jaclaz

Happy to know we "saved" yet another HD! Come on , are you trying to prove this: to be wrong? http://tinyurl.com/nf3k2m http://shop.ebay.co.uk/items/__USB-TTL_W0Q...QQ_sopZ2QQ_scZ1 I really don't understand why people are so obsessed with the Nokia adapter, which gives, approximately, a 50% chance of getting the "good" type. http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...807&st=1679 I mean, if you already have an old one lying around trying it has no cost, but actually buying one? However: http://shop.ebay.co.uk/items/_W0QQ_sopZ2?_...2&_osacat=0 jaclaz

Most likely you have incorrect speed of the connection or, more probably, GROUNDing problems, check here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...807&st=1547 http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...807&st=1661 Do loopaback tests BEFORE coonecting the disk drive. jaclaz

That's quite typical of a problem in the Registry. (Connecting the device to a USB connector on another BUS making the USB device seen differently) About you havig been banned, I guess it was because of the reference to what in your first post has been edited as <removed>. Try PMing either cluberti or xper: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?act=St...mp;CODE=leaders jaclaz

Hey, wait a minute, you were very kind to re-register only to thank me , but you seem like wanting to give up. Giving up is NOT an option! jaclaz

Yes, if there is no entry for it in BOOT.INI. Open BOOT.INI in Notepad and add an entry like this: C:\grldr="Grub4dos" READ this: http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/Grub4dos.htm http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/...all_windows.htm From what you report you are currently in situation #1: http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/...ws.htm#windows1 (but without an appropriate entry in BOOT.INI) MBR->bootsector->NTLDR->BOOT.INI->grldr After all it seems we managed to have the ASUS booting (but somehow losing compatibility on the laptop , we'll see why and hopefully fix it later , please post a copy of your current MBR) jaclaz

No prob. So, the stick is alive and well (almost). the "No grldr" is a message meaning that the grldr.mbr can not find in ANY partition on the stick (hidden or non-hidden) the file grldr in either: ROOT /boot/ /boot/grub/ try adding to the root of the stick the file grldr from grub4dos latest: http://nufans.net/grub4dos/ http://download.gna.org/grub4dos/ Yep, that would be interesting. What I would do at this point, if copying grldr does not change situation: wipe first 200 sectors of the stick: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...35364&st=56 re-partition/format the stick using at first the fuwi's utiliies, link here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...87993&st=17 Check again it working (or failing to) on both PC's. jaclaz

NO , it doesn't. If the device is seen as a "Removable" one, one, and ONLY one, partition is accessible/mountable. If the device is seen as a "Fixed" one, all partitions are accessible/mountable. If the device IS "Removable", you can trick Windows in seeing it as "Fixed" using a Filter driver. (cfadisk.sys or dummydisk.sys) If the device IS "Fixed", you can trick Windows in seeing it as "Removable" using the "reversed" filter driver rdummy.sys Or have you somehow managed to install the device as either "Fixable" or "Removed"..... jaclaz

Isn't this slowly drifting away from elementary usage of available commands in batch files to A.I. algorithms in BATCH? jaclaz

Next time, use a migrate.inf file to assign the "right" letter to the XP drive : http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=19663 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=21682&hl= http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=131770 http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=125945 (or a modified setupreg.hiv) jaclaz

Please do refrain from double posting. Discussion continues here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=136394 jaclaz

Three wrong things in a ROW : using WAREZ putting the blame on WinSetupfromUSB assuming drive to be dead The device may have: simply died after "several" years been detected wrongly by Windows but not being dead Usual things to try, AFTER checking that the stick behaves the same on another computer to which it was NEVER connected before AND that the HP formatting tool or one of the apps listed here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...87993&st=17 : try running Chipgenius against it if it doesn't detect the VID/PID numbers, check to find them in the Registry get (if available) the Manufacturer's Tools for the specific device try diagnosing/fixing/resetting the stick jaclaz P.S. actually 4 things, counting double posting: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...0444&st=581

I think that's correct, Well, if you can show me an example of a case where %Hello% will be different from %Hello%.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tautology_(logic) jaclaz

With all due respect to dencorso something like this seems to me a bit more "modern" (and readable) : @ECHO OFF SET USERS= Bob Kim John Gwen :loop ECHO Good, What's your name? SET /P Hello=Type Your Name - FOR %%A in (%users%) DO ( IF /I %%A.==%Hello%. GOTO :user_%Hello% ) ELSE ( ECHO User %%A Not Found!&GOTO :loop ) ) GOTO :EOF :user_Bob ECHO So you are %Hello%, right? GOTO :EOF :user_Kim ECHO So you are %Hello%, right? GOTO :EOF :user_John ECHO So you are %Hello%, right? GOTO :EOF :user_Gwen ECHO So you are %Hello%, right? GOTO :EOF jaclaz

NO. And you also have some probabilities to break BOTH drives. jaclaz

SET /P does not exist in MS-DOS. It exists in NT based systems, starting with Windows 2000. In MS-DOS you had choice.com or one of the various replacements for it: http://ss64.com/nt/choice.html Where would you put the "ELSE" statement? Check this: http://ss64.com/nt/set.html http://ss64.com/nt/if.html See this also: http://ss64.com/nt/syntax-conditional.html Read on this site: http://www.robvanderwoude.com/ http://www.robvanderwoude.com/batchstart.php http://www.robvanderwoude.com/userinput.php jaclaz

