jaclaz

Just for the record, the KB article is here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943144/en-us The good thing is that, at least in this case it's STATUS is: and not a "by design": http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=3541 jaclaz

@Omal You should check the date of last post in a thread before posting, this thread is almost two years old, I hope the problem has been in the meantime solved. jaclaz

What you want to try doing is a Repair install, see if you can follow EXACTLY this article: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm jaclaz

To install (and run) XP or Vista ON a USB device, check tutorials in Dietmar's signature: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=14181 To install XP or Vista FROM a USB device, see here: http://www.msfn.org/board/Install-XP-from-USB-f157.html jaclaz

Really? Can you elaborate on that? jaclaz

Check this thread about partition boundaries: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21186 cannot say if it applies to your case, but it is worth a check. jaclaz

Isn't that for MAC? jaclaz

I am not sure I understand what you are asking for. Waiting for the completion of a filecopy process should be default. Why don't you post your batch at the point it is now, so that we can have a look at it and maybe show you what needs to be added? A check for ERRORLEVEL: http://www.robvanderwoude.com/errorlevel.html may be used, starting a second batch and checking for it's termination, or using directly something like: start /wait cmd.exe /c call anotherbatch.cmd param1 param2 Getting just the name of last-in-tree "parent" directory should be possible parsing the %~p1 variable, using a FOR loop using the backslash as delimiter, but what is it needed for? jaclaz

If I may, NO. The "4" parameter implies that every file has been named conforming to a (non existing) N+3 convention, i.e. ALL files need to have an extension and the extension MUST be exactly three characters long. This is not the case always, and expecially nowadays, with the new extensions the good guys at MS invented for Office files: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Off...file_extensions it is (or will be VERY common to have files with four or five characters extensions) The internal filenames parsing of the tilde expansion uses the dot as separator between filename and its extension and it works with any length of the extension. This can be replicated by parsing the variables and finding the position of the dot, but it is unneeded, as the above method works perfectly. jaclaz

You can easily "parse" separately filename and extension, by using the tilde parameters substitution, see this: http://www.robvanderwoude.com/ntfor.html The above works also for variables passed by CALL functions. Something like this: @ECHO OFF SET file1="C:\foo withspace\foo.txt" CALL :PARSEVAR %file% FOR %%A IN ( file1 fullname fullpath drive filename fileext firstpart addedpart newfile) DO SET %%A GOTO :EOF :PARSEVAR SET fullname=%~1 SET fullpath=%~f1 SET drive=%~d1 SET filename=%~n1 SET fileext=%~x1 SET firstpart=%~dpn1 SET addedpart=test SET newfile="%firstpart%%addedpart%%fileext%" GOTO :EOF Should give you the idea. jaclaz

CDFS hardlinking. Basically any two files that are identical are written only once, and the other entry in the CD directory is a "hardlink" to that one. If you have MOST identical files, the space savings is VERY noticeable, if you have only FEW, it will be negligible. Most probably the two versions you are trying to have on CD are very different. jaclaz

From the fact that you are using the For /F syntax, I get that you are going to run this in 2K/XP or later OS. In such cases, it is advised NOT to use the .bat extension but rather the .cmd one, but it is not needed, it's just a way to make sure you won't run it in DOS/9x/Me. The problem should be only where you "expand" the variables and "pass" them to a command. The default separator is the space, thus a name that includes a space is seen by the command processor as TWO parameters. Simply enclose the variables with quotes. START /WAIT /B COPY /V "%NAME%" "%NEW_FILE%" This should apply also to "FILENAME" which is given as second parameter when calling the batch. But I seem to fail seeing the variable "NAME" defined anywhere in the batch, I guess it should be everywhere either "FILENAME" or "NAME". You need to strip the quotes in order to add the date in front of the name, and enclose the date+name in "new" quotes. SET NEW_FILE="%dd%-%mm%-%yy%_%hh%%min%_%NAME%" There are several ways to do so, most notably using a CALL with parameter and expanding %~1, or something like SET NAME=%NAME:"=%. But the line: START /WAIT /B COPY /V "%NAME%" "%NEW_FILE%" Won't work correctly as it misses the PATH to both the source and destination files. Check this site: http://www.robvanderwoude.com And these threads: http://www.msfn.org/board/Rename-File-With...-Fi-t47812.html http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?act=idx/showtopic=37572 To see some examples, post again if you need more help. jaclaz

Cannot say if it applies to your case, but FYI: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=2681&st=24 Tested on 2K/XP, but should work with DOS/9x/ME as well. jaclaz

But of course nothing prevents from making a "dd-like" image of the smallest possible working USB stick and deploy it to any (same or bigger sized) other USB stick. All motherboards nowadays "accept" a nx255x63 geometry, so there will be NO problems whatsoever. Sure, if you use a 1Gb image on a 2Gb stick you will (temporarily) loose 1 Gb of space, and you will have to check to use a "little-less-than-tag" capacity if you use the image on another 1Gb stick, as capacity may vary slightly with different sticks, but that's all. See this seemingly unrelated thread: http://forum.winimage.com/viewtopic.php?t=3121 jaclaz

