jaclaz

Maybe this : http://www.msfn.org/board/Generic-98-USB-d...cks-t99220.html will be of interest to you. jaclaz

Also, though not strictly speaking a "PE builder" applications, this is a very handy way to boot a minimal "recovery" system: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=3806 http://rescup.wordpress.com/ jaclaz

[sarcasm] Great. I guess that now we are much closer to find the object of this topic, we have someone who saw pictures of it..... [/sarcasm] jaclaz

All files on original (gold) and "integrated-by-Microsoft" SP1 and SP2 CD's have generally names compliant with 8.3 convention, with some exceptions, but the CD uses of course the CDFS filesystem. This is clearly a problem with this issue. This seemingly unrelated article: http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserve...3.mspx?mfr=true affirms that: WINNT.EXE actually NEEDS 8.3 names, whilst WINNT32.EXE supports Long File Names, But Long File Names, may NOT cover on ALL filesyatems: 1) extension longer than three characters 2) "multi-dot" filenames Possibly they are "considered" as valid when on CDFS, but they are NOT when on FAT or FAT32 (most probably NTFS is OK). If we are talking of a few files, the most straightforward solution should be that of finding references to them in .sif, .inf and similar setup files, change them and rename the corresponding files to a 8.3 or however non-multi-dot AND non-more-than-three-characters-extension filename. jaclaz

...and if I may, some considerations: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21691 jaclaz

Vista can be installed on USB drives, so it should be possible on CF cards too. Start from Tutorial 8 in Dietmar's Signature: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=14181 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...181&st=1707 jaclaz

NOT the Holy Grail (but the search for it never ends ), but this could be a substitute: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=4283 jaclaz

There are consistent reports that in some (actually very few cases) the HP tool is ineffective/does not produce a working stick. A solution that has proved to be working is simply that of zeroing the first few sectors of the stick, typically first 100 sectors, by using a disk/hex editor or dsfo/dsfi. http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=3453&st=8 jaclaz

1) Download USBoot 1.16.zip: http://www.usboot.org/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=2 2) Open the compressed archive 3) Copy the contents to a folder on your hard disk 4) READ QuickStart.txt 5) act according to instructions therein jaclaz

@Fredledingue I had taken this: as: "it's impossible to extract individual files from batch script" and just wanted to let you know that it is actually possible. Definitely easier. jaclaz

Besides the hint I gave previously, it should be possible, using NTFS hardlinks: http://jameser.blogspot.com/2006/08/tip-37...d-links-in.html to have the same effect of the CDFS feature that allows the "-duplicate-once" when building .iso's. If you are game for this, here is a page with links to some Free utilities: http://flipsidereality.com/blog/nix/howto-...ith-hard-links/ This one: http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/finddupe/ or the mentioned Perl script should do. Of course the device NEEDS to be NTFS, and while this is NOT recommended generally for Flash based devices, if the stick is used only for installs it should create no problems with durability of the hardware. jaclaz

@dencorso From batch, you use a DOS file splitter, like PARTCOPY: http://web.archive.org/web/20010116021600/...ine/pcopy02.zip (courtesy of the Wayback Machine) or a similar one, to make a file from the bytes starting from byte 67224 (or use GSAR to find occurence of "MSCF"), then run EXTRACT.EXE on the partial "tail" file. Not exactly starightforward, but allows for doing everything on a DOS machine. jaclaz

nuhi, maybe off-topic, or cpmpletely unrelated, but could any of the problems with WINNT.EXE (or WINNT32.EXE) installs be related to this thing reported by BinkinDutchman? : http://www.msfn.org/board/Windows-XP-SP3-s...up-t118781.html jaclaz

@vivian Re-read my post, I gave you links for BOTH scenarios. @BikinDutchman Re-read vivian's post, he/she wants to run a full XP, not install one to internal drive. jaclaz

@vivian Are you trying to install and run "full" XP on a USB stick? Or, as lost101 is saying you want to install XP from a USB stick? If the first one check this: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=14181 (and tutorials linked to in Dietmar's signature) OFFLINE right now this: http://forums.ngine.de/viewforum.php?f=4 http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176 http://forums.ngine.de/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1243 but, first thing try this: http://www.usboot.org/tiki-index.php If the second one, check this: http://www.msfn.org/board/Install-XP-from-USB-f157.html @lost101 Just for the record, the limit of FAT16 is around 2 Gb (NOT 4 Gb), and there is no problem with FAT32 formatted sticks, if you fdisk/format them properly. jaclaz

It does sound logic, but unfortunately logic does not always apply. No, there is no way you can "revert", AFAIK. jaclaz

