jaclaz

Well, you can always boot from a floppy or USB stick or CD, check these: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=17563 http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?act=ST...=70&t=52922 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16980 A minimal guide to explain NT based boot process is also here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?s=&amp...st&p=226081 jaclaz

@TD, I admire your desire to help , but I think you are making some confusion. This is related to INSTALL XP on hard disk from DOS. I contributed to write a 10 steps procedure to do the above here: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16713 that though aimed to a particular situation, has all the info needed to be replicated in other situations. But that is not the point, which is BOOTING an XP install from a USB Mass Storage Device. The only way to do so was originated by Dietmar's findings that developed in the Tutorials with the links in previous posts. @taj From experience of other people on the threads above referenced, the "more compatible" source appears to be XP SP1, but I succeeded with XP SP2 both with Tutorial 3, 4 and 5. Never had time to try Tuorial 6 that appears to be the latest and thus the better. Emanuel's one worked for me too. Did not try the newish Usbboot.org one, but as said there are positive feedbacks. Please do review this thread here: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=17900&hl= where I try to explain the status of the procedure. About the HP Format utility, you simply do NOT need it. Let me explain, when 2K/XP "interrogates" the USB bus, a USB Mass Storage connected to it (or to be more correct the controller in it) replies with a ID code, part of this code "tells" XP if it is a "removable" or a "fixed" device. External USB HD controllers tend to identify themselves as "fixed" whilst USB sticks tend to identify themselves as "removable". There is a "limitation" in the working of 2K/XP where if a device is "removable" is considered a floppy or "super-floppy", thus you cannot put a MBR (Master Boot Record) on it with "normal" tools. The HP utility bypasses this, by writing nonetheless a MBR on a "removable" device, but this can be done with other methods as well, some are explained here: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=15837 TD is right in the size limitations that the HP utility has, you must remember that the utility was developed originally by M-Systems at the time when USB sticks were in the 64/128 Mb range. If, as I presume, your external USB hard disk is identified as "fixed" you can use the normal Disk Manager procedure to partition and format it. About the filesystem to be used, the problem actually relies on the BIOS of the PC, FAT16 with a partition of about 2GB in size has proved to be the most compatible, please check FAQ #10 here: http://home.graffiti.net/jaclaz:graffiti.n...SB/USBfaqs.html and this thread: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...0806&st=320 jaclaz

It is NOT recommended to attach/detach cables on a live system. Please read this post of mine about drive lettering and all other ones linked to : http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=70405 jaclaz

Well, that is a working setup, why should you want to change it? As far as editing a boot.ini on a ntfs partition, there is this FREEWARE app: EDITBINI http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html But what I do not understand is the actual NEED to edit boot.ini, apart from initial setup. Would you care to better elaborate and describe what your operations are that need rewriting boot.ini? There are quite a bit of alternate methods.... jaclaz

Hmmm, and you did not succeed with tutorial 3, 4, 5 or 6, nor with the other tutorials by Bshoang ? : http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16760 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16696 Did you try the apps from: http://www.usboot.org/ (I DO NOT use them, as all the other methods worked for me , but they are reported to work.) jaclaz

I have a bit of experience with USB mass storage and/or Windows NT based OS installs, and I CAN do it, even WITHOUT the floppy, the difference is that when I make a suggestion, I actually EXPLAIN it: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16713 B) jaclaz

Interesting, how did you manage to fit the installation files on the "little bootdisk", WITHOUT USING A CD-ROM ? jaclaz

Maybe, but a honest one. Cheers, jaclaz

Wayback machine: http://www.archive.org/ http://web.archive.org/web/20050311005714/...sfnhosting.com/ jaclaz

Are you using Veritas Backup? Just google for {3808876b-c176-4e48-b7ae-04046e6cc752} there is a known problem related to "Shadow Volumes" jaclaz

@No6 That script MapDrive.cmd uses DISKPART, i.e. a XP tool, and a number of features that only NT based OS have in their batch interpreter. @King_V I presume in your project you somehow boot into DOS, so that you can use DOS batch files only. If you can explain in more detail when this happens (i.e. in autoexec.bat BEFORE loading mscdex or shsucdx or after it) and exactly what you need this for, maybe I can give you a couple of ideas. jaclaz

Yep, but is faster than anything I know. I suggested it because if the intended use is to backup all *.doc files, it should be a routine operation, and as such a batch script, and consequently a command line app can be useful. Some GUI ones: A very old, but very fast one is still Waldo: http://www.sfu.ca/~tmott/ (that has some "limitations" that actually can be turned into "features") Another one is the "demonstration program" actually a free working app from Witzend: http://www.witzendsoft.com/SrchLib.htm Vistaglance is VERY nice, but it is more like the Mac Finder, it is a completely different approach/interface to the system, as they declare on their page: jaclaz

Please note that the > character (as in last post) will OVERWRITE the file, if existing before, whilst the >> characters will APPEND to it. There is an even simpler method using a built-in, not widely known, feature of NOTEPAD: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=260563 jaclaz

ntldr has not an extension, memtest.exe has one. the \ntldr is correct, see this screenshot, the problem must be elsewhere. http://pointerx.net/blogs/glozano/archive/.../05/09/282.aspx Try booting from a floppy, built along the lines of here: http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy33.htm Then make sure that a copy of XP ntldr is in the root of the drive. jaclaz

Try looking here: http://www.oehelp.com/ maybe you can find a way... jaclaz

If you use NTFS do try this ndff: http://ndff.hotbox.ru/en/ it is FAST! jaclaz

I guess you missed travisowens' self-appointed title of On a side note, can we keep politics out of MSFN? jaclaz

In my experience it is not the "brand" that matters, but rather the "series" or "model" of the drive, I have had some Maxtors failing in under 1 year and some other model are more than 7 years old and work perfectly. Same thing happened with both WD and Seagate. I did not have a significant number of Samsungs, the few I had started delivering problems after approximately 5 years of service. Another factor that dramatically affects life of HD's are: 1) whether the PC is always on/switched off and on more than once a day, spin up spin down can really kill motors and bearings 2) whether power surge protection, and/or UPS is installed and efficient 3) GOOD cooling, is ESSENTIAL, with appropriate space all around the drive and significant airflow, use an app like HD tune: http://www.hdtune.com/ to check for temperature, a drive that exceeds 45/50°C has a lot more probability to fail than one that "lives" at 40°C jaclaz

Please note that that app is CHIP SPECIFIC, for I-Create ones. There are others utilities for different chip controllers, check these: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?s=&...st&p=116954 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?s=&...ost&p=98600 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?s=&...st&p=112882 every chip producer has it's own. And yes, there are FREEWARE testing apps for USB sticks and cards: http://usbmst.sourceforge.net/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/s3u jaclaz

Just for the record: Actually, "run.exe" has nothing to do with cathy.exe, , it is part of the cygwin utilities: http://cygutils.fruitbat.org/run/index.html It's use is advocated in an article related to cathycmd.exe, though : http://www.virtualplastic.org/html/alt_find.html Cathy homepage: http://www.mtg.sk/rva/ jaclaz

Well, a simple thing to do is to quit using Internet Explorer and use Opera: http://www.opera.com/ jaclaz

Some ideas from my friend The Hive: jaclaz

What I would do: 1) Get GRUB4DOS http://grub4dos.jot.com/ 2) Add GRLDR to your standard Setup Some references: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16980 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=17425 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=17633 This way you will have BOTH the possibility to use standard MBR/NTLDR/BOOT.INI and the GRUB features. jaclaz

From the link I provided: (bolding is mine) jaclaz

@aaly I have a friend that is interested in designing the logo, is the request still open? jaclaz