jaclaz

Actually, and just for the record, the "proper" way to store floppies is to make "RAW" images of them. This will make it possible to revert back to a floppy when needed, or use the floppy image in a VM exactly as it was. A very large number of DOS/Win3.x apps needed to be on floppy because some info was "hardcoded" on the floppy itself, possibly in a hidden sector, or in a file that was addressed with direct head/cylinder access rather than through filesystems. A few of the at the time in use copy protection are however more sophisticated than that, some info and related apps here: http://retro.icequake.net/dob/ For normal 1.44 floppies a simple freeware app is Dcopy (DOS) or DcopyNT (NT/2K/XP): http://users.pandora.be/jbosman/applications.html http://users.pandora.be/jbosman/dcopy.zip http://users.pandora.be/jbosman/dcopynt.zip jaclaz

@patchworks As said, I am too a fan of Opensource, I even actually wrote some (in my very primitive batch files) but as you have your point of view: I have my rather more pragmatic one: while substituting MS defrag.exe with an opensource one, is a nice thing and, more important than that, it is pertaining to the OP request, IF the program exists. If it does not, it does not solve the problem, nor does it belong to this thread.... So the answer to my question: is clear (bolding is mine): About this: you might however understand the difference there is between starting a new thread about an existing good app and hijacking someone else's thread with unuseful, unrelated information. And I am begging the pardon of other members if our little exchange of ideas has worsened this hijacking jaclaz

The missing point is that an .iso file, like the one nlite creates, is a FULL IMAGE of a CD. (i.e. it ALREADY contains bootsector, etc.) You don't need to fiddle with you just burn the .iso. If you want a simple, no nonsense app to do so, check one of those referenced here: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=18845&hl= IMGBURN, ISOBURNING or BURNCDCC are all good. jaclaz

Probably completely unneeded/unrelated, but maybe this can be of some use: http://www.zeraha.org/content/dload.php?ac...y&cat_id=11 http://www.zeraha.org/dload.php?action=file&file_id=27 (just found it on a rather old bookmarks list and thought I'd share it jaclaz

About the id of the stick chip, see this post of mine: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=18804 It seems like the manufacturer is: http://www.skymedi.com.tw/eng-index.html http://www.skymedi.com.tw/products/sk6201.htm and that the same stick is sold as GXT at http://www.valgear.com jaclaz

I don't get it. The screenshot is of a web folder in GMX mediacenter..... jaclaz

If you haven't already completely destroyed data on the drive, TESTDISK: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk may still be able to re-build partition table. If you are able to get an access to ntuser.dat, you can try recovering the actual original KEY: http://www.dagondesign.com/articles/window...t-key-recovery/ About: http://www.openoffice.org/ Openoffice.org is now really 99.99% compatible, BOTH on Windows and Linux platform, that would take account for Word and Excel files. I cannot say for Outlook.... You joking, right?: RULES: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=18408 jaclaz

Only apparently OT, do try the newish Virtualbox, FREE/OPENSOURCE, it appears to be REAL fast: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=90774 www.virtualbox.org jaclaz

No, unfortunately you miss some studying and learning, see here:http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...=17538&st=3 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...=16980&st=8 These Boot.ini entries are "pure nonsense": Read this: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...54304&st=13 and ALL links therein. jaclaz

Sure. I am too, but I try to give links related to the topic, not general, unrelated things. I used (and posted a link to) jkdefrag, besides other utilities, a rather long time ago, here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...85812&st=47 Well, my eyes are open enough to read: Though a very nice utility, it NEEDS NT family API's, Win9x/Me are different. Yes. FreeDOS defrag, on the other hand, is known to be buggy, expecially on large volumes. Very good idea, and while you do it, we could plan to live forever happily, together with our flying elephants, but WHAT can this be related to solving the problem swgreed has? jaclaz

Yes, it is possible that the MBR on second drive is missing. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/141702/en-us Boot.ini should be OK, as Arcpath actually should point to first drive (and the second one should become first if the first one is removed), but adding a second entry to boot.ini to experiment should not be a problem, which could however be the master/slave problem. You can use MBRFIX: http://www.sysint.no/Nedlasting/MbrFix.htm http://www.sysint.no/Nedlasting/MbrFix.zip and (optionally) my small GUI for it: http://home.graffiti.net/jaclaz:graffiti.net/index.html http://home.graffiti.net/jaclaz:graffiti.n...X/mbrfix0.2.zip to check and fix the MBR. Still, you might have a problem with disk signature/drive letters assignment when booting Windows. jaclaz

