jaclaz

EXCELLENT idea. If, while doing the above, you could also avoid posting here offending people that have worked for months on this project would also be higly appreciated, and I guess ilko's poor innnocent pup would appreciate it too. jaclaz

No prob, mate. The matter is something that is quite commonly asked, but for which there is not (or at least I never managed to find it) a full all-in-one-place explanation, and hard-disk emulation is yet a scarcely documented feature. One of the best reference is this one : http://www.geocities.com/chrootstrap/cdrom...our_kernel.html (bolding is mine) jaclaz

Isn't this the same as this : http://www.msfn.org/board/fake-16GB-USB-Fl...ve-t110036.html jaclaz I don't see how the 2 are related. Well, try comparing quoted post (#5 in this thread) with the first one on the thread I linked to... the "base" text is the same, word by word, with just the size of the stick changed. Now, what it seems strange to me is that unless the posting member is a "collector" of fake USB sticks, he should have known better than buying ANOTHER fake stick, it would be at least the THIRD one. What anyway I am failing to see is what this "fake usb stick" topic has to do with the present thread (about an external USB floppy and card reader) jaclaz

Are you sure? Maybe you mean: DOS up to version 7 (up to Windows 95 first release) FAT 12 and FAT 16 DOS from 7.1 up to 8.0 (Windows 95 OEM 2 to Millennium) FAT12, FAT 16 and FAT32 NT 3.1 to 4.00 FAT 12, FAT 16 and NTFS (version 3) NT 4.00 SP 4 FAT 12, FAT 16 and NTFS (version 3.1) PARTIAL support Windows 2000 FAT 12, FAT 16, FAT32 and NTFS (version 3.1) Windows XP and Server 2003 FAT 12, FAT 16, FAT32 and NTFS (version 3.1) Windows Vista FAT 12, FAT 16, FAT32 and NTFS (version ?) + exFAT64 jaclaz

Isn't this the same as this : http://www.msfn.org/board/fake-16GB-USB-Fl...ve-t110036.html jaclaz

Xchm: http://xchm.sourceforge.net/ pdftkb: http://www.angusj.com/pdftkb/ jaclaz

Maybe this (and links therein) clear a bit the matter: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...20263&st=11 jaclaz

You should have a look at the VistaPE project here: http://www.vistape.net/ http://www.boot-land.net/forums/VistaPE-f51.html jaclaz

The key involved should be this one: {20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D} for "My Computer" Try searching on google for "{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}", maybe you find some useful info. jaclaz

Not to be picky, but the "real" name for IDE is ATA: http://ata-atapi.com/hist.htm and there were reports of "early" hardware being actually a bit "flaky": http://ata-atapi.com/sata.htm Current SATA II hardware appears to be rather reliable, though the driver problems, expecially on certain INTEL chipset motherboards are re-known. Also, real life tests, such as this one: http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Sp...ArticleId=16014 show how speed of SATA and SATA II drives has been hyped by manufacturers and that claimed speed is usually far from reality. Check the Storage Review test results, to have an idea of the difference in speed you can expect from actual HD models: http://www.storagereview.com/Testbed4Compare.sr SATA for optical media drives does not seem, in my opinion, to give any advantage over ATA, as even old ATA bus transfer rate is faster than actual drive speed. The sheer fact that we have now an "OFFICIAL SATA DVD compatibility" thread does ring any bell? http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=110235&hl= jaclaz

The specs seem low for XP, see links in this post: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...49409&st=23 Though people did manage to boot XP with such low RAM amount, see this: http://www.winhistory.de/more/386/xpmini_eng.htm having 256 Mb of it is what I personally judge the minimum to have a decent system response. You'd better re-install a 98, if you take your time looking around the board, there are lots of updates for it and should work allright for the intended use. jaclaz

and should SIW do not give the info, maybe SIV: http://siv.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/ will. I re-checked, and the Uwe Sieber app has provisions for your situation: http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbdlm_e.html jaclaz

Well, that explains it all, most drivers do actually "assign" a device to (even unused) slots. See this, as an example: http://www.simpletech.com/support/guides/u...0-00049-002.pdf ALL external (USB) card readers behave this way, SOME of the internal ones (those connected to USB) do that as well, think of it like a floppy, where the A: or B: letter is assigned notwithstanding the fact that the drive is empty. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT follow the advice in my previous post. See if this: http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbdlm_e.html can help you in managing the drive letters. jaclaz

Looky here: http://www.exceletel.com/products/TeleTool...grams/Index.htm http://www.exceletel.com/products/TeleTool...ltone/index.htm jaclaz

