jaclaz

And, if I may, a couple of possible fields/projects in which to express your newly acquired knowledge/experience (the following would actually be useful ): http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=2343 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=623 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=4353 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...ic=2293&hl= and more generally: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showforum=53 even if you are not interested in any of the above, the threads do contain some interesting/useful links related to VXD's. About the Win 98 DDK: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=86312 it appears to have been cached by the Wayback Machine: http://web.archive.org/web/20000823113036/...EN-US/98DDK.EXE jaclaz

Since this topic was once again "re-vamped", I guess it may be of general use some newish achievements on related matters: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=2798 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=7964 jaclaz

OK. The MBR is a "standard" 2K/XP one, with the "HP hack" and with unbalanced CHS/LBA data. First thing let's correct the unbalanced data. Get beeblebrox: On the laptop: Access the stick with it. You should see these values: #0-0E-80-0-1-1- 490-254-63-63-7897025 change them as follows: #0-0E-80-0-1-1-490-254 -63-63-7887852 Use Hdhacker (or the same beeblebrox) to make a backup of the modified sector. Eject and reinsert the stick. Format it as FAT16 with "normal" 2K FORMAT command. Eject and reinsert stick. Copy to it (from the C:\ partition of your laptop): NTLDR NTDETECT.COM BOOT.INI grldr (from latest grub4dos) menu.lst (as well from latest grub4dos, the "standard" one will do for the moment) Edit the BOOT.INI on the stick as follows: [boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows (dummy entry)" C:\grldr="Grub4Dos" Try booting on the laptop. You should be able to see the two choices in BOOT.INI and, when you choose the second one (grub4dos) you should be able to see the choices in "standard" menu.lst. If it doesn't boot on the laptop, re-open the stick with beeblebrox and change: #0-0E-80-0-1-1-490-254 -63-63-7887852 to: #0-06-80-0-1-1-490-254 -63-63-7887852 Use Hdhacker (or the same beeblebrox) to make a backup of the modified sector. Try again booting the laptop from it. If it works, try booting the ASUS desktop from it. If you get to the second screenshot of post #15 http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...35364&st=14 try issuing the grub4dos commands detailed in post #18: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...35364&st=17 Please report. jaclaz

Freshbie, I split the topic so that we can discuss your problems at length without "polluting" the main thread. I cannot make head or tail of your posts, you seem to me like you are trying to do many (too much) different things all together, trying to introduce variations before having got "full" familiarity with the methods and tools. None of the proposed solutions is "universal", each one has it's own "better" and "worse" features, describe WHAT you are trying to do (just ONE thing), then, oncce we will find a way to do THAT thing, try another one, and so on. For motherboards that do not support USB booting in their BIOS a generally working solution is using a "kicker" floppy or CD with PLoP: http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html http://www.plop.at/en/bootmngrusblog.html jaclaz

Unfortunately the whole file you sent is made of 00's. No problem with .rar, the good (or bad) thing is that if the whole image is made of 00's the compressed file will be very, very small. So, try compressing the image in a "monolithic" .zip or .rar, if the result is very small, it means that it contains mostly 00's, on the other hand, if the resulting archive is "biggish" it means that some data is still there, and then you can re-create it in splitted .rar files. Is there any chance that the \\.\PhysicalDrive2 may be "wrong"? I don't think so as if the device does not exist dsfo should throw an error. Which size is the "full" image (without compression)? Is it compatible with the "label" size of the stick? It could be that simply something in the controller or in the flash memory has gone "beserk". jaclaz

First thing, try a loopback test without the HD connected, see here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...mp;#entry832183 http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...mp;#entry851176 jaclaz

Just for the record, there are formatting utilities available capable of formatting FAT32 volumes, here: GUI: http://tokiwa.qee.jp/EN/Fat32Formatter/index.html Command line: http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm GUI: http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?guiformat.htm This said, there are REASONS why Microsoft self-limited FAT32 volumes to 32 Gb: http://www.allensmith.net/Storage/HDDlimit/FAT32.htm a 32KB cluster size is a bit (read very) large, when you have to deal with small/medium sized files. So, unless you know what you are doing and you have an actual need for it, FAT32 volumes are better sized below said 32 Gb. jaclaz

LiveXP is a kind of PE 1.x build (XP based) and needs some files from Server 2003 or SP1 or R2 (NOT "gold", NOT SP2) to be able to boot from an image through RAMDISK. If you have available a PE 2.x build (Vista/Server 2008 based), like "standard" WAIK WinPE or VistyaPE you can use a .iso image "directly" (i.e. with no need for "special" additional files) You may also used a PE 3.x (Windows 7 based), though obviously experiences on this latter Environment are still scarce/preliminary: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=7250 As well something that needs experimenting but may ultimately become the "better" solution, could be a "full" Windows 7 installed to a .vhd virtual disk image: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=6982 Sure that's the whole point of booting to a 32 bit OS and install FROM it running. jaclaz

