jaclaz

Thanks. They contain what I needed, "original" ROOT directory entries for the various formats. I'll check and add this info. BTW, some (not so loosely connected) experiment: http://reboot.pro/15123/ jaclaz

While I wrote that with unmounted hives from other profiles in the same system, it of course applies to any unmounted hives, so certainly a mounted WIM image qualifies, too. With all due respect : RAWREG is unfinished (and severely bugged ) work The already mentioned Offline Registry uses a MS freely available Library and is command line, i.e. an exact correspondent to what was asked (command line editing). Whether a command line app is less friendly than a GUI app is of course well debatable. jaclaz

First paragraph is doable. Since you will boot FROM the USB bus, you will need NOT a "USB DOS driver", but rather an "USB boot manager/BIOS extension" (please read as "PLoP"). Will it work on that machine? Who knows? jaclaz

Not only , the problem is also that you don't have the faintest idea of WHAT you got (since you got it "randomly", i.e. without doing what was suggested you) Anyway I'll try to cheer you up for your loss. Rule Eleven: jaclaz

Just for the record, the Gimp has a price that cannot be beaten: http://www.gimp.org/downloads/ and no, I don't want to start the usual Gimp vs. Photoshop flamewar, just wanted to add the option for larryb123456. jaclaz

Version should be allright. Maybe it's a different issue, i.e. the PE *somehow* not getting the "right" sector size from the disk (or from the disk controller)? The "Advanced format" drives are 4096 bytes/sectors, right? OR, is the partition NOT at the beginning of the disk? http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766465(WS.10).aspx In other words, does this happen on a RAW disk when you run the EXACT command: create partition primary size=<size> offset=n align=1024 of course with the actual value for <size> or, if you prefer what happens if you only run: create partition primary size=<size> which alignment is created? jaclaz

Well, let's first try booting WIndows 98 with an "external" bootsector. Run bootpart as follows: BOOTPART WIN98 C:\BOOTSECT.W98 "Windows 98 added" Parameters explained: WIN98 <- use the bootsector for Windows 98 C:\BOOTSECT.W98 <- create a file named BOOTSECT.W98 on C:\ drive, containing the Windows 98 bootsector CODE and current partition bootsector DATA "Windows 98 added" <- create an entry in BOOT.INI with label "Windows 98 added" pointing to C:\BOOTSECT.W98 In other words, after you have run bootpart as per above, you will have an added entry in BOOT.INI like: C:\BOOTSECT.W98="Windows 98 added" Try rebooting and choosing it. Post what happens. jaclaz

Maybe you have the "wrong" (actually "right", but "old style" ) settings in the Registry? Compare with: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21186&hl= http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21186&st=18 The manual way should have worked allright though: Which EXACT version of diskpart do you have running? jaclaz

A new approach : copy *everything* with XCOPY fast delete what you DO NOT need jaclaz

Yes/No. There are more files, though it is unlikely you will need to mount/modify them. (SECURITY and SAM), while it is possible that you will want to edit DEFAULT. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms724877(v=vs.85).aspx Be aware (if needed) about HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT (that in ONline registry is actually a LINK to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes and does not exist OFFline) jaclaz

Nice! Hey, can I use this as Standard Reply #43 (an alternative to my standard reply #32)? http://reboot.pro/2587/page__st__1 I mean, without needing to pay you a fee for this? jaclaz

Heck, NO! CurrentControlSet DOES NOT EXIST at an OFFLINE Registry! When a NT system boots it checks the Registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Select and based on it's contents it creates a LINK named CurrentControSet that actually redirects to ControlSetxyz (normally it is ControlSet001 and normally there are only two ControSet's, ControSet001 and ControlSet002) jaclaz

Yes, you can. Can you use them simultaneously? jaclaz

Post a couple examples of tweaks that you have in "command line form". (and I presumme are targeted to "online" system). jaclaz

The entry: Is strange. Usually it points (to load Windows 98 or DOS) to a bootsector FILE. Yours points directly to the bootsector ON DISK. This should mean that you have "something else" (bootmanager/bootloader) that actually loads XP (or that I completely failed to understand how your setup is ). Anyway, your "C:" drive or however the same drive where BOOT.INI is should be FAT16 or FAT32 and ALSO contain in ROOT files IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS and COMMAND.COM. Can you confirm this? If yes, all you have to do is get bootpart: http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm and use it to recreate BOTH a new bootsector file to boot Win98 AND a new entry in BOOT ini. just run bootpart in a command prompt window and post results. Read the (very short) bootpart.txt documentation, and, if you are sure about it's usage, just run it with the appropriate syntax or wait for instructions (based on the above output you get). jaclaz

