jaclaz

A long time ago I decided to concentrate on only 512 bytes (the MBR) and on some other bunch of bytes, the bootsectors and loaders. You can learn a lot on a very "narrow" field. @all (Ahmad2080 sent me a copy of the first 63 sectors of his hard disk, to allow me to make some checks) The plot thickens.... Doing so, Ahmad2080 forfaited some of his privacy , see this: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...21049&st=17 The new turn of the plot is that Ahmad2080 actually LIED to me! There are evident traces that on that HD also, and at least: either Legacy GRUB 0.97 or grub4dos pre-0.4.2 version BM2005 (Paragon's Boot Manager) were installed! So, we have now another two possible culprits......, I know, I know it's always the butler B) , but here we have several butlers! jaclaz

You need to "escape" special characters. Try with: echo echo example text^>^>abcd.txt>>createtext.cmd jaclaz

I doubt about it being "Free". It may be "Free as in free beer" but definitely NOT "Free as in freedom". Basically one should download and install an unknown program from the internet, allowing it to by-pass firewall in order to get a serial number, the Agreement is shown AFTER the program has connected to the Server, and then we have something that is hardcoded to C:\biterScripting (please note that Windows uses backslash "\" and not forward slash "/" in paths): http://www.biterscripting.com/install.html With all due respect, there isn't a single word (even a "fake" one ) about WHO actually biterScripting.com is, the reason WHY it produced this scripting language, WHY it is giving it away for free, WHY it needs a connection and an online serial number, WHAT are the contents of the License Agreement, WHERE it is based, No e-mail, NO telephone number, NO hints about the Author(s). It would be interesting if you could provide some of the info above. jaclaz

Submix8, don't take this the wrong way , but do you really think that it is needed/helps from time to time to post some wild guesses and doubts? The 1024 offset is something that is said to be "better", see here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=131023 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929491/en-us evidently that partition has been created with: create partition primary align=1024 About partition0, have you ever looked with Diskpart to a drive with an Extended partition under Vista or Server 2008? http://www.techotopia.com/index.php/Extend...ons_and_Volumes After all, Partition Magic, (this time ) is NOT the culprit, Ahmad used (improperly) another tool downloaded from HP, and that probably caused the problem, by replacing the MBR code. As well, if a partition has 1024 as offset is NOT "kosher" as seen by Partition Magic or by ANY other "good" software, as it breaks the Cylynder boundary, which was a requirement (and still is for some OS). The whole problem was born by "trusting" an app ( actually two of them) without actually knowing what they would do and without preparing a way back, see my posts here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...807&st=1137 http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...807&st=1148 Kids shouldn't play with matches, and the box of matches should be kept out of their reach, it's not the kid's fault if the house get's on fire. (and again, no offence intended to anyone) jaclaz

And what about prepending to OSLOADER.NTD just the first part of NTLDR/SETUPLDR.BIN and see if one can get rid of NTDETECT.COM? Checksum will need to be corrected/bypassed, of course. jaclaz

From what I have gathered in the meantime, and from some experiments I am carrying, I would say that restoring the F11 feeature should be possible. I need to make a few more checks before posting a possible solution, but I am confident that it will work allright. I am not so sure about the CD burning, though , it seems like it is an alltogether (and unconnected) matter. I'll hopefully be back to you anytime from late tonight (CET) to tomorrow morning, hopefully with a working solution. jaclaz

Last Out of Topic reply, I swear. ANY partition manipulating utility, is "risky" business, "advanced users" would use "advanced tools" (NOT Partition Magic, NOT Acronis) to directly check and edit the data if needed, and in any case "advanced users" know that before even thinking of messing with partitions a full image of the drive is needed, as Murphy's Law is ALWAYS around to try and prove itself right once again. A well designed software, as I see it, should have an aggressive interface , ideally it would simply shout at you "ARE YOU CRAZY? YOU DON'T HAVE A WAY BACK" and SLAP you on the face. Those softwares are very powerful weapons put lightly in the hands of "average users" or "novices" not trained/knowledgeable enough about the possibility that something can go wrong. When they work they are great, when they don't "average user" is unprepared to the resulting disaster. jaclaz

Just for the record, the thread is here: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...ic=7639&hl= jaclaz

NO , what I was trying to say is that YOU used IMPROPERLY Partition Magic (or Acronis) and thus messed up your partition: not a fault of the programs but of the use that was made of them AND not your fault as most people think that using such programs is easy (IT IS NOT, and can lead to partitioning corruption), and you were misled by the apparent easyness of use of them BUT the problem with the hard disk firmware is COMPLETELY UNRELATED to messing with partitions: not a fault of the programs AND not your fault BUT ONLY and EXCLUSIVELY by Seagate's fault by having a badly written firmware/test procedure/test machine in factory I was trying to reassure you that Partition Magic, Acronis and your misuse of them are absolutely NOT guilty of having damaged the hard disk, what you did at software level carries NO CONSEQUENCES whatever at firmware one. You are COMPLETELY innocent! jaclaz

