jaclaz

I do not see a Windows version. Huh? Go to the project page: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=87007 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/xchm/xchm...mp;big_mirror=0 jaclaz

Not to contradict you, but PeToUSB.exe is limited to FAT16 filesystem, and it cannot format above 2 Gb. The homepage of petousb.exe is this one: http://gocoding.com/page.php?al=petousb And here is the thread that started it: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=13784 However, the page you referred to simply republished (without the decency of even mentioning msfn.org or the various authors/contributors to the method) the contents of this thread, adding some instructions and screenshots: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=61384&hl= Where you could ask your questions and expose problems you found, and where you could learn how to use the Hitachi Microdrive Filter or dummydisk.sys, as an alternate way of formatting/using USB sticks) And yes, USB sticks CAN be partitioned, but what PeTOUSB exe does is not actually partitioning, it writes a MBR to it and creates just one big partition. (up to the capacity of the FAT16 filesystem) The HP USB utility, see FAQ #4 here, should be able to format bigger partitions, as it can use both FAT32 and NTFS (NOT recommended in Flash memory): http://home.graffiti.net/jaclaz:graffiti.n...SB/USBfaqs.html jaclaz

Wait a minute, I never tried it but if the stick is seen as "Removable" you might need somehow to use the Hitachi Microdrive Filter (or the alternative dummydisk.sys) on the PE build as well: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...=17701&st=4 The other workaround, as only hinted above, is to use the "makenew" and/or "makeactive" feature, in order to "place" the BartPE as the ONLY visible (without the filter) partition on the stick. Do also have a look at this one: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...18031&st=20 as I love to say booting from USB involves some kind of magic.... jaclaz

I don't think there is a project around about that. A loong time ago I made a 2K weighting around 80 mb (but with no Network support), a list of the files is still here: http://www.msfn.org/board/Reducing-Bartpe-t41208.html http://www.msfn.org/board/Reducing-Bartpe-...8.html&st=3 http://www.msfn.org/board/Reducing-Bartpe-...8.html&st=5 Maybe, just maybe, keeping an eye on this (XP related): http://www.boot-land.net/forums/XPSP1-with...0-MB-t3717.html could give you some ideas. However, if you plan to actually use the NAS, it would be better to use a tested solution, like NASlite (COMMERCIAL) or FreeNAS (Open Source), here are a couple related links: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/lou.greyfaulk/index.html http://nas-central.org/ALL_COMMUNITIES/Col...ommunities.html jaclaz

You need to hide partitions at boot time and/or swap partitions. Here is an example: http://www.msfn.org/board/Multiple-Partiti...11.html&hl= Read these also: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...ic=2568&hl= http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=18846 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=20089&hl= And this one for the newish Partnew/in-situ capabilities of grub4dos: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...amp;#entry25696 About the bit flipping utility, the Vid & Pid of your stick may help, see here: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=15776 Most probably this one: http://www.sandisk.com/Oem/DesignSupportTools/ http://www.sandisk.com/Assets/File/OEM/Des...b-test-tool.exe will work, but of course NO WARRANTY implied, I have no idea if it even has the option to do the bit flipping. 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