jaclaz

And again, you need reading/searching : In the FIRST post of this thread there are these two images: Do you need an explanation of them? jaclaz

Maybe out of the scope, but have you had a look at ninja pen disk: http://nunobrito.eu/ninja/ http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=4350 Are you looking for Freeware only or Commercial would be acceptable? I think there are solutions in the "Commercial" world. jaclaz

There is NO "proper" formatting/erasing you can do from XP. Unless you want to do a "normal" 00 writing, which is doable, and should also be enough. But you can use DOS allright. If I were you I would use the SecureErase ATA function: http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml in order to be certain that there are NO "remnants", then I would try again the Manufacturer's tests. If you want to go the "XP" way, you need to 00 out the whole drive, there are several suitable softwares, I would use Eraser: http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/features.php One single pass of 00's is all you need. Then I would also check the hard disk with "independent" utilities, like Victoria, MHDD or HDDscan: http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/ http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2005.10.03-Victoria/ http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2005.10.02-MHDD/ http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2006.01.22-HDDScan/ Cannot say if "drive capacity restore" would be useful/appropriate for your situation: http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/200...y-Restore-Tool/ http://blog.atola.com/restoring-factory-hard-drive-capacity/ jaclaz

The schematics you posted for the FTDI USB to TTL clearly shows that that adapter definitely runs on 5 V. The one you are using now is the RS-232 to TTL you should know whether it needs 3,3 V (and thus will work allright on a FULLY charged 3 V battery) or if it needs a 5 V supply. Compare with this: http://www.msfn.org/board/solution-seagate...-page-1773.html It is possible that the adapter is under-powered, it may also be a 3,3 V one that should be running OK on a CR2032, but the actual CR2032 could be a bit discharged and output a lower voltage. More generally, the HD board should be of course powered from a PSU AND, to be on the "safe" side it should be grounded together to the adapter. Ground, and expecially on very low voltage in DC circuits, is a "strange beast": http://www.msfn.org/board/solution-seagate...-page-1684.html jaclaz

@Sovereign01 Are you positive that that battery is a 5 V one? Can you post it's Part #? Are you also positive (test with a multimeter) that it actually delivers 5 V? @Strawhat12 Wait until you have the torx screwdriver, you should be able to "talk" to the hard disk with the board connected, of course , but DO NOT try "random" or "semi-random" commands. In the best scenario you won't do nothing useful, in the worst one you could lock yourself out of the drive PERAMNANTLY. Wait, be patient, data won't disappear (evaporate) overnight, whilst they may actually be unrecoverable if you go on fiddling "blindly" with that disk. jaclaz

http://www.mapleleafmountain.com/seagatebrick.html This is not a democracy. It doesn't matter if 51% agrees to one or the other. AFAIK/AFAICR: Disconnecting the power has been reported to work. Disconnecting the power has NEVER been reported to create an unrecoverable problem. NOT disconnecting the power has been reported to work. NOT disconnecting the power has NEVER been reported to create an unrecoverable problem. Just do it (whatever you think better), if it doesn't work, re-start from scratch and use the "other" method. jaclaz

Not really funny , I just read the LOG: At this point, yes. It is possible that either RMPREPUSB has a limit/bug (unprobable but possible) or you used it somehow incorrectly. If I were you I would install a Filter driver (cfadisk.sys or dummydisk.sys) and use directly Disk Management. jaclaz EDIT: Wait a minute, something is definitely wrong, the stick is reported as being 23 Gb total size! Get the MBR from it with HD hacker (1 sector, first sector of PhysicalDrive) compress it in a .zip and attach it to your next post, as soon as I have time i'll have a look at it: http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/

Yes . http://homepages.tesco.net/J.deBoynePollar...no-answers.html Under which OS are you running? grubinst may find a locked drive under certain conditions. Why you have TWO USB devices connected? I mean is there a reason for it or it is simply a way to make things more difficult? Which program did you use to partition/format the USB stick? HOW is it partitioned? jaclaz

