jaclaz

Now an English grammar question (provided that the answer was written by a mother tongue English speaking executive, possibly with some Law background besides technical and mathematical knowledge). How much is "only some percentage"? Let's see, if they were in total a few hundreds, say 800, i.e. 7 or 8 times the number of serials published on MSFN. Let's also assume that the affected drive models are 1/3 of past year production. According to dlethe: Seagate is running for 1,000,000,000 disk drives annually, I guess that extimating 2008 production at 1/3 of that number would be prudential. So let's try the math: 1/3*1,000,000,000= 333,333,333 drives produced in 2008 1/3*333,333,333=111,111,111 drives of the said to be affected models in 2008 Let's round this number by defect to 100,000,000. now, let's say that 0,2% is the minimum that can be defined "some percentage" (if it was less than this, anyone in his right mind would have used a definition like "a fraction of percentage" or "less than a single percentage point" or something "diminutive" like that) now: 0,002*100,000,000=200,000 OK, figures above may be exagerated/wrong, let's introduce a 10 times "safety factor": 200,000/10= 20,000 Anything between 20,000 and 200,000 appears "reasonable". Even taking the lowest of the "range", 20,000 is several times bigger than the initially assumed 800. Is it one of those days where my understanding of English is failing AND my math skills lack any kind of precision? jaclaz

Hmmm. Expecially in a Corporate Environment, I would DOUBLE check if you are allowed to "join two planks": http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...9355&st=134 Also, I think this KB is still valid. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935467/en-us jaclaz

On the bright side, how many "Autovelox", "Speed Cameras" or similar Speed checking devices of the last generation went beserk, lowering the chances of you getting fined? Another way : http://gizmodo.com/5069422/the-muppets-ani...ng-police-crazy jaclaz

You'd better get an informed consent module signed, then: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informed_consent jaclaz

More generally the two directories are created also when installing windows through WINNT.EXE and WINNT32.EXE. And they are also used on the now becoming historical "multiboot CD/DVD" guide : http://flyakite.msfn.org/ The names are hardcoded by the good MS guys, and while BT is obviously short for "BooT files", LS origin is unknown AFAICR. @siginet @wimb You both may want to look at the newish two features of grub4dos: dd ****************************************************************************** *** New command 'dd' to copy files *** ****************************************************************************** Usage: dd if=IF of=OF [bs=BS] [count=C] [skip=IN] [seek=OUT] Copy file IF to OF. BS is blocksize in bytes, default to 512. C is blocks to copy, default is total blocks in IF. IN specifies number of blocks to skip when read, default is 0. OUT specifies number of blocks to skip when write, default is 0. Skipped blocks are not touched. Both IF and OF must exist. Both IF and OF must have a leading device name, i.e., of the form `(...)'. You may use `()' for the current root device. dd can neither enlarge nor reduce the size of OF, the leftover tail of IF will be discarded. OF cannot be a gzipped file. If IF is a gzipped file, it will be decompressed automatically when copying. dd is dangerous, use at your own risk. To be on the safe side, you should only use dd to write a file in memory. In some cases when writing a file in NTFS, dd might fail. If you attempt to write a file that is not in memory by starting dd in a menu, you will safely be refused :-) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!!!! !!!! Caution! Both IF and OF can be a device name which stands for !!!! !!!! all the sectors on the device. Take utmost care! !!!! !!!!______________________________________________________________________!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and write ****************************************************************************** *** Use 'write' to write a string into a device or file *** ****************************************************************************** Usage: write [--offset=SKIP] ADDR_OR_FILE INTEGER_OR_STRING SKIP is an integer and defaults to 0. If ADDR_OR_FILE is an integer, then it is treated as a memory address, and INTEGER_OR_STRING must be an integer value. The integer INTEGER_OR_STRING will be written to address (ADDR_OR_FILE + SKIP). If ADDR_OR_FILE is a device or a file, then INTEGER_OR_STRING is treated as a string which will be written to ADDR_OR_FILE at offset SKIP (in bytes). The string is quoted with nothing, that is, neither with the single quote char(') nor with the double quote char("). Space char must be quoted with back slash(\). Single quote char(') and double quote char(") are not interpreted specially and can be used directly in the string. Some C-style quote sequences are interpreted as follows: \NNN character with octal value NNN (1 to 3 digits) \\ backslash \a alert (BEL) \b backspace \f form feed \n new line \r carriage return \t horizontal tab \v vertical tab \xHH byte with hexadecimal value HH (1 to 2 digits) Just like dd, the write can neither enlarge nor reduce the size of the destination file, the leftover tail of the string will be discarded. The destination file cannot be a gzipped file. Again like dd, the write command is also dangerous, use at your own risk. And to be on the safe side, you should only write to memory files. In some cases when writing a file in NTFS, the write might fail. If you attempt to write a file that is not in memory by using write in a menu, you will safely be refused :-) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!!!! !!!! Caution! The file to write can be a device name which stands !!!! !!!! for all the sectors on the device. Take utmost care! !!!! !!!!______________________________________________________________________!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Still experimental, NOT recommended for "production" right now, but worth some time considering. @wimb Additionally, check the new uuid: ****************************************************************************** *** New command 'uuid' to identify partitions *** ****************************************************************************** Usage: uuid [DEVICE] [UUID] If DEVICE is not specified, search for filesystem with UUID in all partitions and set the partition containing the filesystem as new root (if UUID is specified), or just list uuid's of all filesystems on all devices (if UUID is not specified). If DEVICE is specified, return true or false according to whether or not the DEVICE matches the specified UUID (if UUID is specified), or just list the uuid of DEVICE (if UUID is not specified). Example 1: find --set-root uuid () 7f95820f-5e33-4e6c-8f50-0760bf06d79c which will find a partition with uuid=7f95820f-5e33-4e6c-8f50-0760bf06d79c and set the partition as root if found. Example 2: uuid () which will print the uuid of the current root device. That could be useful to "identify" the stick without the need of a "tag" file. @siginet GOOD work! jaclaz

