jaclaz

It looks like some data generated by a Symantec app (Internet Security? ) as a report of an error or a conflict, to be possibly sent to Symantec. jaclaz

Basically: FAT16 has one bootsector (first sector of partition) and two copies of the FAT FAT32 has one bootsector (first sector of partition) a backup copy of it (in sector 6 of partition) and two copies of the FAT The bootsector is just 512 bytes long i.e. one sector and contains (mainly) only: 1) Name of the partition 2) Volume serial number 3) Extents (size) of the partition 4) Code for booting (invoking the OS loader or system files) The backup of the bootsector is "static" meaning that is never changed/updated, unless explicitly, or by running programs like scandisk or checkdisk, or similar utilities, whilst the 1st or 2nd FAT are used during normal disk operations (for example copying, creating or deleting files). Changes are written to one of the two tables, then once the operation has been carried on successfully the second table is updated to reflect the changes on the other one. The FAT, expecially on big volumes are huge, spanning over hundreds of disk sectors, and they contain one entry for each cluster on the disk, you have to think at them as the index of a book, where there is one entry for each page of the book. In other words, the two copies of the FAT are always the same unless something went wrong and prevented from the "mirroring" to happen. (a power shortage, a problem in the HD controller, malicious code, whatever). In a perfectly defragged volume, a FAT is just a sequential number of "addresses" and it is rather easy to be repaired, in a fragmented volume, there is no predictable "sequence", but some errors, like duplicated addresses, overlapping ones, and similar can still be fixed. You must think at your volume as is now as the photocopies of a book, where each page is a disk cluster of sectors, made omitting the pages numbers, that have been shuffled, and you have not anymore an index to access them. What you compared with testdisk are just the bootsector and it's backup copy, it is possible that if the two FAT's are different TESTDISK can choose the "least wrong" data from both and fix them. About the report by the demo of Active Recovery, you must understand that these kind of programs have heuristic engines that try to "guess" from a number of parameters they search in data how the partition was before corruption. Hence the need for working on copies, you try choosing one of the "guesses", maybe it works, if it does not, you re-create the data as it was before and re-run chosing another "guess" or another recovery program. If you are going to try and extract text from "recovered" files, there are utilities that automate the work, here is one: ftp://ftp.elf.stuba.sk/pub/pc/utiltext/bintext.zip jaclaz

I would try the "fixboot" only first. Right now your booting works like this: 1) MBR loads grub 2) grub chainloads bootsector 3) either grub or bootsector fails Fixmbr will overwrite the MBR code, removing the loading of grub. If you have a floppy, or can burn a CD, I would try with grub4dos that allows to chainload directly NTLDR, bypassing the bootsector. Get "old" version 0.4.2: http://grub4dos.jot.com/WikiHome You need to make sure you have NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM and BOOT.INI in root of (hd0,0). jaclaz

There is NO way anyone can help you with those few information you give. Please post: 1) How your disk is setup (how many partitions, which type, etc) 2) What is in the Grub menu.lst entry that you try to boot with 3) Which kind of source XP CD you have (recovery CD, Full Install, OEM Install, etc.) 4) How did you try (and failed to) install XP jaclaz

I think there should be one, but cannot say for sure, and yes, writing on the same partition is a NO NO. It is possible ONLY if you make a "RAW" image, i.e. a byte-by-byte copy, something you cannot do as the resulting file will be 3 Gb in size, exactly like the partition. Theoretically, there should be no problem, as the other partitions are separately addressed spacces, but the rule of the thumb is to never write on same drive because you do not know how and why it got messed the first time, thus it is possible that due to the problem that originally corrupted the drive writing to it, even on a different partition, may cause problems. But of course it's always a matter of probabilities a rough estimate would be, talking of probability of recover, since the "simple" things did not work: 1) Sending the drive to a professional 80% to 100% 2) Do it yourself on an imaged drive with professional (read Commercial) tools 60% to 80% (but this still allows for #1) 3) Do it yourself on original drive with professional tools 60% to 80% 4) Do it yourself on an imaged drive with Freeware tools 40% to 60% (but this still allows for #1) 5) Do it yourself on original drive with Freeware tools 30% to 40% If you are determined to go on, before trying again a file based recovery, I would try TESTDISK again, trying to repair the FAT tables: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Advanced_FA...pair_FAT_tables if it fails, it will alter just the FAT tables, probably in such a way that a further FAT based recovery with a professional tool will be made impossible, but will not alter the files in any way, so the possibility of a file based one will remain untouched. Also, it is possible that PHOTOREC or other file based utility recovers the files in a slightly incorrect way, enough for the original app to be not able to open it, but still containing most (or a large part) of the data within the file, that may be later "extracted" or "corrected" by specialized utilities or manually with a hex editor, but it would be a long, prone to errors and troublesome path that requires very advanced file formats knowledge and lots of experience. jaclaz

