jaclaz

Oh me oh my, that looks involved. Any suggestion which byte to change with a disk editor? Disk Editor? WHY? Use beeblebrox: http://students.cs.byu.edu/~codyb/ ot PTEdit/Ptedit32 Read the given links, particularly this one: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=2959 Comeon , a MBR is not black magic , it's just a bunch of bytes (512 to be exact), of which you are interested in DATA: 4x16=64 of them and there are nice graphical tools to manage them. jaclaz

Should for any reason the above be not working, try using this floppy: http://johnson.tmfc.net/dos/usbdrv.html to experiment with various drivers. jaclaz

NONE of them. You are missing a point. As long as the CHS and LBA data are "balanced" there is no problem whatsoever with "converting" an existing CHS partition in it's corresponding LBA one and viceversa. Even if they are not, it should work allright with CHS->LBA (while it normally WON'T for LBA->CHS) All it takes is changing 1 (one) byte in the MBR. You might want to read the links I gave to dencorso here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...130689&st=8 AND this seemingly unrelated one: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21049 jaclaz

For the record, both theory and evidence of reports lead to these conclusions: for CD's (and EARLY DVD burners) the LOWER the speed it is burned the more it is likely the burned CD won't have problems on any machine (this was expecially true on older PC's and burners where processor speed and cache made a difference) for recent DVD's the "best" settings is around mid-range, i.e. in the "ideal" speed of the device http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21043 Basically, old CD and DVD burners were "slow" units "supercharged" to reach high speeds, newish ones are "average speed" units that are both "supercharged" to obtain max speed and "dumbed down" to work at lower ones. The "half the max speed" is a good rule of thumb. There are however several factors involved, including the actual brand of the media and also some "coupling" between a particular media and a particular burner: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=20755 There is also an intermediate situation between "total failure" and "everything allright" which is what Access Denied reported, i.e. the data is "all there" and can be read "allright", but when reading in bursts, the reading is not 100% effective and another (or more than one) "reading passes" is needed, thus actually slowing down the booting/install. jaclaz

aviv00 Maybe you could edit your initial post adding in it some more explicit instructions, like which exact lines need to be edited, instead of this: or possibly attach an already edited and known to be working TXTSETUP.SIF, I could put together a simple batch to do "automagically" just the needed edits.... jaclaz

You're welcome. "See" you soon, hopefully with news of a success. jaclaz

Which was the original suggestion. I mean, it depends on the actual use of the adapter, if it's going to be "portable", you can cut it/bend it with a pair of pliers, this way the adapter will be "compatible with any ATA/IDE cable you may find on different machines. If you get a new ATA/IDE cable with pin #20 unblocked, it is OK, as the cable too will become part of the "portable" kit. If you "drill the hole" (or make a groove with a cutter) to your existiung ATA/IDE cable, besides the possibility of breaking something or hurt yourself, you won't have anything really "portable". Please note that whilst the actual connectors are the same, there are TWO kind of cables: old, 40 wires one, up to ATA-5 / ATA 66 if I recall correctly (Ultra DMA modes 0, 1 and 2) new, 80 wires one, for ATA-6/-7 / ATA 100 and 133 (and backwards compatible) Old cables had "exchangeable" connectors, you could plug any of them in either motherboard, master device or slave device. New ones are colour coded: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confCable80-c.html @tb582 Most cables won't have pin #20 blocked, just check your preferred local store or national internet source, as an example, Lindy cables are not blocked: http://www.lindy-usa.com/31-2-ata33-ide-ha...-45m/33140.html http://www.lindy-usa.com/31-2-ultra-ata-66...-45m/33156.html On online shops usually there is a picture of the cable, from which you can see whether pin #20 is blocked or not, this one: is an example of the ones that are "solid plastic". jaclaz

This is interesting. The 240 heads (WRONG ) value as opposed to 255 (RIGHT ) should be related to the (in)famous 240 Head Int 13 Interface (7.38 GiB / 7.93 GB) Barrier http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/bios/size.htm http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/bios/sizeGB738-c.html Something that may (or may completely fail to ) solve or alleviate the problem is using another MBR, that ONLY uses LBA, some hints are given here: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...=2246&st=15 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...ic=7468&hl= AND using LBA partitions, i.e. type 0C and 0E and NOT 06 and 0B. jaclaz

Well, no, there is : http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=58410 Though it shouldn't be needed for XP SP3: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=118388 jaclaz

Just to clear what I said (I should know what I have said): meaning from the adapter. Second advice: Third advice: The (few) cable connectors with no hole corresponding to pin #20 I have seen were "solid plastic", if yours is a "normal" connector with a "plastic pin" inserted in it at #20, you can of course try removing it. jaclaz