You appear to have made the mistake most if not all people do at first attempt(s). A .iso file is ALREADY an integral image of a CD. You do NOT write the .iso file INSIDE the CD (possibly selecting somewhere else in your burning app to create a bootable CD). You write the .iso OVER the entire CD, in other words you do not see the .iso file when browsing the CD, but rather the files contained in the .iso file. Check these howto's, though they are made for earlier versions of Nero, nothing important has changed: http://www.weethet.nl/english/cdrw_usingnero_iso.php http://wizardskeep.org/mainhall/tutor/neroiso.html This one is non-visual but covers a lot of other softwares: http://iso.snoekonline.com/iso.htm jaclaz

@JedMeister Happy it was useful @All The general idea that I was trying to convey is that you can add (within limits) more than one line to boot.ini and simply try them until you find the one that works. 1C=1st controller=multi(0) 1D=1st disk=rdisk(0) 1P=1st partition=partition(1) 2C=2nd controller=multi(1) etc. i.e. add these to boot.ini and check which one works: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="XP Pro 1C1D1P " /fastdetect multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\Windows="XP Pro 1C1D2P " /fastdetect multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\Windows="XP Pro 1C2D1P " /fastdetect multi(1)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="XP Pro 2C1D1P " /fastdetect multi(2)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="XP Pro 3C1D1P " /fastdetect jaclaz

Most probably NOT connected to the report by Zoinkity but generally speaking, Win9x does "weird" things to floppies, see here: http://mirror.href.com/thestarman/asm/mbr/WIN98FDB.htm http://mirror.href.com/thestarman/asm/debug/debug2.htm#IHC Could it be a problem with the floppy driver or corrupted VMM32.VXD? http://drscriptt.riverviewtech.net/docs/vmm32.html @Zoinkity What happens in a DOS box within Windows 98? jaclaz

Two minutes worth of googling for ".pdf protect freeware" : http://www.sheelapps.com/ http://www.sheelapps.com/index.php?p=PDFTo...amp;action=view Another two for ".pdf encrypt freeware": http://pdfill.com/pdf_tools_free.html jaclaz

@dencorso The actual stance of people that posted on this board are as I see it: Lilas: do not know. Sfor: I know and it can be done ONLY through RAM booting. jaclaz: I know, it can be done ONLY through RAM booting and it's easy as it is already documented, an alternative could be a "splitted" RAM disk booting (hinted a possible way). dencorso: I know, it can be done through RAM booting and it's difficult, because one needs a "splitted" RAM disk booting approach, that I think it should work (described a possible way), I INSISTing that it is possible (through RAM booting) So, we are saying exactly the same things , with different degrees of optimism or pessimism and different ways to describe the solution, in a nutshell: 1) it is NOT possible without some form of RAM disk booting 2) it is possible with documented "integral" RAM disk booting 3) may work with some form of "splitted" RAM disk booting jaclaz

Happy problem was solved. jaclaz

Well, the idea of posting a link is that people should read what's in it. :whistling: http://www.msfn.org/board/BOOTINI-and-diff...ive-t25365.html Since you want to boot first partition on your second disk, the syntax is: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\ if second drive is on the same controller or: multi(1)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\ if it's first disk on a second controller as CLEARLY mentioned in the said thread, with examples and links to the appropriate MS KB, best way is to add some lines to BOOT.INI and experiment with them. jaclaz

Cannot say. Best bet is chainloading a grub4dos bootsector (read a normal NTLDR one hexedited to GRLDR) from syslinux? Batch to create and edit bootsector invoked loader: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=2362 How to chainload a bootsector from syslinux: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...0806&st=228 jaclaz

Yep, which brings us exactly where Sfor left us: Since there are already a few ways to run Win9x in RAM, there is no need to discuss this at length, most links are in the "old" thread here: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=12326 and on boot-land here: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showforum=53 Now, it would be interesting if we could use something similar to the "Xp Kansas city shuffle": http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=21242&hl= to reduce the amount of data transferred between the USB stick and RAM or reduce Ramdisk size, though on modern machines a "huge" ramdisk of 64 or 128 Mb would be just a fraction of total RAM. In other words, can we find a minimal set of Win9x files (for example to be loaded through DOS-HMLOAD-grub4dos on internal grub4dos rd), "disconnect" the BIOS access to the USB stick then start loading a miniwindows from the rd and load the rest through Windows USB drivers? Any taker? jaclaz

I think there is some mixing of terms, lilas is referring to the Windows 9x drivers, i.e. the ones packed by Maximus Decim, while Chozo4 and dencorso are referring to DOS USB drivers. @dencorso Yep, it's pretty newish, here: http://www.computing.net/answers/dos/usbas...ased/16587.html jaclaz

Maybe not what you asked for, but you can try editing directly the Registry: http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/1007/ to flip the setting and this should restore the checkbox : http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com/windo...f-it-is-Missing The above has been around from a lot before XP SP3, I doubt that it was caused by the SP3, but cannot say. jaclaz