jaclaz

A couple of ideas: @echo off :CHANGE SET /P CHANGE=Change: For %%A in (YES YEs Yes yes yeS yES yEs YeS NO No no nO) DO IF %%A.==%CHANGE%. GOTO :Nextstep%CHANGE% ECHO Error! Please Try again... goto :CHANGE :NextstepYES REM was :COMPANYNAME ECHO COMPANYNAME %CHANGE% PAUSE goto :CHANGE :NextstepNO REM was :REGISTRY ECHO REGISTRY %CHANGE% PAUSE goto :CHANGE @echo off :CHANGE SET /P CHANGE=Change: ECHO %CHANGE% | FIND /I "YES " >nul IF %ERRORLEVEL%==0 goto :COMPANYNAME ECHO %CHANGE% | FIND /I "NO " >nul IF %ERRORLEVEL%==0 goto :REGISTRY ECHO Error! Please Try again... goto :CHANGE :COMPANYNAME ECHO COMPANYNAME %CHANGE% PAUSE goto :CHANGE :REGISTRY ECHO REGISTRY %CHANGE% PAUSE goto :CHANGE Please note that in your source you missed a couple of combination for "yEs".... jaclaz

Or you can use Grub4dos grldr as a no-emulation bootsector, then load either directly or thorough memdisk two different floppy images, one for ME and one for 98. Always get latest "nightbuild" of Grub4dos here: http://grub4dos.jot.com/WikiHome jaclaz

@the_doc735 You should read on this site: http://www.robvanderwoude.com/ particularly these: http://www.robvanderwoude.com/local.html http://www.robvanderwoude.com/ntset.html Briefly, Enabling Command Extensions modifies the way some commands are carried out and allows for particular syntaxes. To make sure that Command Extensions are enabled, you should begin a .cmd file with (after @Echo OFF): SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS jaclaz P.S.: We technicians have the habit of referring to those, respectively, as SMALL, MEDIUM and LARGE pan, or as #1,#2 and #3 skillet. B) Using the correct words helps!

Since the .iso image works and the CD does not, the problem must lie in the way you burned the CD. Did you actually use NERO properly? Or you just put the .iso in the new compilation folder? In the old NERO 6 you had to choose "Burn Image", I think this is unchanged in 7: http://www.govideo.com/index.Asp?GV=CDWriteHelp Also, ALWAYS burn bootable CD's at LOWEST possible speed, until you find that a higher speed will work as well. jaclaz

I think you will agree that "works like a dream" cannot be defined an objective benchmark measure, I suspect that other people may find your "dream" a "nightmare". In my experience, the single hardware feature that affects the most the behaviour of a full Win98 SE is the amount of memory, not really the processor speed. If you have less than 64 Mbytes of memory, Win98 becomes slowish, due to swapping to HD. I have found that with 32 Mbytes or less, you really see the difference if you use 98lite or another means to use the core W95 files. Exactly my thought , though about: You have to understand that marketshare, while having a direct relationship with availability of help and support, has NO relationship whatsoever with quality of the product. Consider this: Windows 2000 came out at the beginning of 2000, at the time Microsoft marketing had things divided as follows: a. Professional users should MIGRATE from NT4 to Win2K b. New professional system should have Win2K c. Consumer systems should have WinME, that came out in summer 2000, as the NT technology is too complex for them, almost every PC sold in 2000/2001 had ME pre-installed Shortly after, the idea was completely changed: Windows XP came out at the end of 2001 and was pre-installed, either in home or pro version, to almost every single PC sold afterwards. Windows 2K was not taken out of the market, mainly because until SP1 came out, no professional would have even thought of "upgrading" to XP, I bought my latest licenses for 2k in 2004. SO you cannot really compare the numbers of ME or 2000 with those of other systems: 1) ME came pre-installed for a short period, around 1 and a half year 2) 2K was very rarely pre-installed, and it's main "lifetime" was about two years 3) XP, either home or pro, came pre installed since end of 2001 till today, and probably for several months still, until the release of Vista 4) In the period since 2000 up to now, the number of PC's in households has greatly increased, today alost everyone has a PC, 5 years ago, if you think about it, it was not so. These are just partial data: 1997 - http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/c...ort97/tab01.pdf 2003 - http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/c...2003/tab01A.xls But a "penetration" rate from 36.6% to 61.8% hints about the trend quite well, here are more numbers: http://www.cybertelecom.org/data/statcomputers.htm jaclaz

If you can "write" the text file as you wish, the problem can be solved like this: FIND /V /N "thisisanabsurdstringthatwontbeinthefile" colours.txt will output: so you can do Set choice=3 FOR /F "tokens=2 delims=]" %%A IN ('FIND /V /N "thisisanabsurdstringthatwontbeinthefile" colours.txt ^| FIND "%choice%"') DO ECHO %%A You should get the idea.... jaclaz P.S.: Real "random" number generation is very difficult, but a "pseudo-random" is relatively easy: http://www.robvanderwoude.com/ http://www.robvanderwoude.com/files/random_nt.txt http://www.robvanderwoude.com/files/random_nt2.txt

See here if it's enough: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=83617 jaclaz

