jaclaz

I probably realized it before you were even born . http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/08/05/how-to-extract-images-from-pdf-files-without-using-copy-and-past/ I guess you should sue either the author of the above post or the author of the program or the author of the .pdf, then. Please note how you asked: and: BOTH your bolded requests were fulfilled, obviously there is no warranty whatever that this approach will work on your particular file, and with the particular image you want to extract. If your file does not contain "trade or military secrets" or "personal sensible data" and if it is redistributable, why don't you post it on a file sharing site and give a link to it? Maybe someone will have a look at it and suggest you another tool/way. jaclaz

NOT ONLY EasyBCD exists. You should have some means to load something on that hard disk, like a USB stick (accessible from the booted XP) or a CD/DVD, don't you? Can you access the partition on which you have installed Vista from the XP one, right? If I get right your partitioning scheme you have an active, primary partition where Vista was installed ( your C:\ drive) to which, by following a tutorial (partially incorrect and actually "worsened" in the updated version): http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vista_and_xp_with_vista_installed_first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm?page=4 you overwrote the actual bootsector of the C:\ partition so that it now invokes NTLDR (and not anymore BOOTMGR). Easiest would be to copy to the C:\ drive grldr from grub4dos: http://nufans.net/grub4dos/current_release/ and add an entry to it to BOOT.INI (the boot configuration file XP's NTLDR uses): http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/install_windows.htm#windows1 In other words, you need to find a way to copy to your C:\ drive some 220 kb of data, if you can get that I will guide you to be able to boot again Vista, and from it you can run EasyBCD or even a "better" tool (not requiring .NET), a few: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=7476 and a "proper" bootsector fixing tool. jaclaz

Look, you have been already given a good hint. Get GHOSTSCRIPT and GSVIEW: http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/ http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsview/ and/or click here: http://tinyurl.com/245ruo9 http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/08/05/how-to-extract-images-from-pdf-files-without-using-copy-and-past/ jaclaz

There is NOT only this thread in the world (or even on MSFN) . If there is even a small possibility that an external USB disk will EVER be connected or booted to a system/OS that doesn't have larger than 128 Gb partition support you risk that you will get a correupted partition. ALWAYS have a first partition (Primary, Active) below the LBA28 limit, to play safe. jaclaz

Some info can be gathered by ImageX: http://apcmag.com/exploring_vistas_wim_format_with_imagex.htm As often happens info on MS is to say the least incomplete: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749478(WS.10).aspx?ITPID=win7dtp but this one is not too bad : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=184706a3-6e05-4d9d-a034-830f4290ee42&DisplayLang=en http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/e/f/fefdc36e-392d-4678-9e4e-771ffa2692ab/Windows%20Imaging%20File%20Format.rtf 7-zip source code could be another place to look for. These may also help (or completely fail to): http://www.codeproject.com/KB/vista/wimgapi.aspx http://www.wincert.net/forum/index.php?/topic/6297-guide-wimgapi-in-vb-net/ http://www.petri.co.il/image-based-installations-with-windows-imaging-format.htm jaclaz

NO. But you can try using as "base" the .esp (or .erp) files in the "old_rally2.zip" (which is for the UT163) AFAIK there are a lot of similarities between the UT163 and the UT165. That file should be corresponding (roughly) to the UT163 MPTool v3.9.35.0: http://flashboot.ru/Files-file-147.html If you get the UT165 1.65.29.0 it should be similar. http://flashboot.ru/Files-file-457.html Of course some data (like the name of the istorage) will be "wrong". Get the above two tools and use Uniextract: http://legroom.net/software/uniextract to expand the .exe without installing it, compare the various .esp and .erp files.... jaclaz

Well you don't need that much. You just run any MD5 (or CRC-32) tool on the bunch of files and then sort them by hash. All you need is a few lines of batch and any spreadsheet. Typically a (e-bay) .html page is made of: some "code" (same or very similar on each page) some "text" (peculiar to the specific page) some "static" images (buttons, logos, etc.) one or a few "specific" images (photo of actual object) With this method you can "rule out" the "static" images rather quickly. Then, checking the actual HTML of the page you can get the "original name" of the "specific" image. Since most of them are made with digital cameras, they will have EXIF data (and more often than you would think they would have been NOT renamed, or you can get a hint from the date, etc.) Just as an example, try comparing data in the HTML of this page (a "random" one): http://cgi.ebay.it/Set-of-2-MINOLTA-16MG-MG-FILTERS-UV-Y48-YELLOW-/220664154738?pt=Camera_Filters&hash=item33609bca72 with the actual image: http://www.glynncamera.com/ebay/2010_09_0116_07_350045.JPG and with the EXIF data in it: (in this case the filename is partially composed by the actual date/time of the shot) jaclaz

NO, you are saying that . The only way for us to know is if you try it and report.... Try following this (I presume this is the "main" sticky you mentioned), it should work allright , but cannot really say until you try: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=107504 As a side note, if the machine is powerful enough (as it probably is) and the program for your kid is not too demanding in terms of computing power, you can use XP in a Virtual Machine allright. jaclaz

