jaclaz

Sorry for your stick. Maybe, depending on make/model, or to be more exact actual USB controller that it is on stick, it may be possible to use the manufacturer Production Tool to "low level" format it to factory condition. Please post Vid&Pid of the device, maybe it's one of those for which a tool is available. About the GRLDR renamed as NTLDR, it is possible that it is one of those cases that it doesn't work, but through "real" NTLDR/BOOT.INI it SHOULD work. Try using the Find command in Grub4DOS with autocomletion, i.e. type: (the above means type "find", an open parenthesis (, then press the TAB key. It should list devices available.... Is it possible that it is one of those incompatibilities with motherboard BIOS (i.e that it reads CHS ok, but not LBA or viceversa) ? jaclaz P.S.: cdob just reported that the "other" method is working: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=81788&hl=

well, you can use nlite to make a CD with documents and settings not in the "default" way. But there is no way to make a CD that will autopartition several partitions from winnt.sif. You need to run before a partitioning program. I see this is your first post, next time you should post in the proper section of the forum, which are these ones: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showforum=101 http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showforum=70 If you search within those for "partitioning", "partition" and "autopartition" you will see that the same question has already been asked several times, and some alternative ways have been suggested. About using Ghost or other imaging software, I personally think that it is the best solution, if you have a problem, you just re-image the C: partition, leaving the D: one untouched. Of course programs installed AFTER the image has been taken won't be there anymore and would need being re-installed. jaclaz

Well, since you sound like "knowing what you are doing", why don't you simply make a copy of the "normal" XP bootsector of that partition, save it as "bootsect.bin" then hexedit it to invoke, instead of NTLDR, PELDR (which is SETUPLDR.BIN renamed as PELDR)? Any hexeditor capable of direct disk access can do this, besides commercial ones, tinyhex: http://www.mirkes.de/en/freeware/tinyhex.php The full edition also have scripting support, so that you should be able to automeate the task. jaclaz

Sure! Word doc files, mostly, that contain sensitive information (names, for example). I want to encrypt these in a folder on my hard drive, which seems straight forward, but I'd also like to back them up periodically (twice a month, for example) to an optical disc, but have the disc be encrypted. Then, easiest solution is following LLXX advice, or use one of the programs in the 2nd link I posted. A very nice "self-standing" and portable solution is here: http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Other/fSekrit/ Another option you might want to explore is the use of Steganography: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/steganography.html here is an example program: http://www.dancemammal.com/imagehide.htm more (almost every related program) here: http://www.stegoarchive.com/ jaclaz

Flinstone, just for the record, you are at the moment in the "wrong" place, this is Windows PE are, not the BartPE one. However, what you are trying to do is a different thing from the original question, this is simply a "Dual boot Windows X and BartPE from hard disk", only doing manually instead of using the already "established" methods and tools. You might want to try the "standard" peinst (do READ Bart's page): http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/faq/#9 or this one: http://www.911cd.net/forums/index.php?show...c=11226&hl= If it's allright to use a bootmanager, here is tutorial using Grub4Dos that also covers booting BartPE from ANOTHER (not first one) partition: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=18031 jaclaz

Not really sure I fully understood what you need, can you explain better what type of data you need to protect, how big are the files and how often you need to copy the files to CD? The "standard" freeware/Open Source is Truecrypt: http://www.truecrypt.org/ But maybe you need something different/simpler, here are a few crypting programs: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/fr...ware/index.html jaclaz

You must thank Spacesurfer, that found this way to cut some corners: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=18031 I checked on some other posts/howto, you are right, the exchange takes place. To make sure, you can try from a Grub4dos command line, repeating the same commands one by one, and use "root" instead of "rootnoverify", Grub4dos should put on screen a brief message describing the partition it "rooted" too. jaclaz

hmmm, very strange, however, if it works with the double exchange, let it be! Well, according to this: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=14852 the 3 would mean "do not copy", most probably it means "ignore". It seems like I cannot find a "proper", i.e. complete TXTSETUP.SIF howto, I am trying to put tohether all bits of info I can find...., but at the moment nothing that can resolve the file deleting problem. More info on gosh's pages: http://gosh.msfn.org/txtsetup.htm jaclaz P.S.: about: Though possible, as you made it, to install grldr.mbr to the MBR and copy GRLDR to the stick, it is not the "recommended" way, as the MBR code is (of course) different from "standard" NT/Win2K/XP2003 MBR code, it is possible (and there were reports abut this) that the motherboard BIOS won't boot from it. The recommended way is to prepare the stick with the HP tool under Win2K/XP/2003 WITHOUT telling it to put DOS files in the key, or however format the key under the same OSses in a manner to have the bootsector of the primary partition that invokes NTLDR. Then either: 1) copy to the stick NTLDR and a boot.ini with an entry : or 2) copy to the stick grldr and RENAME it as NTLDR