No, you can use convert.exe allright. Do read this seemingly unrelated thread: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16713 No, that is called "textmode part" of the SETUP. PE is a (optionally graphical) Preinstallation System, a sort of mini-XP with no user logged in (the logged user is actually System) in which you can perform almost anything you can do in a "full" XP. A BartPE, UBCD4WIN or Winbuilder's Projects are an example of "evoluted" PE's form the original WinPE 1.x. jaclaz

Should be #20: http://pinouts.ru/HD/AtaInternal_pinout.shtml Double check it, then you can remove the pin with a pair of pliers or buy another IDE/ATA cable without Pin 20 "blocked", or drill a hole on your existing cable connector (not really advised ). jaclaz

I meant if I want to learn and do it my self on my IO.sys so I don´t need to replace. Hmm , you "only" need to: run a diff between the posted file and the "normal" one learn a fair bit about assembly learn a fair bit about image compression examine the differences understand how the patch works replicate it on "your" IO.SYS jaclaz

Nice tip. One small word of warning, be very, very aware of static electricity. Make sure the slip of plastic has not been "charged" by friction, have some form of grounded metal handy to make sure it is fully discharged before attempting inserting it. jaclaz

@Tripo The file already has logo removed. @starcraftmaster It is meant to have a smaller executable, handy for using on floppies or a little faster for booting on a VM. Here is an interesting "replacement", though logo.sys can still be used with the reduced IO.SYS: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=131002 jaclaz

@joe tweaker I misunderstood the symptoms, sorry. Can you try running Chipgenius on the USB enclosure? Here: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...c=4661&st=0 Maybe this way we can pinpoint the "problematic" controller, there may be a "manufacturer tool" available for it. @dencorso The one you found: http://www.techsupportforum.com/hardware-s...-usb-drive.html seems like a report confirming my initial idea (wrong MBR/bootsector and attempt to booting from it) The one on the "mac" forum seems like it. jaclaz

If I get it right, the PC tries, no matter what the settings in BIOS are to boot from the external USB if it is switched on at boot time. If this is the case, it is possible to workaround the problem. Which exact "crash" do you experience (are you getting a readable error - if yes post it EXACTLY as you see it - or a flashing cursor or j in the top left of screen or whatever - please describe it). One can install on the external USB stick a MBR/Bootsector or loader that actually boots and then passes control to the internal drive. Tests must be made to check whether drive numbers are shifted and a disk BIOS swap is needed or not. This technique is used commonly for the "Install XP from USB" using grub4dos. jaclaz

Sure but the tricky part has always been the S..... Since you appear to have all the needed space and more, you might want to put all the \I386 in a .zip file, transfer it zipped and expand it in the target machine (you will need a DOS zip compatible app on target). How are you accessing the network share from DOS? Something like: \\xpmachine\folder If this is the case, you should trying mapping the network path to a local drive: net use k: \\xpmachine\folder If you make a single archive, you can use copy allright: http://www.computerhope.com/copyhlp.htm Otherwise it might be better to use xcopy: http://www.computerhope.com/xcopyhlp.htm jaclaz

Well, it's you that started "malforming" directory names , you should know how to "malform" a DIR /S into DIR /X /S <malformed name> : jaclaz

No need to be sorry. Thread here on MSFN is this one: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=99220 that has additional info/notes as said there, here is a rough English translation of the original italian site: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=2411 jaclaz

Anyone wondered why I asked ( and completely failed to obtain ) this: Words and "descriptions" can be easily misunderstood , results from a DIR /S CANNOT. jaclaz

Check this: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5434 jaclaz

Out of Topic (but not much ) there is also ninja pendisk: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=4350 http://nunobrito.eu/ninja/ http://nunobrito1981.blogspot.com/2008/05/...pendisk-16.html jaclaz

Lots of limitations, hardware on one side, and poor skills on the other.... Seriously, most probably you'll have to either: learn a bit of DOS ask for help to a "local" friend more skilled If you can see directories on another machine through LAN, you can copy files locally allright. How big is the hard disk? How would you like it to be partitioned? Which OS are you installing? (I mean a "full" XP or a nlited reduced version) jaclaz

As fdv pointed out, besides scratching the CD, the "genius" must have also deleted NTLDR on the HD. If not, you may have a problemm with your bootsector. If this is the case, you should make yourself a PE or a Recovery Console CD and repair the bootsector also. Guide for making an XP RC (it will work allright for 2K as well): http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=2254 jaclaz