jaclaz

Well, it's not like the EU commission took Microsoft name out of a hat and forced the Company to do something just because they fancied it. Anti-trust provisions are Laws, and they should be respected. I am fiercely against speed limits on highways, I like the way the Germans manage it, but nonetheless, should I get a ticket for speeding I would pay the fine. I suspect, and mind you this is my personal opinion, that the fact that Microsoft and it's lawyers used every trick of the trade, and even one more to obstacle (lawfully, of course) or delay the investigations did not help much MS position, remember that the original EU decision dated back to 2004! But the decisions are very well documented and supported, maybe the words of Mario Monti: show exactly the main aspect where EU antitrust laws differ from US ones. And we are not talking of code (open or closed) but rather about protocols, to use the words of the Commission the "the interoperability information": jaclaz

@jrf2027 FYI, you can well try grub4dos, that can reside on NTFS partitions as well: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/Grub4dos-f66.html grub4dos has a number of added features, specific to MS based systems, DOS and NT. jaclaz

Yep, it's a voluntary move, of course : http://enarpri.org/Article.php?article_id=317 2007 The decision was confirmed in September 2007: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction...;guiLanguage=en http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction...;guiLanguage=en See this also: http://www.itnews.com.au/News/63623,eu-for...atent-dogs.aspx jaclaz

Never had an occasion to try it, but there is an update thingie made by asiekierka : http://www.msfn.org/board/Integrating-NT-4...wto-t99030.html cannot say if there is anything useful for you within it. jaclaz

@fizban @arfett I guess that what mehargags asked for is a way to have the SAME drive lettering WHATEVER system is currently booted. This is VERY recommended, as one time or another, you will just forget in which system you are currently booted and save a file in the wrong drive, possibly overwriting a different version of a file: http://www.msfn.org/board/Problem-drive-letters-t25127.html Surely he can change letters to "other" drives, but changing Boot and System one is tricky. @mehargags See this also: http://www.msfn.org/board/Dirver-letters-W...ion-t53177.html Cannot say whether Vista uses some strange ways, you should also check this site: http://www.multibooters.co.uk/ jaclaz

It is possible (but cannot really say ) that Vista and (maybe also) Vista64 still relies on the migrate.inf file. It's a loooong shot, though. Do check this seemingly unrelated post: http://www.msfn.org/board/Installation-end...ve-t112923.html and links therein However, since you are going to reinstall VISTA anyway, I would try using a PE of some kind or even good ol' DOS and change the entries in the partition tables, in the MBR and in the EPBR to make the partitions "hidden" (simply changing first hex number of partition type from "0" to "1"): http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partitions/partition_types-1.html Another possibility is that rather than in the order the partition is phisycally on the hard drive, Vista setup looks at the order in which partitions are listed in the MBR and EPBR, in this case exchanging the orfer of the entries may get the desiref result. jaclaz

Reinstalling properly would be easier. It is possible to change a Boot or System Volume letter, but really, really tricky and really NOT advised. However: http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/index.htm http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm Read also these: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=19663&hl= http://www.msfn.org/board/Change-Boot-Driv...ion-t90495.html And be very careful, even a minor error could (and probably will ) lead to an unbootable system.

Well, no. Electronics components have a working temperature range, usually comprised between -30° C and +65° C, for "normal" grade components, usually -40° C and + 85° C for "industrial grade components" with some components that allow for a -65° C to +125° C : http://www.extremetemperatureelectronics.com/tutorial1.html WITHIN the given temperature range, there is an "ideal" working temperature, that almost invariably is around the middle of the allowed range, more or less amounting to a temperature at which the users of them (humans) live and operate them, i.e. +0 °C to 40 ° ,but WITHIN designed range, components behave anyway WITHIN specs. The "freezing" as well as the "tapping" method to revive a dead hard drive, can, in VERY RARE occasions allow for a TEMPORARY revival because they may resolve a mechanical problem, including defects in the soldering or connection of a component. Remember also that every year hard disk technology changes dramatically, and what may have worked in a particular occasion, on a particular type of failure, on a particular drive model/capacity most definitely won't work with next generation of drives. You can also try shouting very hard at it, using a magic wand and some spells on it, you can freeze it: http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/2006/01/f...cover-data.html as well as "boiling" it: http://www.mandible.net/2007/11/24/how-i-r...ble-boiling-it/ But ALL of them should be a LAST, LAST resort, only after you have decided that your data was not precious enough for you to attempt a recovery by a professional, and you have nothing to lose anyway. If it's an electronic problem a more "rational" approach like this: http://www.deadharddrive.com/ may work, but not on recent drives where the board is "coupled" to the innards. I would suggest everyone to check the above links and this one: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/245 then judge themselves what would be more wise to do. jaclaz

Hmmm, besides the fact that is very difficult to read what you write (why using Arial Black? ), I guess that you failed to actually read the License of nlite, that last time I checked was this one: (bolding is mine) jaclaz

NO, but in most cases a relative can guess it, no need for "social engineering", the knowledge of habits, passions, hates, birthday dates, names of dear ones, etc., etc. should be common between the members of a same family. You joking, right? The point is NEVER, NEVER, and I mean NEVER allow access to a PC you want to keep private, if you do, do it only under your direct and attentive surveillance, otherwise it may well happen that, in the short turn of five minutes: ALL YOUR PASSWORDS ARE BELONG TO US! jaclaz