Here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=78592&hl= jaclaz

The problem can be: an error of the program you used to create the .iso (WHICH program did you use?) a bad burn of the DVD (ALWAYS use LOWEST possible speed for burning) You should check the .iso BEFORE burning on a Virtual Machine. jaclaz

Interesting, I had thought you were "married" to diskeeper : http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...85812&st=47 @all Some more links to FREE or LOW COST defraggers and related apps can be found on my post here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...85812&st=22 jaclaz

write a batch and call it from autorun jacòaz

Just to keep things together, it seems like a similar problem was solved, here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=83032&hl= jaclaz

Also, don't forget the "automated" tool to do that, here: http://www.usboot.org/tiki-index.php http://www.usboot.org/tiki-index.php?page=download Though I haven't tested latest releases, early ones did work rather well, so that the new improved ones should be almost perfect. I must find the time to try it with Win2K... jaclaz

Some info is here: http://z3.invisionfree.com/Boot_Land/index.php?showtopic=155 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=135 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=808 The problem is which OS is actually inside the .ISO. jaclaz

My personal opinion: None. Services usually use some processor time too, and when starting, expecially services that are dependent on others can introduce some "lag" time. Theoretically, (in a perfect word), there should be no differences, but installing hotfixes over existing files can sometimes cause some leftovers can remain, expecially as Registry entries. One thing to check is the actual size on disk of the Registry in your "standard" install as compared to the "nlited" version, I have found that a small registry (and a defragged one, with ERUNT) can make a difference in overall responsiveness of the system. jaclaz

Out of curiosity, what is the reason why you put a direct or indirect link to ReactOS in every other post you make? ReactOS is NT oriented, has nothing to do with Win9x/ME. jaclaz

It is possible, though it would be "strange". Do the other USB ports on the same PC work allright? If yes, as generally the same Motherboard USB controller drives more than one port, it is possible that is a "real hardware" error (i.e. a contact in the port being intermittent, something physically bent or incorrectly inserted, a cold soldering, ...) You can check the "tree" of your controller ports with an app like SIW: http://www.gtopala.com/index.html or SIV: http://siv.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/ If the controller somehow is failing, several ports, not just one will be affected. Most probably you could do the testing with a USB stick rather than with a Hard Disk. It could also be a problem of too much power drainage from USB ports, you could also check that.... jaclaz

Oh, I see. I never needed/had the occasion to use it, usually resetting the password is more than enough, however the size of Rainbow Tables appears to be impressive: The time to download one of them on a non-DSL connection (and even on a DSL one) should be quite relevant. Maybe it is easier/faster to use pwdump2/3/4/5/6: http://www.openwall.com/passwords/microsof...nt-2000-xp-2003 and use the online form: http://lasecwww.epfl.ch/~oechslin/projects...crack/index.php? jaclaz

I cannot say what the motivation is, but the shutdown command always had that limit also in 2K/XP: http://www.ss64.com/nt/shutdown.html Mainly because you don't use it normally with such big a delay, it is much more convenient to use either the old AT command: http://www.ss64.com/nt/at.html or the newish SCHTASKS: http://www.ss64.com/nt/schtasks.html And, in the case of a shutdown depending on a certain action having been completed, the "proper" way is to use a conditional check (for example in the case of a file download, check the local filesize every, say, ten minutes and IF filesize is correct, initialize the shutdown) jaclaz

Maybe if you change the F to F: i.e. a proper drive letter id, it will help. However you don't seem to need the complete path (including the drive letter) if the batch file is in the same directory as the SETUPPRO.EXE, i.e. this should be OK: @ECHO OFF ECHO. ECHO Installing Office 2003 Professional ECHO Please wait... start /wait SETUPPRO.EXE TRANSFORMS=Unattended.MST /qb- jaclaz

@travisowens I'll give you one: Pros: 1. Portability I have in my wallet a 1Gb USB flash disk: http://www.kingmaxdigi.com/product/superstick.htm with an install of BartPE and a few portable apps . I take it with me all the time. You will agree that having a CD in your pocket is not really comfortable. About write cycles, they are at least in the thousands operations for flash based devices, no real problem whatsoever in normal use (NOT if used as bootable OS with stick formatted NTFS without EWF/FBWF), it is much more easy to scratch a CD and render it unreadable or just unreliable. jaclaz