jaclaz

And the one posted here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=8497 does not work for you? Here are the related MS articles: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/835891/en-gb http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;EN-US;214714 http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...727&product=w98 The reskit guide: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documen...t7/wrkappd.mspx and the hard to find technet one: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/w...oy/batch98.mspx and the whitepaper: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=169539 And the onecomputerguy one: http://www.onecomputerguy.com/install/install.htm I remember to have seen it working, but it has been quite a lot of time, cannot remember or find anything more precise. Re: your points: 1. can you desctibe it better or post a copy of the .inf file? 2. cannot say, which one, can you post the title of the dialog? 3. no, batch files only jaclaz

There is still the hot-swap option. Moreover, re-thinking about it, I remembered recovering a BIOS flashed by a virus this way: 1) I went to a used PC shop and bought for about 2 Euros a defective motherboard they were throwing away that had the SAME type of Award BIOS chip 2) I exchanged the chips and tried booting with the floppy and flash program (and a correct bios image) 3) The boot block worked even if the motherboard whence the BIOS came was from another manufacturer, most probably bootblock is the same for all AWARD's of the same release, as the motherboard manufacturer just changes the BIOS code, leaving the bootblock untouched. jaclaz

Actually win98 can be also installed on an extended partition, as long as it is FAT16 or FAT32 (NOT NTFS). Here is a site that has lots of info on double booting. http://www.thpc.info/dualboot.html As a freeware bootmanager I recommend XOSL: http://www.ranish.com/part/xosl.htm jaclaz

There is this FREE win9x program, READ only: http://diskinternals.com/products/ntfs-reader/ jaclaz

There are only 10 types of people in the world; those who understand trinary, those who don't, and those who mistake it for binary. jaclaz

You mean this: http://www.windowsitpro.com/Windows/Articl...6848/26848.html Look at this also: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=39190 or just search the board for winlogon.exe, gina or gina.dll jaclaz

Ok, I gather you can boot into Operating System (which one is it, by the way, Windows XP?). Open a command prompt, and type in it: CHKDSK [Enter] See what it says, if it finds any error, try typing: CHKDSK C: /F [Enter] it should try and fix the errors in the filesystem. Try again with PM8 and post results. jaclaz

There are some programs that will make an "optimized" ISO image, basically, if the same file is present into two or more places, only one instance will be written on the CDFS filesystem image, all the others will be just pointers to the one file. then search on the board for examples of usage of mkisofs or cdrecord You need a version that allows the " -duplicates-once" switch, like the one within BartPE (Reanimatolog version). Here is a GUI for it: http://members.chello.at/bobby100/The_GUI.htm There is also the Cdimage program from Microsoft, but it is "for internal use only". jaclaz

Have a look here: http://www.oehelp.com/ jaclaz

Thanks, can be useful. jaclaz

Sorry, just a slip in my memory, I meant FAT16 and Drivespace, my bad. However the point stands still: Apart from cost of physical storage which is dropping by the minute, 1) If you have a (relatively) high speed processor and (relatively) slow hard disks, you have a good reason to use compressed volumes 2) If you have a (relatively) slow speed processors and (relatively) fast hard disks, compressed volumes might not be the fastest choice As always TRUTH (and SPEED) is not always on the same side, as pointed in the previously linked pages, EVERY filesystem has it's own Up's and Down's, so it all depends on the use you need it for. jaclaz

WARNING! COMPLETELY OUT OF TOPIC! Actually the point here is whether that is an impossible or just a very improbable event: More here: http://www.quotelady.com/subjects/possibilities.html jaclaz

Hey, guys, why don't you keep it easy, read the posts, and avoid turning them into personal quarrels? @astalavista I was just talking with Bill Gates, and actually He confirmed that on MOST recent (including daos' motherboard) AWARD BIOS there is a bootblock 8k code that cannot be overwritten (by award flash program). I dialed GOD, just to make sure, but it seems like He is busy at the moment, if you are able to contact Him and report, I would easily believe what your friend said. @puntoMX Thank you for the advice, but my board works perfectly, it's Daos' one that has the problem. jaclaz

I actually don't get the MEANING of your post. Windows XP Professional (Corporate Edition) is not something that you can have unless you have a "special" Volume Licensing Agreement with Microsoft. NO ONE can legitly use it without the above. Inducing people to "try it" without a proper license is against the RULES of this board. The rest of your post seems actually irrelevant. This board's scope is to share knowledge on Microsoft Operating Systems and related programs, tricks, mods, and similia. jaclaz

I'll have a look at it, it seems like a nice piece of work, but, on first glance, where is the "fnd2" variable reused? jaclaz

Shouldn't it be Pid=xxxxx335 ? http://www.thetechguide.com/howto/setuppini.html I think that the Pid=xxxxx000 is for Win2k: http://www.thetechguide.com/articles/win2kserial.html jaclaz

My two cents, and remember I might be just too old and thus old fashioned, but what about a good old batch file, together with some command line program you can surely find on the internet? I mean, I understand that .Net has all the bells and whistles, but you don't use a cannon to shoot a fly, don't you? jaclaz

Actually NTLDR is not loaded into the MBR, it is referred to in the MBR. So all you have to do is save your MBR (already containing the modified GRUB MBR) to a file, install whatever you like, then restore the MBR from file. Be warned that if you change your partitions in the meantime this procedure won't obviously work. You can use MBRwizard (both from DOS and Win32): http://mbrwizard.tripod.com/ or from Linux dd jaclaz

Does it beep? As your motherboard is fairly recent, so that I am sure you have the bootblock part on your BIOS, (and that part cannot be rewritten), if at boot time the PC doesn't attempt to read from floppy, it means that your motherboard has another problem, and the only way (apart from a POST card) is to listen to beep codes: http://www.amptron.com/html/bios.beepcodes.html jaclaz

Look at what you would have found by searching for "notepad2": http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=38246&hl= jaclaz

Read this: http://www.robvanderwoude.com/email.html http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...b;en-us;Q313565 jaclaz

@Northwood Read this thread: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=38338&st=0 jaclaz

@Northwood As long as you motherboard's BIOS SUPPORTS booting from USB device, it will work. Read this: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=14316&hl= @niceguy No, booting from USB MUST be supported in the motherboard BIOS, the site you linked has some info on accessing USB devices under DOS. jaclaz

Ok, I found this example on the wonderful Rob Vanderwoude's site: http://www.robvanderwoude.com/files/deldeadprofiles.txt For the meaning of the variables expansions used see here: http://www.robvanderwoude.com/ntcall.html Let us adapt it to your need: (copy the above and paste it in notepad, saving it as delud.bat) jaclaz

Just for the record, here is the whole story: (and some other info on versions) XP: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=226 http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=283 http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=312 http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=342 2k: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=269 And some CD compares: XP Home vs. Upgrade: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=103 XP Professional OEM vs. Upgrade http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=101 XP Professional vs. Home http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=104 jaclaz