jaclaz

NO, how could I say that ? If you get the time to read my previous post, you will see that I said to my friend's son that he lacked the first two requisites, and that in my view the third one was very difficult to achieve. And that happened just a few days ago, before you signed in here at MSFN! jaclaz

@IcemanND Nice finds. You could also check places like libraries/university, unless it is a courtesy to customers, you will need something to keep track of the charges, similar to the webprint here: http://www.rice.edu/ITtutorials/owlnet/printing.html http://www.lib.msu.edu/services/printing/webprint.html http://www.willamette.edu/wits/resources/d...twork/webprint/ (though cannot say which software they are using, sorry) The easiest one is maybe now that most PC's have .pdf printing capabilities, to make customers to print to a "generic" PDF printer (read local file), then send the file as an attachment to an e-mail address like printer@myhotel.com and set an e-mail app to periodically check the account and automatically print the attachment.... For the few ones that don't have pre-installed a PDF printer driver there are several that are Freeware and redistrebutable.... jaclaz

Well, during the Christmas holidays I went for dinner at a friend's house and he asked me to talk to his son who had the idea to leave school and start a business along the lines of what you are doing. I talked the kid out of the idea, explaining him the problems he may face, founding my statements on three main points, beside others: 1) Lack of proper MS Certifications 2) Lack of experience with the Laws and bureaucratic requirements to start a shop 3) Lack of wide enough client base (volume of affairs) to be able to get a distributing agreement with MS at concurrent prices While the first two reasons stand, the third one, from your experience, appears like being not as rock solid as I thought. As I saw it, most people (those the just want a PC) simply buy the best deal (lower price) they can find on the market, and this always includes a Windows XP (generally Home Edition) OEM license, and the few ones that need/want something "custom" or "fine tuned" usually do that part by themselves as they already have the needed knowledge. jaclaz

Well, 10 licenses per week means some 400÷520 sales per year, that explains a lot. Though really your last post actually confused my ideas, sorry if I appear a bit "thick" (I probably am, ), but I still fail to see the general procedure, do you have also an agreement with Symantec for Norton Ghost and bundle it ? jaclaz

Well, it is more clear, though unfortunately not completely (to me). What the Client gets is a OEM license for a pre-installed OS bundled to the hardware you sell him, right? And as a favour (or added value) you make the backup copy of the install on CD? I thought that the above applied only to very large OEM's, and that smaller ones could only distribute "standard" Microsoft OEM licenses complete with CD and Certificate of Authority. I'll have to make some research on what is the minimum number of sales per year to apply for the type of agreement you have, I always thought that it had to be in the 4/5 figures range , haven't you got some link? jaclaz

Pardon me, but I cannot understand the above, could you better explain the kind of License Reselling Agreement you have with MS as a System Builder? jaclaz

Yep, FreeDos has some problems on some USB devices. They are said to be fixable, as they appear to be related to Freedos drive geometry autodetect and to a "magic" byte that needs to be in the bootsector, makebootfat mentions this: http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/doc-makebootfat.html I never had problems with it on my particular hardware, but I can confirm that I received reports of failures with FreeDos from other people, whilst both "XP extracted" (read Millennium Edition) and Win98 Dos Files (IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS, COMMAND.COM) work flawlessly. Another hint, if you don't have a floppy disk drive on your PC (nowadays quite uncommon on laptops), extracting the DOS files from XP could be a problem, there are a few ways out. 1) Use VFD from Ken Kato: http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html 2) Use this program by codebeetle: http://www.gocoding.com/page.php?al=bootflashdos 3) Use this method inspired by the StarMan, focused by yours truly and actually put together by Nuno Brito to just extract the files and later use the HP USB utility normally: www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16745 (as soon as the 911CD forum works again, for the moment Google cache is here): http://72.14.221.104/search?q=cache:DXfWKb...owtopic%3D16745 http://72.14.221.104/search?q=cache:dlc3nN...16745%26st%3D20 If you don't have a 98/ME bootfloppy around, the problem might be FORMAT.COM, that is in the XP DOS disk, INSIDE the DELETED file ebd.cab, see this: http://www.911cd.net/forums//lofiversion/i...php?t18896.html http://209.85.129.104/search?q=cache:uSdTU...p%3Ft18896.html You will need a little knowledge using a data recovery program to get it. Or, even better, get the enhanced FORMAT.COM by Petr: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=85573 jaclaz

