jaclaz

Maybe you could have a look at this app: Wizard's Apprentice http://wizapp.sourceforge.net/ Using it and the given examples it is pretty straightforward to do what you want to do, it is also a bit nicer than a "pure" .bat or .cmd file, and will work on both 9x/Me and NT/2K/XP/2003. jaclaz

A non-hidden 12 partition becomes a visible 02 one. How is it really formatted? You might want to try the "selm" parameter. jaclaz

Almost correct . Should be: Wrong. The drivers need to be integrated to the install SOURCE, NOT installed anywhere. If the drivers are properly integrated in the source SETUPLDR.BIN (or NTDETECT.COM) will detect the need for them and install them. As said, the alternative to integrating the drivers in the source (and burn a new CD/DVD) is to manually supply the needed drivers during setup, pressing F6 and "feeding" the install with the drivers on floppy. jaclaz

I am not sure I get the meaning of your request. If during setup you do not press F6 and supply the appropriate drivers on floppy, if the Windows setup (or ntdetect.com) finds a SATA interface and drive when booting, it searches within the source \I386 whether appropriate drivers are present: 1) if they are found, it installs them 2) if they are NOT found, you'll get a BSOD error, most probably a 0x0000007b one. nlite is one of the tools able to integrate the drivers in the \I386 source, but they can be manually integrated and there are other apps, like this one: http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Boot-M...o-Builder.shtml http://www.winfuture.de/xpisobuilder You need either the appropriate drivers on floppy and use F6 or have them intgrated in source, what do you mean by "order"? If you do not have a floppy and do not want to integrate the drivers, you may use this trick: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=20543 jaclaz

Similar thread updated with new info: Newish option, Terabyte MBR Utility can istall MBR's that allow for pressing a Fn key to select a "recovery" partition: http://www.msfn.org/board/Create-My-Own-Re....html&st=26 jaclaz

For the record, it seems like the MBR Utility (Freeware from Terabyte): http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads-free-software.htm http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads/mbr.zip Has, between others, an option to install a MBR using F12 (or other Fn key) to access a recovery partition and one to install a MBR using Fn key to access a recovery partition and change it's type: jaclaz

Maybe because you chose the right path? jaclaz

surfertje, you need to give more details when asking for support, there is no way anyone can know which steps you took, the batch allows for several different choices, you have to report which one(s) you took in order to be able (maybe ) to suggest you a solution. WHICH option did you choose when fdisking/formatting? echo Format USB-Drive with FAT or NTFS - FAT32 is very SLOW for Install of XP echo. echo P) PeToUSB - FAT Format - Max 2 GB echo. ECHO To Format USB-Drive : Enable Disk Format with LBA FAT16X echo Do NOT Select here FileCopy of BartPE echo FAT Format Supports Direct Booting with MS-DOS using MULTI_CONTENT echo Install of XP from USB in 30 minutes - Buffalo FireStix 2 GB echo. echo. H) HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool V2.0.6 - NTFS Format - use X_CONTENT echo. echo NTFS Format Supports DOS Boot Floppy Images via GRUB4DOS Menu echo Install of XP from USB in 16 minutes - Corsair Flash Voyager 4 GB echo. echo Do NOT use HP Tool for USB-Harddisks having more than 1 Partition echo WARNING - HP Tool Formats whole Disk - Second Partition is Lost echo. echo. echo N) No Format - Use USB-Drive with FAT or NTFS Format by Windows XP echo Or Update Existing Bootable USB-Drive with NTLDR Bootsector If you already have ANOTHER way to make the stick bootable that works, use THAT way, then choose the N) option. jaclaz

@scrumpyjack Floko84 has posted an interesting reply here: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=4754 if it is confirmed to work with your setup, it could possibly avoid the need to hexedit IO.SYS. jaclaz

Hmmm, did you check the status of your NumLock key at first boot? See these: http://www.msfn.org/board/How-to-disable-n...all-t117594.htm http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=2636 jaclaz

Do re-read slowly: Try selecting: INSTEAD of: What happens? jaclaz

For the record, newish versions of the excellent IMGBURN do burn Audio CD as well: http://www.imgburn.com/ so that would be everithing a normal user needs. For a Virtual Drive, besides FILEDISK: http://www.winimage.com/misc/filedisk64.htm and IMDISK: http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.html http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showforum=59 I normally use this one: http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html jaclaz

NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM are backwards compatible, NOT forward compatible. I.e. NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM from XP can boot BOTH 2K and XP, whilst the 2K version won't be able to boot a higher version. When you installed 2K after XP, most probably the two files were overwritten with the 2K version, simply re-overwrite them with the ones from XP. jaclaz

You're welcome. And, for the record, history always repeats itself: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...16754&st=21 the same "trick" was used to avoid "help problems" in Windows 3.1! jaclaz

