jaclaz

Are you by any chance attempting to attach "binary" files, or however anything that is not any of: a .jpg or .gif or .png picture a plain text file (or similar, like .htm, xml, etc.) a compressed archive .zip or .7z ? Try compressing files into a .zip archive, and attach the actual .zip. Check that the .zip is within the size of your allowed upload. If not, post it on any free file hosting site and post a link to the uploaded .zip. @myselfidem Very good suggestions , though personally (better be safe than sorry ) I would make a dd-like (forensic sound) image of the WHOLE internal disk "as is", EXPECIALLY for the first experiment, and in case of any trouble simply restore the image. jaclaz

And are you going to post WHICH exact version you are now using or is this info considered confdential? You did actually re-register the "new" .dll, didn't you? http://www.ehow.com/how_6104004_replace-user32_dll.html jaclaz

May I ask WHY? jaclaz

Or maybe just using Windows 7 built-in tools. The more likely to be a good candidate for the "move" are IMHO (strangely enough ): the actual C: partition (remember this is the one you have to modify anyway to make space for the "backup partition" ) the "HP-tools" one Can you post some details or - ideally - a copy of the actual MBR as attachment inside a .zip or .7z? And please also: a screenshot in disk management a report about free space available in each partition I would like to check a couple of things, and think a bit about possible "alignment" problems before attempting to suggest you which one is better suited and a possible procedure. jaclaz

Yep , once you have a general idea (through the given links), if you have problems, do post a directory listing of the partition containing the files and some more details (like is it hidden normally, is it FAT32 or NTFS, etc.) A quick search for that models hints that what you have in it is most likely just the recovery partition with an image of the "factory status", but maybe it is still possible to re-create a working setup disk using those files. jaclaz

I am not very familiar with that version, but the "standard" filtering has changed a bit. http://www.contextures.com/xlautofilter01.html If you are familiar with VBA, and more generally with scripting, you may find this useful (which BTW is the living proof from the actual mouth of the wolf that BOTH CoffeeFiend and myself are actually right ): http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257819/en-us Also: http://vbadud.blogspot.com/2008/05/using-excel-as-database.html http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/beyond-excel/ A couple "old school" thingies (ITALIAN, sorry ) but the code should be easily understandable and google translate often does miracles . http://www.ennius.altervista.org/vba/vba78.php http://www.ennius.altervista.org/vba/vba79.php But there quite a bunch of methods/ideas/possibilities, another one: http://xldennis.wordpress.com/2010/09/25/create-sql-server-compact-edition-database-with-vba/ It is not clear to me (yet ) if you are actually plan to write a small VBA or you are going to just use "plainly" Excel "normal" features. jaclaz

Heck! Your crystal ball seems like MUCH better tuned than mine that rarely shows that kind of precision... And tarots and I-Ching are even worse.... jaclaz

I beg to differ For a trivial amount of data (like 1500 lines are) Excel is a rather handy solution, and it offers "by default" nice filtering criteria in a substantially more "user friendly" or "common use" way. Of course with Access one can create a "better protected from casual user mistakes" app, but is it worth the effort if you are not familiar with the app? I personally doubt it. @Aquilla Which Excel version (or Office version) are you using? FIrst basic tutorial I found (Excel 2003): http://spreadsheets.about.com/od/datamanagementinexcel/ss/excel_database.htm jaclaz

Not really, actually a couple solutions are still possible, though obviously workarounds, and NOT "additional primaries". A partition can be made "logical volume inside extended" and keep bootability (if needed). If using grub4dos is allowed, a "rotating set" of primary partitions is possible. @bookie32 Let me know if any of the above just hinted thingies may suite you and I'll post more info. jaclaz

The entries in BOOT.INI seem like "right". So the flashing cursor is likely to be a problem with (probably) the bootsector of the C: drive (or a missing Active partition in the MBR). Edit the BOOT.INI on the stick (NOT the one on C:\), adding to it a line: C:\grldr="grub4dos" If a file named menu.lst exists on the stick, rename it to menuold.lst. Boot from the stick, one way or the other (i.e. directly or through the above added entry) you should be able to get to a grub4dos prompt. In it type: geometry (hd0) [ENTER] and geometry (hd1) [ENTER] and post results. From them it should be easy to get if the stick is (hd0) and the actual hard disk is (hd1) that is how they should be and if the hard disk has the partition active. IF you are positive that the hard disk is (hd1) , try: map (hd0) (hd1) map (hd1) (hd0) map --hook rootnoverify (hd0) chainloader +1 boot (press [ENTER] after each line) the above should give the SAME effect of when you boot without the USB stick. Reboot and try: map (hd0) (hd1) map (hd1) (hd0) map --hook root (hd0,0) chainloader +1 boot (press [ENTER] after each line) Please note that in the above (hd0,0) means first partition of the hard disk, if you installed to any partition but the first one, it should be changed, like (hd0,1) for the second partition and so on. What happens? Reboot and try: map (hd0) (hd1) map (hd1) (hd0) map --hook root (hd0,0) chainloader /ntldr boot (press [ENTER] after each line) Please note that in the above (hd0,0) means first partition of the hard disk, if you installed to any partition but the first one, it should be changed, like (hd0,1) for the second partition and so on. What happens? Report. jaclaz