Why not reading a few posts above? http://www.denispetrov.com/?page_id=3 jaclaz

Well, actually, though I never had the occasion of using it, I had found that novell link a while ago, while trying to help another member here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=83032 But, at least from what is on the Novell site, this has been designed for Mass Storage Devices, while you seem like applying it to HID Devices (Mouse). So maybe something needs to be changed in source regarding references to "classes" of hardware devices. jaclaz

Just google for it, you will probably land here: http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-Se...e/dp/B00009ETLF jaclaz

Hey people, it's not "black magic", it is just editing a few bytes. Bootcode goes from offset 0 to 445 (first 446 bytes of the 512 bytes MBR). Partition table goes from offset 446 to 509 (subsequent 64 bytes) "Magic" bytes (OK, I lied ) 55AA hex MUST remain (last 2 bytes) If the system is used under 2K/XP/Server2003 an additional part must be kept, the "disk signature" that is 4 bytes long between offset 440 and 443. The 2 bytes at offset 444÷445 are normally ALREADY 00 (zeroes). So, all you need to do is to write 00's to the first 440 bytes of the MBR (offset 0÷439). This can be easily made with an hex editor. If you need a command line or script : Just get dsfo from the DSFOK package and run: this will backup the MBR of drive 1 to file. this will create a 440 bytes long file filled with 00's. this will extract the last 72 bytes from backup of original MBR this will assemble the two parts in a new 512 bytes file this will copy the new MBR to the drive (change number of drive where appropriate, DO NOT use PHYSICALDRIVE0, it is the BOOT drive) Though the aim of setting to 00 a number of bytes that are never read (if the drive is not the boot one) escapes me. Now, if you would have talked about reusing the other 62 unused (hidden) sectors of first track, that could be another thing, though given the size of current drives the avaibility of some additional 62x512=31,744 bytes still does not look to me as a great deal.... jaclaz

Ludwig, if I may, as a general advice, you could take advantage of approaching problems with a more pragmatic view, rather than start from self-assumed apodictical axioms. You must have a serious problem with your current HD or PC case cooling. Tape storage has been, in my experience, the single worse method to archive data I have ever found, maybe I have just been unlucky, but having been around some 20 years it could interest you that only in rare occasions I was able to retrieve without effort or problems data stored on tape after two or three years. Besides it is sequential and thus inherently VERY slow if you need to access some data instead of an entire set. There are RAMDISK solutions, if cost is not a problem, but read this rather old article: http://www.dansdata.com/gz020.htm and the latest runner: http://www.tfot.info/content/view/100/59/ Here is a basic start for SSD (Solid State Drive) related things: http://www.storagesearch.com/ssd.html jaclaz

Not ALL batteries are alike, recalibration might or might not be useful, depending on the exact type. Here is an interesting site dedicated to batteries with technical info, that may help you decide whether it is advisable or not, hopefully with a reduced margin of error when compared to results of a poll: http://www.batteryuniversity.com/index.htm jaclaz

Ethan, you see, the method you described does work, here we are simply trying to see if ANOTHER method is possible. See the original post: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...mp;#entry563654 where I gave numbers to possible options. The one you suggested looks to me like method #1 or #2 (method #1 is fully documented in 10 steps in the given link - at the moment unavailable due to some problems on the 911CD board). GOOGLE cache here: http://209.85.129.104/search?q=cache:FUaFj...owtopic%3D16713 Writing a batch to automatize it should be trivial. With all due respect, I don't think that simply stating taht another way won't work helps, if you can hint anything on WHY it wouldn't work, it would be much appreciated. jaclaz

NO difference whatsoever. A "Disk" cannot be made active or non-active. A Primary Partition on a Disk can. A partition is made active by writing a value of 80hex as first byte in the corresponding partition entry in the MBR (at offset 446 if it is the First partition). Though this can be done through any hex edtor capable of direct disk access, it is advised to use a more suitable app. If you prefer a GUI app, use Beeblebrox: http://students.cs.byu.edu/~codyb/ (you need to write 00 instead of 80 in the "Boot" editbox) Otherwise you can use MBRwiz: http://mbrwizard.tripod.com/ With something like mbrwiz /Disk=1 /Active=1 AFTER you have made sure, with the /List switch you are changing the RIGHT HD and Partition. jaclaz

