jaclaz

Qemu works allright here. You might want to use it together with Qemu Manager: http://www.davereyn.co.uk/ site is down right now, but you can get it from here: http://www.brothersoft.com/qemu-manager-download-163091.html Essentially Qemu has the most "legacy" emulated hardware (when compared to the others), and of course it is a bit slower than most of the others. jaclaz

NO , I don't think it will work. That module has 0-5V TTL levels (TTL-CMOS): http://www.aurelwireless.com/downloads/manuali-uso/650200625G_mu.pdf You want one with 3.3v TTL levels (TTL), reference: http://www.interfacebus.com/voltage_threshold.html jaclaz

Yes. No. JFYI, about the foolishness of using CA-42 cables: (you can use SOME hammers to open a can, but not ALL hammers will do and anyway usually can-openers work better) The CATCH22 is: if you know how to check if a Nokia cable is a good one, you don't need one, and you can either build an interface yourself or are wise enough to buy a proper interface. jaclaz

@cammymc The idea, after a "seagate fix", if seagate tools detect an error, is to get the DATA you need and then send the drive to seagate for replacement. NOT that of trying booting from it NOR trying to do a Repair install on it. You should have another hard disk of adequate capacity to backup the data you can recover. If you need help in trying to recover the most data possible, just say so. jaclaz

Can you post a link on microsoft.com where this "trial" is available? jaclaz

That one has a different DCM: http://www.harddrive-repair.com/hard-drive-parts.html Yours is DHNNNT2AHN The one you linked to is DBRNHT2AAN: There is contrasting info on the DCM last few (3 or 5) digits needing to be the same, but this should apply only for a head swap: http://forum.hddguru.com/western-digital-pcb-swap-rule-t8951-20.html Your PCB is 2061-701444-700 AD, so it is matching. jaclaz

No, nothing connected on how the drive is partitioned. Try using this alternate method: http://www.mapleleafmountain.com/seagatebrick.html jaclaz

cfadisk.sys is "as generic" as dummydisk.sys is. http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=126868 http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=126868&st=12 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=22541 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=8752 Of course they won't work for x64. Cannot remember if someone ever compiled either of them for 64 bit. jaclaz

Cross-linking: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=23759 jaclaz

Good to know. That's "typical" of desktops (front ports NOT working ports at the back usually working) but never heard about a laptop behaving like that. jaclaz

@computerguru I would like to have an expanded explanation of these parts: 8 bytes entry will be written to C:\ drive system volume information windows loader will be w7ldr 8 Bytes boot entry will be written on drive D:\ It tries to boot from the C:\ and D:\ drive at the same time chkdsk thinks it may be a file system error but fails to boot jaclaz

If the drive is detected by BIOS, AND is detected by Windows (seen as unallocated space in Disk Management), the drive is functional, as long as this thread is concerned. You will need to use TESTDISK and/or similar partition recovery software to (if possible) re-map the partition(s) you had on the disk, otherwise you will need file based recovery tools. If you need help, start a new thread, here are a couple ones from which you may get the basics: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=142083 http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=141687 jaclaz

Well, no. It isn't a derivative of FreeDOS and it is not Open Source. Home page: http://dos.nm.ru/ There are contrasting views on it's origins: http://www.drdosprojects.de/forum/drp_forum/posts/1005.html http://www.drdosprojects.de/forum/drp_forum/posts/1008.html jaclaz

Shouldn't it be posted under "News"? http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=139017 jaclaz

It's not your fault. Stupid board software updated made the links not working: translates to: or in this case it's second post in the thread, i.e. at offset= 1 then: Here: or http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=138604&st=1

If I were you I would sue the site administrator of the place from which you downloaded it for inducing you to think that any app would work in that build. Would requesting help here be exactly one of the things that are against the Board Rules ? : http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/18408-forum-rules-updated-must-read/ Judge yourself. jaclaz

Maybe a VLK license? jaclaz

Of course not. After you download it, you will have to stop at the gate and pay the toll. Sure, it is Freeware. @richland007 The invite is still valid: jaclaz