As always when fiddling with the Registry, remember that you are on your own : Open regedit and go to key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB there should be a number, at least 4, entries like Vid_0000&Pid_0000 and inside each one or more entries like "152D203380B6" Check them one by one and write down, for those that are identified as USB Mass Storage Device, which driver they use, something like: {36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}\0021 Then go to key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USBSTOR you should see a number (4) of entries starting with "Disk&Ven" check if they have: 1) an "UpperFilter" entry, if it exists, delete it 2) to which driver they are linked, something like: {4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0004 Write down the above data. Try going to Device Manager and DISABLE the USB Mass Storage Devices. Reboot, see if in Device Manager the devices come back (with a red cross on them) and this time REMOVE them. Open again Regedit and go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000} and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} If there still are the "driver" entries you checked before, delete them. jaclaz

Maybe you missed some steps (or I forgot to mention one) this method has been tested as working on Qemu: On floppy: On HD: BOOT.INI: WINNT.SIF (this one works, though probably some entries are unneeded) Wouldn't it be easier starting from what has already been done? http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...ic=2254&hl= http://tips.vlaurie.com/2006/recovery-cons...out-an-xp-disk/ http://vlaurie.com/computers2/downloads/re..._console_cd.zip jaclaz

I give up. jaclaz

Cannot really say if it can help, not even if it works at all, but you can try using the "other" DOS ramdisk, SRDISK: http://sourceforge.net/projects/srdisk jaclaz

The usual entry to boot from Recovery Console is something like this: where bootsect.dat is a bootsector created by the install routine (WINNT32.EXE /cmdcons). Try copying to the ROOT of the floppy the BOOTSECT.DAT you have in your C:\CMDCONS\ directory and change the entry in boot.ini as follows: Or make a directory like A:\CMDCONS_F and copy C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT to A:\CMDCONS_F\BOOTSECT.DAT and edit BOOT.INI entry to: Explanation (supposedly) : It seems like NTLDR, when not using an ARCPATH, defaults to the ROOT of the drive (does not matter whether floppy or HD) where it is started, thus the entry C:\CMDCONS_F\BOOTSECT.DAT actually reads A:\CMDCONS_F\BOOTSECT.DAT which chainloads the SETUPLDR.BIN on "real" C:\ drive jaclaz

I am sorry but I really have no idea how Backup and Restore work in Vista, judging from the *ahem* quality and number of restrictions of previous MS Backup apps, I guess that you shold use other third party apps, here is a thread where a few are listed: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=99702 jaclaz

Yep, we got that. 1.95 Gb is NOT however an exact capacity, the actual "RAW" capacity of a stick depends on the kind of Flash IC are inside it, theoretically capacity goes like this: 128 Mb 131.072.000 bytes 256 Mb 262.144.000 bytes 512 Mb 524.288.000 bytes 1 Gb 1.048.576.000 bytes 2 Gb 2.097.152.000 bytes some controllers leave this entire capacity "available", some use part of this capacity for internal use, knowing the exact (in bytes) amount of available space may help in identifying the controller. The amount you are getting is the capacity after formatting (i.e. excluding the amount of space used by filesystem structures, which can vary depending on filesystem used and, in the case of FAT16/FAT32, on the size of clusters the format uses). Point is, the ONLY way to do what you want is getting to know which EXACT make/model of USB controller is inside the stick AND with this information search for and hopefully find the right "Manufacturer Utility" or "Mass Production Tool" capable to reset the capacity data to the correct values. This site: http://www.everythingusb.com/forums/forumd...php?forumid=109 has lots of info about "fake" drives, and some possible ways to tru and fix them (see this just as an example): http://www.everythingusb.com/forums/showth...mp;postid=25758 jaclaz

To try and identify the stick and (hopefully) the controller used: Check the Vid and Pid of the stick: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=15776 Check the list: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=1659 Try making an image of the stick using either: Roadkil's Disk Image: http://www.roadkil.net/program.php?ProgramID=12 or dsfo from the DSFOK toolkit: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/freezip/freeware/ http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/fr...eware/dsfok.zip Size of resulting image should be the correct size. Edit: HISUN should be this one: http://www.hisuntec.cn/EN/index.html (nothing really useful there) jaclaz

Some ideas: Did you use the the /F or the /R option of chkdsk?: http://www.ss64.com/nt/chkdsk.html Try the /R one. Check that the NTFS Partition is Primary and Active. Access the Registry (from a PE) and delete (after having made a backup of the key) the contents of: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices Try (having a SLIPSTREAMED install CD) to use the ® repair option: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm jaclaz

Here are some good infos: http://www.multibooters.co.uk/ and these should be what you are looking for: http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vista/55...fter-vista.html http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529/en-us Easybcd or Vistabootpro are recommended instead of BCDEDIT: http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1 http://www.vistabootpro.org/ jaclaz

Here: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documen...c.mspx?mfr=true http://support.microsoft.com/kb/251192/en-us http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms810435.aspx http://makemsi-manual.dennisbareis.com/sc_exe.htm Particularly, pay attention to this: http://svn.collab.net/repos/svn/trunk/note...ows-service.txt jaclaz