It's not at all a dumb question , this kind of things is not usually written in BIG FRIENDLY letters on the cover of the XP manual (the one that MS completely fails to provide ). Just for the record, I keep dearly an old DOS manual that came with Compaqs several years ago, it is a nice 300+ pages manual with all commands in detail: ahhh, the good ol' times you got something in exchange for the price you payed when you bought a PC/OS license.... In DOS there were THREE distinct "phases": FDISK would partition the device, i.e. write the MBR CODE and DATA FORMAT (after a reboot) would create the filesystem on it, i.e. write the bootsector DATA and filesystem structures (but NOT make the filesystem bootable) SYS would make the filesystem bootable by writing the bootsector CODE and transfer to it the System files: IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS and COMMAND.COM (same could be done with FORMAT /S) In NT based systems this is done in TWO "phases" Disk Management partitions the device, i.e. write the MBR CODE and DATA FORMAT (no reboot needed) creates the filesystem on it, i.e. write the bootsector DATA and filesystem structures AND make the filesystem bootable by writing bootsector CODE also, BUT without transferring the system files NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM and BOOT.INI The whole problem with USB sticks is that the device is seen by Windows as "Removable", and Disk Management won't allow partitioning it, and besides, only one partition will be mounted to a drive letter even if the stick has been partitioned in several partitions. By flipping the "Removable" bit and making the device seen as "Fixed" (or using a Fillter driver like cfadisk.sys or dummydisk.sys - but this only works within Windows NT builds), you effectively transform the USB stick in a Hard Disk, and Disk Management works allright, exactly as it would for a "real" hard disk (USB connected or not). The flipping may hopefully also make your motherboard BIOS detect the device as a HD, and let you boot from it with the "from HD" setting. (this is the scope of the experiment) No prob. Any device connected to a Windows NT based system will get a (let's call it for simplicity) "low-level" name or address, in the form of \\.\PhysicalDriven. If the device is partitioned or formatted or both, Windows will also assign a LogicalDrive to each partition/filesystem it can find (what you normally see as drive letters) http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/physical_drive.html http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/L/logical_drive.html In other words: the PhysicalDrive is ALWAYS the "whole thing". the LogicalDrive(s) is/are part(s) of it. In the case where the device is a floppy or "super-floppy", i.e. it has no partition table PhysicalDrive and LogicalDrive are the same thing, as they BOTH start form the first sector of the device. In the case of a partitioned device (assuming with just one Primary partition for simplicity), you have: PhysycalDrive |-MBR (one sector) |-Hidden sectors (usually 62, sometimes on "bad" Vista partitioned 128) |-LogicalDrive (read Partition) |---Bootsector (1 sector for FAT16, usually 6÷12 sectors for FAT32-this can vary, 16 sectors for NTFS) |---filesystem structures (FATs or NTFS structures) |---actual DATA (files you can normally see and access) Have a look at this: http://www.ranish.com/part/primer.htm By accessing the PhysicalDrive (thus at offset 0), and wiping (by filling with hex 00's) the first 200 sectors, you effectively wipe anything the partitioning/formatting program may read and try to "understand", and that in some case fails to understand correctly. A command line is given here: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...22975&st=21 Be very, VERY careful to choose the RIGHT "n". A good idea is to run beeblebrox WITHOUT the USB stick connected, take note of the LAST PhysicalDrive, then re-run after having connected the stick: LAST PhysicalDrive should have been incremented by one, and THAT is the RIGHT "n" to use. jaclaz

Winimage is a very good app, but it's ONLY apparent simplicity may deceive, from what you report you did something "wrong" with it. JFYI, a good way to "re-assemble" the 6 boot XP floppies is given here: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=2254 http://tips.vlaurie.com/2006/05/23/recover...out-an-xp-disk/ jaclaz

Just throwing a shot in the dark, but it is possible that the "name" is not parsed correctly? i.e. is it maybe that: "LSI PCI Fusion-MPT Miniport Driver (XP 32-bit)" is too long or the parenthesis "confuse" the parser? jaclaz

It's strange, that appears as a USB to RS232 converter, TTL does not appear in the product manual, on the other hand it seems like having TX and RX ports both for 3.3 and 5V level. If it's only a USB to RS232, it would ADDITIONALLY need a RS232 to TTL converter. This is a "normal" USB to TTL converter, it seems to me that this one: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/PC-USB-Serial-to-RS...=item4147957318 was already used successfully Or one of the "Nokia" cables discussed at length in the thread. jaclaz

And out of the blue, and JFY: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16754 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=623 (several links that may be useful) jaclaz

Check the "enhanced" VBE Video Drivers from Scitech (courtesy of the Wayback Machine): http://web.archive.org/web/20071130040216/...om/sdd_win.html http://web.archive.org/web/20080120054601/...ft.com/ftp/sdd/ Check this also: http://www.betaarchive.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2902 jaclaz

Doesn't your rock has integrated LED lighting? Are you using last year's model? jaclaz

Notice that it says "can" and not "will." "Can" implies that the problem may or may not occur. So the contradicting reports kind of make sense. Just for the record, in the Italian version of that kb, it is even clearer: re-tanslated back in English it would sound as: Summed up: MS knows that it happens, doesn't know why or however has no intention to fix the issue. jaclaz

Good. If the device is now "Fixed", you shuld be able to use "normal" Disk Management to partition/format it. I would anyway clear the first, say, 200 sectros with dsfo or another tool, just to "start from scratch". If you are using Disk Mangement under Vista, make sure you have the Registry Fix for proper boundaries, see here: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21186 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...21186&st=18 jaclaz

Did what for a reason? Dropped 9x, and without even adding .zipx browsing! jaclaz