Not actually the "offset". The "320" is not at all "very hidden", being on slashdot since a few days: http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/21/0052236 Now that the problem, one way or the other, has come to the open, and mostly thanks to Gradius2 and a few other members of the board , we can see the light at the end of the tunnel , notwithstanding the poor way Seagate managed the issue, I would like to spend a few words against the argument of "few cases out of millions drives produced/sold": There are actually only TWO possibilities: it's actually a case of few tens or hundreds out of millions, and if this is the case providing recovery would cost proportionally next to nothing to Seagate and should have been offered since day one there are more drives affected than those listed here on MSFN, in which case a public announcement and recall campaign would have been more than justified Though of course in this particular case there is no fear of danger to health or risk of injuries something like this would have been justified, as I see it.: http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PREREL/PRHTML97/97175.html Because of 3 (THREE) incidents reported in the US, and probably a few more in other countries, the firm recalled some 120,000 Juice Extractors The recall was published on newspapers all around the world and, far from provoking a damage to the firm it actually bettered it's public image. Even if the reason for the (few? ) failures was still under investigation, simply instructing people at technical support, forum and/or call center to reply something like: Would have been more than enough to keep a number of enraged customers calm for the time needed. And again if the problem is about a few hundreds drives, Seagate could have afforded sending a technician in a limousine to the customer home or office and apply the fix. Still generally speaking there are two ways to avoid "panic" and keep customers satisfied: deny the evidence tell the truth, provide remedies and offer excuses In this era of communication, choice 1. above is, besides immoral, unrealistic. jaclaz

Just out of curiosity, what are your expectations out of installing Vista on 256 Mb RAM? Anything more than XP on 20 Mb? http://www.winhistory.de/more/386/xpmini_eng.htm 256 is below "common sense" threshold for XP, let alone Vista. jaclaz

I had guessed that "choice" was removed since 2K thanks to "SET /P" Or are we talking about DOS? jaclaz

Just to add a bit of fuel , wouldn't this statement: http://storagesecrets.org/2009/01/contact-...overy-services/ be, to say the least, unsupported by the evidence of the number of reported successes? Or am I misunderstanding it's meaning? jaclaz

What the heck has the "HP" Drive key boot utility have to do with low-level tools? The particular one you linked to appears to be a update to the oldish: http://home.graffiti.net/jaclaz:graffiti.n...B/USBstick.html to update the firmware of some HP Proliant Servers hardware from USB stick: http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechS...amp;mode=4& http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechS...amp;mode=4& jaclaz

Not actually that secret "identity": http://storagesecrets.org/2/ Basically it seems, from this: http://storagesecrets.org/2009/01/seagate-...-overhyped-fud/ that the site should be called hxxp://teasing_about_storage_secrets-that_I_know_but_wont_reveal.org With reference to this: http://storagesecrets.org/2/ First suggestion that comes to mind is that, although I understand perfectly the problem with NDA's, I simply hate people telling me (or anyone else): My personal opinion is that should have Seagate managed more professionally and quickly the issues arisen and solved the problem timingly, everything would have been cool. Once that the damage is done, their only way out is to publish some (if not all) the actual reasons why that happened and public excuses to all their customers affected. The more they try to keep things secret, the more some cunning user will dig in the matter and possibly find and publish something that should not be (for security reasons). jaclaz