Good , EXACTLY what is NOT advised. Unless of course: it is ACTUALLY a 320 Mb HD jaclaz

Well, format.com is NOT redistributable, so what is the point in "integrating" it? (it will make your app UNredistributable and breaking the MS EULA). OT, but not much, and with all due respect to your program and effort, are you really sure that your app is *needed*? I mean we have now a number of well tested USB stick partitioning/formatting utilities: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=9460 jaclaz

If it's a bootsector virus of some kind you wouldn't get as far as the MUP.SYS. Anyway nothing prevents you from booting from another device (CD, USB stick, etc.) grub4dos or Syslinux/Isolinux and chainload the loader (or use a "real" or "mapped to memory" floppy image with NTLDR+BOOT.INI+NTDETECT.COM). Before doing anything else, I would rather try "virtualizing" a copy of the install in a VM, like Qemu, using something like OfflineSysprep to uninstall "standard" drivers and HAL. jaclaz

It isn't. I gave a you a number of links to a few Freeware/Open Source programs. As said they tend to be less "smart" than their corresponding Commercial counterparts, but this is a good thing as it gives you more control. Of course TESTDISK can't do anything on your type of corruption, that's why I gave you a couple of suggestions about possible programs to try (that are more "filesystem oriented" than PHOTOREC). You should also consider ANYWAY, to recover the RAW files and - since most probably those e-bay pages have some "pattern" - write your own script to parse the .html and find the corresponding linked files to be renamed, in these cases (with repetitive "parts" of the page, usually most files can be identified by their size, once you have rebuilt manually a few pages+directories. I am not saying it will work or that it is "easy", mind you, only that it is an attempt worth trying anyway. In other words, I'm trying to shift your attention from the whining about how much Commercial Data Recovery programs suck (and some of them really do ), bringing you back to your actual problem (recovering the data by trying to use each and every tool available +1) before giving up. jaclaz

If I may, you seem to see the world a bit too "black and white". Data recovery is an "art", and UNLIKE a lot of other fields there is a "base uncertainty". I'll explain myself. If you want to write a program that converts (say) .bmp into .jpg, you don't have any problem, you have a documented input format and a documented output format, you can write a program for it allright and if you are a good programmer, results are BOTH correct and repeatable. Data recovery starts from an UNKNOWN status of the corrupted input (media, filesystem, data) and TRIES to convert it into a CORRECT output. Procedure is repeatable 100% if the EXACT SAME kind of corruption happened, percentage of success and repeatability of the procedure decrease quickly if you alter the source in some different ways. Most programs ATTEMPT to recover data, based on some ASSUMPTIONS about the kind of corruptuon that happened. In this field you have to keep in mind that: there is no "law" that 100% success is certain (and not even probable) there are high probabilities that a given program "X" will perform far better on "corruption type A" and VERY badly on "corruption type B", but it is also likely that program "Y" (that failed miserably on "corruption type A") will do wonders on "corruption type B". Once you have attempted using ALL the mentioned programs on a few tens or hundred cases, THEN you will be able to find which ones performs "usually" better. "General Rules" are given here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=84345 http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=84345&st=7 This said, we must draw a neat line about the two "main" kinds (or phylosophical approaches)of tools available: I know better than you type - so called "smart" programs (including wizards, automagically chosen settings and detection and what not) I am just a tool, it's in your hands what I can do. Obviously type #1 above are spectacular (when they work), can be used by everyone, and require no or very little background knowledge. Type #2 can - as well obviously (and in the hands of people that know where their towel is ) - do miracles and succeed where no program of type #1 worked (but the merit is not in the tool, but rather in the experience and knowledge of the user). In your specific case, I would think that something more "specific" should be used - or at least attempted. Two resources: http://dmitrybrant.com/fatwalker http://www.partitionsupport.com/utilities.htm There is also this rather lesser-known tool: http://softdm.com/ DMDE is an excellent disk editor with a number of features aimed to data recovery. Please remember that is very possible that the actual filesystem structure is beyond possible recovery, and you need to try a file based recovery, in this PHOTOREC (companion app of TESTDISK) excels. jaclaz

Sometimes decisions are not actually *taken*, they just *happen*: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109830/quotes?qt0373705 (and usually in MS - no matter if "right" or "wrong" - perpetuated mindlessly ). Just for your entertainment , a wholly fictional (unrelated) story: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=2362 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=2362&st=7 jaclaz