I guess it all depends on the use you make of a PC and how you "keep" it. Just for the record I run Win2k since 2003 on this PC, and previously had it run another 3 years on a previous one and NEVER re-installed on either machine, nor EVER had a BSOD. jaclaz

Plamdi, maybe you got it wrong: 1) mstester does NOT want a prompt for deleting file(s) 2) normally there is NO prompt when deleting a single file UNLESS it is either a Read Only or System file: 2a) If it is Read Only, the prompt will be "Access Denied" 2b) If it is System, the prompt will be "Cannot find file" 3) if you are deleting MORE than one file, using a wild card, like in del *.*, a prompt will come out asking whether you want to proceed So, the /s will do the same command in each subdirectory, but if you use wildcards, you will be prompted once for each subdirectory. The /q suppresses the prompt generated by MULTIPLE deletes (i.e. using wildcards) the /p will FORCE the (unwanted) prompt for EACH file. the /f forces the deleting of Read Only files the /a (optionally followed by the type of attribute) will allow deleting files with particular attributes, /ar is the same as /f, /a means every file but those that are Read Only So, if you want to delete files with NO prompt whatsoever, the right syntax is del /a /f If, from a batch file or from command line you want to bypass the prompt generated by a wildcard, without pressing S (Y in English) you use: echo S | del \dir\*.* i.e. you pipeline a "S" or a "Y" into the command. If you use the /s parameter, of course only first prompt will be bypassed, this can be useful in some occasion INSTEAD of the /q. jaclaz

WARNING! This can be a long and troublesome troubleshooting. First thing it would be necessary to understand which controller chip the USB HD uses. If you can physically open the case, just post whatever you can read on the chips, together with EXACT model of your Hard Disk. Additionally, get this program and run it on both the working laptop and the failing desktop, posting results, the interesting part is the Vid and Pid: http://www.pretec.com/WebRoot/Store/Shops/.../UsbIDCheck.zip jaclaz

Well, the parameters given in the link do have a sense, if only you would take the time to read the doc, the suggested one is: YOUR should be something like this: mkisofs -iso-level 4 -l -d -D -J -joliet-long -b -boot.img -hide boot.img -hide boot.catalog -allow-multidot -no-emul-boot -volid "MYCD" -A PEBUILDER/MKISOFS -sysid "Win32" -boot-load-size 4 -o "/home/kurumin/xpcd.iso" "/home/kurumin/Unattended/xpcd" Quite different to what you posted: The main things you obviously missed are: -no-emul-boot that tells mkisofs that you want a no-emulation mode CD, NOT an El-Torito one that tells mkisofs that the no-emulation bootsector you are feeding it is 4 sectors long that make mkisofs hide the boot image and catalog the other ones have lesser importance, and can probably be omitted though it really depends on the structure of the CD and the names you used (or you have) for files, most probably you can omit them and also set -iso-level to 2 or 3 if the cd has just "normal" 8.3 names. jaclaz

boot.img is the no-emulation bootsector for the CD, i.e. the thingy that makes it bootable and that invokes the SETUPLDR.BIN, if you don't use it, the CD wonìt be bootable or it won't boot the setup. Under Linux, as well as under XP, you can use mkisofs to make the .iso, then burn it with any burning program. Here is a mkisofs short guide for BartPE, which is similar in the booting part to a setup CD, to get you started: http://www.bootcd.us/Mkisofs_options.htm Check your build of mkisofs under linux for the presence of same switches, if I recall correctly -iso-level 4 is not present, you can try -iso-level 3 jaclaz

Can you elaborate on this? Which tools you use, how you make the Ramdisk, how you copy HD image to it, how you boot it? A similar (open) thread on 911CD: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=18326 jaclaz

nlite: http://www.nliteos.com/ has an option to integrate drivers: http://www.nliteos.com/guide/part2.html (but read the whole guide) jaclaz

Yep, but EVERY PS (Power Supply) built for Desktop PC's in the last, say, 20 years has been a Switching Mode one, so the acronym is a bit redundant.... jaclaz

Hooking the old hard disk as "slave" and copying normally data from it to the RAID set is not possible? jaclaz

About the BIOS, it should be a Biostar M7VKS: http://www.biostar.com.tw/support/bios/index.php3 http://www.biostar.com.tw/support/driver/m...php3?name=M7VKS http://www.biostar.com.tw/support/bios/bios.php3?model=M7VKS but it is strange, as you appear to have a 03/07/2003 BIOS, whilst the one on the page above is earlier. Check this: http://www.biostar.com.tw/support/bios/index2.php3 Whenever in doubt with a BIOS, refer here: http://www.wimsbios.com/ But I suspect more a driver issue than a BIOS problem. Try booting on it either a DOS floppy or (better) a live CD like a Linux distro or a BartPE, most probably it will work. However: You can also try using the Award Phoenix utility to copy the BIOS of the "other" machine, ONLY IF IT'S ABSOLUTELY IDENTICAL and flash with it the PC that does not want to work. On the other hand, if the "other" machine is not exactly identical, the fact that the HD works on it only means that the hard disk is OK. jaclaz

