jaclaz

MI4C, sorry, but I do not understand what you are trying to do. If what you are asking for is to create Virtual hard disks of given size/geometry or "manually" formatting a USB stick, you may find these batches useful MBRBATCH/MKIMG: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=3191 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=5000 Otherwise, can you re-describe what you are trying to do? jaclaz

Try START "Nero" /DC:\Install\Nero\ /WAIT nero.exe or START "Nero" /WAIT nero.exe http://www.ss64.com/nt/start.html be aware of the "Title" and 8.3 naming with /D option problems. jaclaz

Read here: http://www.msfn.org/board/Integration-of-I...ve-t107504.html jaclaz

See if this helps: http://www.msfn.org/board/Edit-txtsetupsif...o-M-t65541.html jaclaz

Some information can be found here: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16381 http://www.msfn.org/board/Cannot-access-CD...P-i-t91907.html The \I386 folder should not be affected by installing a later SP, checking the dates of the files should be enough to make sure of that, the sp3.cab is to be removed from the build, of course. Your mileage may vary OEM's like Dell, HP or Sony have a knack for making non-standard mods that need lots of time to find and fix. jaclaz

For the record, there is a Commercial application said to be capable of "fixing" these kind of problems: http://www.tamedos.com/tame/tamehome.htm I was never able to find a Freeware/Open Source alternative to it. jaclaz

Well, no, it should be additional. @fusan Why don't you try the Reg key on a "normal" XP?, it has always worked. If you use XP SP2, that is. Could it be some KB update? It is definitely documented to work with BartPE, try using this .cmd: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=19422 or, another idea, maybe the thereby referenced app?: http://www.joeware.net/freetools/ http://www.joeware.net/freetools/tools/writeprot/index.htm jaclaz

This reader? http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,...escription.html Or this reader driver? http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/en/dri...df.html#POINT02 jaclaz

Wouldn't it be easier on the "other PC" to set up (temporarily) an admin account with same login and password as the "dead" laptop? jaclaz

That's very strange. One of the given links specifiy that this Registry entry is a SP2 feature. Maybe you are running Gold or SP1? Or SP3 and the feature has been removed? jaclaz

(bolding/underlining by me) Hmmm, just for the record: http://www.msfn.org/board/usb-drivers-prob...te-t112812.html http://www.msfn.org/board/Petition-to-Nuhi-t119463.html jaclaz

....and bugs, remember the bugs.... ...though most of the ones we all have are not pertaining the animal world.... jaclaz

Maybe that's it, "00010001" is the "code" for DWORD, the actual value of the key in Registry must be either 0 (write protect disabled) or 1 (write protect enabled). Some reference: http://www.everythingusb.com/writeprotect_registry.html http://www.accessdata.com/media/en_us/prin...otect.en_us.pdf jaclaz

I will , if you tell me what the heck did you use to fdisk/format the stick this time. The MBR code is NOT a standard NT/2K/XP/2003 nor Vista one. Open the stick in beeblebrox, and try setting the "Boot" to 80 (currently it is 00, i.e. you have currently NO partition active). Then, your geometry is once again "gone beserk"! You have: 0B-00-0-1-1-243-32-63-32-15974368 Should be one of the following: 0B-80-0-1-1-243-254-63-63-3919797 0B-80-0-1-1-243-254-63-63-3919797 0C-80-0-1-1-242-254-63-63-3903732 0C-80-0-1-1-242-254-63-63-3903732 SO: 1) Use beeblebrox to write one of the given set of values 2) Eject and reinsert stick 3) Format the stick 4) Run bootsect.exe /nt52 against the stick 5) Copy to the stick NTLDR/NTDETECT.COM/BOOT.INI 6) Try booting from the stick 7) if it does not boot, loop to 2) and try another set of values If it still does not boot, Use MBRFIX: http://www.sysint.no/nedlasting/mbrfix.htm http://www.sysint.no/Download/tabid/162/la...NO/Default.aspx MbrFix /drive <num> fixmbr to fix the MBR code and loop back to 1) Report. jaclaz

