jaclaz

NEVER, and I mean NEVER do that "for fun" , for all we know the procedure could create problems on an otherwise "good" drive. Yes, it may happen. The usual way out is to put the disk in a USB enclosure and try it on an already booted system by hot-plugging it. If no BSOD happens, you can usually perform a "normal" (assuming that a drive letter is actually assigned and that it is "E:"): CHKDSK E: then, if it suggests to run with the /F parameter: CHKDSK E: /F then, and only then, try a: CHKDSK E: /R But, since your primary goal is to recover the most data on it, I would anyway, BEFORE running CHKDSK with ANY parameter, I would do a RAW image of it, and see what can be found on it with DMDE: http://softdm.com/ and make a copy of the DATA you can access before attempting the filesystem repair. jaclaz

@crazydrive The usual advice (for any given method) is: NEVER introduce ANY change of ANY kind when testing THEN, once succeeeded, ONLY introduce one change at the time Introducing more than one change makes impossible (or very difficult) to trace back which one creates the problem. There is NOT one reason on earth to update the driver, and definitely NOT when experimenting. Start again from scratch, use the provided version of driver, DO NOT change the .iso path, DO NOT introduce any variation of any kind. Report. This way - even if it doesn't work - it will be easier to find the problem. jaclaz

A standard eSata connector provides NO power. There exists the eSATAp connector, but it is not widely used (expecially on the "drive enclosure" side - average "low cost" hardwre you can find "round trhe corner", on recent laptops it usually is): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESATAp So you should verify that: your laptop actually has such a port the enclosure you want to by actually has such a provision Please also take into account that a number of motherboards/laptops and/or drive controllers may (by themselves or by the coupling) provoke a delay to the power actually delivered to the motor switching on, so that you cannot boot from them unless you power them before booting the PC. jaclaz

NO. NO. No risk to give unrelated advice this way, short and effective. jaclaz

Yep , but maybe we must find a way to have a current list and update it at each added post , to avoid making a mess with repetitions. I have no idea how this can be done in practice (in a handy way, I mean). jaclaz

What is the sense of the user NEEDS NOT to press F6 (unless he wants to) The above is written in first post. It is AFAIK plain English. As said, you may: believe the above NOT believe it Then: try it for yourself and see what happens But you cannot make guesses unless you know in detail how SETUP behaves AND have already tested the app. Now which hidden message may cdob want to convey? If you boot once from USB HOW MANY TIMES would the menu.lst entry be used? On the other hand, if you need to boot once from USB, may it imply that a re-boot is needed? TRY the thingy and see if a reboot is needed. Try reading AGAIN: http://reboot.pro/9076/ A summary (or synopsys) for you, in two sentences: it cannot work UNLESS someone finds a way to re-map the .iso there were contrasting reports, because people had ALSO the windows 7 .wim files extracted and thoughtlessly and falsely reported success The present thread is NOT about Windows 7, it is about "Install XP from a RAM loaded ISO image", let's stop talking about Windows 7, OK? jaclaz

I can find a mere two: Here and hare but since BOTH are repetitions, they don't count. The good news are that also Core, Cure and More are repetitions The bad news are that Sure is also a repetition So, unless I am mistaken , we shoud go back to Sura.... sorry jaclaz