You are/will be using grub4dos, NOT (legacy 0.97) GRUB! You can chainload grub4dos grub.exe from Syslinux directly as kernel: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5187 http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/Grub4dos.htm http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/...ll.htm#method02 jaclaz

@ElectroGeeza Not an answer to all your questions, but only to a few of your doubts: Rest assured that not Partition Magic nor Acronis Disk Director caused the firmware of the HD to fail. FYI: http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=935597 to which I may add: the problem was not due to the programs, but to the way they were used, but still it has no relation to the firmware problem that is originated by Seagate. A single PC is enough, as you can power the interface with a couple batteries or even, as well as the HD from the same Power Supply of the PC on which you are running Hyperterminal. Easier would be to borrow a PC, possibly a laptop, with XP (and Hyperterminal) to perform the reviviving. jaclaz

You should use (besides checking again why beeblebrox does not work for you) HDhacker: http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/index.html To backup BOTH your and your friend's MBR to files. Then DO NOT apply them, but rather zip them and post them, it's better to have a look at them before possibly making damages. Yes and no. There are utilities able to replace the MBR code part keeping the DATA part intact, besides using MBRbatch, handy utilities are MBRFIX: http://www.sysint.no/nedlasting/mbrfix.htm and MBRWIZ: http://mbrwizard.com/ and of course for both the above choeres a hex-editor with \\.\PhysicalDriven access can be used as well. Yep, but that does not necessarily mean that it is impossible, only very, very improbable. My crystal ball is (again) in the shop for maintenance and through Tarots and I-Ching I seem not to be able to find the unreferenced google link. jaclaz

Some interesting parts of the logs, that may need an explanation: There is much more info in the various other logs, but from a quick look at it, it seems like you tried to run the apps "n" times, with different "settings" on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of April, so the logs are not exactly "clean". The "new" thing is the contents of MBRINST.BT_ @REM ================================================================================= @REM PC Recovery Preinstall Addon: @REM To perform MBR installation @REM ================================================================================= CMD.EXE /c cscript.exe /nologo C:\system.sav\util\MBRINST.VBS > C:\system.sav\util\MBRINST.CMD CMD.EXE /c C:\system.sav\util\MBRINST.CMD Basically it is a batch that invokes the MBRINST.VBS Visual Basic script in order to create "on-the-fly" ANOTHER batch. The VBS performs some kind of security checks, lists drives on system then outputs a batch with this command line (both in the case of one single hard disk or in the case of two hard disks "NOT SWAPPED"): C:\system.sav\util\MBRINST.EXE /INI C:\system.sav\util\MBR.INI /U /Q jaclaz

Yep , my bad , 2>>new.sif (without space before the >>) will be interpreted as a redirection: http://www.robvanderwoude.com/redirection.php jaclaz

Very interesting from logs: Set the first partition (= User Partition) active X:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\MBR.DLL /DISK 1 /INI X:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\MBR.INI /ACTIVE 1 /Q ...MBRInst returned 0 Apply the SoftThinks Master Boot Record: X:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\MBR.DLL /DISK 1 /INI X:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\MBR.INI /U /Q ...MBRInst returned 0 It seems like the good Softthinks (or HP) guys renamed MBRINST.EXE to MBR.DLL... The MBR.DLL in X:\Windows\System32 is 159,744 bytes in size, exactly like the MBRINST.EXE in the same X:\Windows\System32 (and has same date/time 07/01/2008 04:14 AM) The one in C:\Program Files\SMINST is 165,248 bytes. and has different date/time 10/06/2008 09:55 AM (newer) jaclaz

This is interesting: It is possible that MBRINST.EXE has been replaced by the .VBS script , and the 388 byte .BT_ could be a (partial) MBR. Can you compress together MBRINST.BT_ and MBRINST.VBS in a ZIP archive and post it? Also, in C:\Program Files\SMINST, there are a lot of seemingly interesting .LOG files. newly created. And a number of files beginning with ST that could be related to SoftThinks..., ot that seem like coonected with RP (Recovery Partition ) or HPRM (HP Recovery Manager ) and one related to CD creator... I would like to peek inside: 04/04/2009 08:58 AM 11,765 BI.LOG 04/04/2009 08:58 AM 2 BurnInfo.log 04/04/2009 08:58 AM 266 CD Creator.exe.LOG 04/04/2009 08:58 AM 645 Creator.log 04/04/2009 06:19 PM 35,416 history.log 04/04/2009 08:48 AM 11,131 HPRM_BCD_FIX.LOG 04/04/2009 08:47 AM 324 LOG 04/04/2009 08:48 AM 45 Master.log 03/28/2006 10:09 PM 58 RPCheck.log 04/03/2009 09:26 PM 4,428 RPRemoval.exe.LOG 04/03/2009 07:41 AM 116 ST_LOG.LOG Provided that they are hopefully "plain text". jaclaz