What you report seems like a "quirk" of the BIOS, but it seems to me unlikely that different PC's behave the same. You asked for "any ideas". My first idea is to check, double check and triple check the id's of the floppies you have BOTH in TXTSETUP.SIF: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/916196/en-us and in txtsetup.oem. My second idea is to leave the floppy alone (since it doesn't work) and use instead an image loaded with grub4dos. In the meantime Firadisk driver was developed that guarantees the "hooking" of the floppy image under "any condition". You can derive it's usage to start experimenting from this seemingly unrelated thread: Another possibility is to actually boot from the floppy (thus hooking it through the BIOS services) creating a NT boot floppy (and adding to it the Mass Storage or whatever drivers): http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy33.htm adding to it a grub4dos grldr to chainload the SETUPLDR.BIN or directly using a grub4dos floppy. jaclaz

Check here : http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=82711 jaclaz

Sure , they are perfectly UNneeded, they are simply a (better be safe than sorry ) protection against surges or wrong connection/return currents, and CUT the TTL voltage to 2.7V. Compare with this: http://elisegt.interfree.it/html/nokia.html Since the specs for TTL are for 3.3V BUT up to 5 V can be given, the 3V zeners will anyway protect the interface and device from accidents without causing any problem: http://www.interfacebus.com/voltage_threshold.html Most of the Commercial interfaces and of the Max232 schemes around don't have them. jaclaz

Which schematics? Which diodes? If you mean the poorman's way depicted here (among tens of others): http://picprojects.org.uk/projects/simpleSIO/ssio.htm http://www.uchobby.com/index.php/2007/06/11/ttl-to-rs232-adaptor-explained/ http://techref.massmind.org/techref/io/serial/ttl2rs232.htm There is ONE diode and it is a 1N4148 or 1N4001, the most "generic" diodes around, that you can replace with almost anything http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/component_replacements.html Personally: I wouldn't use a 1N4001 (i.e. any rectifying diode as it may be too slow) if I were you I would buy a pre-made interface or kit (if you have to ask about diodes it means you cannot build one by yourself) you already have a faulty HD, there is not much sense to risk to completely ruining it due to a half-***ed interface jaclaz

Yes and no. What you can try using is PLoP: http://www.plop.at/ http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html It should work, but I don't think it will work in a sequence like the one you proposed (pre-booting from USB Flash, then switch to CD/DVD). I presume you will have to copy it to the internal hard disk. Since it is chainloadable from both DOS and NT/2K/XP/2003's NTLDR/BOOT.INI (and from /Vista/2008/7), you shouldn't have a problem in using it even without actually installing it. jaclaz

If you have it on desktop, it is likely to return something like: which BTW has an additional problem, i.e. contains a space, not a problem in itself but may become one further in the script. Please also understand that BESIDES THE FACT THAT THERE IS NO NEED WHATSOEVER to use a FOR /F loop to get %~dp0, as already said, the result of Set drive=%~dp0 which is the recommended way, as well as the overcomplex one you chose, will be a path with a trailing backslash, which, consequently, will result in something like: drive=C:\whatever\ wpipath=C:\whatever\\wpi which is invalid. Of course if the batch is in a folder called wpi on desktop, the result of Set drive=%~dp0 will be: drive=C:\whatever\wpi and wpipath=C:\whatever\wpi\\wpi jaclaz

Let's try playing the game the other way round. You originally asked about this: for /f "delims=: tokens=1" %%i in ("%~dp0") do set drive=%%i: Try putting it, slightly modified in a batch like this and sabe the batch as C:\Batches\forf.cmd: @ECHO OFF for /f "tokens=1,2,3 delims=:\" %%i in ("%~dp0") do ( ECHO this is "i" i.e. token #1 "%%i" ECHO this is "j" i.e. token #2 "%%j" ECHO this is "k" i.e. token #3 "%%k" ECHO this is parameter 0, i.e. the command line that started the batch "%0" ECHO this is parameter ~d0, i.e. the Drive of command line that started the batch "%~d0" ECHO this is parameter ~dp0, i.e. the Drive and Path of command line that started the batch "%~dp0" set drive=%%i: ) SET drive and run it: C:\batches>forf this is "i" i.e. token #1 "C" this is "j" i.e. token #2 "batches" this is "k" i.e. token #3 "" this is parameter 0, i.e. the command line that started the batch "forf" this is parameter ~d0, i.e. the Drive of command line that started the batch "C: " this is parameter ~dp0, i.e. the Drive and Path of command line that started the batch "C:\batches\" drive=C: C:\batches> Now, you should have understood, and you can change the original snippet to: for /f %%i in ("%~d0") do set drive=%%i which is a simplified version, or go all the way and use: SET drive=%~d0 which is the normal way to find out the drive from which a batch is started. In other words, the original problem posted needs not the use of FOR or of FOR /F. jaclaz