The Synopsis is: try it, it works. The long story is: you cannot ask questions that you don't have the background enough to formulate properly/understand their answers. Mind you there is nothing "bad" in this , and obviously no offence intended, but you see, it took three posts to get to the point that the .iso is unmodified (this is plain English and needs not a particular background). How many will be needed to get that the F6 floppy is mapped to memory by the bolded lines: the above menu.lst entry is NOT crypted, but if you don't know/understand grub4dos syntax, you won't get that. If you don't know how windows install works, you will never get beyond the fact that the floppy disk image is NEVER booted. And these are details. You need to know what a "F6 floppy" is, how it works, how the XP setup works with it, in order to understand the method. In other words, you are basing most of your questions on a non-existing (or definitely confused) base of knowledge, so that they make very little sense and cannot be answered properly. It is a difficult and complex matter, let's say "very advanced". To tackle "base" concepts, you need an "elementary" previous knowledge of the things involved. To tackle "advanced" concepts, you need at leaste a "basic" previous knowledge of the things involved. To tackle "very advanced" concepts, you need at least an "advanced" previous knowledge of the things involved. This is how it works, sorry. This method uses BOTH Firadisk AND Imdisk. WHAT is then the sense of this? NO. Also remember that it is an EXPERIMENTAL driver, as clearly stated in the initial post. Firadisk development forum/threads: http://reboot.pro/forum/94/ http://reboot.pro/8804/ http://reboot.pro/9328/ No, I didn't, I stated that the Windows 7 install is completely different, which means ANOTHER thing, the general idea may work, but the details won't, and thus this method as-is won't work.. WHO said that one exists? AFAICR/AFAIK it doesn't: http://reboot.pro/9076/ jaclaz

HOW it is set? "Fixed" or "Removable" (I will tell you, without teamviewer, only through my crystal ball, that is "Removable" ) But you did not re-partitioned/formatted it with RMPREPUSB. On some BIOSes of the "bad BIOSes" group, it has been found that an entry for a (fake) second partition is needed for the BIOS to map the device as "Hard Disk" with USB sticks marked as "Removable". It may also be a completely different problem. Succeeded in WHAT? How EXACTLY was grub4dos installed? What EXACT version of grub4dos was tested? The space bar is normally the hot-key to boot the grub4dos MBR before the "previous MBR".: --hot-key=K if the desired key K is pressed, start GRUB before booting PREVIOUS MBR. K is a word value, just as the value in AX register returned from int16/AH=1. The high byte is the scan code and the low byte is ASCII code. The default is 0x3920 for space bar. See "int 16 keyboard scan codes" below. It should only make sense if --boot-prevmbr-first was used. --boot-prevmbr-first try to boot PREVIOUS MBR before the search for GRLDR. --boot-prevmbr-last try to boot PREVIOUS MBR after the search for GRLDR. It could be a timing problem of some kind? (but it doesn't make much sense, a stick has no delay in access, and anyway, IF the usual Try (hd0,0): .... etc. was shown, access to the device was available). Unfortunately "a bunch of lines" is again not a good enough description/report. jaclaz

I guess it will remain unclear , as your further questions means that it took you all of 30 seconds to NOT read what is already posted on this thread, the given links and the contents of SETUP.CMD. AGAIN, the .iso is UNTOUCHED. There is NO substitution of ANYTHING in the .iso. IMDISK is NOT a miniport driver (usable for booting), Firadisk (as well as WinVblock) are. The Windows 7 install is completely different. What "these guys" (actually cdob) accomplished is a way to install from an UNmodified .iso residing on a HD, he did an exceptionally good work in putting together "loose ends" here and there and in writing a working batch with a number of features. The topic is not "so lengthy" as I see it. Compare with these: Anyway now it's two post longer. You may be interested in this (unrelated, but not much): As I see it, you have two choices before you: try one of the given method "as-is" take your time and learn, building the needed background to understand how they work Have I mentioned that this method uses a DEFAULT, UNMODIFIED, UNTOUCHED .iso? jaclaz

That screenshot says that grub4dos grldr.mbr attempted finding grldr in: first hard disk (hd0) : only 1 primary partition : (hd0,0) second hard disk (hd1): (1 primary (hd1,0) and 1 Logical Volume inside Extended (hd1,4) and could not find it. The second disk (hd1) is the internal one and there isn't actually a grldr in it, right? In the relevant part of the "report": Which one is the USB HDD? If E: it means that there might have been a misunderstanding till now. grub4dos right now WILL NOT work with some BIOSes on partitions bigger than the LBA28 limit because the BIOS (in the USB part only) does not support LBA48. It is not a "fault" of grub4dos, simply the BIOS sends it some "incorrect" data You need to have a partition BELOW that limit, otherwise, each time you will find one of these BIOS you will have this same problem. jaclaz