GOOD! A quick small correction: is exactly the same as: Yes, there must be somewhere a directive "keeep all files".... jaclaz

This should be possible using the "default" file and the savedefault directive in a "cross-linked" manner, I'll have a look in the matter. jaclaz

This poses another problem, if I read correctly the KB, it talks about fixed hard disk, not about internal ones, while it makes a distinction of JAZ,ZIP and MO.It is most probable, that just like it was found out by Dietmar, some differences exist if the USB Mass Storage device is seen as "fixed" or as "removable", one might need somehow to install a filter driver during setup. Good work! jaclaz

hmmm, more research to do.... About: I am clearly missing something:where is the $WIN_NT$.~LS directory, if not on the stick? I assumed that the syntax of would be similar to the BOOT.INI one, where first disk is 0, but first partition is 1, byt I may be wrong. To better analyze the contents of your migrate.inf, can you do the following ?: 1) Download on the computer you used WINNT32.EXE the DSFOK here: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/freezip/freeware/ 2) unzip it, open a command prompt in the directory and run the VLM tool like VLM > VLM.TXT 3) from the same command prompt run mountvol >> VLM.TXT 4) post (attach) the VLM.TXT There might be a relationship between the drive signature and the entries in migrate.inf aka entries in the Registry or however another way to "couple" migrate.inf drive letter assignments to the fixed hard disk. I'll post what I can find or if some other idea comes out. jaclaz

Here: TESTDISK (and PHOTOREC) http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk PC FILE RECOVERY: http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htm Please note that to be on the safe side, installing the recovery programs and recovery itself should be performed from ANOTHER system, with your hard disk mounted in it as "slave" or from a "live-CD" of some sorts, EVERY write operation, every single second you keep your system switched on can make file recovery difficult or impossible, don't even THINK of downloading or installing the files to the system/hard disk on which the deleted file is, if you have a scheduled defrag program, turn it off immediately. Good free products are EBCD (DOS based): http://ebcd.pcministry.com/ and UBCD http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ or UBCD4WIN (BartPE based): http://www.ubcd4win.com/ (you will need to add testdisk) jaclaz

I cannot say about the F8 access to it, and there is something not clear about (I cannot see why they should mount a partition under a filesystem that is going to be re-formatted ) But the idea of having a "hidden" setup partition (being it a ghosted image, a BartPE or a setup partition) is not new, and it is usually achieved through a bootloader in the MBR, but it is also possible to have an entry in boot.ini. Some related posts are here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=84411 http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=47773 (and links therein) I might add, if you want to follow the MBR bootloader way, that recently, besides Partita, there is another MBR bootloader that fits in 512 bytes, Open Source: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=162108 jaclaz

Hmmm, I think that you are getting really close . The fact that in boot.ini the "signature" syntax is used should mean that the drive is recognized as a "peculiar" one, but this, as I see it, is a good thing. You can check the Disk (and stick) signature with MBRFIX or MBRWIZARD: http://www.sysint.no/Nedlasting/MbrFix.htm http://www.sysint.no/Nedlasting/MbrFix.zip http://home.graffiti.net/jaclaz:graffiti.net/ http://home.graffiti.net/jaclaz:graffiti.n...X/mbrfix0.2.zip The title Boot WinXP Setup from USB map --read-only (hd0) (hd1) rootnoverify (hd1) chainloader (hd1)+1 boot should work as follows: You map the stick (booted from, and thus first drive, or hd0) to second drive hd1, then you boot from it. The question is how is "mapped" the internal hard disk drive and how is this seen by windows setup? The reference to should mean that (if I get it correctly the \xpsprtm directory is on the stick) the mapping is correct, i.e. the stick gets letter "d:".On the other hand, the fact that the reference to gives the missing file error, should mean that by this part of the setup the stick is NOT seen as second drive (HARDDISK1) but probably as first one (HARDDISK0) One thing you could try is the following: most probably you will have the same behaviour, but the box list could be "populated" by instead. Also, can you post (attaching it) the migrate.inf file you get when you prepare the stick with WINNT32.EXE? I still have the "feeling" that the solution could be there.... jaclaz