Are you sure? USB 2.0 is hardware compatible with USB 1.1 and the protocol is the same, if you "pilot" a USB 2.0 at 1.1 speed NO harm can be done, all protocols with same name are downwards compatible. If you were talking of something that required to run on USB 2.0 and did not work on USB 1.1, I can agree, but it cannot be the other way round. It could be a problem with your particular hardware or drivers you are using, a conflict with another driver/app is also possible. If you post info about hardware, application, and OS you are using maybe we can help you. jaclaz

It's something that you CANNOT format on XP. Besides the use highlighted in this thread, Denis Petrov has started it all by writing a program to allow XP to format PROPERLY even 1.44 Floppies FORMAT144 http://www.denispetrov.com/?page_id=3 Besides, XP shares a limitation with all NT based systems, that it cannot format some "peculiar" formats, see these: http://www.serverelements.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=64 http://www.winimage.com/wimushlp/wini1a1y.htm jaclaz

I stand (pleasantly) corrected. jaclaz

Until a few months ago I would have answered yes, but since the findings by Dietmar, it appears that there is NO reset on the USB bus, simply the Windows XP 32-bit HAL driver does not start/it is not properly configured. Yep, I understand that , the problem is that Windows might mind about this, and it will probably NOT log you in when booted. This has to do with paths in the Registry, some are "dynamic", i.e. generated at boot-time, some are "static", i.e. something like C:\Windows\System\[directory]\[file]. This can happen also if you install Windows (like it should IMHO) in a logical volume inside extended partition, as all letters are shifted by one. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/249321/en-us http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188/en-us (this actually happened to me, when Win2k came out, that's why I'm so sensitive on the matter) However, if you insist in not taking the stick out when told to , you can do the following: 1) Use bootpart (or any other method) to make sure that your C: drive (the "real" hard disk drive) has a NT/2K/XP/2003 bootsector that invokes NTLDR/BOOT.INI 2) From the stick, manually or through autoexec.bat, run this .bat: Attrib -h -s -r D:\BOOT.INI Echo C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows XP Professional Setup">>D:\BOOT.INI Attrib +h +s +r D:\BOOT.INI (double check the attrib syntax, I am recalling from memory, that is not anymore that good ) 3) xcopy the C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\ (on the stick) folder to D:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\ (the hard disk) 4) TAKE THE STICK OUT AND REBOOT! 5) Choose the "Microsoft Windows XP Professional Setup" entry in boot.ini 6) It won't work, I joked , even if it may. 7) Before step 4) you must find a way to "correct" BOOTSECT.DAT that in that moment has the geometry info of the USB stick to reflect the geometry of the hard disk, this can be done from DOS with the DEBUG utility or some other scriptable hex/diskeditor, right now I have no links handy, if you cannot find a method, ask for it and I'll search and give you some. Yep, I thought as much, as Mr de la Palice: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_de_la_Palice death must found one alive! jaclaz

Not that I know of, besides the suggested solution, but you can try the /T: tempdrive switch, in the already referenced WINNT.EXE syntax page:http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechn...t.mspx?mfr=true YES, it is, and you see, having the install \I386 files on HD, saves you a lot of trouble when, before or later, you need for any reason another file and Windows prompts you to "insert the Setup CD".... and in the meantime you have re-used the stick for another project deleting files in it WHY? The whole point of a tutorial is that it should be followed EXACTLY , at least until you understand fully each step and consequences of a change in it. People that can make changes to it, usually don't need tutorials. CATCH 22 You see, if you boot from the stick, the stick itself will get letter C: and the first partition of the hard disk will get letter D:, but when you boot again without the stick, the same partition will get letter C:. This can cause to "mix" letters and potentially lead to an unbootable (in the sense of no way to log in) system. There are ways to change letters, but they are not easy/straightforward. jaclaz

From what you say, it seems to me that it is not O&O the problem, but rather O&O finding hard disk filesystem problems that make this happen. If it is so, the cure is to solve the filesystem problem, NOT fiddling with O&O. If you can use the Recovery Console, I would try running CHKDSK from it. If you do not specify the /F switch, it will only analyze disks for errors, maybe from the report one can judge if it is the case to re-run it with the /F switch. Reference: http://www.ss64.com/nt/chkdsk.html If that does not work, what I would do is build a BartPE with drivers for your Raid card (or you are using software RAID?) and some testing utilities, connect another hard disk (non Raid) to the connector where the DVD now is and salvage as many files as possible before attempting repair. jaclaz

There is no "right" or "wrong" ways to do something, anything that works and suites personal tastes is "right". If we are talking about a bootable CD from which you can install any of Win95, 98 or ME, personally I would use a different approach, using Grub4DOS grldr as no-emulation boot image for CD rom and using menu.lst to select the three different floppy boot images, another one would use BCDW and another one yet CD-Shell, but there are probably tens of different ways to achieve the same result. jaclaz

Very interesting post! I may add (Freeware for non commercial use): NTWRAPPER http://www.duodata.de/ntwrapper/index.htm Codeproject (Sourcecode only) - any taker to compile it?: XYNTSERVICE http://www.codeproject.com/system/xyntservice.asp jaclaz