You are right, my bad. No, it was just an example, from another non-math guy. Well, yes , but not exactly. Hex [x] FFF6 +/- -> -FFF6 Number is somehow "parsed" and put in the stack only now. (but the value of the stack is actually "A", which then converts nicely to "10") Dec [x] -> 10 +/- -> -10 Hex [x] ->FFF6 Number is already into the stack. +/- -> A Dec [x] -> 10 +/- -> -10 Hex [x] ->FFF6 etc. etc. It seems like calc.exe "autoconverts" negative hex values to positive ones. Try the following: Hex [x] 0 - A = -> FFF6 +/- -> A Dec [x] -> 10 +/- -> -10 and loop as per above. In other words, when you know that you are dealing with a negative hex number you need to press twice +/-, once in Hex[x] and once in Dec[x], when converting to Dec. jaclaz

You can tell grub4dos almost everything you want, and it will probably do what you told it to do, but the problem remains with the HARDCODED paths and more generally NOT FLEXIBLE way the Windows Setup works. In other words, I doubt that you will succeed with your idea. migrate.inf is only needed/useful to assign letters to a drive partition (differently from wht setup would do automatically). If all your USB hard disk are shown as "Removable", there are two possibilities: all your USB hard disks are "Removable" somehow you managed to have installed/running the "reversed" dummydisk.sys Filter Driver I haven't handy any install on which the rdummy.sys is installed/running, but it should be in the Registry in [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\rdummy] (or somethng similar) jaclaz

Yes, it would be advised. jaclaz

Only up to a certain extent. For complex/multiversion setups, I guess this: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=121446 or a similar approach, running the actual setup from an already booted PE of some kind is easier/better. Good Read these: http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/ http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/ptedit.htm and this only partially unrelated thread, that may however give you some ideas: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...ic=7138&hl= jaclaz

Sure , but you CANNOT, and I mean CANNOT boot an XP based PE .ISO (i.e. WinPE 1.x) if not with the RAMDISK approach, while this is possible with a Vista based PE (i.e. WinPE 2.x). You seem to me like thinking that WinPE 1.x and 2.x behave the same, which is NOT the case. I know I am a bit "touchy" on this particular topic, but I have seen literally hundreds of posts about people wanting to boot XP based builds from a .iso, and probably as much of people failing to see the differences between PE 1.x and PE 2.x. And with all due respect , the winnt32.exe way is a rather known one, see item #2 here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=81788&st=6 wimb actually developed a semi-automated method, using the RAMDISK approach, to better the procedure: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=121446 Should you want to take the red pill , start here : http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=133309 Of course, if you have available a PE 2.x of some kind, and apart form the bootsector change and partitioning, things are rather straightforward. I am not so sure about the align=16065 being a good choice, I've always preferred the Registry change, workaround #2 here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=88083&st=5 as the align=16065 command leaves a "hole" in the disk, that some partitioning/re-partitioning/imaging programs might not "like". jaclaz

I see. And you cannot have a worksheet, like Excel/OpenOffice.org/Spread32 too? I usually do all my "hex thingies" in one of them. However, first two are easy: On calc: Hex [x] Word [x] Dec [x] 2 5 7 +/- Hex [x] Result=FEFF (which is "plain" or "Motorola" or "Little Endian") you just exchange the bytes and you get ->FFFE (which is "Big Endian" or "Intel") Again: Hex [x] DWord [x] Dec [x] 2 5 7 +/- Hex [x] Result=FFFFFEFF (which is "plain" or "Motorola" or "Little Endian") you just exchange the bytes and you get ->FFFEFFFF (which is "Big Endian" or "Intel") This seems easier to me : Hex [x] Word [x] FFF6 +/- Dec [x] +/- (you just need to remember to press twice the +/-, once when you input the negative Hex and once when the (positive) result is displayed) For floating point, you should take notes/study these: http://babbage.cs.qc.edu/IEEE-754/Decimal.html http://babbage.cs.qc.edu/IEEE-754/32bit.html http://babbage.cs.qc.edu/IEEE-754/64bit.html jaclaz

