jaclaz

FYI , about USB sticks formatting tools: Fuwi's Bootable USB-Drive Utility http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21702 RMPREPUSB.EXE: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=7739 Make_USB.EXE: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=121446 http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...21446&st=20 FBINST: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=7932 jaclaz

The power cycle writes something somewhere. It's up to you to find a way to write the something (an event) to the somewhere, i.e. supposedly the S.M.A.R.T. Event Log. Re-read this: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...092&st=1044 It is possible that the problem has nothing to do with the unbricking. Now that the drive is unbricked, it seems to me like the perfect time to run on it TESTDISK: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk and see if it can recover ther missing partition. In case it cannot you can still recover most if not all the data in it through the use of PHOTOREC: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec jaclaz

Probably it is possible. See the initial reasonings about the actual CAUSE, i.e. the "magic number" 320, read starting from here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...092&st=1011 for two-three pages. jaclaz

Nowadays it is rare that CD's are "flakey" in an "absolute" way, the usual problem is with excessive speed of burning (or lack of it). Rule of thumb: for oldish CD burners the SLOWER possible speed is always the best choice for newish DVD burners a speed HALF the MAX speed should be the best There have been reports (but mostly from people that did video things) of better (or worse) compatibility between the burner and a given brand/type of media. Usually after a few experiments (and failures) one finds which make/brand type of media and what burning speed work with his own burner/program. Among the burning programs IMGBURN has been found to be an excellent and reliable software: http://www.imgburn.com/ jaclaz

Thanks for your appreciation. But you still seem not to appreciate enough the nice CATCH 22 we have here : to write an easy guide one needs to know well the method whoever knows well the method cannot write an easy guide, as he will give as acquired a lot of things that users know nothing about A very good example of this is the multiboot with syslinux and grub4dos: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=18846&hl= and the grub4dos guide: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5187 which are simply great because diddy, which at the time was not an old-time expert on the matter, took the time to read a lot of things, understood them, had the constance of asking whenever he had a doubt and wrote down his experiences in a plain and simple English. Additionally, he keeps his guides updated with new releases/features. BTW, reading his Guide for Multi-booting from a USB Drive might help you in your goal. We had/have a similar problem as the "Install XP from USB" on a number of different projects, like mobileOS or even the "Install XP on USB" method, just to name a couple. Threads go on and on until someone comes out with a way to automate the process and everyone (but a very few people ) are finally happy with that. Similarly, the "Fake Signature" or "XP Kansas City Shuffle", again IMHO an interesting project/idea: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21242 after an initial phase of development, is on a thread that grew during several months by posts of people that simply could not replicate a few simple steps. Luckily enough, the process was automated and everyone (or almost everyone) was happy since: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=6672 http://ubcd4win.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11375 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=21702&hl= On the other hand, a small but very interesting project IMHO, like XPCLI, in which each step is documented, in an all in all still readable thread: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=3717 is languishing because noone took the time to create an easy automated method. (besides not creating a readable documentation) As said in the other thread usually you cannot have both things. jaclaz

OT, but not much , you may find of interest this: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...26069&st=16 http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...26069&st=19 jaclaz

As said on the given link, it's easy to come here and say, "this would be better", "where I can find exactly what I want", "why you didn't write a proper documentation" and the like. If you read the original "historical thread" you will see how the start of the USB_MultiBoot.cmd was actually very similar to the flyakite guide. Then it evolved. If you follow the original "historical thread" you can easily see which are the key steps, and just as it was done at the time you can repeat them manually, expecially if you are familiar with the flyakite's guide. Basically installing XP from USB is the flyakite guide with the addition of grub4dos (to manage drive numbering) and a couple of very simple batches to manage bootsector and drive numbering in BOOT.INI, and one (optional to assign a pre-determined drive letter to the USB drive partition) Some changes (unlike in the flyakite's guide) need to be done "dynamically" during booting/installing, and thus cannot be easily pre-made. If you follow the various release and updates you will see how the original method was enhanced to take care of error reports, particular situations and so on. Still, the batches used are very simple and "human readable", and can be very easily "reversed". Most of them have been discussed openly in the forum during their development, and most if not all the info about how they work and what they do is available. Noone till now offered his help or contribution to this aim of creating the documentation, exception made for user bengalih. You may want to wait for bengalih's reports: Or try doing something yourself about this lack of documentation. The initial deal is still open: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=81788&st=6 If you (or anyone else) are willing to start working on this, I will offer all the help and support I can give, and I am sure that both wimb and ilko_t will do the same. The Chinese guide by victor888, accessed through Google translate is all in all "readable" and could be a start. Still, you will need to go through the entire historical thread to grasp a sufficient knowledge of the process, in order to be able to sum it up. jaclaz

I'll rephrase : You used either: the wrong app to create the .iso (ONLY reliable ones are MKISOFS and OSCDIMG) wrong settings with the program you used (or one of the programs above) while you were creating the .iso or burning it to CD any of the following occurred and you forgot to mention: BSOD's power shortages your computer or CD drive caught fire an earthquake magnitudo 7.4 Richter hit your area a tornado ripped the roof off your home a lightning stroke and dug a 7.8 m in diameter crater in your garden ...trivialities, not worth mentioning.... Happy you managed to have it working. jaclaz

Why don't you actually READ the given links? Or, maybe better, start from this thread: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=133309 Both the batches and the WinsetupfromUSB GUI app allow to add easily a number of other Os to a USB stick, and more versions of install files. jaclaz