No, it was intended as a quick and dirty workaround for this SPECIFIC case of this SPECIFIC user on the SPECIFIC combo of hardware+missing software+missing experience. If you re-read the thread you will see how OP had a "shaky at best" usb support in Windows Me, strange (I would say "queer") behaviour of RPM under DOs, so I throwed in the Partition Logic as an "independent tool". BTW, at least on my hardware, partition logic detects external USB hard disks with the "right" 255 heads geometry. About using "correct", or "standard", or "better be safe than sorry" settings, it usually pays. There are more "queer" BIOSes than stars in the sky, and to it you add the awful number of mis-programming or "non-standard" programming a number of apps related to partitioning and formatting show (mind you mostly due by the actual lack of a "real" standard). For a strange paradox, usually people with less experience usually want to have disks partitioned in the most extravagant ways, and since the ONLY value you have is the actual data you store on a device, I tend to be very, very strict (and cautious) expecially when other people's data is at risk. Just to have an idea of what can happen - this is a "by design" feature of XP ("strict" approach) that can easily turn a disk partitioned under Vista /7 ("loose" approach) into a meaningless sequence of bytes : http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=9897 In other words until you are positive that there is NO way that a "strict" utility/app will ever be used on the "loosely" partitioned, you'd better be "strict". Also remember that NT based OS bootsectors are "sensible" to CHS values, in the FAT32 and NTFS versions: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21702&st=129 jaclaz

Yep , you are correct. 255x16x63=16x255x63 allright, and that's about 128 Mb. But, stricly speaking, the 255x16=4080, when in the 16 Heads geometry, it is beyond the 1024 Cylinder limit, thus the OS is "forced" to use LBA type partition ID's. It is true that this would only be needed for first partition, but since the idea was to partition a big disk in 4 partitions, where it was likely that each partition was biggish, and judging from the fact that notwithstanding the spreadsheet I posted final user was unable to replicate the experiments I suggested, the "simplified" approach wasn't even simplified enough . jaclaz

It's strange the "165" is it a "0165"? It "sounds" like a "diesel": http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?66575-OCZ-Diesel-8G-very-slow-write-speed-4MB-s WHICH among these tools did you try? http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?58797-MPtool-for-ATV-Rally-2-Diesel-drives Or something else? The 1307/0165 is associated with USBest UT165: http://flashboot.ru/index.php?name=iflash But cannot say about specific settings (IF the actual OCZ given tool does not work). jaclaz

Maybe XPCLI? http://www.911cd.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=21157&st=20 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=3717 jaclaz

You are still missing some info . You DO NOT want "grub" you want grub4dos (it is NOT the same). First thing read these two threads: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=8944 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5041 (both stickies in the grub4dos forum): http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showforum=66 Then read here on MSFN (in this same MSFN Forums » Member Contributed Projects » Install Windows from USB forum): http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=137714 http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=120444 (also both stickies) Then re-read: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=8944 once again, the XP .iso works in a different way from the 7 .iso and another .iso may work the same way as one of the said two or in a third (or nth) different way. In a nutshell, a 7 .iso should work "as is", an XP one needs to be specially crafted/modified. jaclaz

Exactly. By convention Red means +Vcc and Black means -Vcc or 0V or Ground. If you check the photos, you will see in top photo that connections are (from left to right:Rx-I/Tx-D/GND/VCC) In the second photo you can see that the Red wire goes to last connection (VCC) and that the black one goes to the one next to it (GND). Please do read the read-me-first, particularly point 7.: jaclaz

This is a recurrent question. Some, more than solutions, workarounds: http://www.dostips.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=602 http://www.ericphelps.com/batch/samples/samples.htm http://www.robvanderwoude.com/vbstech_ui_password.php http://www.computing.net/answers/dos/how-do-i-hide-keyboard-input-in-a-batch-/7152.html http://stackoverflow.com/questions/664957/can-i-mask-an-input-text-in-a-bat-file http://www.devproconnections.com/article/jscript/scripting-password-prompts-.aspx http://www.westmesatech.com/editv.html Amazing what a simple google seach can find.... jaclaz

I had thought that usbstor.sys ONLY dealt with usb (mass) storage devices .... A possible alternate solution is using a migrate.inf file: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=19663 jaclaz

NOT bad , two posts and managing to double post AND use unneeded bolding/fonts, a 100% hit, two posts:two broken Rules guidelines! http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?app=forums&module=extras&section=boardrules Maybe some Mod may want to merge your other post: with this one. Isn't your controller part of the ones detailed in this sticky : MSFN Forums» Member Contributed Projects» nLite http://www.msfn.org/board/forum/89-nlite/ Integration of Intel's SATA AHCI and RAID drivers jaclaz

Isn't it easier to just get the link to the "final" page ? : http://pdfreaders.org/index.en.html jaclaz

To expand on it : http://homepages.tesco.net/J.deBoynePollard/FGA/questions-with-yes-or-no-answers.html The theory is simple. A "normal" XP install CD has a "database" of drivers. During install, the setup detects hardware and tries to find in this "database" the "right" driver. So, when you add a driver to an XP CD, all you do is to add an entry in this "database", the resulting CD will work EXACTLY as before BUT will be able to install ALSO the particular driver you added. Check also the BTS driverpacks: http://driverpacks.net/ jaclaz