jaclaz

Is it not more or less what many software houses do? jaclaz

Exactly. Yep. I would suggest first doing a backup of the CDRW "as is" (i.e. of it's "viewable" contents), and only later erase it , though . jaclaz

It is I already pointed you to it Basically what apparently comes from your post is: I have a problem. You should tell me how to solve it. Since I don't know anything about the steps involved, I assumed it is just a matter of following a few steps clearly explained and custom-tailored to my specific PC/OS/whatever. Which has as correspondent replies: Yes Done. This may prove harder than you might think, right now it's like going to (say) a carpenter and ask him "How do I build a house?" More specifically, before asking the question, you should know wat a hammer is, what nails are and what a saw is and be able to use them. About #3 I will gladly assist you if you have problems but you might understand how it will be difficult to do an entire PC tech course starting from your declared 0 (zero) knowledge in the field. jaclaz

Yeah, life is tough . All the waiting time, and no replies, I feel for you. WHERE from? Probably not . In some cases it is possible to create a "good enough" source Vista .iso from the files you have on the DVD (the one you DID NOT burn when prompted to ) or from the Recovery partition on your hard disk. Or you can contact HP/Compaq, it should be possible to have (paying for it) a copy of either the recovery DVD or of the install disc. Or you can buy a "full" license that comes with the actual install DVD. Compare with: (example only) You may find specific instructions here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-compaq/ http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-compaq/120228-clean-vista-install-no-activation.html but there are so many different ways your PC may have been set up that cannot say (expeciallly with no meaningful info about the model) jaclaz

Well, it must be a VERY COMPREHENSIVE and "liberal" employer, in order to allow his/her employee attempting to install the thingy on 3 (three) different computers (but same exact model), unless of course I got it wrong and the peep has three identical DELL's at home (a setup that is not AFAIK very common ). I do agree on the opinion that jaclaz was correct, though. jaclaz

HOW? Meaning which app/method do you use to "backup"? If you simply copy the files to the CDRW what you describe may be "normal". The way CDRW work is different from what you are probably are used to (floppies and hard disks). When you delete a file on a CDRW you don't actually delete it, you simply "hide" it. See if this helps explaining the issue: http://askbobrankin.com/cant_delete_from_cdrw.html jaclaz

Short answer: YES. http://homepages.tesco.net/J.deBoynePollard/FGA/questions-with-yes-or-no-answers.html Long answer: I presume that yes, a very limited amount of people, approximately ranging in the tens or hundreds of thousands or more, made it! As a side note, managing to use it even BEFORE it was ever released must have been a challenging actvity :unsure.: http://www.oldapps.com/nLite.php?old_nlite=9 jaclaz

Hmmm. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042286/quotes?qt=qt0123017 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042286/quotes?qt=qt0123018 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042286/quotes?qt=qt0123022 jaclaz

See if this helps: http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f15/temp-monitor-106750.html nxsensor: ftp://cstula.ru/TOOLS/SOFTWARE/Test/System/NextSensor/ I have no idea if the mentioned software will run on win9x nor if it will work on your MB/processor, though. jaclaz

Today I feel like being sued for copyright infringement! Here: http://www.distasis.com/cpp/scitetip.htm (highlighting is mine) Seriously VERY good work! jaclaz P.S.: Just in case, it was only a little joke, if you feel seriously that citing the above is a Copyright infringement I will remove it as soon as you notify me.

Does this mean that you were caught committing an "actual crime" in the past? jaclaz

No, no confusion, as said two different "techniques" or "approaches". What you wanted to do (and jds is helping you about) is: boot the IO.SYS on the floppy from the booted from floppy environment load the rest of the system from USB device What I suggested you trying was another thing : boot the PLoP on the floppy (or add it as an option to the boot menu of your internal hard disk) from it load the IO.SYS and all the other files from USB device "Your" way you will have floppy access after boot (besides dutring it), "my" way (provided that it works ), you won't, and if it works and you add it to internal HD you won't need the floppy at all. If you prefer I was replying to the question: and not to : PLoP is written EXPRESSLY to detect and access a USB (or PCMCIA) device the BIOS knows nothing about. Whether it will work on your particular hardware/setup is to test and see. jaclaz

