jaclaz

In some occasions I saw this kind of errors when an "under-spec" or faulty cable was used, typically using 40 leads IDE cable on ATAPI 66/100/133 drives or using one of those removable HD trays that internally use 40 leads cables instead of the proper 80 leads ones. Replacing the faulty cable got rid of the error in Event Log. jaclaz

Happy about it, all's well that ends well. No need to thank me, I know how it could be having a wife that is NOT pleased. jaclaz

Interesting! I never thought that the clever filesystem driver from here: http://ashedel.chat.ru/fat32/ Could work on the System drive. FYI, there is no need whatsoever of installing Windows 2000, you just need the NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM from win2K or XP/2003, since the referenced page affirms that you can later delete the Wn2K install directory. The problem might still be the FAT16 to FAT32 conversion, since not everyone has a partition manager app that can do that, and I am not sure about freeware tools that can do it, best bet is probably using method #3 here: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jeacocke/fat16to.htm (since cvt.exe is a DOS app, it may run from a DOS bootdisk ) It seems like the ME version, strangely enough definitely works from DOS: http://www.mdgx.com/secrets.htm http://www.md4pc.com/questions/36.htm or this proggie here: http://www.unusualresearch.com/cvtfat32/cvtfat32.htm jaclaz

I am not sure I understand you, isn't this enough? : http://www.nliteos.com/ http://www.nliteos.com/guide/ jaclaz

You seem to be confusing "Autorun" with "BootCD", they are VERY different things. You simply CANNOT boot a XP from DVD, though you may be able to boot a PE (WinPE, BartPE, UBCD4WIN, etc,) or Windows XP SETUP (install) from a DVD. But this won't help you much anyway, since you cannot install a program, say Office, to a non-booted OS on the hard disk. Maybe what you need is a CD multibootloader with two choices : 1) Load XP SETUP 2) Load XP from hard disk and then access your autorun menu jaclaz

Just for the record, if you want to edit boot.ini in a more "dedicated" editor, with some of the "advanced" parameters too, get this proggie here: http://www.dx21.com/SOFTWARE/Dx21/ViewItem...SI=2&OID=14 jaclaz

Ok, check this illustrated guide: http://www.fonerbooks.com/r_cd.htm The brick-like thing the guy is removing in second picture is a CD drive, he is removing it from a 5,25" drive bay. The drive has a tray that opens when you press one of the front buttons, like in this picture: http://askbobrankin.com/cdrom_tray.jpg You must shop for a new CD-ROM drive, the 52x that you have on your broken drive means the maximum speed it can read data, see this: http://www.computerhope.com/help/cdrom.htm Any drive you can find will fit in width and heigth, if the broken drive is shorter than the one you tried in the bay (i.e. the replacement drive could not fit in the drive bay completely and sticked out of the front), it is possible, as already said, that you need one of the more compact models, and you were already suggested two brands that usually make rather "short" drives. Usually dimensions are: "Short" ones are: jaclaz

@Evanhoe Ok, let us recap what we did till now: 1) We made you get the "right" start floppy 2) We made you fdisk and format your drive (since you refer that you can get to a C:\ prompt) so we are sure that there is nothing "strange" in your BIOS/HD. (in post #34) Now simply do the following: 1) Open the computer and DISCONNECT the cables/CUT them/REMOVE the CDRW/HAMMER IT TO PIECES (your choice ): there should be ONLY the CD connected, NOT the CDRW 2) Try again booting with the floppy in, you should get to the A:\ prompt and before it see the: this is perfectly normal, it means that program mscdex.exe (i.e. the DOS CD-ROM extemsions) has been executed from drive a:\, that it loaded correctly, finding a CD-ROM unit (unit 0, i.e. the FIRST unit, SECOND unit - that you disconnected - would have been unit 1 IF it would have been properly connected and detected) 3) if step 2) above does not work anymore, don't worry, switch the machine off, disconnect the CD-ROM drive and re-connect the CDRW (I hope you did not smash it to pieces ) and do again step 2) 4) now comes the most difficult part, you must FORGET completely all your previous attempts and ALL previous posts on this thread and do the following: a. download this bootdisk: http://www.allbootdisks.com/downloads/Disk...indows98_SE.exe and make a floppy out of it b. boot the computer from the floppy c. at the boot menu choose "Start computer with CD-ROM support" d. you should have a message like: e. type: E: and press ENTER f. type: CD Win98 and press ENTER g. type: setup.exe and press ENTER The windows setup should start. If at point d. you get a message like "cannot find a valid FAT16 or FAT32 partition, go back to this guide: http://www.duxcw.com/digest/Howto/software...grade/fdisk.htm and follow it EXACTLY. If the above does not work, you can try following the advice by Ponch, though maybe it's time you call a friend that has some more practice with PC's, maybe the problem lies is something that you omitted to describe or in something that we failed to catch, considering it as "given". jaclaz

