jaclaz

It is not a stupid question. It only shows that you skipped over the previous posts without really reading them. You CANNOT have Win95cmd.exe as the DOS command processor. You can have it as the default processor once in GUI mode (or, if you prefer, when you open a command prompt from a booted Windows 98, NOT when you boot to DOS 7.1). This is the idea behind setting the comspec: jaclaz

Check if any of these fit: http://www.technixupdate.com/7-free-tools-to-monitor-folder-changes/ Particularly this one could do: http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/File-Management/FolderMon.shtml jaclaz

Hmmm. I don't think you will like the price tag (Firewire 800) : http://www.ebay.it/itm/FireWire-800-CF-Reader-/110759354205?pt=UK_Photography_MemoryCardReaders_RL&hash=item19c9c59f5d jaclaz

Very good. Still an issue : Media Type : We have (for sure) the 3.5" "official" formats (as per given link on MS) 720K 1.44 MB 2.88 MB F9 F0 F0 249 240 240 and the "official" 5.25" ones: 160K 180K 320K 360K 1.2 MB FE FC FF FD F9 254 252 255 253 249 In the list *appeared" the 320K 80/1/8 with a Media Type of 250/FA. Is this possible? The 640K should be 251/FB. Can anyone confirm this? Maybe I found where I got some of the info: http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/fs/fat/fat-1.html OT, but not that much , this may open some new "formats" (which I didn't even suspect existed ): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365231(v=vs.85).aspx jaclaz

OK, I'll dump the 1232K and 1280K formats. More generally only 512 Bytes/Sectors will be included (besides the booting aspect, I suspect that non 512 bytes/sector formats would have anyway problems in VM's and/or Virtual Drives). For the record there are the 8.00" floppy formats: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/75131/en-us that do have a different sector size, and they will be ignored also. About the 640 Kb, it is OK as 80/2/8, and with 512 bytes/sector and with 112 Root Entries, I only wanted a confirmation that it has EITHER: Cluster size of 2 sectors and THEN a FAT of 2 sectors Floppy Formats Size Sectors C H S B/S S/C Re Mt Fatsize 640K 655.360 1.280 80 2 8 512 2 112 251 2 OR: Cluster size of 1 sector and THEN a FAT of 4 sectors Floppy Formats Size Sectors C H S B/S S/C Re Mt Fatsize 640K 655.360 1.280 80 2 8 512 1 112 251 4 The issue is probably derived by a typo , as often happens when assembling together different sources with different data and trying to fill the gaps. Another issue I am having is that in the list *appeared* (somehow) two different 320 K formats: Floppy Formats Size Sectors C H S B/S S/C Re Mt Fatsize 320K (80/1/8) 327.680 640 80 1 8 512 1 ? 250 1 320K (40/2/8) 327.680 640 40 2 8 512 1 112 255 1 Are they BOTH valid? If yes, how many root entries in the 80/1/8 version? 64 or 112? Additionally (and regarding both the 640K and the two 320 K): Did they ever existed formatted in FAT12? jaclaz

Good. Here I don't really follow you, are you whining ? Look, noone is in any way "forcing" you to use WinsetupfromUSB. It was your free choice to use that particular tool. There are at least TWO tutorials to make that manually (using the .iso): Or you can use more "traditional" methods, such as USB multiboot: or go entirely "manual": You can use them "as they are", get only some ideas or hints from them, invent a completely different way, whatever you like/prefer/wish, as long as you don't whine. jaclaz

Just for the record, and to help mantaining the interconnectedness of all things, the thread on reboot.pro is this one: http://reboot.pro/15722/ jaclaz

