jaclaz

Clearing MountPoints2 is a good idea , since at the worst it won't produce any adverse effect (and one can anyway back it up before clearing). jaclaz

Use a camera. Film the booting. Get a standstill of the BSOD. Post it. jaclaz

Sure, I know , but I would more happily "risk" udating a BIOS by installing temporarily the "original" motherboard manufacturer one (and then re-apply the OEM crippled one) then to apply a Seagate firmware to an OEM drive. That is another possibility. jaclaz

Yep , it is an indirect confirmation we are dealing with the "right" numbers. So partition data should be: 80-07-0-1-1-1023-254-63-63-234436482 Let's see if Testdisk finds anything, first. Post the 200 sectors, it is very possible that we can get some confirmation from them. jaclaz

Well, this: Automount : True http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa394515(VS.85).aspx explains why it gets a drive letter. As a reference, this is how a similar command behaves on a "real" volume: http://blogs.technet.com/heyscriptingguy/a...mi-methods.aspx You can try doing a dismount: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa390368(VS.85).aspx it seems like it resets Automount to False. It is not clear the actual usage, it seems you need first to unmount the volume through Mountvol, and then run something *like*: http://www.vistax64.com/powershell/156842-...ount-drive.html which cannot work as the device has not anymore a drive letter it seems like there is no reference around for a tested working method. There is this one, but it ONLY works on Server 2003, seemingly: http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Scrip...2e-4104f12c6e72 jaclaz

ozzyboy be careful. YES, if there is just one hard disk on the second PC (and no card readers, attached USB Mass Storage devices, or virtual drives loaded) it will be PhysicalDrive1. Please take into account that the resulting C:\dsfok\hddfull.img will be around 120 Gb in size! You'd better make sure that you C:\ drive on the second machine: has enough space is formatted as NTFS About size, you will have it as output of the dsfo command, when you do the dd-like image: (jolt down these data) The CHS geometry results from the picture you posted: 16383/16/63, which gives us a: 16383x16x63=16,514,064 sectors x 512 bytes=8,455,200,768 bytes but it isn't useful, as it is the "fake" geometry for the "last CHS limit", which is: 8,455,716,864 http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/bios/sizeGB8-c.html From here: http://www.pubbs.net/openbsd/200904/43615/ 234,441,648x512=120,034,123,776 If you are sure that you did NOT partition it under Vista or Windows 7, AND that you created just one big partition, the partition data is predictable. Geometry should be: 14593x255x63=234,436,545 sectors 234,441,648-234,436,545=5,103 unallocated sectors 234,436,545-63=234,436,482x512=120,031,478,784 sized partition, which windows should have "seen" as 111 or 112 Gb (do you remember this number in Explorer)? jaclaz

Are you joking right? 50° C is a "normal" working temperature inside a hard disk, in a number of not-so-well cooled cases. Read about Curie temperature point: http://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=2744 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferromagnetism And about actual "hot is beautiful" (within limits): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_dri...d_their_metrics jaclaz

Actually, in order to slipstream SP3 you need an already slipstreamed to SP1a or SP2 iso, so you have the "right" thing. I would personally slipstream the SP3 "normally" without using nlite, and then use nlite or whatever on the resulting .iso. (this way you have a "kosher" SP3 .iso without modifications, that may come useful in the future). jaclaz

Come on, anyone knows that Nokia cables coming from California are too ripe to work properly (you know, too much sun, little water, etc.) however if squeezed provide an excellent cable wine. I wouldn't risk flashing the "original" Seagate Firmware, it is possible that there are some settings that conflict. I am not so sure about the changing in the BIOS to "legacy IDE". It is very strange that such a setting is missing on a desktop (there are several laptops/notebooks I have seen missing this option, but never a desktop) are you really sure that such a setting isn't there - possibly renamed to something seemingly completed unrelated like "Data Bus translation" or "Foolproof setting" or "Install mode". If such an option is actually missing it should mean that you are completely unable to install to that machine anything that has not Mass Storage drivers integrated. . Maybe it is possible to have the .iso recognize the HD. Which exact .iso are you talking about (link please)? jaclaz

Yes it is English , and NO it is not astonishing at all , low-level format has nothing to do with data erasing, and the latter can be performed (on a working drive) by the normal ATA/SATA interface, it seems to me pretty normal that there is not a duplicate command in the firmware. jaclaz

What has the impedance of a voicecoil to do with the strength of magnets? Nothing, but since most sub-woofers have since several years an impedance of 4 Ohms or less, finding a 6 Ohms one results in being so difficult as to prevent OP from carrying this IMHO senseless attempt. Maybe I wasn't explicit enough in my previous post. Degaussing a drive means applying to it a very strong magnetic field. There is NO way to know (without opening the drive and possibly not even after having opened it): if the degaussing properly worked removing ONLY information from the platters and leaving no other traces if the deagaussing bent the HD heads or however left a trace of having being performed BUT left the info on the platter still readable Additionally if a the manufacturer will inspect the drive and can find out if a degaussing procedure was used and thus refuses to replace it under warranty It seems to me like a no-win situation, or however a risky one. : Let's see what the pro and con are: if the HD is not returned to manufacturer you loose the commercial value of the drive minus the P&H if the HD is returned to manufacturer and it is not replaced under warranty because they find out you fiddled with it you loose the commercial value of the drive plus the P&H Additionally, option #2 does not necessarily mean that your DATA cannot be exposed (as you may have failed in deleting them through the degaussing). If we assume that the Commercial value of the drive is around 55 US$ included shipping: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822148395 It means that OP values his privacy less that US$55 or that he is willing to take a chance on it for something like US$ 25 (an average estimate of the time needed to degauss the thingy and send it back to manufacturer, and assuming that you already have the magnets of 6 Ohm sub-woofer). jaclaz