Well, yes, you have probably not "ported over" the Disk Signature, thus you need to fix "MountedDevices" key in the Registry. Are you familiar with the above? Easiest would be to copy now the disk signature from the old disk to the new one. Another way is to access OFFLINE the Windows 7 Registry and delete all keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices (they will be re-initialized correctly if your is a "standard" install, there may be problems with "strange" partitioning setups and/or drive letter changed during original install). Another way is to read the current disk signature and edit the relevant keys with the new value you find. Data is in the registry exactly as written in the MBR, see here: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=19663 (the format has not changed in 7). If you run the Windows 7 Recovery procedure from CD/DVD it should be able to fix the issue. jaclaz

We are talking two different "languages". I am talking of booting, you are talking of accessing "post boot". jaclaz

Are you sure it is an "actual crime"? It thought that deploying by mistake a copy of XP would have categorize as a license infringement (civill, NOT criminal) something you may be sued for and eventually have to pay a (huge) fine for: http://www.allbusiness.com/business-software-licensing/15636003-1.html or really will the F.B.I. guys or the U.S. Marshals break in and arrest you? jaclaz

NO way on XP if the USB device is seen as "removable". But this thread is an "exercise" to see what can be done "WITHOUT EXTRA TOOLS". If you want to "play the game" it's OK of course. If you want to actually have a working install from the USB stick, use any of the tools provided in this Forum, it will be faster. jaclaz

You don't actually need to "move" the MBR. (or more generally to "move" anything) You just partition the external hard drive, then you format the active priamry partition on it under any NT based system before Vista or 7 and you will get a PBR that invokes NTLDR. (and you are in the same condition as you are now): BIOS->MBR->Active Partition->PBR->NTLDR->BOOT.INI->grldr Or you use Vista or 7 and add grldr.mbr to the BCD. BIOS->MBR->Active Partition->PBR->BOOTMGR->\boot\BCD->grldr.mbr->grldr Or you use a PBR invoking grldr. BIOS->MBR->Active Partition->PBR->grldr Or you use a PBR booting DOS, and from it you run grub.exe. BIOS->MBR->Active Partition->PBR->IO.SYS->grub.exe Or you install grub4dos to the MBR <- this will load directly grldr. BIOS->MBR (grldr.mbr)->grldr (plenty of choices, as you can see) Read the guide: http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/Grub4dos.htm jaclaz

Guess why I was talking of PLoP and "BIOS extensions"? Your BIOS deos NOT know *anything* about USB. Your BIOS does not know *anything* about that PCI card. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _<-insert here somethign that wil add info about that card to the BIOS reported info DOS trusts (blindly) info that comes from BIOS. You do understand how *something* is needed on the dotted line? Now could this be PLoP? Cannot say, you need to try and see. jaclaz

Yep. Read the links I posted. Sure, as well as posting ANY other trick, advice or proper procedure. What the heck! It is "since the dawn of time" that there is XPLITE (Commercial): http://www.litepc.com/xplite.html and of course there are FDV's files (which have no limited license attached if I remember correctly) Let me try again. Someone attempts to do something. This something is done through applying procedure A, then procedure B. The result is not satisfying. The peep - being an IT technician - presumes that procedure A is the problem. Upon inspection of the procedures used a supposedly more knowledgeable member determines that the problem is procedure B, instead. I.e. there will be the SAME failure NO matter if procedure A is applied or not. Everytime procedure B is applied (since it is improper) there will be a failure. Procedure A has a limitation with license. Procedure B has no such limitations. Should I not suggest how to correct procedure B because the user has previously applied - breaching it's license - procedure A? I am perfectly OK with this approach, I didn't thought this was a policy of the board. Yeah, sure, nice attempt to preventively soften me. As well there are plenty of things I don't know and I'm not as well in the IT industry. You got it wrong , in case of war (but there is no war right now ), the difference is between right and left : About the particular issue at hand, in a perfect world an "IT technician" would wear a uniform, with a correspondent rank, like "lieutenant IT", upon public posting on a board like in this case, he would be judged by a martial court that would: downgrade him to "private IT" < for using a "non-commercial only" tool immediately discharge him (OTH) for manifest unsuitability <- for not having learned during training basic copying/cloning procedures remove from command the whatever commanding officer that actually approved the "IT leutenant" to the grade and role he so blatantly failed at. On the other hand, he posted with sincerity, without mis-representing his role and the environment he was working in, so maybe the court would show some clemency and, taking into account the fact that it is first offence : downgrade him to "private IT" < for using a "non-commercial only" tool keep him in the ranks < clemency send him to Leavenworth for three months, then back to training courses <- for not having learned during training basic copying/cloning procedures remove from command the whatever commanding officer that actually approved the "IT leutenant" to the grade and role he so blatantly failed at. Not being in a perfect world, and not even in the military, the most I can do is a stern look of disapproval: jaclaz