A BartPE is NOT WinPE. It is not WinPE 1.2. It is not WinPE 1.5. It is not WinPE 1.6. It is a BartPE or -generically - just like the above WinPE versions - a PE 1.x, i.e. based on XP or Server2003 soirce. If the problem is about a partition/volume in the internal hard disk *somehow* having the X:\ drive letter, check contents of key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices For the record: http://reboot.pro/15199/ SPECIFIC to PE 2.x/3.x ONLY (and NOT to PE 1.x): SPECIFIC to PE 1.x: http://reboot.pro/1938/ jaclaz

Delving deeper in the various "strange" floppy formats around, I have hit a couple of "oddities". The "640K" format seems like having incorrect info. According to my calculations it should have 80/2/8 geometry and 2x4 FAT Sectors (IF it has a cluster size of 1 sector) or 2x2 FAT sectors (IF it has a clustersize of 2 sectors). In any case it should have a sector size of 512 bytes. The actual VERY scarce docs I can find seem however to convey that the sector size is/was different, i.e. 256 bytes. Some folks (and particularly Multibooter) may appreciate this .pdf: http://www.tamsinc.com/storage/2085/support/2085man.pdf Of course it is possible to "invent" both the above described formats, but did they ever exist (formatted in FAT12, I mean)? Something similar happens for the two sizes marked 1232K (JPN) and 1280K (JPN): Theyshould be connected with the PC98: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_floppy_disk_formats http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEC_PC-9801 http://euc.jp/articles/pc9800.en.html Whilst on them the "math" seems OK, I am failing to understand how they were actually formatted, as they had a 1024 bytes sector size. Is the bootsector made by the "normal" 512 bytes and followed by 512 00's to fill the 1024 byte sector? I am starting to suspect that anything with a sector size different from 512 bytes either never was formatted with FAT12/16 or used modified *something* and that in any case it won't be of any practical use as an image. Or if you prefer, I am thinking to remove these three image formats from the list of known formats, AND to remove any support for sector size different from 512 bytes. jaclaz

WHY? AFAICU they are two DIFFERENT settings: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc978715.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc940805.aspx I mean, on the other (linked to thread) there is NO definite answer, HOW can you suggest using those settings (and not ither ones)? Have you tested all possibilities? It is just a "test" to see what happens with the specific settings you suggested? Or what? jaclaz

This is the only thing that I can reassure you, it can be done allright and it is done daily by hundreds or maybe thousands of peeps all around the world. Well, then you miss a driver. What makes no sense is that the SAME build loads the driver from CD but not from the SAME .iso once on hard disk. Which should mean that somehow you have something "wrong" in the grub4dos or syslinux settings you use to load the .iso (or maybe it is a particularity of your BIOS somehow hiding the internal disk when booted from CD? I doubt this.) Norton Ghost means "nothing". There are several versions of it. If one of these - the one you are using - uses VSS to lock the drive, and you don't have VSS working in the PE it won't work. Why using Ghost at all? If you have to copy/restore a partition on the same drive you can use another program, like clonedisk or driveimageXML that can also use a "plainer" partition lock. Right now it seems to me like you are throwing at it everything that crosses your mind (which is good ) but you are failing to describe EXACTLY the situation in a CLEAR, PRECISE manner. 8I mean of what you are currently trying, which is not what you had in OP) Compare with the standard litany: http://homepage.ntlworld.com./jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/problem-report-standard-litany.html If you provide ALL the details, maybe someone can give you a hint to the right direction to take, otherwise it would be like shooting in the dark. Otherwise, go the other way round, try using this: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=24100 which is a tested and reproducible way to build a firadisk running BartPE. jaclaz

Yep , at address 0x8280 (I am told ) there is boot (current) drive number: 80 (hard disk, - (hd0)) 00 or 01 (floppy or superfloppy - usually) 9F (USB CD rom?= .... Another couple references: http://bbs.zgdnjj.com/viewthread.php?action=printable&tid=6737 this latter uses WENV which is an add-on that allows further scripting possibilities to grub4dos. http://reboot.pro/11751/page__st__25 http://reboot.pro/14409/ jaclaz