Most probably not what you asked for , and not even something you will particularly appreciate , but I have to make you more "pragmatist". In "real" world, noone will care about your student career and your excellent achievements. Questions are: Will the site be liked by the management? How much is the average rate in your country for building a site like that? (from what you write it should be like a complex one) How much are they willing to pay for it? How much capable are you in illustrating your capabilities, the beauty and easyness of your project, or, in other words, in "selling" your time? What a Company generally looks for is having the best possible product for the least money. Point is that they are usually not experts in the field (or they would not need a web designer) so the perception of what is "best" may be not an objective one. On the other hand, they know all or nearly all about money, and about competition, I wouldn't be surprised if they asked the same site to at least three other web designers. So the advice is: 1) be as clear as possible in illustrating what the result would be, it's features, potentiality, expecially regarding ability to be expanded in the future, by adding more features, modules, and so on (Companies simply love people with positive attitude that hint that their business is going to expand) 2) estimate how much of your time will be needed to write the code and build the site, plus some time to test and troubleshoot it, apply the changes you will undoubtedly be asked for 3) apply to it what you think is a reasonable fee, do not overdo it, but do not undersell your time, Companies, see above, sometimes think that cheap means "worse than" 4) quote also a "flat" fee for periodical maintenance of the site, let them know that building a site is just part of "going on the internet" From what I know, her in Italy/Europe, to build a very simple site goes anywhere between 250 and 1.000 Euro, and from 1.000 to 5.000 Euro for a "normal" one, with a hourly fee between 25 and 45 Euro. It is common a yearly 250 to 500 Euro for simple maintenance, plus an extra fee for "structural" changes. But the point is that for the same money you can get a very good site or a very bad one, web designers usually have a "portfolio" of sites to show as examples, but actually it all depends on the feeling between the web designer and the Company officer and on the "right" price, whether he will be awarded the contract. I have no idea about the complexity of your project, so cannot say what could be "fair". Best wishes for your professional future! jaclaz

Most part of the success rate of recovery on a drive at file level (i.e. when File Allocation Table or other indexing structure has gone beserk) is related to how fragmented was the volume, if the volume was heavily fragmented, chances are smaller. Basically such programs "catalog" anything from a known header up to the next known header as a file of given type....making some checks and "guessing" a lot... ...each program has it's own better or worse feature, as they use different algorithms. I asked about a 2K/XP as most "recent" Commercial software will not work on 9x, though there are quite a few Linux ones, but I have no experience with them. As said, trying the Convar free program won't make any harm and may be able to succeed where Photorec failed. There are lots of programs, most Commercial, but the pre-requisite is to be able to have at least one (better if two) images of the drive and work on them, as some may change filesystem structure and if the result is not working there is no way back. Here are some listed: http://www.msfn.org/board/Data-recovery-tool-t84345.html There are also chances for a "manual" recovery of a few files, but it needs "professional" skills and lots of time...if you do not succeed (without altering the data) you may want to consider the use of a data recovery service. jaclaz

Yes, sorry, I copied and pasted line above and failed to correct it :blush:, I meant 4) "select 2nd partition", press the "GOTO EPBR" and press the "BOOT Record" button. Partition data appears to be a bit mixed on the CHS side, but since access is through LBA, that should not cause problems. The good news is that the 1st partition boot sector of first partition appears to hold correct data. So, the problem has to lie in FAT. I will check and get back to you with (hopefully) some tests to make. Should it be necessary (it is however advisable) could you afford buying a new drive 160 Gb or more to make a copy of the corrupted hard drive data? Do you have any other machine wth Windows 2K or Windows XP installed where you can attach the corrupted drive? Or could you if needed build a PE (Pre-install Environment) CD through BartPE Pebuilder or Winbuilder on some machine running 2K or XP? jaclaz P.S.: .odt seems to be on the list of "known" files for Photorec: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/File_Format...red_By_PhotoRec http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/File_Format...PhotoRec#Office P.P.S.:it seems like the Convar utility File Recovery can run on win98 too: http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/file_recov....htm?language=1 it would be next thing to try. Both Photorec and PC File Recovery are "safe" (unless you copy/install them on the corrupted drive) as they will recover data on "another" drive. Another thing that you can try is using the "FAT recovery" feature of TESTDISK, but ONLY after you have a backup copy of the whole drive: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Advanced_FA...pair_FAT_tables