In a nutshell: products from Symantec were exceptionally good until a few years ago, when they started to be affected by bloat, that had made them resource and disk space hoggers. Curiously enough the "Corporate" varsion of some of their products appear to be lighter than corresponding "Consumer" ones. Symantec products have traditionally used undocumented features of the OS where they are installed, that as well traditionally the good guys at MS keep changing, thus creating the potential for chaos. A couple of links that might interest you: http://www.msfn.org/board/SP3-registry-cor...on-t118290.html http://www.computergripes.com/symantec.html jaclaz

First thing I would do is checking WHAT is in line 1747 of d:\xpsprtm\base\boot\setup\oemdisk.c Can you post a snippet of the file (from a couple of lines before to a couple of lines after line 1747) with line numbers? jaclaz

I had a quick look to: 311561usa8.exe For the record, it appears to be a CAB self-extracting archive, with a stub of 67224 bytes. Search in it with a hex editor, for "PMSCF" the "P" is the last byte of the stub, "MSCF" is the header of the CAB. Once you remove the first 67224 (and possibly change the extension to CAB), it should be uncompressable with "normal" EXTRACT.EXE. (did not test personally) Contents are these: 01/12/2001 11.06 1.368 1998UN.INF 01/12/2001 11.03 1.378 2222UN.INF 01/12/2001 10.55 765 311561UP.INF 01/12/2001 11.01 2.568 98G_chk.INF 03/12/2001 12.47 2.572 98SE_chk.INF 11/12/1997 05.33 80.864 ADVPACK.DLL 12/08/1998 20.32 16.896 csetup.exe 27/07/1998 14.48 36.864 qfecheck.exe 09/02/1996 17.28 8.042 qfecheck.hlp 04/12/1997 12.02 2.272 W95INF16.DLL 04/12/1997 12.02 4.608 W95INF32.DLL 30/11/2001 15.31 222.670 winboot.98g 01/12/2001 09.37 222.670 winboot.98s The two winboot.98x should be IO.SYS renamed for Gold and SE. jaclaz

frogman2008 We are not (yet ) mind readers, please post some details, like what hardware you are using, USB flash stick or Hard disk, which version of Windows, etc. Also, please post the contents of the BOOT.INI on your hard disk (the internal one). jaclaz

So, maybe the answer is "25", not "42" Thanks for the link, very interesting. jaclaz

Wouldn't a "count if" function do? http://www.ozgrid.com/Excel/count-if.htm jaclaz

Though being completely and utterly a "home" user, I find that a Commercial version may be useful, I happen to have friends that would need nlite to speed up things at work, so, even if not directly affected by the "Personal use only", I agree with this petition idea. For what I can see, there are ANYWAY a number of people using nlite in a corporate environnment, ignoring the License Agreement, a few even come here for help: http://www.msfn.org/board/usb-drivers-prob...te-t112812.html http://www.msfn.org/board/W2K3-SP2-integration-t113576.html But still, I perfectly understand the reasons that prevents Nuhi from such a step: http://www.msfn.org/board/Question-Regardi...ses-t71566.html http://www.msfn.org/board/Alternative-to-nLite-t110615.html (essentially exclude ANY liability whatsoever) Maybe some "personal user" which is in his professional career a lawyer may give us (and Nuhi) some advice on this aspect, or some prospective BIG "corporate user" may want to pay one and publish his advice. jaclaz

Go to the homepage: http://www.autogk.me.uk/ and check the downloads listed there: http://www.autogk.me.uk/modules.php?name=Downloads jaclaz

Well, usually running a CHKDSK /R solves this kind of problems for free. Of course you need to run it from a PE of some kind or from Recovery Console booted from external media, CD-ROM or USB stick/hd, even the XP install CD-ROM allows to boot to Recovery Console. Of course, you should have a backup of the data.... ...I find Spinrite a very good app, as you say it's a bit expensive, and there are other solutions to recover data from supposedly bad sectors/clusters....and to re-format properly. I find that the real problems in these cases are DYI jobs made by not enough expert users or by the "neighboor's son which is a computer wiz" . If you care about data on your hard disks, backup. Even if you don't, backup as well. In case of doubt, backup. Once you have NOT backed up your data, the price of ANY recovery software is nothing when compared to the loss of (say) the documents it took weeks to write, the photos from your family's last three years holidays, etc. In these cases, if you feel not confident enough to attempt a recovery by yourself, ask for help BEFORE attempting it. Even if you feel confident enough, ask for help about ANY doubt you may have, even little or apparently marginal ones, BEFORE attempting the recovery. And consider the idea, depending on the value you attribute to data on the drive, to ask a professional consultant and/or data recovery company for a price, BEFORE attempting the recovery. jaclaz