OT, but not much: For the record, and not wanting to seem too "alarmistic" , the reliability of 500 Gb and 1 Tb drives appears to be, to say the least, "inferior" to that of drives up to, say, 250 or 320 GB. Besides the known recent "Seagate hiccup" common also to some Maxtor's, I have seen (or heard) much more woe tales recently that in the past, it may be a coincidence or simply people making more fuss than before about dead drives, but maybe better be safe than sorry and stick to somewhat "lower density" drives. jaclaz

Most probably because yocarim didn't post any . It should be this COMMERCIAL app: http://www.extensoft.com/?p=product_info jaclaz

If when you power it clicking, clinking or rattling noises come out of the HD case, something mechanical has broken (namely heads or head arm). An external disk is nothing more than a "normal" hard disk+a IDE to USB or SATA to USB controller, as DJ MyRinX pointed out. In other words, this: http://www.usb-ware.com/tt-usb-2-hard-drive-kit.htm + this: http://www.maxtor.com/en/hard-drive-backup...hard-drive.html makes this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822100037 (more or less) jaclaz

[still_somewhat_offtopic] FYI, just came out: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...ic=6672&hl= [/still_somewhat_offtopic] jaclaz

Just for the record, they don't appreciate bungee jumping as well.... Now, seriously. It is very possible, though indeed rather costly, to recover the data on the drive, at least partially, through the services of a professional data recovery firm. What they can do is to open the actual hard drive and replace parts in it. The procedure can also be attempted as a DIY job, but requires a number of tools and experience that, from the kind of question you asked, you appear NOT to have right now. Basically you need to find a working drive IDENTICAL to the failed one, disassemble BOTH in a "protected environment" then "transplant" some parts from the working one to the failed one, from the description of the problem most probably the heads and head arm needs to be replaced. jaclaz

Maybe a single, clear thread summing up the contents (not an index of the threads)? Currently: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=129027 a. 173 posts/9pages b. 437 posts/22 pages c. 65 posts/4 pages d. 8 posts/1 page e. 3 posts/1 page f. 32 posts/2 pages g. 40 posts/3 pages h. 12 posts/1 page i. 21 posts/2 pages + more links within. I find not realistic that a newbie will read 791 posts/45 pages, understand everything in them without having to study and understand more concepts (that are often referenced to as "assumed" by the experts ), and succeeds at first try on a production system. jaclaz

Really? jaclaz

FYI: http://www.nomdo.dds.nl/psview.htm jaclaz

additional/alternative to derniwi's suggestion, a way to speed up CD/DVD reading is creating the .iso with files in the SAME order they will be accessed by SETUPLDR.BIN and the windows install, this technique is used in BartPE to speed up things a bit: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=6041 (AND links within) jaclaz

Reading threads in this Forum and the help/docs within the USB_multiboot would seem to me a good start.... If you want to have on it all the things you listed, a BIG one. Now, seriously, you are having an approach that I would define a bit "ambitious", you will need to start reading and experiment with just one OS, then try again with two, then try adding a PE, and so on..... ....about multiboot, the obvious answer is grub4dos: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showforum=66 (already part of the "Install XP from USB") ...about hardware, a general "rule of the thumb" is that you get what you pay for, usually "top speed" sticks are the most expensive. jaclaz

Siginet, please don't take this a critic to what you posted , but what would really be useful would be the same information (or possibly enhanced) about recent (SP2/SP3) CD's in a format similar to the comparisons done a long time ago by the tacktech guys: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=101 http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=103 http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=104 I don't know the program they used, but the result is very easy to read/use. Of course if you have the source CD's and the time.... jaclaz

Of course IF you have a License for the use of Acronis Disk Director and/or Symantec GHOST. Besides, I STRONGLY object to the "only" put near to "115 Mb". A much smaller (and thus faster booting) build can (and should ): http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=644 be made. Challenge for #2 is still open, maybe I could "convince" Siginet to take it? jaclaz

It greatly depends on hardware. #1 above is not possible AFAIK unless you use a RAMDISK setup (and have enough RAM) #2 is perfectly possible using a variation of either: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=121446 or the good ol' DOS way: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16713 jaclaz

You should decide WHETHER posting here or in Unattended, not in BOTH : Rule #2a: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=18408 Double post: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128875&hl= jaclaz