It's strange, I just tested the download you should have made for beeblebrox: http://students.cs.byu.edu/~codyb/ http://students.cs.byu.edu/~codyb/bbdownload.html http://students.cs.byu.edu/~codyb/beeblebrox9xsetup.zip and it works for me, however PTEDIT32 seems to be working allright. The project on sourceforge is Java (sic) rewrite of the original beeblebrox, left unfinished. Geometry is confirmed 19929/255/63 The MBR data appears to be NOT correct. The LBA data of first partition 60002712 corresponds to a partition of about 30 Gbytes, more exactly to 30.721.388.544 bytes. The CHS data of the same partition leads to a size of about 5 Gbytes, more exactly 5.453.328.384 bytes. Please re-run PTEDIT 32 and post screenshots: 1) after having selected the first (primary) partition and pressed the "BOOT Record" button 2) after having selected second (extended)partition and pressed the "GOTO EPBR" button 3) after having selected first of the two lofical partitions and pressed the "BOOT Record" button 4) after having selected first of the two logical partitions and pressed the "BOOT Record" button Make sure, when using the BOOT record to select the proper partition type, FAT16 (type 06 or 0e) FAT32 (type 0b or 0c) or NTFS (type 07) jaclaz

@XL-DJK NO, there is NO generic "low level" format of ANY kind capable of restoring a locked drive, one needs special utilities, and besides one would lose any data on the drive. @mickelle I assume you tried the program(s) at Rockbox: http://www.rockbox.org/lock.html without success. Each manufacturer has it's own ways, some need a hardware devoce besides the appropriate program, see these just as an example: http://hdd.profesjonalnie.pl/to.php http://www.pctestpro.com/disktest/hddrock.htm (rather expensive!) Most probably, IF your drive is listed here: http://www.hddunlock.com/ this is the most cheap possibility. You can actually try following this thread to attempt to "brute force" the password: http://www.forensicfocus.com/index.php?nam...wtopic&t=15 (post by "Member") http://www.forensicfocus.com/index.php?nam...15&start=67 but cannot say whether it would work and in what time, maybe hours, maybe days, maybe years! AFAIK there is no Freeware generic solution.... jaclaz

About BCDL, you may try reading this thread: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=18650 (I left it unfinished as it did not work for USB sticks, and for lack of a USB CD, but maybe it works for USB CD's, see the report by FM_81) About installing from DOS, unless you haven't removed the corresponding support with nlite, you may use this method: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16713 jaclaz

Looky here: http://winner.windowsdream.com/ Then search for RIS and Linux. jaclaz

It is VERY strange that the computer won't boot from CD. However, something you can try is getting this: http://www.free-av.com/en/tools/11/avira_n...s_personal.html and create a DOS boot floppy capable of reading and writing NTFS. Very quick instructions: Once you succeeded booting, you need to change directory until you get to your %Systemdir%\System32\config\ directory, (usually C:\windows\system32\config): C: [ENTER] CD windows [ENTER] CD system32 [ENTER] CD config [ENTER] DIR [ENTER] There should be there files: Rename SECURITY to SECURITY.BAD REN SECURITY SECURITY.BAD [ENTER] Copy SECURITY.BAK to SECURITY Copy /b SECURITY.BAK SECURITY [ENTER] Try rebooting without the floppy (crossing your fingers ). More info, DO READ this before anything: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_repair_a_stop.htm jaclaz

Some good news, and some bad ones. The good ones first, you seem to have NO problems with connection, the only REALLY "wrong" thing is the geometry of the drive: you should get something like: A large disk, actually ANY disk above 8Gb manufactured in the last few years, should be detected as having a CHS Geometry of nx255x63 geometry. Please try correcting the geometry as above, re-run testdisk and report. It is very rare that testdisk "sees" a wrong geometry, this makes me think that there is a problem in some BIOS setting, do check that detection if second hard disk is set to AUTO. Now the bad ones, this wrong geometry should not affect the First partition, that starts at CHS 0/1/1, so there might also be problems in the bootsector of that partition. I think that partitions can still be recovered, but I suspect that it might be a long and tricky process. Have you got or can download a hex editor (or, BETTER, viewer) capable of accessing directly the HD from Win9x or DOS and saving single sectors as a file ? Here you can find some links: http://mirror.href.com/thestarman/tool/FreeTools.html Even a screenshot of the bootsector taken in either PTEDIT32 (link on the listed page) or beeblebrox: http://students.cs.byu.edu/~codyb/ could be enough for the moment, but I actually would like to have a look at (i.e. have a copy of) sector 64 on the disk, (aka bootsector of first partition). Since it is a FAT32 partition, if it was originally formatted by a "proper" program, there is a copy of the bootsector at relative sector 6, aka absolute sector 70, I'd like to see that one too. On the other hand, if you have only little valuable data on the drive, you can try using PHOTOREC (included in TESTDISK) to recover just the files.... jaclaz

