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

Yep , that is the other urban myth, or, if you prefer, total and utter lack of understanding of how a Hard disk partitioning/formatting works. MOST people think that a good ol' FORMAT will delete anything on the HD for good. I guess that for years most people have gone from one excess (FORMAT) to the other (35 "voodo" passes or DoD standards), and I am afraid this wioll continue for many years to come. jaclaz

Wait a minute, before giving up. (usually IT IS NOT AN OPTION! , but I do understand your frustration ) Can you access the Recovery partition (say it's D:\) and open a command prompt and run in it: DIR /S D:\ >C:\Recdir.txt (change D: driveletter accordingly to your setup. And attach the resulting Recdir.txt file? I am curious to see what files are in it. jaclaz

As said: jaclaz

Really? http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...25900&st=11 (same thread posted before, this time pointing directly to post #12 ) jaclaz

You are welcome. You might find clearer these graphical examples: http://www.multibooters.co.uk/multiboot.html jaclaz

I have found this italian site: http://guide.pctrio.com/index.php/xp-vista...ot-con-filmati/ Where Basically, in the HP version, some settings are inside the mbr.ini and the command must be invoked with the /ini and with the /r /q command line parameters. "Full" translation: These probably produce different results than the "quickplay" thingie mentioned before: http://www.notebookforums.com/post2727416-848.html Also the screenshot here: http://regardingit.blogspot.com/ is different from the one posted by ahmad2080, so there must be several versions of the MBRINST.EXE, of which at least one is the "HP customized version". The instructions on the Italian site are consistent with these: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=653972 though it seems like the used MBRINST.EXE is the one in the Recovery Partition. @ahmad2080 I hope the above helps , but do remember that your mileage may vary... jaclaz

You mean like this? BIOS->MBR->Active Partition bootsector->NTLDR->BOOT.INI->NTDETECT.COM->Kernel files and drivers What files and in which order are loaded after NTDETECT.COM starts you can see by adding the /BOOTLOG switch to BOOT.INI entry: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinte...s/bb963892.aspx jaclaz

I would like that it monitors the source too to detect when the HTPC is on. Source monitoring can be done by hundreds of apps. I think it doesn't exist then, right? Well I am going back to the good old copy&paste. Sure, it would also be possible to have one that monitors if you're getting sleepy while watching the movies and makes you a nice cup of coffee (for me: black, two spoonful of sugar, please ). @iamtheky Seems like a nice one. Here is another one, just for the record: OZSYNC http://nebula1979.fortunecity.it/ though it is NOT reported as working under Vista Dsynchronize (from the same Author of HDhacker): http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/ is Vista compatible, and it is nicely small. jaclaz

Maybe I see. In the four-letter named folder you put, like in the flyakite guide : http://flyakite.msfn.org/xpprosp1.htm contents of the created $WIN_NT$.~BT and then TXTSETUP.SIF is edited to point to another directory structure. I was thinking the topic was about a different method, sorry for the confusion. Just in case, this may be useful (automated creation of folders): http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=58446 jaclaz

Unfortunately it WON'T work. You have 4 (four) characters available, like \I386, you cannot have \SETUP\XPR3, only \XPR3. As said, you can have a hex edited SETUPLDR.BIN and TXTSETUP.SIF in each of the four-letter folder, and chainload it through grub4dos (or Aerostudio that can use grub4dos) or BCDW, or whatever, cannot say about Easyboot. jaclaz

No need WHATSOEVER to shout. Samedir has this feature, what do you think the "real time monitoring of source folder" is for? Just in case, you can use any app scheduling it: http://www.ss64.com/nt/schtasks.html jaclaz

Yep, . JFYI: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=125900 jaclaz

It's also surprising the 500.000 figure! As a side note, it's an interesting "psychological" and absolutely empirical observation how this proves that people are: 1) mostly (beside harmless ) ungrateful 2) completely failing to read or comply with what they read Check the data of views of the main stickies: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showforum=157 right now: So, out of 183,897+25,417+292,504=501,818 views, only 18,166 had even a quick glance at FAQ's (less than 4%), besides the several ones that didn't read the FAQ'S and posted a new thread asking what was already covered in them, and only 3,806 (less than 0.7%) were curious enough to check what could be in the "thankyou's" thread, and of these, we had 3 (read three) thankyou's, ALL of them by longtime members of the board (to which we may add the few, maybe tens from people, like nashi989 , that posted a thank you on another thread.... 501,818 to 3 against would be some nice figures to feed into the Improbability Drive..... jaclaz

I remember using a program from Vladimir Salnikov, Samedir. Site is no more, but can still be found through the Wayback Machine : http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://samedir.sbn.bz/ http://web.archive.org/web/20071219121541/...samedir.sbn.bz/ Cannot say if it will work with Vista. jaclaz

Yep , but from the given links it seems like a "sp" can be downloaded from HP that contains the "mbrinst.exe" that should be able to re-create the "special" MBR. jaclaz

Besides the Forum posted before by expert01: http://www.bttr-software.de/forum/forum.php I'll throw in the home page too: http://www.bttr-software.de/ Several interesting utilities for the good ol' DOS user, I will point out this one: http://www.bttr-software.de/products/drvexch/ And several DOS ports: http://www.bttr-software.de/ports/ jaclaz