Unless when you opened the drive (taking precautions ) you actually damaged platter(s), you are probably in a condition where you have: "good" data on the platters a bent or misaligned arm If this is the case the data may still be entirely recoverable with either of two approaches: "transplant" the platter(s) of your hard disk on another one <-higher probabilities "transplant" an arm from another hard disk on your one and align it accurately <-lower probabilities This is something that YOU CANNOT DO by yourself. Please note how the last character in the above sentence is a "dot" or "full stop", called also "period". A professional data recovery firm may be able to recover the data with one of the two hinted approaches. It will cost you lots of money, something in the above US$ 1000 range, but if the data is 10 years and worth it: Take your time asking for actual quotations from several firms and check that the firm is a known and reputed one, do not necessarily go for the cheapest one, they may be honestly quoting you a fair price or they may be some kids with a couple of data recovery softwares and a set of screwdrivers. jaclaz

@Sovereign01 Don't take this as an offence , but: Did you try actually powering the FTDI interface with +5V and GROUND? http://www.msfn.org/board/solution-seagate...-page-1943.html Same question also goes for second interface, which is a TTL to RS-232, the COM 7 you are seeing is the actual USB to RS232 cable that behaves like a COM port to which a "dead" something (or "nothing") is connected. The only alternate explanation would be two DOA boards, which is improbable. jaclaz

Probably it's one of those "Fixed" vs. "Removable" device problem. An external Hard Disk is usually (please read as always) seen as "Fixed". A Flashdrive is usually (please read as always) seen as "Removable". We have for XP, a direct (dummydisk.sys) filter driver to make Removable devices seen as "Fixed", and a reverse one (rdummy.sys) to make Fixed seen as "Removable". Cannot say if they are used (or can be used) with 7. Check the "Install XP from USB" section (and yes, there are apps to make also install of Windows Vista and 7 from USB): http://www.msfn.org/board/install-xp-usb-f157.html I guess you might want to change this thread title: At first sight I thought you wanted to install Windows 7 ON a USB device or run 7 FROM it: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showforum=77 jaclaz

Just for the record: Linux_Unified_Kernel http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=9356 jaclaz

Then ChipGenius is definitely "wrong" in this case. Yep. first one is the "normal" HP formatting utility, clearly posted there by an unexperienced user who re-invented hot water on-the-spot Second two are both Phison utilities, forget about first one, it's the "old" version, and try with the third one: Phison MPTool MP2232 v1.11.0 (PS223X, AE2263, UP10-UP14) http://www.flashboot.ru/index.php?name=Fil...op=cat&id=6 http://www.flashboot.ru/Files-file-310.html though, as said, I don't seem like finding a setting for Removable vs. Fixed in it. jaclaz

Maybe we are getting somewhere: http://translate.google.it/translate?u=htt...it&ie=UTF-8 If the Phison tools detect the device, it means it's a Phison chip. But, It seems like that kind of chip does not have a setting for "Fixed". (and the "production tools seems like NOT easy to use/run) It is possible, though improbable, that Chipgenius gets a wrong Vid/Pid, you can try re-checking with CheckUdisk: http://www.pendriveapps.com/checkudisk-usb...formation-tool/ jaclaz

Hi, jaclaz! Since which version of 7-zip, please? I perused the links you gave, but failed to ascertain that... You mean which exact version? It's not in the history: http://www.7-zip.org/history.txt the change: is NOT entirely accurate, at the time 7-zip did support only some types of WIM. The actual "full" support was added in 4.59 Beta: http://encode.ru/forum/showthread.php?p=2791 Some talk is here: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...=8860&st=16 and on the for the moment at least abandoned project: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5308 http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/wimt...tle=Compression jaclaz

Yes , this is documented: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5897 (but it should have been fixed) Are you sure you are using latest version? (Limit should be 20 now) jaclaz