Just for the record, and in the hope to avoid misunderstandings, here is the post by Charles Dye: http://www.infionline.net/~wtnewton/batch/w95cpost.txt And here is Technet: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc978715.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc940805.aspx jaclaz

Yep , cited as an example of a "windows" guy using PLoP. How come? harddrives_curr=2 means I have 2 hard drives right? hd0 and hd1, so hd2 does not exist, so geometry (hd2): error 21 no such drive exists seems correct to me. Sorry, it was probably a misunderstanding on my part. I thought that grub4dos actually detected a (hd2) but could not "find" it. Everything is fine EXCEPT for identifying grub4dos as 0.4.5b (it DOES NOT exist!) grub4dos releases (untill a "stable" is reached, that has no "letter") always have a date, current is: http://code.google.com/p/grub4dos-chenall/downloads/list 0.4.5b-2011-10-30 But, no later than yesterday, it was 0.4.5b-2011-10-22 It seems to me like you found yourself the answer: http://forum.plop.at/index.php/topic,165.msg1493.html#msg1493 Good. Yes, and you seemingly also found a way, which is here: http://forum.plop.at/index.php/topic,165.msg1491.html#msg1491 What these do: In "pseudo" code is: do map (hd1) to (hd0) if successful do nothing and go on If failed do map (hd2) (hd0) no matter what happened before, map (hd0) to (hd1) make the re-mapping "visible outside grub4dos" To the above you should add: Which in "pseudo" code is: no matter what happened before, map 2 hard drives make the re-mapping "visible outside grub4dos" So before you may have EITHER: (hd0) USB thingy (hd1) Internal hard disk (hd2) no disk OR: (hd0) USB thingy (hd1) no disk (hd2) Internal hard disk But after the set of given commands you should have anyway: (hd0) Internal hard disk (hd1) USB thingy (hd2) who cares? I hope the above makes sense. The checkrange command is a bit more complex to understand and manage, from Readme_grub4dos.txt: But the result is the same: checkrange 0x80 read 0x8280 && map (hd1) () || map (hd2) () checkrange 0x80 read 0x8280 && map () (hd1) More or less means, check if the boot was from hard disk, if yes then map (hd1) to current root device (i.e. (hd0)), if the latter fails map (hd2) to current root device (i.e. (hd0)), no matter what happened before map current root device (i.e. (hd0)) to (hd1). In the download there is a Readme_grub4dos file in English allright. Notwithstanding this, it is anyway a bit difficult to "grasp" it if you are new to the tool. The advice is to use (and peruse) the Guide by diddy: http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/Grub4dos.htm taking into account that some info in it is a bit outdated, but mainly that newer versions of grub4dos have added features (and bug fixes/enhancements) jaclaz

What do you mean? There is the PLoP bootmanager: http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html And the PLoP Linux mini-distro: http://www.plop.at/en/ploplinux.html BUT PLoP (the bootmanager) can act as: bootmanager (just like any boot-manager, choose between hard disk partitions, CD, etc.) IDE CD/DVD BIOS extender (i.e. add booting from IDE optical media where BIOS does not provide for it) PCMCIA/Cardbus BIOS extender (i.e. add booting from PCMCIA/Cardbus where BIOS does not provide for it) USB BIOS extender (i.e. add booting from USB where BIOS does not provide for it or allow booting at USB 2.0 speed on USB 2.0 hardware BUT with 1.1 BIOS functionality only) DOS USB driver jaclaz

http://blogs.gartner.com/daryl_plummer/2009/11/13/google-releases-new-initiative-called-“google-stop”/ http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/fall-sweep.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/more-wood-behind-fewer-arrows.html jaclaz