Well, it is possible to use the internal hard disk as hdb, though there is a RISK in making the "working", possibly "system", drive accessible from the VM, it would be better to use as hdb an image of the drive, rather obviously all drivers instealled within the VM may or may not be compatible with real hardware... Qemu "internally" should see hda as \\.\PhysicalDrive0 and hdb as \\.\PhysicalDrive1 LOTS of testing is needed before "advertising" this possible way, allowing direct access to system drives is VERY like playing with explosives.... jaclaz

Mind you, completely and utterly UNTESTED but read FAQs here: http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/user-doc.html http://kidsquid.com/cgi-bin/moin.cgi/Frequ...yAskedQuestions http://calamari.reverse-dns.net:980/cgi-bi...bb75619b572be-2 jaclaz

I doubt you will find one here. Or are you looking for a suggestion? What about: arachnospellingbuster It may fit.... jaclaz

Well, NO, the detail would be a list of all single settings you used with nlite, all apps you added, all choices you made with WPI and Unattended CD Creator, with those FULL details, someone may be able to understand where the problem lies, though checking such a mass of info would take, of anyone would take the challenge, a lot of work. You must "reduce" the possibilities: Do steps 1. and 2. only, burn the CD and test it. If it works, do later steps 3. 4. 5. , burn the CD and test it. If it works, do later steps 6. 7., burn the CD and test it. This way you will know at least which app creates the problem. At this point check what could be related to keyboard and try removing/adding it or try making just a small number of things and test the result, by the way you could use a Virtual Machine instead of burning test CD's. jaclaz

@all It seems like the other day was "wish" day on boot-land and Nuno Brito has started working on this app, there is already a fully working (but still missing some asked for features) release here, ninf 1.1, enjoy: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...ic=3960&hl= @damian666 It seems like there is not anymore need for your work, but thank you very much for your offer to do it , I am sure I can find some other interesting project for you , should you still be willing to write something for the community , again, thanks for your kind offer. jaclaz

Yep, FYI: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=2267 the -iso-level 4 mean in "plain English", "use the 1999 ISO extensions", and since MSCDEX was written before 1999 it cannot work with them. jaclaz

@ilko_t Sorry I tried to "beautify" your post using [ codebox ] - [ / codebox ] tags instead of [ code ] - [ / code ] ones, but the board fails the parsing, please do recheck the data, I may have unwantingly introduced some changes while testing the output. @all Please find here the references, within the LOONG XP on USB thread, about modifying NTDETECT.COM: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=19235&hl= (post #3) before you ask for a direct download or something like that, do read this: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...3784&st=334 "level #4" people should NOT "play" with this kind of things, they may well find thenselves with an unbootable system jaclaz

Fred, some time ago I invited bearwindows to the boot-land community, mainly because of his great UNIVERSAL VIDEO DRIVER, he accepted and he has now his own little corner there: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/Universal-...driver-f60.html where he posts also about his other projects. He is a nice guy, and from time to time he visits the Boot-Land Forum. You can contact him through boot-land, should you not want to join there, just let me know if you want me to start a topic or PM him pointing him to this thread..... jaclaz P.S.: He is also member here at MSFN: http://www.msfn.org/board/m142976.html

Generally speaking there are TWO kinds of drive faults (once you are positive it is NOT the cable or motherboard): 1) Hardware ones, that comprise both electronics (the controller board) and mechanics (the innards of the drive, spinning motor, head displacement motor, defective heads) 2) Software ones Data recovery in case of faults of first kind CANNOT usually be performaed by End User, as, apart deep knowledge and experience in the field, specific hardware, spare parts and tools are needed. Data recovery in case of faults of second kind CAN usually be performed by the End User, provided that he has a little more than average knowledge, and that he is willing to spend some time on it. See this thread: http://www.msfn.org/board/Data-recovery-tool-t84345.html for a number of tools you may try to use. MAIN thing in Data Recovery is to make a "dd like" image of the disk on a new, healthy one (ideally you should make TWO copies) and attempt a recovery on the copy ONLY. This way, depending on the value you give to your data, the original, untouched, filesystem in the faulty drive can be given to professionals for another attempt. jaclaz

First things I would check would be: 1) if a RAM expansion card/chip is present take it out / check contacts / re-seat 2) if the processor is upgradeable (on a add-on card) take it out / check contacts / re-seat 3) take the cd/dvd out / check contacts / re-seat 4) (warning in most cases needs a partial disassembly of the laptop) take the HD out / check contacts / re-seat 5) (warning needs a partial disassembly of the laptop) open it up, remove keyboard / check contacts / re-seat thoroughly clean the innards from dust jaclaz

Main thing is that problem is solved! Happy about that. jaclaz

You can use MOUNTVOL command. This can be included in a batch file, if you use also vlm, part of the DSFOK toolkit here: http://freezip.cjb.net/freeware you can easily select the drive from it's label or Symbolic link. just run: MOUNTVOL >C:\Mountvol.txt and VLM >C:\vlm.txt to see which output they produce, then read "between the lines" of this: http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbstick_e.html and get the good ol' mnt / unmount: http://www.uwe-sieber.de/files/unmnt10.zip If you search on the board, you should find a number of posts about batches using MOUNTVOL to determine drive letters. jaclaz

In other words, this is the output of DIR | FIND "<DIR>" with a "right" numbering: and this is the output of the same command with "your" numbering: jaclaz

Some links/info in this thread: http://www.msfn.org/board/NTFS-support-Win...ME-t110814.html jaclaz

First try TESTDISK: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk (i.e. Partition based recovery) and only of it does not work, a file based recovery program, like the enclosed Photorec, or any of the other ones, just search the board there are several threads listing them. jaclaz