@Freshbie This guide, though still largely valid, is a bit oldish. Newer releases of grub4dos have added features, and solutions/workarounds were found for most problems. BUT, you seem to have started, just like all "freshbies" do , with a very ambitious project, without having (yet) digested the needed background knowledge. There is NO way you can have more than 4 Primary partitions on any hard disk, for the simple reason that there are 4 entries in the partition table in the MBR. You can have a standard setup: 1 primary partition + any number of logical volumes inside extended partition OR a maximum of 3 primary partitions + any number of logical volumes inside extended partition OR a maximum of 4 primary partitions The above is NOT negotiable, though there are a couple of (relatively complex) workarounds to do that, but the whole point is that you need NOT more than 4 primary partitions. Another thing that you may want to note is that you simply won't be able to install XP from a USB harddisk unless you use one of the apps in the dedicated forum (or replicate manually what they do). What you should do is browse, search and READ both here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showforum=157 and here: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showforum=66 (start from the pinned topics in both forums) Using this app: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=120444 you will have most of the things you asked for, then you will need to integrate the results with the other items. jaclaz

Yup, this is an exceedingly important tip. Never leave your File Manager (Explorer, PowerDesk, XYplorer, Total Commander, etc) as the visible active Window on an unattended computer. Never! Because if there are cats around, they will merrily trot onto the keyboard somehow avoiding every key except for ENTER and DELETE. If the focus was on a folder/directory ... you're in a world of hurt. JFYI: http://tk.ms11.net/ and of course: http://www.bitboost.com/pawsense/ jaclaz

Why not using a "dedicated" calculator? Example: http://www.wfwsoftware.com/hexit.html jaclaz

Hi, Steve. Didn't know you were member here on MSFN too. Just for the record, here we are talking about installing XP from USB - which DOES NOT and CANNOT work when booted with grub4dos .iso mapping UNLESS Server 2003 SP1 or R2 files are used with a RAMDISK approach. jaclaz

Then, we are exactly in the same boat. From what Tulert reported (or, to be more accurate, from what I can gather from his reports) he properly partitioned/formatted the stick with fuwi's tools on the laptop and it boots at it properly. Some facts: Win2K is a "good", known environment (unlike Vista/Windows 7, that may be good but do have some little quirks when doing this kind of things) fuwi's tool ONLY creates a HD-like partitioning/formatting laptops are usually more "picky" then desktops when it comes to USB booting, but I have never seen/heard about/experienced about any laptop capable of booting from USB that did not boot from a plain HD-like stick Thus, the fact that it boots allright on the laptop should mean that the stick is now a properly partitioned/formatted HD-like device. Of course, if I could have the MBR and bootsector, I could be 100% sure, but right now I am 99.99% so. Now, when the same stick is inserted in the desktop, it behaves strangely: AUTO -> does not boot (strange but possible) CD-ROM -> does not boot (perfectly normal FDD-> boots up to a certain extent, but NOT properly (i.e. most probably, but I need the result of grub4dos commands, as a FD) The AUTO behaviour can be explained by the fact that the motherboard BIOS may check the Fixed/removable status of the USB device or simply by a small bug in the BIOS. The CD-ROM behaviour is normal and needs not an explanation. The FDD behaviour is "peculiar", if the device is properly partitioned/formatted HD-like it should NOT boot at all with such a setting, the only possible explanations are: the BIOS does some misterious "skipping" or conversion, ignoring hidden sectors (and auto-correcting sectors before in bootsector) the BIOS actually boots from the HD-like device, but then forcibly maps it as FD Solutions/workaround may be, as I see it : somehow re-forcing through grub4dos the FD to HD using PLoP, bypassing the BIOS USB stack find a way to make the thing boot from AUTO, possibly by flipping the "removable" bit on the stick or by some "hidden" setting in BIOS experimenting with FBINST jaclaz

This is easy since I know exactly what leads to those and it is only 1 option of all described. I do use FDD in BIOS though which is emulation as Floppy which supposedly shouldn't work. Yep , life of lab rats is tough , they also have to decide WHICH of the guys with the white coat they have to listen to. To clarify: currently the stance of the two "technicians" of the lab is different: jaclaz is optimistic (or if you prefer more possibilistic) and is trying to understand what happens when you boot from stick as FD (which is the ONLY way that you seem to be able to boot on that motherboard) ilko_t is saying that once you have booted off the stick and it is seen as FD you are stuck, but since with any other setting you are stuck anyway, it means you are stuck. The decision is up to you, if you follow me there is a (unfortunately very small ) possibility, if you follow ilko_t you are in a CATCH 22 situation: in order to boot from stick, BIOS must see stick as HD BIOS cannot see stick as HD It is very possible that we can get around this problem thorugh either re-mapping within grub4dos or using a PLoP "kicker", but the only thing to do is to try and see what happens with the various available possibilities. Have a nice weekend, "see" you next week. jaclaz

try this p.cmd: ping 192.168.1.%1 PAUSE EXIT jaclaz

Yes. http://homepages.tesco.net/J.deBoynePollar...no-answers.html http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&...-8&oe=utf-8 http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums...3f-4980c2f82151 jaclaz