If they are, than the "normal" IO.SYS has lettered the drive along what is stated in the MS KB. First thing rest assured that it is, at least theoretically, a "standard" configuration. There is no law whatsoever against having a drive with just a big extended partition. To avoid the drive letters changing when a new drive is inserted, from the "dawn of time" I have always formatted my hard disks with a smallish primary partition and all the rest one big extended partition, with one or more volumes in it. This way, when I used the drive as second or third hard disk I simply hid the primary partition, but when and if I needed the drive on that or another machine as first drive, I unhid that partition and I would have a bootable system without any need to re-partition or use third party utilities like partition magic. http://www.msfn.org/board/Files-for-bootin...6.html&st=2 http://www.msfn.org/board/Partition-to-rei...5.html&st=3 But the letter changing with the modified IO.SYS remains still a "mistery", the scope of the patch is to remove the problem that (actually not very often) happens in Win98 or Me when some "non-standard" partitioning schemes (or to be more exact logical volumes inside extended partitins with "wrong" CHS or LBA access) are used, fdisk does not create this situation AFAIK, but other "advanced" third party utilities may do that. If you used fdisk to create your paritioning scheme, your setup should be "kosher", and the patch, while correcting a possible problem, creates another one. Since letter assigner was developed of course we have no more any problems with drive lettering, and we can rename them at will under 9x/Me just like we are used to in NT/2K/XP, but your experience suggest that this patch should be used ONLY if the double lettering happens, and NOT as an "upgrade" patch. jaclaz

Use a "dummy" .exe: http://www.hydrous.net/weblog/2007/06/23/d...windows-exporer jaclaz

Use another Virtual Drive, like IMDISK: http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.html http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showforum=59 Since it supports command line it should be easy to add a virtual drive with it, if you supply an image file to it, if you need just a CD virtual drive, you can use Virtual CloneDrive: http://www.elby.ch/en/fun/software/index.html which should add a CD virtual drive and assign a drive letter to it even without "media" loaded. jaclaz

It's strange. I don't think there is a way to "assign" letters with fdisk. And what you report, besides not being following the MS KB is also different from common experience: http://www.msfn.org/board/Drive-letters-sh...d-H-t85729.html The fact that letters remain the same even when booting from floppy should mean that no software like letter assigner is changing drive letters, and thus the only explanation could be if the partitions on second and third hard disk were logical volumes inside extended. The fact that you remember changing drive letters in win2k appears to be consistent with this, as 2K (and XP/2003) use different rules for assigning drive letters: http://www.dewassoc.com/support/win2000/driveletters.htm which, would return in your case exactly the lettering scheme you are describing. jaclaz

Create the .iso with nlite. Possibly test it in a Virtual Machine of some kind (optional). Either mount it in a Virtual CD like this: http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html (only an example, there are many other ones, filedisk, imdisk, etc.) Or use an archive app, like winrar or 7-zip to extract the contents of the .iso to a local folder, say C:\XPSOURCE\ Run the USB_multiboot_9.cmd and point it to the source folder or to the virtual drive. READ attentively the FAQs and the readme's inside the download. jaclaz

@zxian As I see it (but I might be completely and utterly wrong, of course ) the problem might be the "Express Card" thingie. What I am just speculating about and probably failed to express properly, is that the BIOS must be able to boot from the PCMCIA slot and accept an e-sata attached to it. And, once the "real mode" part has booted, there should be the need for an Express Card (read PCMCIA) driver and that for a sata driver, so we are in a situation similar to the "Boot from USB" where more than one driver is needed. A "direct" e-sata bus would not be a problem, I think, as e-sata is basically nothing but a connector for the normal sata bus to attach external devices, and as thus is supported by the "normal" appropriate sata driver. jaclaz

This is an entirely new "realm". Provided that the laptop BIOS allows booting from e-sata, the Dietmar's "XP on USB" procedure should work, with the needed changes: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=14181 If the e-sata bus is not bootable to BIOS, it should be possible to adapt the "XP Kansas City Shuffle" to it: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=21242&hl= AFAIK there is not (yet ) a specific e-sata method/tutorial. jaclaz

If you reduce the source with nlite BEFORE running the USB_multiboot_9.cmd, you sure will get a reduced source: http://www.msfn.org/board/Install-XP-from-USB-f157.html The thing you MUST NOT remove is just the "Manual Install and Upgrade". http://www.msfn.org/board/FAQs-t116766.html jaclaz

If I may, why starting another Win98 minimization project? Doesn't Winimize suit you? http://winimize.com/ http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showforum=53 Cannot say if it helps you, but the old excel file with some info is still available: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...12326&st=29 http://home.graffiti.net/jaclaz:graffiti.n...TEST/donano.zip jaclaz

Good info. For the record, the guys at Symantec appear to use their time to blame on MS for the problem: http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=1659E132-...19B3023FDD85185 http://www.computerworld.com/action/articl...T_AM&nlid=1 The culprit should be this fixccs.exe file. Due to the wide usage of Symantec products, expecially on laptops where they often come pre-installed, I find at least preoccupying that neither Symantec nor Microsoft found the bug BEFORE the SP3 release, and that, even after the reports, took so long to fix, and that the fix has to come from a final user, instead of coming from one of the two big companies the software of one of which must be the actual origin of the problem. jaclaz

Well, NO. Any hard drive IS partitioned, at least with ONE partition. So you have: C: -> First Active Primary partition (boot drive) on first hard disk D: -> Logical volume inside Extended partition on first hard disk E: -> First Primary partition on second hard disk F: -> First Primary partition on third hard disk So, theoretically and according to the MS information, drives should be lettered as following: First Primary partition on first hard drive ->C: First Primary partition on next (second) hard drive -> D: First Primary partition on next (third) hard drive -> E: First volume inside Extended Partition of First hard disk -> F: The reason why you have (normally) a different scheme of lettering remains a mistery, unless you have something else that assingns letters . A question (only if you have time and will to experiment, of course ): can you try to boot from a simple Win98 DOS boot floppy and check if drive lettering remains the same? jaclaz