xxx means "same string") to cover Vista and later (BTW does Windows 7 behave as Vista ? ) or maybe find a folder name pattern like the S-1-5-2* FOR /F "USEBACKQ tokens=1 delims=\" %A IN (`wmic path win32_directory where^(Path like '%S-1-5-2%'^) get Path`) DO @ECHO %A jaclaz

You report -as always - makes a lot of sense , the fact that it is not common doesn't mean that it is not a good idea, basically when the disk (new from factory and completely 00'ed and ONLY if this latter condition is met) is connected the first time to the motherboard, it makes a backup of the BIOS - just in case. What the OP reported remains "queer" as : Most probably the HPA was re-instated on FIRST connection once 00'ed and it's presence wasn't noticed until "a few power cycles later". Or, since there are anyway some unused sectors at the end of *any* disk if the cylinder boundary is respected during partitioning, the HPA reservation/install only happens after the disk has been partitioned, but then again that should happen at first power cycle after the partitioning is effective. I find quite hard to believe that the HPA is checked - and if missing recreated - "every third reboot" (or on fridays with ful moon in months without an R ). DeadDude reference to "Booting from XPRESS" made me land nicely here: http://www.gigabyte.com/webpage/21/Xpress-Recovery2.html (newer version) and here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1196073 http://web.archive.org/web/20060930120542/http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/TechGuide_List.aspx?NewTechID=84 So the feature is called XPRESS BIOS RESCUE, with these new keywords something can be found: http://web.archive.org/web/20070202044651/http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/NewTech/2006_motherboard_newtech/article_04_bios_explained.htm http://www.gigabyte.com/webpage/8/article_04_bios_explained.htm and the issue is cleared. The "indestructible" may be a bit optimistic, though . QUECON 4 everything is cool jaclaz

Well, NO. You were told: and you replied: Carpenter's comparison: Now if you replied: It should mean that you measured it's length and NOT it's width. I.e. I presumed that you were replying with what you thought was related, meaningful info. It is well possible that the issue is the actual hard disk PCB and the adapter is perfectly working and outputs 3.3V TTL level allright. The "best" condition to attempt communication to the PCB is with the PCB completely detached from the hard disk AND powered. Try again this way. Try exchanging Tx with Rx. If it doesn't work, there are 4 possibilities: you connected the the wires "badly" (I don't believe this) the adapter is a "dud" the adapter is NOT a "dud" but it outputs "something" that the PCB doesn't like, so it is not an"absolute dud" but rather a "relative dud" the PCB - for any reason - cannot communicate through the TTL port Once discarded #1, your only choice (as you can't do anything about #4 ) is either ascertain if #2 or #3 apply (oscilloscope) or presume anyway that one of them applies and try with another adapter, possibly one already mentioned in this thread and known to be among the "working ones". A "loopback" test is a good preliminary test, but it tells you nothing on what actually goes through the loop. A functional 5V TLL adapter will work allright in a loopback test, but it "talks" and "understands" 5Vish, from the various reports it has been determined that the hard disk ONLY talks and understands 3.3Vish. jaclaz

Not so queer. I have a motherboard that does that. It shouldn't be an issue unless the available space becomes smaller than the image being loaded. I would gladly "downgrade" the QUECON queerness condition from 2 to 3 or even 4, provided you: tell us which motherboard it is what are the actual contents of the HPA the motherboard creates (OP reported a FAT12 filesystem - maybe something connected to an emnergency-emergency boot to upgrade or reset the BIOS?) you could provide some more info/insight on the matter (I simply cannot believe that you actually saw this happening and avoided to investigate the behaviour right down to the single byte or bit ) jaclaz

I don't get it. I am failing (but not being expert in VBS it is very possible that I overlooked it) which part finds the recycle bin. I mean, if I have these 6 folders in a drive (say C:\): c:\$recycle.bin\s-1-5-20 c:\recycler\s-1-5-18 C:\secrecy\s-1-5-20 C:\recyclables\s-1-5-18 C:\recycling\goofy C:\unrecyclable\minnie Would ONLY the first two be listed? jaclaz

You may find some (interesting ) ideas/batch code in CASBAH: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21123 http://reboot.pro/4023/ (feel free to use the whatever parts you find useful, though of course being 9x you might have a "more limited" command processor), just in case: You are welcome. No. As much as the "key" word in data backup is redundancy, the "key" word in troubleshooting is "repeatability" (something that is simply missing from the number of different attempts you made, you should re-do eeverything from start form the "cleaned" disk and IF you have the SAME result THEN I would be able to agree, right now we all - at least myself - simply have NO idea of what actually happened). The HPA re-created by motherboard is "queer" , anyway, and would be worth IMHO further investigations. jaclaz

Pardon me, but would it not include any of folders named as: http://www.morewords.com/contains/recy/ jaclaz

Problem would be if I am also "favorite" among your piranhas For NO apparent reason: jaclaz

It sounds like "DUD" unfortunately. You simply CANNOT measure TTL levels with a ohmeter/voltmeter. You need an oscilloscope, even a poorman's one would do: http://www.zeitnitz.de/Christian/scope_en http://www.electronics-lab.com/downloads/pc/002/index.html and you need to measure while transmitting to the port. Sure, Tx and Rx labels can be very confusing. Did anything change? jaclaz