The BCD is - in plain words - the "new" version of BOOT.INI, the actual configuration file that tells the Windows OS WHAT to boot (and WHERE to find it). Do take a few minutes here: http://www.multibooters.co.uk/bootmgr.html for the basics and here: http://www.multibooters.co.uk/multiboot.html where the boot process for both NT/2K/XP2003 (NTLDR+BOOT.INI) and Vista :ph34r:/2008/7 (BOOTMGR+\boot\BCD +WINLOAD.EXE) is explained graphically. Then check this: http://www.multibooters.co.uk/mbr.html and finally go on to read this: http://www.multibooters.co.uk/cloning.html The part: should be of particular interest to you , as well as the one about re-specializing the BCD. The "queer" thing, as said, is that the PC has XP as OS but a Vista (or 7) based recovery partition. You have to check if in the "small" partition you do have a BCDEDIT.EXE and see if it does run from XP or use one of the other mentioned BCD editors. jaclaz

The MBR is first sector in a disk. (sector 0) It is BEFORE any partition, it actually contains the partition table.. The MBR contains in NT based systems a DISK SIGNATURE. This "unique" ID may be used during booting (it is too long to list when it is actually used and when not, it is actually "always" used, but sometimes you can change it, and sometimes if you need to change it you need to change several different settings, depending on the NT OS involved). The procedure you described should have produced a DIFFERENT disk signature. It is possible that this is the cause or part of the cause. Still, I am not sure WHY you have a WINLOAD.EXE (which belongs to a Vista or 7 recovery partition) and have XP installed. Did the PC originally come with WHICH OS installed? DO you have a CD/DVD of the OS install (if Vista or 7) We need to check: current disk signature (and if still possible old MBR and disk signature) current settings in \Dosdevices\ keys in the XP Registry (should be the same as current signature in the MBR) current settings in the \boot\BCD in the Recovery partition (it may have a reference to the "old" signature) From what you post you are not too familiar with these aspects. You can use MBRFIX: http://www.sysint.no/nedlasting/mbrfix.htm to check current signature (and if you still have the old disk also the "old" one) Any of the apps here: http://reboot.pro/7476/ (you need one that does not use BCDEDIT if you don't have it) to check contents of the BCD Regedit to check contents of all keys in the form " \DosDevices\n:" you can find here: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices Post asking questions if anything in the above is not clear... jaclaz

Are you serious? Until the mentioned library came out it was the ONLY available method to change contents of an offline Registry. And yes, nothing has changed from XP. You load the Registry file hive (usually to HKLM) giving a name to it. Then you do the whatever you want to do to it (of course all the REG commands need to be targeted to the loaded hive). Then you unload the hive. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732643(WS.10).aspx You can get *any* tutorial that uses regedit, the procedure is exactly the same, only reg.exe is command line, regedit is GUI (2K - see below - used REGEDT32)., example: http://smallvoid.com/article/winnt-offline-registry-edit.html http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759303(WS.10).aspx The advantage of using the Offline Registry library seems to me evident, as you don't need to re-target the REG editing commands to the mounted hive. jaclaz

Well, it's not that difficult. The given page has also a downloadable example, which contains a single Module, which contains the code, I would experiemnt with it, all you have to do is replace Sub names where appropriate and replace the "main" Sub "CopyPriceOver" with your "sort" thingy. BEFORE intoducing any variation.... Your Sub, unless I am mistaken is called "sort" so the reference to "Run_Macro" seems like meaning "A suffusion of yellow" (or a self-referencing infinite loop ) jaclaz

Hmm, obviously you can use the REG command, if you LOAD the corresponding hives. However : http://reboot.pro/11212/ http://reboot.pro/11312/ there is a library to do that and erwan.l wrote a small app to make use of it. jaclaz

If it is VBA, maybe it is better suited here: http://www.msfn.org/board/forum/116-microsoft-office-97-2010/ (this forum is VB or VBS) However you can use the Application.OnTime allright: http://excelexperts.com/VBA-Tips-Run-Code-Every-Hour-Minute-or-Second jaclaz

WHAT archive? Whenever you have a problem with something post a reference or a link to it. jaclaz

Please post some DETAILS, like: size of old hard disk size of new hard disk size of respective partitions HOW EXACTLY did you clone the partitions. Is the Disk Signature in the MBR the same? Post contents of the BCD of the recovery partition (I am assuming that since it is about WINLOAD.EXE it is a WINPE 2.x or 3.x or WINRE thingy, which should mean that that PC originally shipped with Vista or 7 and you changed the OS to XP?). See also this thread, as it may contain related info: jaclaz jaclaz

If you are going to a "professional" (remember to choose wisely : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097576/quotes?qt=qt0357926 trying the F712 thingy won't make much of a difference, the pro's have many, many more tricks up their sleeves than we "amateurs" can imagine (or actually afford ) The PCB swap is perfectly doable by an "advanced amateur", but due to it's complexity (de-soldering and re-soldering a tiny SMT component is not really easy-peasy), and to the number of things that could go wrong (wrong "new" PCB, overheating, and what not) it is not really "advised". That, IF it goes wrong may add a considerable amount of $$ to the money the "pro" will ask you for the (hopefully succesful) recovery attempt. jaclaz