You are right , they don't : I thought you were asking about the need of firadisk (or other driver). In other words they were an answer to a slightly different question. But also the question wasn't posed correctly, the .iso is NOT modified in this method, as in: In other words, this method is about using an UNmodified .iso, and the reason why second part of the setup will fail is that normally you won't have any driver connected to the CD-ROM device, so it won't BSOD, but you (actually SETUP) won't be able to access the .iso. There is a link in cdob's original post (currently invalid due to the board update) about the drivers from CD method: page__view__findpost__p__159358 The idea is to trick the install into running the fake SETUP.EXE to run SETUP.CMD before the real SETUP.EXE. You need to read the SETUP.CMD to understand what it does (basically it checks drive lettering and mounts the .iso with IMDISK) In other words, this method: mount the .iso with IMDISK run SETUP.EXE find files into .iso Normal (NOT working) : run SETUP.EXE NOT find files into .iso (as .iso is not accessible/mounted) Hope now it answers your question. jaclaz

I do understand what you want would like to achieve, rest assured. Whether this is possible or not depends on how your BIOS works. Since I have not a Toshiba Tecra M10 before me, I have no way to know what is in it's BIOS and which feature and which hot keys it sports unless you tell me. The proposed test was a way, if you describe the features of your BIOS, hot-keys, etc. it will be the same. jaclaz

NO. BUT, you may need/want to read this: http://reboot.pro/8944/ and this ONLY seemingly unrelated thread: http://reboot.pro/4952/ (for what you are asking XP install or a PE 1.x may be interchanged) jaclaz

What do you think this is? http://sites.google.com/site/rmprepusb/tutorials/multi_boot-wim jaclaz

Supa http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=supa I don't think that there is any related Sura http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sura Yes, I'm Sure. jaclaz

It shouldn't be a problem IF the BIOS supports e-sata booting. Which options do you have in BIOS? Try the following: get grub4dos (latest experimental version) from here: http://code.google.com/p/grub4dos-chenall/downloads/list from the downloaded package extract only grldr and copy it to root of the active partition of your internal HD (I presume C:\ ), i.e. where NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM and BOOT..INI are. edit BOOT.INI like here: http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/install_windows.htm#windows1 adding the line to it. Try booting without the external HD connected. Choose the grub4dos entry. At the command prompt type: root (h and press [TAB] key you should get something like: possible disks are : hd0 Switch PC off. Attach the e-sata HD and repeat the above, if you get: possible disks are : hd0 hd1 it means that the e-sata is enumerated by BIOS and you have good chances. jaclaz

We better get Outa here ... http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/outa jaclaz

Actually when in a dual boot one of the two items doesn't boot, "everything" is not OK, maybe "50%" is OK . AGAIN, there is NO SUCH thing as "A BLUE SCREEN ERROR" there is an uniquely identified BSOD with a given STOP ERROR number. Are you sure you are having the SAME 0x0000007b error you had with XP? : and not (for example) a 0xc000000e http://reboot.pro/13528/page__st__4 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=19439&st=0&p=137270entry137270 jaclaz

Yet another happy (non-reading-FAQ's ) bunny in the basket : http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128727&st=10 jaclaz

BTW the name of the ATV comes from the name of the animal, Puma is in italian (and in Spanish) "cougar" or "mountain lion". (and also it's scientific name, Puma concolor) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar Let's only NOT use the letter T in the middle and Spanish. let's go on with Yuma jaclaz

Living dangerously Cuma http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuma jaclaz

Naah , duplicated : jaclaz

Ha! but anyway that is still far, I can have before your M and O, Hums (surely good): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hum or as third person of to hum: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hum and Lums: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lum's maybe invalid jaclaz

Should not Dums (as in dum dums) be acceptable, I guess we better stop at Gums.... then jaclaz