Reference is here: http://www.msfn.org/board/How-to-boot-inst...html&st=111 Yours should be: [Version] Signature = "$Windows NT$" [Addreg] ;WriteProtect USB HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\StorageDevicePolicies","WriteProtect",%REG_DWORD%,1 [Strings] ;Handy macro substitutions (non-localizable) REG_SZ = 0x00000000 REG_BINARY = 0x00000001 REG_DWORD = 0x00010001 REG_MULTI_SZ = 0x00010000 REG_SZ_APPEND = 0x00010008 REG_EXPAND_SZ = 0x00020000 or [Version] Signature = "$Windows NT$" [Addreg] ;WriteProtect USB HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\StorageDevicePolicies","WriteProtect",0x00010001,1 Then, you have to BOTH add hiveOEM.inf AND add the entry for it in txtsetup.sif as explained in the referenced post. jaclaz

Wouldn't something like these: http://launchy.net/ http://www.nymtec.com/desktop-lite-thingy be handy? Would they run in PE 2.1? jaclaz

Are you removing "Manual Install and Upgrade for removal"? See FAQ #2 here: http://www.msfn.org/board/FAQs-t116766.html jaclaz

Can you get to DOS command line? If yes, try running win.com with the various "debug" switches: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/142544/en-us Check this page: http://www.mdgx.com/newtip10.htm that has more tips. I see you have a 160 Gb hard disk, you sure that the FAT32 partition is BELOW the LBA48 barrier (137 Gb)? See here: http://www.msfn.org/board/Enable48BitLBA-B...ier-t78592.html http://www.msfn.org/board/137GB-limit-ESDI...lim-t46752.html jaclaz

Looky here: http://www.msfn.org/board/Rename-File-With...-Fi-t47812.html jaclaz

Happy to hear a story of success! jaclaz

Just for the record, and should anyone have the same type of problems, the "magic numbers" in partition table I gave before can be easily calculated with the spreadsheet you can find here: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=2959 Yep, but besides testing booting from the stick, it is a good idea to have anything removed also when "fiddling" with it, as you appear to have learned the "hard" way : jaclaz

Sure, but a few simply do not have enough current to drive a 2.5" hard disk, Specs are not below +4.75V and up to 500 mA, but there are reported cases where the actual current you can draw from the port is less than that. However, this appears not to be the case, I suspect more that, though being perfactly compatible with Windows XP "internal" drivers, the USB Vid/Pid is not "recognized" properly, a chack with DEVCON would be useful: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311272/en-us http://www.robvanderwoude.com/devcon.html Renew USB: http://www.robvanderwoude.com/files/renewusb_2k.txt jaclaz

AFAIK if you do not reboot, changes are NOT "sensed". jaclaz

You can use testdisk: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk to recover your partition table. SP3 is YET ANOTHER variable that you added. WHY? ...and possibly slipstreamed with nlite under Vista, which adds YET ANOTHER variable. Try with XP SP1 or SP2, NOT SP3. To make the stick bootable, since for unknown reasons the programs that work for everyone do not work on your hardware/software, you can as you already did, re-use the MBR manually made, then re-format the stick and apply bootsect /nt52, make sure it boots with NTLDR+NTDETECT.COM+BOOT.INI before copying the files to stick. REMOVE ANY OTHER USB DEVICE (excluded Mouse and Keyboard if USB) when working with bootable USB sticks. As expected, the error is IRQ/Driver related. Search for "0x000000c2" with google. jaclaz

Actually, no. I don't have any spare / extra harddrive laying around here. I have a external drive, but I don't want to "challenge destiny". That's why I want to install to my usb drive, so I don't have to use a extra harddrive. Yes, but the result is that you cannot boot from it, and we have several "layers" of possible causes: 1) the "quality" of the source (meaning the number of integrated SP's and KB fixes/security updates) 2) the "entity" of your nliting (did you remove too much? ) 3) hardware drivers 4) "my" .sif and .inf's You should AT LEAST try installing your source (WITHOUT and WITH) the USB mods, in a Virtual Machine, VirtualBox should be allright: http://www.virtualbox.org/ Tricky part, the bsod flashses by one second and then my computer restarts. Should I disable "reboot on system errors" when I press F8 before windows tries to boot? YES, it is VITAL to know which exact error is, it may help in finding what the problem is. You can change the Registry Entry: http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/229/ autoreboot to 0 (Offline you will need to access ControlSet001 instead of CurrentControlSet) No, it does not change system files, only cannot say if it would run under Vista. As expected, (since you get to the logon screen) the initial loading appers to be OK, the error happens later, do check the Event Logs. jaclaz