You used either: the wrong app to create the .iso (ONLY reliable ones are MKISOFS and OSCDIMG) wrong settings with the program you used (or one of the programs above) Read this: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...20263&st=11 Your e-machine is evidently an "El-Torito floppy emulation" CD, while ALL original MS CD's are "El-Torito no-Emulation" ones. TXTSETUP.SIF comes into play at a much later stage of the booting process, it is NOT related to your current problem. When a problem with TXTSETUP.SIF is found you get a BLUE screen with an error like Setup Error #14 or #18 (Cannot find TXTSETUP.SIF or Line nnn in TXTSETUP.SIF invalid). jaclaz

Look here (AND given links): http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=120423 Courtesy of the Wayback Machine (broken link from the 911Cd thread): http://web.archive.org/web/20060625054127/...07&t=386271 jaclaz

Think a bit. How many probabilities there are that a firmware bug decides to break loose in the split second that the disk is falling for 8"? jaclaz

It would be an interesting "event", though. jaclaz

Besides "normal" custom 7-zip: http://7zsfx.solta.ru/en/ There is was a version that added custom images: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=81295 http://georgwittberger.gmxhome.de/7z/ Courtesy of the wayback machine: http://web.archive.org/web/20080119055222/....gmxhome.de/7z/ http://web.archive.org/web/20080119055222/...le_457_en-US.7z http://web.archive.org/web/20080119055222/...al_457_en-US.7z Maybe you can use the same technique to add your own. Check this also: http://teejee2008.wordpress.com/7-zip-sfx-maker/ Adding a background image is a recent feature request to Oleg Scherbakov, maybe it will soon be available. jaclaz

jaclaz

Really? And who would provide the 20 bucks apiece for the licenses to all the 9x/Me users of the Forum? jaclaz

Unless of course you specify that you are using the Word 20xx and it's integrated word correction.... http://www.blameitonthevoices.com/2008/08/...ction-fail.html Or the nice and very useful =rand(p,l) or =rand.old(p,l) function: http://www.techtalkz.com/technical-discuss...easter-egg.html http://support.microsoft.com/kb/212251/en-us I wonder if it could be hacked somehow to produce some real random text. There are rumours that there are cats that can even fool pawsense: http://bitboost.com/pawsense/ (which your e-mail might not ) Here is an actual picture of one: jaclaz

This happens on XP as well, as long as you have NOT ACPI. See this, JFYI: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=3717 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...=3717&st=26 jaclaz

Start from here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=133309 jaclaz

And, for the record, Opera: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=7934 jaclaz

@fdv Though I am not an English mother tongue, and thus may be not "qualified" to do do, I have to disagree. You cannot take single sentences out of the context. The word substitution IMHO does not hold. Let's read again: I assume as a truism that the scope of a software is to be executed. Thus this is an implied right, to which however the License imposes explicitly no limits/restrictions and that is NOT covered as an "activity" protected by the license. In other words the executing of the software is a right given but not necessarily an activity protected. jaclaz

Batteries are NOT "all-the-same". Different kind of batteries may require different procedures to attempt recovering (if possible at all) some lost capacity. Here is a site where some good info is given: http://www.batteryuniversity.com/ If it's a Li_Ion battery, the freezing WON'T work (and it is possibly DANGEROUS). Read comments here: http://lifehacker.com/software/batteries/r...ezer-308225.php And directly from the given site: jaclaz

A semi-random question/thought. Is the good ol' CDmage: http://www.softpedia.com/get/CD-DVD-Tools/...s/CD-Mage.shtml compatible with DVD's? It offers as well a LBA mappng facility and it's Freeware. jaclaz

You need to apply a number format to the field in the Word document, not to the source in the Excel sheet. The code is awkward, I would need to check if you cannot find it yourself, but it does work, it is similar to the "personalized" number format codes used in Excel, but obviously it's not the same. Richt click on the field, select Modify, then see if you can change the format directly or if you need to press the "Advanced Field Code" (or similar) button and add the format after a backslash. jaclaz

Hmm, that seems to me more like a question than a statement. Let us reason the other way round, for one moment. Let us imagine that they were actually responsible, and that there is no way to recover them, not even through the services of a recovery specialist. How much should they be valued? US $1.00 per byte, per kbyte, per Mbyte or per Gbyte? Would the only existing photo of a relative of yours that is alas no more with us be valued the same as a crappy poem you wrote under the effect of one too much glass of (name your preferred alcoholic beverage)? Or the same as a song you downloaded from I-tunes? How will you prove (or even make a summary listing of) which kind of data you had on the HD before the irrecoverable failure? (an ideal way would be to produce a working backup/clone of the whole drive ) Think at how Airline companies are obliged to re-pay you for lost/destroyed baggages. Here is a reference: http://www.yourcreditnetwork.com/blog/HowD...hAnAirline.aspx So, HD manufacturers could well make an insurance for the event of losing data. It will have a max imdemnizable amount, say $ 1,500.00 or $ 3,000.00. This insurance will have a time duration, say 12 or 24 months. You (not the company making the thingy) will pay the insurance when you buy a HD, as it's price will raise accordingly. How much this price would increase? Hard to say, but probably in a range between $ 15 (max $1,500 - 12 months) and $ 50 (max $ 3,000 - 24 months). And of course you would need to buy a new HD every 12 to 24 months. jaclaz