As soon as it will be ready. jaclaz

Hmmm. I thought Siginet was more a "windows" guy than a "Linux" one : Generally speaking, set apart the features of PLoP as a boot manager, the idea is to supply an "independant" (from the one that may or may NOT be already included in the BIOS) USB stack. When it works, it works allright, in some cases it doesn't work (and usually if the problem is reported, Elmar fixes it in next release ). On a very few cases, like the one at hand, it is probably the combination of PLoP (unspecified version) with grub4dos (definitely obsolete version) that creates the issue and that needs to be analyzed and hopefully fixed. jaclaz

Can you run in the PE (off the HD) MOUNTVOL? Or dd for windows? This may help you http://reboot.pro/8219/ to find out if the issue is simply that the volumes are not assigned a drive letter. You can also try running showdrive or similar: http://reboot.pro/10169/ jaclaz

I don't think that such a solution exists (by simply modifying the cable). I mean, in the forensic business, hardware suppliers have been making big bucks for years selling IDE write blockers ... http://www.forensicswiki.org/wiki/Write_Blockers Maybe, just maybe, depending on WHAT is your final goal, you could use a .iso image. jaclaz

Well it seems to me like in BOTH cases there is something "queer", normally if you have: You don't have a When you boot through PLOP, you can try: map --harddrives=2 and re - run map --status and when booting directly you can try: map --unmap (hd2) map --hook and re - run map --status To list disks, map --status is OK. To list drives, you need to use a newer version of grub4dos than the one is inside Winsetup from USB, if I recall correctly. (new versions have an enhanced "find" command). Have you tried with geometry (hd0,0) result should be something like (just an example): geometry (hd0,0) = drive 0x80(LBA): C/H/S=155061/255/63, Sector Count/Size=-1803912331/512 Partition num: 0, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x27 partition num: 1, filesystem type is Fat, partition type 0x6 partition num: 2, filesystem type is ntfs, partition type 0x7 Yes, if you are using the "iso" approach, you need to modify the .iso. Or you could try the older "stable" version, vers. 0.2.3, actually, on second thought, it would be definitely better if you try it. jaclaz

Well, the sad fact that people does not use it anymore much doesn't mean that it is dead. I have a couple of servers and even a desktop (little more than a POS) running NT 4.00 allright since a few years, 24/7 with no downtime of *any* kind (only replaced over the years a couple PSU's. As well I have a machine running 2K allright, still 24/7 since march or april 2003, with no problem whatsoever. Originally 2K "suffered" by the hype MS put into the launch of XP (and by the short time after the release of 2K and before XP), which is actually very little more than a "bettered" 2K, only worse , so, originally there were not as many machines as there were - say - running 98, even because at the time Windows 2000 was advertised for professional use ONLY (home user were supposed to have Me instead). Having a smaller user base it is only natural that very few people made it "survive" till today, but it's a pity. jaclaz

I wonder what is the sense of asking for advice, and then NOT doing what is suggested. Right now we have NO way to know if there is an actual problem with the way the stick is partitioned/formatted, or if it is an issue of Install Windows from USB when running under 2K that cannot detect a correctly partitioned/formatted stick.. Possible ways to solve this doubt: partition/format the stick in a SURELY correct way (see above) OR: try the Wnsetup from USB on a machine running XP on the stick "as is". jaclaz

You can go for the USB floppy route, BUT you may need this: Nowadays, it makes little sense (unless you already have such a floppy drive). Use a grub4dos virtual floppy , instead. You can "borrow" ideas/methods from: or from the Wininstall from USB thingy: (or use the atter to install 2k from USB) or: http://reboot.pro/13967/ Before going through that, try simply mapping the F6 floppy image: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=20543 Just for the record, and probably UNnneeded, you can have a "multiple drivers" F6 floppy (or superfloppy), see: http://reboot.pro/13912/ http://sites.google.com/site/rmprepusb/tutorials/install-xp-from-an-iso And to make a floppy image: http://reboot.pro/14354/ jaclaz

Yep . But OP didn't specify under which OS it was run.... and in any case it wasn't tested as extensively as XP or later . jaclaz