Since the internet is our information highway, wouldn't the local shop prices be secondary side road robbing? (I mena "highway robbing" sounds to me simply too "high level" to decribe such a rip-off) In Italian we have the definition of "ladro di polli", literally "thief of chickens", that should actually be in English "small-time crooks" jaclaz

Does the screen go blank or the PC tries rebooting? Just in case fix the Registry: http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/229/ http://www.theeldergeek.com/auto_reboot_on_system_crash.htm setting autoreboot to 0 and you should be able to read the BSOD code. jaclaz

Just for the record and FYI: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=1659 jaclaz

Yes, it seems like a Firefox issue, it happens on other boards too: http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/forum/1/571658 It seems like connected with the "Rich Text Editor": http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=10308 jaclaz

Partitions usually don't come out of thin air. If Mountvol adssigns to it letter Q: it means it is accessible in Explorer Which size is it? Which filesystem it uses? What does it contain? If you click on properties of the volume, and then Hardware, which hardware is listed? (There will be several entries, and possibly you can spot the one that "should not" be there). Is it by any chance 100 Mb or 200 mb in size? jaclaz

In any case it is a "low profile" trojan, it simply cannot have created the havoc DigitalJ reported. I mean, as a reductio ad absurdum: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_absurdum Let's assume that the file is actually infected by that thingy If the Antivirus detects it, good, it deletes or cleans the file and no harm is done. If the Antivirus does not detect it, to trigger it you ADDITIONALLY need to either: visit malicious web site containing a specially crafter WMF file view malicious WMF file (locally or network share) open email containing malicious WMF http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/pfv-exploit.shtml#details If triggered it is a "data stealer" kind of trojan, this kind of things are meant to run without the user noticing it. So I doubt that even IF the file is infected, it can have provokd the reported crash, something else must have been the origin. jaclaz

You can "remove" one of the the two grub4dos menu easily, just copy to the "external" menu.lst the settings you have in the menu.lst inside the .iso adapting them. More or less, the external menu.lst will map the .iso and chainload it's bootsector that loads the grub4dos+menu.lst inside the .iso that loads BOOTMGR of the PE. Simply shortcut by having the external menu.lst chainload the BOOTMGR of the .iso instead of it's bootsector. jaclaz

Unfortunately the License for nlite doesn't allow it's use for Commercial/Business purpose. You should look for something else. Since you do not need nlite "reducing" features, all you need is to add the appropriate drivers for the Mass Storage devices, you can use a plainer method. Which motherboard is it? Which drivers do you need to add to the build? jaclaz

Let me try to rephrase (I assure you that I am serious, really, really serious ). You are of course perfectly free not to believe my word for it, but I can assure you that: MSFN and this particular group of developers of the "Install windows from USB" are not part of an evil plot to infect anything/anyone AV firms are not so gullible to UNmark a supposed "false positive" without having thoroughly checking the reports and the files involved It is possible that a file gets infected for a number of reasons, we are trying proactively to understand if this happened on the source file or if your report is attributing the problem you experienced to "our" file incorrectly. To do this we need the information asked below: WHAT Antivirus are you using? Are you sure that that particular antivirus reported the file as infected? WHICH file, the whole .7z archive or the .ima inside it? In order to be able to check your report and do corrective actions, if needed. Again, this is binary, 0/1, or ON/OFF: EITHER: you give us the needed info in order for us to double check everything and take consequent corrective actions OR: you don't and we cannot but tag your report as unverifiable and dismiss it jaclaz

Yes, I do understand your situation allright , but I don't know if such a command exists, or, if it exists, it's exact syntax. Have you checked the (partial) list of commands available? Here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...28092&st=78 http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...8092&st=460 http://files.hddguru.com/download/Datashee...0RS-232%20Port/ jaclaz

I see , for some unknown reasons you are performing a BSY non-fix. You can try MHDD with the "disableBIOS" option, but cannot say if it works on your "strangely fixed" drive: http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2005.10.02-MHDD/ http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/200..._manual.en.html jaclaz

You cannot. You are in a CATCH22 situation, to destroy data you need to either have a working drive (UNbricked) or open it to destroy the platters (that will void the warranty). There is a third alternative, which is degaussing it, but you have no way to know if the degaussing method you used is effective. You won't like the price of a professional degaussing machine: http://www.garner-products.com/harddrive.htm DIY jobs involve anway the use of EXTREMELY strong magnets, and there is no (pardon me the pun) warranty that the effect of the degaussing damages the HD in such a way that it's warranty replacement becomes invalid: http://oss-spectrum.org/Attach2.htm jaclaz P.S.: Sorry MrJinJe, cross-posting.

No, I was suggesting you, after you have debricked the drive, to re-assemble it properly, remove the TTL connection, connect it normally to a PC and use a "normal" program to erase it. The advised ones are not actually "normal" as they use an internal function of all ATA (and SATA) drives. What you asked was about ERASing data, the provided method is the one that is at the same time "low-level" enough and "high-level" enough. Erasing is NOT formatting. jaclaz

You'd better use Secure erase ATA commands (HDDErase/HDParm). Here: http://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/ATA_Secure_Erase http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml Also inside UBCD: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ jaclaz