As geek said "52x" refers to the maximum speed of the CD-ROM drive (it is not a "bay", the CD-ROM drive goes into a 5.25" bay). CD-ROM drives are (for desktop machines) all the same width (5,25") and heigth, whilst length depth can be (as glocK_94 said) can be a bit different, usually newer drives are shorter than older ones, Lite-ON and LG are two brands which drives are usually shorter. On the other hand there was a period where some big OEM's created "designer PC" in which the front part of the CD drive is curved, or of a peculiar colour, or anyway somewhat "not standard". Can you post the exact model of your Compaq? We maybe could help you further. jaclaz

You've been beaten by DigeratiPrime: http://www.msfn.org/board/GImageX-WIMMaste...ls-t107920.html here on MSFN. (but you won on 911CD): http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=20706 and I already propagated the news to boot-land, thanks to you: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...=3001&st=13 jaclaz

How about reading the given link to gosh's trick #1? You need to use xcopy to create the directory structure and copy the files.... ...and you need to edit the Registry to avoud being pestered by "Please insert install CD" prompts! jaclaz

@evanhoe Don't take this the wrong way, really, but where have you seen in my steps : If you actually do what I listed in steps 3) to 7) you WON'T have anymore a A:\> prompt as in step 7) you REMOVED the floppy (or should have done so) Possible explananation of why we seem not to understand each other: I (and most of the other members that tried to help you) tried to make you install DOS on the hard disk BEFORE running the SETUP on CD. You are trying to directly run the SETUP from floppy (which should theoretically work, but that it does not because of the following) Now that you have described your hardware, it is possible that you are NOT succeeding because you have TWO CD-ROM's and it seems like one of the two (the CDRW probably) is not "seen" correctly. SO, first thing, enter the BIOS of your machine and DISABLE one of the two CD-ROM drives, the CDRW. Then, please do exactly as in the steps I suggested (forget for the moment about your Win98 CD, the command SETUP, just do that) and report if you can boot from C:\ drive, we were not able to understand if there is an actual problem in FDISKing/FORMATting your hard disk. If you were not able to understand the usage of FDISK from the linked to site, try following this step by step: http://www.duxcw.com/digest/Howto/software...grade/fdisk.htm and/or this one, containing actual screenshots: http://www.perfectdrivers.com/howto/fdisk-format.html jaclaz

WHICH windows? AT is "deprecated" in XP and later: http://www.ss64.com/nt/at.html the new command is SCHTASKS: http://www.ss64.com/nt/schtasks.html http://www.robvanderwoude.com/schtasks.html You can easily create a batch to invoke it with the write time by parsing current DATE/TIME, here are a few examples: http://www.robvanderwoude.com/amb_datetime.html http://www.robvanderwoude.com/datetime.html A number of links to Freeware alternatives: http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/wwwboar...rum/161152.html nnCRON lite should be the more featured: http://www.nncron.ru/#nncronlt The suggestion by mjzelf is good, but it is considered the "poor man's way" as it will eat quite a bit of resources. You need then a "DELAY" or "WAIT" command to put in the batch that calls the app you want to run or a delaying program, here is an example, called DELAYEXEC: http://www.rjlsoftware.com/software/utility/delayexec/ jaclaz