Care to share your view why? My point is as per post #4 - Item 1 & 5 Because the final result comes from an improper "handling" of the "cloning procedure". In other words, no matter if nlite was NOT used on the source, was used on it lawfully or was used on it in a complete and utter breach of it's license, the result would be anyway a failed logon because of the improper procedure followed when making and restoring the image(s). Or if you prefer, the issue should not even have been posted in the nlite forum, and "my" point is along the lines of post #2 - item 2 in it : As often happens the OP, being an IT technician, presumed a connection between the use of nlite and the issue he had, while there is IMHO none. jaclaz

Good. Are the current settings in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices "correct"? Meaning is the "C:\" drive (I presume that that is your "system" drive, first primary active partrition) pointing to the right disk signature and offset? It is possible that in your previous attempts of booting (with the C:\ entry pointing to the "old" disk signature) XP attempted to "self-heal" and "botched" some path to other apps, though it is unlikely. Can you try: verify HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices keys mount the Registry OFFLINE save current (if verified OK) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices re-appply the driveimageXML file BEFORE booting to the XP the first time apply the saved HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices to the offline registry If the behaviour is the same there is somehting else that has probably it's roots in the "base" image. You can then try to reinstall and try with an actual disk image. To troubleshoot the issue, most probably the only thing that can help is running procmon at boot time. Can you run TaskMgr and check WHAT actually get 100% CPU? It may help but not necessarily will lead to the cause. Possibly unrelated, but as a rule of thumb DELL sources are normally prone to cause problems. jaclaz

I asked you a question, can you reply to it? And no, there is no way that a restore or a new applying of a driveimageXML image can solve the logon problem, you used one of the two given solutions (probably the "wrong" one). jaclaz

HOW did you fix the logon issue? (choose one): Microsoft's way of removing/changing drive letter in Registry (wrong) <- this is intended as a way to manage to log in *somehow* Correcting disk signature/Mounted devices (right) <- this is how everything should be, right disk signature/partition coupled to "right" system partition AND drive letter See also here (ONLY seemingly unrelated): http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=19663 jaclaz

I would say that the use of nlite is completely irrelevant and NOT connected to the issue. NTBACKUP does a backup. DriveImageXML does an image of the drive (NOT of the disk ) Who/What/How is taking care of disk signature? http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=22984 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=22984page&st=6 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/249321/en-us http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555648/en-us Or clear HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices on the OFFLINE registry. jaclaz

Hmmm, maybe you are overcautious. http://en.kioskea.net/faq/781-what-is-pci Basically you are putting a card that supports speeds of 66 Mhz Mhz on a motherboard that has a clock at 33 Mhz. http://www.pcisig.com/specifications/PCI_Family_History.pdf http://en.kioskea.net/contents/pc/pci.php3 Most (but not all) cards can work at a lower then spec clock, "normally" there is no problem, as long as they "fit" in the slot (3.3V vs. 5 V vs. "universal" slot), compare with: http://www.roalan.com/Report%20pci%202.3%20030206d1%20ro.pdf As said previously, YMMV jaclaz