Yep, I just checked the two files uploaded, and definitely there are (were ) some problems in the data in partition table. The old partition was 06 (i.e. CHS) and however data was incorrect, it is strange that once the stick was blanked and reformatted as 0E (i.e. LBA) the error remained. Most probably there is a kind of erroneus detection of the device that causes the problem. If you really need to boot that stick on that motherboard that is giving you the "j" problem, there might be some workarounds, but it can be tricky, just post if you want/need to take that route, since you seem not to like "DOS" (read command line) apps and bunches of scattered files I have to warn you that if the problem can be solved it will need a lot of testing with my two batch files, MBRBATCH.CMD and MKIMG.CMD: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=3191 jaclaz

NO, DO NOT format your C:\ drive, for two reasons: 1) It is not necessary, you can just delete all the previous XP related files and delete from BOOT.INI the entry XP related 2) By formatting the C:\ drive (aka First drive first active partition) you will also delete the three files: BOOT.INI NTLDR NTDETECT.COM (and maybe also NTBOOTDD.SYS and BOOTFONT.BIN) that are needed to boot your install of 2003 on F:\ as well jaclaz

OK, STOP fiddling with the drive NOW. NEVER, NEVER and I mean NEVER use a win9x utility on a later OS formatted/partitioned HD unless you know what you are doing. Try using TESTDISK: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk (the DOS version from your Win98 "side") to ONLY check what it sees and report. If you are lucky the corruption may be limited to MBR/partition table only and thus fixable by TESTDISK. Generally speaking, when you have such "random" letters on a drive name, there can also be a problem with the connection of the hard disk, trying re-seating the cable connectors or, better even, change the cable with a spare one, it won't make any harm anyway. jaclaz

Sure, it works, it used to be a product by Datapol, later acquired by Avira and now left "as is" and unsupported. Just do a google search for "NTFS4dos jaclaz" (without quotes) and you will find a number of threads here on MSFN and on 911cd about it. jaclaz

I said: What I meant was that if you have a file: and the same file in: once you have "unified" the drives, to, say, D:\ and you always save that file as "D:\somedocs\somedir\foo.txt", you will have your problems solved, but if you have the same file in and in once you have "unified" the drives you will have anyway TWO files: and jaclaz

I think it must something else I only use on my machines Win2K, not necessarily updated to lates SP, and access and transfer to/from USB device is definitely faster than that I find on ANY of the (XP) PC's I find at my various customer's offices, usually way more fast/powerful than the laptop(s) I use. I would be interested in more details from you (hardware, both of PC and USB device, antivirus/firewall/antyspyware you use, and so on)... jaclaz

Cannot say if it works on Win9x systems, but on heavily "lited" 2K/Xp's the solution is usually that of using xCHM: http://xchm.sourceforge.net/ http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=171760 jaclaz

The XP SP2 RAMDISK.SYS (which should be the same as Server2003) is however limited to 512 Mbytes. Question is WHY you want to use exactly that ramdisk? I mean, there are freeware ones, most notably IMDISK: http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.html http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showforum=59 that have more options, a CPL applet, or are however better configurable, like the Gavotte one that supports up to 2, 3 or 4 Gb. A list can be found here: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=1507 jaclaz

Well, FREEGem is NOT an open source operating system, it is a GUI SHELL for DOS: http://gem.shaneland.co.uk/Faq.txt http://www.owenrudge.net/GEM/ It is true that windows 3.x was as well a GUI SHELL for DOS, and that even WIN9x is partly just a SHELL, but FreeGem/Opengem have no intention to introduce "compatible with Windows" apps. If you are interested in resurrecting Win3.x, you might be interested in this: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16754 (in the thread there are also references to some alternative SHELLs for DOS) and latest minibox related thread: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=623 jaclaz

And what bootsector for the CD did you use? If you "simply" copied all the modified files, you "simply" made a NON-bootable CD, which of course makes it highly improbable that will be ever capable of boot anything. WHICH software did you try (unsuccessfully) to burn the .iso image? WHICH software do you have (and used to burn just the files)? Please try burning the .iso file made by nlite (NOT it's contents) with this Freeware app: IMAGEBURN: http://www.imgburn.com/ jaclaz

I think that you also need the "WIN51IP.SP1". Besides, it can also be a "bad burn", try re-creating the CD using the LOWEST possible write speed your CD burner has. At first sight your WINNT.SIF file appears correct, the only thing that is "different from standard" I can spot is the ";" ending the OemPnPDriversPath but cannot say if it can cause the problem jaclaz