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

I don't get it. EITHER: the referenced file results infected by an antivirus OR: it doesn't. If your system blew up while only your cat was in the room, it doesn't necessarily means that curiosity killed the cat system. And now, just for the record, and for no logical apparent reason, a picture of a cat: jaclaz

A "plain" batch "Capitalize" routine is here: http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.fp...q.faqid+262.htm (Wayback machine seems like having some problems right now ) Here is a simplified version: @ECHO OFF SET String_in=%1 CALL :Capitalize %String_in% SET String_out GOTO :EOF :Capitalize :: Capitalize :: This routine has been published by Frank-Peter Schultze :: [url="http://www.fpschultze.de/smartfaq+faq.faqid+262.htm"]http://www.fpschultze.de/smartfaq+faq.faqid+262.htm[/url] :: and slightly simplified by me Set s=%1 For %%A In ( aA bB cC dD eE fF gG hH iI jJ kK lL mM nN oO pP qQ rR sS tT uU vV wW xX yY zZ ) Do Call :UCase %%A SET String_out=%s% GOTO :EOF :UCase Set _=%1 Call Set s=%%s:%_:~0,1%=%_:~1,1%%% Goto :EOF (no spaces) jaclaz

It is a drive connected via USB, isnt'it? Which OS does the laptop run? Which OS does the desktop run? Have you tried connecting it to a different USB port on the desktop? Have you tried thoroughly cleaning the Registry of the Desktop?: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=135311&hl= From what you report, it seems to me quite logical to presume that if device A works when connected to device B and fails when connected to device C, the problem is with device C, and NOT with device A (the WD hard disk). jaclaz

To sum up : jaclaz

Is it a hardware RAID or a Software one? Which card? Which OS do they run normally? JFYI: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/244945...ves-raid-dldiag http://www.hddoctor.net/hard-drive-diagnos...rd-diagnostics/ jaclaz

I need to know: under which OS that drive was originally Partitioned (and formatted) like DOS, Linux, XP, Vista, 7, etc. which specific app was used to create the partition. the exact size of the drive (I mean bytes, not Gb or Mb or Kb) <-this may be a tough one That drive should have (IF formatted under XP with Disk management): a MBR at offset 0 sectors IF Primary a bootsector starting at offset 63 OR IF Logical inside Extended a EPBR at offset 63 and a PBR at offset 126 Additionally, being NTFS, a copy of the bootsector should be as last sector of the partition. extract first 200 sectors (200x512=102,400 bytes) with dsfo (read the given thread where a howto is given), compress the output file in a zip and attach the archive to your next post. jaclaz

Try pressing C for command line access (remember that you can use [TAB] autocompletion of lines). find --set-root /BootDVD.ima [ENTER] map --mem /BootDVD.ima (fd0) [ENTER] map --hook [ENTER] root (fd0) [ENTER] chainloader /io.sys [ENTER] boot [ENTER] Report what happens. jaclaz

Yep. I know : http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...807&st=1776 But you cannot "counterattack" against voodoo with some more voodoo , from what we know the answer to whatever problem kang roy is having is "a suffusion of yellow": http://www.thateden.co.uk/dirk/ there is no way to know if (choose one) a simple DIY solution exists a non-simple DYI solution exists a "professional only" solution exists AND if: any of the above include opening the drive or not unless we know what the problem is. jaclaz

@Lonecrusader I told you about mkisofs , but you are mixing the complexity of the choices you can make through it with the apparent simplicity of the choices you can make on a GUI app, if you want a GUI for mkisofs, there are several of them, most notably: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=119378 http://members.chello.at/bobby100/The_GUI.htm http://members.chello.at/bobby100/beta/index.htm Very simple one: http://mysite.verizon.net/hartsec/make.htm New kid on the block: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=9610 You cannot go on like this , post the EXACT mkisofs command line you used, the EXACT contents of your menu.lst, the EXACT contents of your floppy, the EXACT environment you are testing in (VM or real hardware), if you want help/advice, right now trying to assist you is like shooting in the dark. jaclaz