Exactlly, the "smallest" subfloppy (but with "large" capacity) I managed to produce has only 2560 bytes free, but is pretty FAST in loading to --mem with grub4dos.... 4096 bytes total size, gzips in 246 bytes. I might review it at the light of the new findings on this thread an maybe I can find a way to make it even smaller. jaclaz

OT , but just to keep things together as possible, the opposites of superfloppies (would they be "underfloppies"? ) http://reboot.pro/8752/page__st__59 (I just happened to get by chance on that thread again, that I had completely forgotten) jaclaz

HOW exactly (I mean with what tool(s)) and doing what) did you make that voltage measure? Can you post a link to where you got that adapter? Have you tried exchanging the Tx and Rx connections on the hard disk side? jaclaz

Happy to know also your problem is "closed". jaclaz

http://www.mydigitallife.info/how-to-disable-write-access-to-usb-hard-disk-and-flash-key-drives/ http://www.mydigitallife.info/disable-usb-removable-mass-storage-device-drive-access-in-windows/ Maybe just maybe, by somehow using on 2K some disk related drivers from XP (IF actually possible at all ): http://reboot.pro/9844/page__st__17 jaclaz

Yes, but for example, if you type in the "Start->Run": ::{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} it opens the actual "user" "recycle bin", whilst (say XP) C:\Recycler contains the various S-1-5-21-..... and in it/them the INFO2 file. Somehow the interface must "know" where the actual path is. I don't think that there is anything in the Registry, maybe checking the windows explorer files (shell32.dll?) for a "hardcoded" name? BTW HOW is called the Recycle Bin in Vista on FAT32? Still "$Recycle.bin" ? Here there is the reference to the "canonical ones": http://www.forensicfocus.com/downloads/forensic-analysis-vista-recycle-bin.pdf jaclaz

Actually the only BIG "mistakes" myselfidem made are : posting without quoting the reference actually trying the link posted by the spammer Attributing the post to bristols was simply a common mistake - it happens all the time, memory can be easily tricked - expecially since you (bristols) have a quite characteristic/visible avatar (whilst the Spammer had none - AFAICR) so that scrolling the thread is likely to have give such a false impression (supreimposing of images). Anyway, everything is cool, it's a nice day, so let's go on, no need for reciprocal accusations of anything, OK? jaclaz

Well, IMHO three possibilities seems not very like anything "brute", let alone "force". It also depends on filesystems and actual OS involved, if I recall correctly. Care to narrow (or widen) the scope of the question? And maybe, if you provide some background it may be useful.... jaclaz

Relax. It was a spammer, with user name "harrymark". I haven't a screenshot of his post, but this should be enough to tranquilize you. jaclaz

Yes, this would be advised. No, what happened was that a SPAMmer posted on the thread (and there was a link in his post) that post was then removed by an Admin/Mod, probably you mistook that reply as if it was bristols'. jaclaz

Yep. JFYI: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21043 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=13283 It is more common than you would expect. The rule of thumb is: for CD burn at the LOWEST possible speed for DVD burn at an "average" (half max) speed Additionally : http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=20755 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=20755&st=21 jaclaz

WHICH link? This one works allright here: http://bristols.zxq.net/windows2000/updates/ And this one also: http://www.forensicswiki.org/wiki/Write_Blockers jaclaz

There are TWO ways. One (NO animation) is to use the COLOR command and a background image. The second (animation possible) is by using GFXboot. A couple samples are given here: OK, I lied , there is also a third possibility, Aerostudio, though it is not "strictly" grub4dos. OK, I lied AGAIN , there is also a FOURTH possibility, which is to use the nice tool ded put together (still EXPERIMENTAL, mind you): http://reboot.pro/15689/ Pre-made gfxboot: http://reboot.pro/13437/ should be relatively easy to add. jaclaz

Apart from the fun/exercise/experience/whatever there is not much sense to remove the HPA on that drive. The specs say that it has 156,301,488 sectors, it has the default 255/63 geometry thus you can have (since it is used with OS that use the good ol' convention of cilinder boundary) an unueven number of accessible sectors. 156,301,488/255/63=9729.317647.... cylinders So the max value is: 9729 x 255 x 63 = 156,296,385 OP already has this space available, and it doesn't make IMHO much difference if he has a bunch (156,301,488-156,296,385=5,103) unused/unusable sectors at the end of the disk or, like it seems, only a few of them (156,301,488-156,299,437=2,051) as unused/unusable space at the end of the disk and the remaining as unused/unusable space in the HPA. I mean nothing will change in the available/usable space so why attempt to fix a non-problem? @submix8c It's not "only DELL", AFAIK several other companies use/used the HPA, including IBM/Lenovo: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Hidden_Protected_Area and Fujitsu-Siemens, more generally *anything* with Phoenix BIOS may have it. But given the very small size of the area, I presume more likely that the HPA is WD installed in factory. Specifically half the internet is upset about WD using the HPA on their "Mybook" external hard disks for every kind of crapware, this would be the first report I see about WD using it also on "normal" disks, but it is very possible. jaclaz

Because it isn't "my" topic? I opened a parenthesis in it (and duly closed it). OP has had the most he could get as an answer/solution. Only your problem with 98 is currenly "open". jaclaz