If I may, and given as a firm point that breaking a License or Eula is NOT a smart thing to do, apparently all Autopatcher got was a "cease and desist" letter: http://www.autopatcher.com/2007/08/sad-day/ http://web.archive.org/web/20080415190740/...takedown-notice Nothing major happened, the "old" Autopatcher has been subsided by a "new" Autopatcher", working a little bit differently. http://www.autopatcher.com/2007/09/the-nex...whats-in-store/ Please note how the letter dos NOT relate to the EULA, but on the Copyright Laws. @g-force Is wimfltr.sys the only "problematic" file? Just in case: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5108 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...c=5108&st=9 All kinds of .wims can now be accessed with 7-zip, now, depending on what is the "wimfilter" needed, it may be an alternative. jaclaz

This project (Linux LiveCD based): http://www.drfreeware.org/ includes a Windows version of Drive Dumper, an utility to clone/copy drives/partitions: http://drfreeware.org/blog/?p=16 http://sourceforge.net/projects/drfreeware/files/ jaclaz

You should read the readme.txt file. You can follow any of the "normal" guides around: http://myeeeguides.wordpress.com/2008/11/1...sb-flash-drive/ http://ccollomb.free.fr/blog/?p=59 the procedure should not be different. x64 is supported as well: http://www.msfn.org/board/winxp-pro-sp3-an...em-t128659.html But even if there are still some quirks (the x64 version of both XP and 2003 is far less common than the 32 bit so we have less reports) it should boot allright, problems may eventually come later. jaclaz

Happy it worked , though cannot say WHY. Maybe I got it right (by chance), but there seems to be a misunderstanding. The NTFS vs. FAT32 should work IF the stick had been partitioned properly and formatted with FAT32 AND it did not boot properly. The: Sounds more like a stick formatted as superfloppy (i.e. not partitioned). If it now works with NTFS, it should work as well if re-formatted as FAT32. In case: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...=8528&st=21 jaclaz

This should do: @ECHO OFF IF %1.==. GOTO :EOF IF NOT EXIST %~dpnx1 GOTO :EOF ECHO %~dpnx1 IF NOT %~x1.==.lnk. GOTO :EOF more %~dpnx1 | FIND ":\" | FIND /V "/" pause jaclaz

The "idea" is right, but ways were found to avoid the deleting. A prepared stick can be re-used any number of times. If you are interested in the "HOW it's done", take some time reading the "historical thread: http://www.msfn.org/board/boot-install-usb-key-t61384.html Some other info/ideas are in these threads: http://www.msfn.org/board/win-nt-bt-can-om...03.html&hl= http://www.msfn.org/board/move-xatsp-and-x...28.html&hl= Which "symptoms" do you have on the 16 Gb? First thing that comes to mind is that you are going over the CHS boundary when going over 8 Gb. Is it a problem of booting the stick? Which filesystem are you using? jaclaz

I see I read "upgraded" as "upgraded", instead of "threw away the old hard disk I revived and bought a new one, that is giving me problems as well" It is very possible that the problem can be solved the same way, though I doubt that Seagate didn't correct the faulty testing procedure in factory. I mean, it is possible that both symptoms and cure are the same, though I doubt that the illness is the same. There is similar (but different) report here: http://www.msfn.org/board/7200-12-bsy-t137055.html left undetailed. jaclaz

I formatted the large partition in NTFS, and the setup continued to copy files. Thus, now you should have only one partition, about 160 Gb in size, NTFS formatted. Can you re-boot to grub4dos and check this from CLI? http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/cli.htm jaclaz

AFAIK, and mind you I could be competely and utterly wrong , the 7200.11 is a "family" of drives. THe 7200.12 is ANOTHER "family" of (newer) drives. It seems like you managed to load the WRONG firmware on your 7200.11 device. Latest firmware for 7200.11 should be SD3B: http://www.msfn.org/board/solution-seagate...-page-2009.html jaclaz