Can he/she? jaclaz

Well, this should put grub4dos on the USB stick. Good. As said this is strange. The general idea is that the stick "generated" by the batch is re-usable n times. It is likely that you somehow managed to "install" the XP boot files directly on the USB instead of on the actual hard disk, as daddy_fizz suggested. But no problem it can be easily corrected. Boot to the installed XP. Make sure you have "hidden and system files" visible. Check that in your USB stick root there are: NTLDR NTDETECT.COM BOOT.INI files (and that the same files are NOT in root of the hard disk) If the above applies, simply copy the files from the USB stick to the hard disk. Then, remove the system and hidden and read only attributes to BOOT.INI (open a command prompt, and assuming that the drive where XP is installed is actually C: type): attrib -s -h -r C:\boot.ini [ENTER] and open BOOT.INI in Notepad. Copy it's contents and paste them in your next post. Post also if the actual drive where XP is installed is actually assigned letter "C:" Confirm that you have a file "grldr" in root of the stick. jaclaz

Yep, this is more or less expected, that way you stop the spinning while the heads are still reading, I was thinking about disconnecting it from the heads BUT NOT from the motor, but sure it would be anyway risky. I'll keep an eye to see if anyone comes out with a solution.... Can you check the SMART (what I personally call "DUMB" ) status as in here?: http://www.pcs-computer.com/hardware/data-storage-systems-4171.html Or, in other words, does it "feel" like a BSY or a LBA0? jaclaz

Just a stupid idea, but HOW long (I mean seconds, tens of a second, hundreds of a second) does it take to get to the: ? I am thinking if having the PCB connected intially and disconnected during the "boot phase" may be possible. According to this (Russian but google translate does a fairly good work): http://hddhelp.com.ua/7200-12.htm the 7200.12 behaves very like the 7200.11, it is strange that the approach changed, however (still same source): http://www.hddhelp.com.ua/seagatelp.htm the LP series appears like being also defective, though AFAIK (yet ) there is nothing published about unbricking them. This should be the manual (if useful): http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support/disc/manuals/desktop/Barracuda%20Green/100649225b.pdf jaclaz

Plenty. Which app/method did you use? Which OS did you actually install? When you boot from the USB do you get a grub4dos menu? jaclaz

It may. Can you please re-post to a NEW thread aptly titled? Something like: This way it will have better visibility and will NOT be "buried" in this unrelated thread (where most people won't be able to find this info and where there will be NO discussion about this OTHER drive model, see read-me-first). jaclaz

I would add that some Services, besides the "dependency" problems allen2 pointed out , tend to re-set themselves. The USBbootwatcher service: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=22473&hl= besides it name (due to the fact that it was born to reset some drivers that Windows XP normally "forces" to 3) can set *any* service to *any* value during boot, compare with: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=22473&st=23 so it can be useful even outside or beyond it's original scope. jaclaz

Sorry if the provided info is not up to your standards or do not respect your preferences , this is ALL I have to offer . JFYI, the combined effect of the stoopid board software and the stoopid MS guys that use brackets in URLs result in a parsing error if you just post the link "as is". If you use the actual "link" button (the one that looks like a small chain with an utterly unrelated green ball on one end of it ): you can have this: http://64.4.11.252/en-us/library/dd744280(WS.10).aspx Or this: My link on Technet Or maybe this (more accurate as it will tell you that you are on technet: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744280(WS.10).aspx jaclaz

Sure , you can even reinstall , the WHOLE point of making an image of something is that after having restored the image ONLY you will have the system EXACTLY as it was before (at the time you took the image) and NOTHING ELSE is needed, not even setting the actual active partition and/or edit the BCD: jaclaz

Review this: you are probably missing some of the needed steps, as per SetAutoFailover.cmd, since you miss the option when booting, it should mean that you are missing the BCD entry, or maybe you used it NOT with the "alternate" (and working ) syntax found by Schiiwa: page__st__31 jaclaz

With all due respect , I have seen better innuendos at first post. Most accurate answer would be YMMV, (your mileage may vary) there is NO way to know what actually is inside your recovery partition, it could be contain BOTH an "install compatible" set of files and an "image" of the pre-configured system, or just the latter. See links given here about similar situations: jaclaz

I am not sure to understand what you mean. If you do an image properly of something you can always restore it (that's actually the idea of an image) . But if you delete the "hidden" partition (or however have it corrupted) and you restore the "second" "C:" partition ONLY, the system won't boot, as in the "hidden+C:" setup the actual active partition is the "hidden" one. jaclaz

What do you mean? You can try adding to that partition (when it is visible and with a letter assigned) a BOOTMGR and a \boot\BCD. Then use BCDEDIT to add a suitable BCD entry. Then you can try using grub4dos (loaded one way or the other) to chainload the BOOTMGR on the 0x27 type partition, but cannot say if it will work Check the links given here: jaclaz

@Tripredacus JFYI, a nice accessory, meet the keybrella : http://www.forensicfocus.com/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=5150&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=36 as said in the mentioned link, in my day .... ... and we LIKED IT! jaclaz

More generally it is possible that the program replaced your USER32.DLL with an older version. Check the version of the USER32.DLL you can find in your \<windows>\System32\ directory, for XP typically it should be 5.1.2600.2180 or later. jaclaz