Really? Could this connected to this part of the referenced post?: It may have been the right choice, but unfortunately, BOTH the files you posted are just a (nice, rounded ) collection of digital 00's. This could mean EITHER: that something went wrong while extracting/copying the sectors/files that you got the right \\.\Physicaldrive AND the extracting/copying went allright BUT the sectors on the stick are actually all 00's My guess is that unfortunately it is #2 above, which can be caused by three things: partial accidental wiping (of some initial sectors) of the device (not good, but leaving some hopes) total accidental wiping of the device (bad) device controller or flash memory malfunctioning (bad) Can you describe with as much detail as you can remember how this thing happened, if there were previous symptoms of failure, if any particular program was run against the stick, if the stick was EVER attached to an unprotected by antivirus PC, etc.? Let's try again with a slightly different approach. Get dsfo (within the DSFOK toolkit): http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/fr...ware/index.html Open a command prompt and run from the directory where you unzipped dsfo.exe: dsfo \\.\Physicaldrive2 0 102400 C:\first200.dat Compress C:\first200.dat to a .zip and attach to your next post the resulting archive. If you have access to a hosting site of some kind (even a free one like megaupload or rapidshare would do) AND the stick did not contain privete/personal data that I shouldn't see, create a "full" image of the stick (you will need as much available space on your hard disk as the size of the stick + say another half size for the compressed file) by running: dsfo \\.\Physicaldrive2 0 0 C:\fullima.dat Compress C:\fullima.dat to a .zip, upload the resulting archive to the filehosting site and send me via PM the download link... If it's not all 00's some partial recovery may be still possible. A link is a link, and generally stays linked "Relative" addresses, such as "look at top of the page" may change depending on which particular view you are seeing this thread with, and from a number of other reasons. jaclaz

Tulert, I cannot make head or tail of your reports. Don't take it the wrong way , but you should try one thing, and ONLY one thing and report EXCLUSIVELY about THAT thing you tried. This way you report everything you tried, mixing good with bad, booting with not booting and what not, it is already difficult enough to help in troubleshooting from a distance based on a single report, solving a single puzzle already takes time, let alone trying to put together pieces of several puzzles scattered on the same table. However BOTH your screenshots show that you are booting (up to grub4dos). First one is working (booting) exactly as it should, i.e. you get to grub4dos choices (i.e. menu.lst is loaded and the "splashscreen" included in fuwi's tool is shown). Second one appears as well to work properly (booting and loading grub4dos) but not being able to locate menu.lst. So, please STOP running "random" things in "random" ways, with "random" approaches. Simply replicate WHATEVER you did to produce the two posted screenshots, and let's start from there. Access the stick from an already booted system, say it gets assigned letter G:\. Open a Command Prompt and execute in it: DIR /S G:>C:\dirofstick.txt Attach resulting file C:\dirofstick.txt to your next post. Boot from the stick on the ASUS, (and get to the second screenshot you posted). Then press "c" to access grub4dos command prompt and type in it: find /menu.lst and press [ENTER] What you get? then try: ls ( and press [TAB] you should get something like: now try listing each of the "fd" and "hd" devices, always using [TAB] autocompletion features, like in: ls (hd [TAB] ls (hd0, [TAB] ls (hd0,0) ls (hd0,0)/ [ENTER] until you check which is the device that grub4dos detects the stick as. Post results. jaclaz

Rats are used in Labs because they are usually very fast in learning new things. Of course the experimenter needs to be very accurate, too. Some BIOS have an option, usually F12, to change boot order on-the-fly when booting, otherwise these should be more or less the steps involved: You switch the laptop off. Then you turn it on and press the appropriate key to access the BIOS. Look for anything like "Boot Device Priority" or "Boot from first" or something like that. Change it in such a way that an entry containing the word USB is chosen. Save BIOS settings and reboot. Then: Switch off. Insert bootable USB stick (previously made with "plain" HP utility running from the 2k or XP in the laptop, choosing FAT16 or NTFS, NOT FAT32 ). Switch on. Report what happens. Have you actually tried to simply unzip the fuwi's file as they are and run them? Of course answering NO when it asks for BartPE.... jaclaz