You need to create a new temporary file (that you can later rename as TXTSETUP.SIF Something like this: If exist new.sif del new.sif FOR /F "tokens=* delims=" %%A IN (TXTSETUP.SIF) DO ( IF "%%A"=="[SourceDisksFiles]" ( ECHO [SourceDisksFiles]>>new.sif ECHO example.dll = 1,,,,,,3_,2,0,0,,1,2>>new.sif ) ELSE ( ECHO %%A>>new.sif ) ) Should do. Otherwise you could use an external program like gsar: http://home.online.no/~tjaberg/ Or any other search and replace utilities. jaclaz

In the MBR there are 4 (four) partition entries, each 16 (sixteen) bytes long. In each of these entries, fifth byte is Partition ID. See this: http://mirror.href.com/thestarman/asm/mbr/PartTables.htm and the already linked to: http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partitions/partition_types-1.html Good. Though I am still missing some info, maybe I overlooked it In your DISKPART report, you have two partitions: the "main" one which gets letter C:\ and the "recovery" one which gets letter D:\ Where does the X:\ come from? Is it the letter that is given to the PE .WIM image that you boot when you choose the recovery partition? Most probably you have set your system not to show executable files. I would bet that you probably have in C:\system.sav\Util a MBRINST.EXE file and as well and definitely one in C:\ program Files\SMINST Now, should this latter info be confirmed, you have a C:\Program File\SMINST\MBRINST.EXE and a C:\Program File\SMINST\MBR.INI this sounds very like the \SMINST\ path reported before: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...31620&st=24 Now, you posted the MBR.INI that you found in your X:\ drive, whatever it is, can you post also the one in C:\system.sav\Util\ and the one in C:\Program Files\SMINST\? Unless they are all identical, of course. I will also need a DIR /S of C:\system.sav\Util\ and a DIR /S of C:\Program Files\SMINST\ jaclaz

The thing that I find strange is that the recovery partition was visible "from factory". Usually, but really cannot say on HP laptops, and probably not all of them are the same, the Recovery partition is normally hidden and accessible only through the F11 or whatever hotkey while booting. Most probably, as Tripredacus pointed out, in order for the MBRINST.EXE to work properly, the partition must be hidden before, possibly with the "stupid" 12 partition ID: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...08515&st=28 the (ab)use of 12 type partition dates back to Compaq: http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partitions/partition_types-1.html for the record, Dell's use the even more "stupid" DE: http://www.goodells.net/dellutility/index.htm I guess that whether a partition type 12 is visible or hidden depends on the particular BIOS of the machine, MS and IBM (OS/2) have always considered partition types with a leading 1 to be the hidden version of the corresponding ones with a leading 0. @ahmad2080 Upload the file to rapidshare or a similar file hosting and post the link. Also, the contents of your (possibly more than one) MBRINST.INI might be of use. jaclaz

Read this: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=56005 your best bet is to try to "reduce" the scratch and then try using a program like Dvdisaster: http://dvdisaster.net/en/index.php http://sourceforge.net/projects/dvdisaster can be useful to find where is the scratch or where are the "worst" ones. Then use CDcheck: http://www.kvipu.com/CDCheck/ to try recovering the data. jaclaz

Yep, another DIR /S of that would be useful. It's strange that noone reported this before, (I mean beeblebrox being incompatible with Vista), maybe it must be run in some compatibility mode or whatever. You can try using my MBRbatch, it should work under Vista too, though it's a bit cumbersome: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=3191 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5000 However, for the moment there is no need for a partition table editor, since we don't know WHAT to edit. jaclaz

To be fair , it was you that caused the trouble by using improperly a tool, no offence intended to you, rest assured, but the guys at Symantec are already busy enough attempting to add some more bloat in the Norton "line" of antivirii that they cannot actually produce some accurate documentation about Powerquest Norton Partition Magic, explaining to the less experienced user that it is a dangerous app if used improperly. :whistling: jaclaz

@Andromeda43 I am failing to see ANY flavour of DOS among the requested items: and your approach seems "DOS" only...:whistling: @broknindarkagain As suggested by Ponch, have a look here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showforum=157 particularly here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=111406 then jump to here : http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=20089 and if you want to learn more about grub4dos (which is not "legacy" GRUB), go to it's Forum: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showforum=66 jaclaz

@ahmad2080 Yes, we were cross-posting. I'll have a look at the list. Can you also check your "normal" partition for the presence of files MBRINST.EXE and MBRINST.INI, and if you find them detail where they are? @submix8 The second link IS dangerous , expecially beacuse it will make you edit the BOOT RECORD of the partition (read bootsector), that has nothing to do with the MBR. PTEDIT is the DOS version. PTEDIT32 is the Windows version. There is a Freeware, beeblebrox, with most of the capabilities of PTEDIT32: http://students.cs.byu.edu/~codyb/ (but that will leave bootsectors alone) jaclaz

It is possible that from that command prompt you cannot access the ROOT of you C:\ drive? Try changing to the D:\ recovery partition and issuing: DIR /S >C:\Recdir.txt or try placing the output file on some other place, a USB stick would be allright, but I need to see a complete list with directory structure and filesizes to (maybe ) understand how the thingy is made together: DIR /S >X:\Recdir.txt jaclaz