@mara Check this: http://www.howtohaven.com/system/createwin...setupdisk.shtml @ajay Most probably the "restore disk" uses either an imaging system or a PE of some kind to perform the install. Imaging back the directory structure is self-explaining with regards of the creation of the C:\I386 folder. If the setup is started from a PE through WINNT32.EXE, it may use the /makelocalsource directive that will create the C:\I386, check this seemingly unrelated thread: http://www.msfn.org/board/Poor-Man-s-RIS-PE-t13271.html If you start the install from CD, you need to make it an unattended install, there are a few ways to have the C:\I386 folder created and populated with files, this is the "traditional" method, by gosh (Trick #1): http://www.msfn.org/board/Gosh-s-Unattende...icks-t9453.html jaclaz

I am not sure the question is clear, at least it is not for me. You mean that you recreated a bootable XP Home install CD from the C:\I386 directory on your hard disk + some more files? And that now you don't have anymore the C:\I386 contents? I don't think you can make setup copying files to C:\I386 directory unless you create a UNATENDED.TXT file with this directive or you install using WINNT32.EXE, if this is the question, but you can manually copy the \I386 directory from CD to hard disk. jaclaz

I may add that a good idea is to ALWAYS burn bootable CD's or CDRW's at LOWEST possible speed. Just to make sure you are not making the error of just copying a .iso file to the CD, use IMGBURN: http://www.imgburn.com/ using the "write" feature: http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=screenshots#isowrite NOT the "build" one. jaclaz

Sure it does , though it is not a "full" floppy. FYI, some info about it and some other ways to create it/get the files: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16745 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=18896 jaclaz

@Andrew932 The one you found seems like the site of the actual manufacturer, in China. I doubt they will ever shop a single piece, maybe you can mail them to ask them for your national reseller or for any (small) company they have supplied the screen in the past, these kinds of screens are also used in "industrial appliance" types of machines, like CNC and the like. This one appears to be more (geographically) accessible, but you won't like the price... http://www.calibex.co.uk/Laptop-screen-co-...kc2/prices-html jaclaz

@Evanhoe I really don't get what you are talking about, (v 6.25, 7.12, etc.) Just: 1) Download this file on a machine running Win9x/NT/2K/XP/2003: http://www.allbootdisks.com/downloads/Disk...No_Ramdrive.exe 2) double click on it, insert a blank formatted floppy and let it create the 98 (DOS 7.1) bootdisk 3) insert the floppy in the unbootable machine and boot from it 4) at the A:\ prompt type FDISK [ENTER] Follow this guide on how to use FDISK: http://fdisk.radified.com/ you need to create a Primary Active partition 5) reboot the machine leaving the floppy in 6) at the A:\ prompt type FORMAT C: /s [ENTER] 7) remove the floppy and reboot the machine jaclaz

Info I found on WINFLP: The one that is currently out should be more like a reduced XP, the Vista based one should be something belonging to future. jaclaz

There is this one also: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LAPTOP-SCREEN-LQ13X0...9QQcmdZViewItem doesn't the one you have removed have a serial of some kind, brand, model? (see the picture in the linked page) Sometimes with the serial a google search can help in finding the right spare. Also check here (with the said serial): http://www.sparepartswarehouse.com/laptop-...repair-OEM.aspx jaclaz

Can I ask you the meaning of your post in this thread? What would bootdisk.com help for? Which utility on that site would help, and it would help who? A good idea, expecially for people at their second post, would be to actually read what the thread is about, before posting unrequested and generic info. jaclaz

Yep, another maybe not-so-crazy-idea could be to use a VM like Qemu or VirtualBox running Win9x wth Serial redirected to you real COM port. Of course only if you use the device for occasional graphical input... jaclaz

Definitely it seems like you have some problems in putting the DOS System files on C:. Maybe you should re-start from the beginning. Get a DOS 7.x Win9x) bootdisk and boot from it, this one is suitable: http://www.allbootdisks.com/download/98.html http://www.allbootdisks.com/downloads/Disk...No_Ramdrive.exe Run FDISK and create one or more partiions from scratch. Reboot. Run FORMAT C: /s Take the floppy out and try to boot. jaclaz

Since NTFS is 07 and Hidden NTFS is 17, it is probable that Acer "invented" a new partition type 27 based on NTFS. With PTEDIT32 or beeblebrox, have a look at the bootsector on that partition, you should be able to see if the data appears "correct" when viewed as FAT16, FAT32 or NTFS. Or use hdhacker to make a copy of both MBR and bootsector of that partition and post them in a .zip file, I would be curious to have a look at them. jaclaz