porear, sorry, I modified my previous post, the Grub4Dos entry I posted was wrong, can you try with the new one? Also, cdob appears to have joined in the "game", I am crosslinking to the other thread: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=81788&hl= jaclaz

cdob, there is another ongoing thread here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=61384&hl= Problems found appear to be the same ones. I think that the hd exchange should be made before, as to make sure that the First Hard disk on system (the one you install XP) remains C: and thus boot.ini would be correct: default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS Though there is a report here: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...18031&st=20 that makes one think that setupldr.bin/ntdetect.com gave to be on first hard drive. Maybe one could map the USB stick partition to a floppy and the IDE hard disk to hd0, see the other thread. Could you post your migrate.inf file? Maybe the solution could be a modified version of it, together with a hd exchange in Grub4dos before. jaclaz

@Jeremy @cluberti Yes, the amount of disk space needed is incredible. I guess Nuhi will have a lot of fun when and if nlite will be adapted to Vista..... And I presume that you will also need a huge amount of RAM and a prolly fast processor to run it. I have no idea how smooth the feeling of the interface is, but I think that if you can afford a newish, fast machine, running on it XP or 2003 would still be smoother than Vista. And what about booting time, anyone has data on it? Will there be a need for a bootvis-like app? jaclaz

Yep, that is what made me ask before which letter was assigned to the HD, booting from the stick automatically makes it first drive. If the drive lettering ( C: ) of the hard drive is correct, thus should be the easiest solution. Please find here a small batch and some useful info to that effect: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=66101&hl= You can try using Grub4DOS to map the stick as another HD or even FD, something along the lines of: map --read-only (hd0,0)+1 (fd0) chainloader (fd0)+1 rootnoverify (fd0) boot maybe mapping it as read-only will prevent deletion of the files. jaclaz

To avoid the problem of steps 4 and 5 above, you can try using Grub4DOS to chainload SETUPLDR.BIN directly. This would give you also more options when booting, say, access to a DOS or Linux boot, etc. All you need to do is copying to the root of the stick grldr (from the grub4dos package), rename it to NTLDR and add a menu.lst with this entry: Get grub4dos here:http://grub4dos.jot.com/WikiHome Search posts by me on 911cd forum with text "grub4dos" for some examples and tips. GOOD! I'll have a look too if I can find a way to avoid deletion of that.... jaclaz

You might be interested in these: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/234048/en-us http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServe...3.mspx?mfr=true It seems like a directive in the answer file will avoid the creation of migrate.inf, but actually, as I see it, a form of "migrate.inf" might be necessary to provide for "correct" drive lettering on the installed system.Using the method above, were you able to install on C: drive? Which drive letter was given to the USB stick? Just to keep things as clear as possible, with reference to my post here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...mp;#entry563654 Until now you were exploring the possibilities of method #4, if you you would "fall" in method #3, won't you? If I am correct, some info in here might be of help: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=17425&hl= jaclaz

I don't think that it would be economically "sound" to build one, unless you use some parts that you already have lying unused in a corner. This can be a start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage it links to this page: https://rnvs.informatik.tu-chemnitz.de/twik...AttachedStorage where a comparison of several device is done, with links to manufacturers and some speed tests. Here is a list of manufacturers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_Manufact..._of_NAS_Devices jaclaz

Yep, you pinned down the missing pre-requisite, I would love to, if only you could, possibly in a civil manner, bring some supporting evidence to your statements. Until then, I see them as a mere opininon, in this particular case expressed with a lack of politeness that I find offensive. To cite Bertrand Russell: Of course, my personal view on politeness may differ from yours, and I see as highly advisable to end this little dispute without further exploring the capabilities in this field you so clearly advertised in your last post. Be well. jaclaz

Yep, I may be wrong, this is why I used the IMHO form in my statement, but while this me being wrong is a concrete possibility, it is not proved by your unpolite attack on it, nor because you say so. jaclaz

You can also use an elder machine with something like: naslite: http://www.serverelements.com/ or freenas: http://www.freenas.org/ Since the bottleneck is usually the network transfer rate, any PC with, say a Pentium and 64 Mb of memory will do. jaclaz