Well, no, I have my software (Win2K) legal, rest assured. I was actually talking about the won't be a problem getting them as referred to "disk" rather than "license". If the "no problem" is instead referred to license, I do however envy you. Everyone has of course his own metods of measurement, for me finding a NT4 License on sale, say $50, plus spending about $160 for a Server 2003 license, plus (probably) $399 for Vista Ultimate, sum up, including package, postage and handling to an estimated $630 problem. jaclaz

I may be wrong, but I think that: 1) NL-Stitch put a lot of work in his project and was so kind as to share the product of his work. 2) You may like or not like it. 3) You are free to download and use it or not. 4) Bashing NL-Stitch or his project for not being "the project" you wish it was or for not being "the project" you expected seems, besides vaguely unpolite, also uncalled for and not really constructive. So, even if most probably I'm not going to download or use it, thanks NL-Stitch for sharing your work . jaclaz

Just out of curiosity, do you also have - or it won't be a problem to get - FULL licenses for all of them (OEM wouldn't be good, otherwise you should already have the hardware)....? jaclaz

Some (not all) answers: The files really needed are these three: * explorer.exe * comdlg32.dll * shell32.dll With some versions, cannot say WHICH ones, my Italian one as an example, NOTEPAD.EXE from win 98 will not work with the above Win95 files. So you need an alternative txt editor, not necessarily NOTEPAD.EXE from Win95, there are hundreds of them, it's a matter of preferences. What I remember using was Edxor: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/fr...eware/edxor.htm which is very compact and has some features I use. You might be interested in this thread: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=12326 Where some details with needed files are given. jaclaz

Just a quick update, just to say that this has not been abandoned, though I had very few time to look further into the problem. I'm a bit stuck at the moment. On my test virtual drive, with a cluster of 8.192 bytes formatted as FAT12 under 2K, it appears that I can create (beginning from a 00ed drive, just formatted): exactly 127 entries in a directory in root, 128th entry goes out of the cluster. This makes sense, as directories "." and ".." entries take 32 bytes each, while the 127 files (LFN) take 64 bytes each, thus: 2*32+127*64=8.192 Problem is understanding where the 128th entry is made and where this address is referenced.... ...it seems like the entry is simply appended at the end of the 127th file. It seems like findpart finddir is not the right tool to find this address... ...however, I'll take my time over Christmas Holidays to see if I have an idea.... Stay well, see you on the beginning of january, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. jaclaz

It seems like: http://nt4ref.zcm.com.au/usb.htm http://web.archive.org/web/20040701205242/...port/nt4doc.jsp the particular USB stack from Ionetworks (now digi.com) is Win2k compatible!? The site also references this file: http://ftp1.us.dell.com/utility/Intea01i.exe as newer then http://ftp1.us.dell.com/utility/R62200.EXE But I don't think it helps. I have seen some scanners coming with software for NT4.00, but never tested them. What particular make/model of scanner is it? Maybe one could use the twain driver of some other scanner, with some tweaking... jaclaz

Cannot really say, but maybe Letter Assigner can do the trick, don't be fooled by the page, the app includes a command line version too: http://www.v72735.f2s.com/LetAssig/ jaclaz

I just switched from Everest to this. ..and don't forget SIV: http://siv.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/ I use both SIV and SIW .... jaclaz

Well, actually the same method is used in nlite... http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=71256 jaclaz

Sorry, but you are missing a point here, FREE SOFTWARE means "free as in freedom", not necessarily "free of charge". Support for FREE SOFTWARE is normally offered as a "pay for service", as well as the actual software can be charged for the services of compiling and integrating it, companies like RedHat and Mandriva actually "live" with that: http://www.redhat.com/rhel/compare/client/ http://www.mandriva.com/en/linux/2007/discovery http://store.mandriva.com/product_info.php?products_id=336 The fact that the same or a very similar product is provided free of charge and WITHOUT support does not mean that companies cannot get paid for their work. jaclaz