jaclaz

Yes, configuring the DOS USB drivers can be tricky. Have a look at this thread (and related links): http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=37240 From what you say: it seems like: 1) The CD boots out of the Legacy (BIOS) support, loading the bootable OS image 2) The booted OS image does not load properly either the USB driver or the MSCDEX.EXE or SHSUCDX.EXE 3) As a matter of fact, if you succeed in booting you should have at least THREE drives visible: A: which is the bootable image C: which is your normal Hard Disk X: (can be any letter, depending on your autoexec/config) which is the remaining part of the CD Have a look at this site: http://www.911cd.net/ There are MANY info on the matter. jaclaz

Yes, if you have a look at your second link: http://www.pctechguide.com/04disks_Construction.htm It better explains what I am trying to. Let's try with a fictional (very simplified) hard disk platter (single platter with just one side). Imagine it like a shooting range target (circular concentric grooves or tracks). Let's say the disk is 10 cm diameter and each groove is 1 cm thick, and let us assume that the central axle needs a 2 cm in diameter spacer to hold the plate. This leaves space for (10-2)/2=4 cm = 4 "tracks", let us number them as track 0 to 3 from the outer to the inner. The outer track (track 0) will have a mean radius of (10-1)/2=4.5 cm, track 1 will have 4.5-1=3.5 cm, track 2 will have 3.5-1=2.5 cm, the inner track 3 will have 2.5-1=1.5 cm radius. Consequently, mean length of each track (let's simplify Pi to 3.1416) will be: Track 0 -> 2*4.5*Pi= 28.27 cm Track 1 -> 2*3.5*Pi= 21.99 cm Track 2 -> 2*2.5*Pi= 15.71 cm Track 3 -> 2*1.5*Pi= 09.42 cm ------------ Total linear length = 75.39 cm Supposing (due to magnetic density of the media) each 512 byte needs exactly 1 mm (0.1 cm) of linear length, maximum theoretical capacity of the disk "should" be 75.3/0.1=753 sectors * 512 bytes= 385536 bytes. But as the sector (512 bytes) is the minimal unit, you must see how many sectors will fit in each track: 28.27/0.1=282 21.99/0.1=219 15.71/0.1=157 09.42/0.1=94 --------------- Total 752 sectors which is the "real" maximum capacity of the disk. The manufacturer will reserve some sectors, either for internal use or for substituting (in case) some bad sectors, let's say they keep to themselves 52 sectors. The capacity of the drive (the one on the label) or the one seen either by BIOS or by some disk utility will be 700 sectors or 700*512=358400 bytes. You cannot say HOW this capacity will be addressed to by the Disk INTERNAL controller: Manufacturer A could arrange it as follows: Track 0 260 sectors (+22 reserved) Track 1 200 sectors (+19 reserved) Track 2 150 sectors (+7 reserved) Track 3 90 sectors (+ 4 reserved) translated on the outside as 7 Cylinder by 100 sectors (Logical address) Whilst Manufacturer B could arrange it as follows: Track 0 280 sectors (+2 reserved) Track 1 210 sectors (+9 reserved) Track 2 140 sectors (+17 reserved) Track 3 70 sectors (+ 24 reserved) translated on the outside as 10 Cylinder by 70 sectors (Logical address) So you cannot say WHICH translation occurs, and you have no way to actually link a LOGICAL address to a PHYSICAL one. Hope the above makes it clear. jaclaz

FREEWARE apps: 1) Ghostscript and Ghostview http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/ 2) programs from PDF bean http://www.pdfpdf.com/download.html (part free part shareware) to convert it. If you need to make new PDF files, you can use, apart from the above, the following: 1) Plug-in for word http://www.cib.de/english/products/pdf/cibpdfplugin.htm 2) Acropad http://www.acropad.com/ 3) Ap Text To PDF V2.1 http://www.adultpdf.com/products/txttopdf/index.html 4) CutePDF http://www.acrosoftware.com/Index.htm 5) EasyPDF xml to pdf http://jansfreeware.com/jftools.htm 6) Online service http://www.gohtm.com/convert_pdf.asp 7) Go2PDF TINY! 261Kb http://www.go2pdf.com/product.html 8) Gymnast http://www.oakworth.demon.co.uk/gymnast.htm 9) Helpmaker https://sourceforge.net/projects/helpmaker/ 10) Mulps21PDF http://home.hccnet.nl/s.vd.palen/index.html Please note that latest release of OpenOffice.org has native PDF making capability. If you need to manipulate your PDF, here are a few apps: 1) A-pdf info changer http://www.a-pdf.com/index.htm 2) PDF explorer http://rtt.planetaclix.pt/ 3) PDF Compress FREEWARE http://www.bureausoft.com/products.htm Foxit READER is free, but shows ads (however BEST reader around) Foxit PDF Editor is COMMERCIAL US$ 99.00 per user jaclaz

Do double check your BIOS settings. It could be that you have an ACPI enabled HAL, whilst it is disabled in BIOS. See here for reference: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309283 jaclaz

There are quite a lot of them, mostly VERY pricey. Here are some: http://www.cardpos.co.uk/Keyboards.htm (last item, bottom of page) http://www.fentek-ind.com/minikb.htm http://www.pstc.com.tw/homepage/wireless%20keyboard.htm Do a google search for "small footprint" "wireless keyboard" or " mini wireless keyboard" and you will find many more. jaclaz

As a POP3 mail app, I use this nifty little one: npop: http://www.nakka.com/soft/npop/index_eng.html jaclaz

No, sorry, let's see if I can explain it better: on each side (head) there is a determinate area (physical space) where data can be stored. PHYSICALLY this area is made of TRACKS (i.e. magnetic grooves). LOGICALLY this same area is addressed as SECTORS. You cannot say how many physical tracks correspond to how many logical sectors, as this is managed by the Internal Disk Controller. The only thing that you can say is that each side(head) has in the example 63 sectors. Sorry again, there is no known (fixed) relationship whatsoever between Tracks and Sectors, see above, the only thing you know is that on the first Track (track 0) there must start the first Sector (sector 1). See previous answers.I don't want to complicate things further, but you must understand that the internal PHYSICAL geometry of the hard disk can be very different from the LOGICAL (addressing) one(which is the one you manage). From the Ranish's Partition Primer: jaclaz

Dr. Mac, please find here some links about USB access from DOS. http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=34410 jaclaz

I suppose you are using the Motto Hairu driver with DOs aspi. Have a look here, might be what you need: http://www.freeweb.hu/doscdroast/ (it won't fit on a floppy, though, you might need another bootable media) jaclaz

Yep it's just XP with some ink/handwriting recognition software added: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechn...y/tpcdploy.mspx from here: http://www.tabletquestions.com/faq.php?faq=tpc_os jaclaz

Should anyone need a plugin for Bart PE, here is a link to plugins (on 911CD forum): http://www.911cd.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=7761 http://www.911cd.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=7764 As said there to critics to this proggie: And what do you want from a free 1 Mb proggie, blood? jaclaz

Well, when talking about this matter it is VERY easy to get confused. CHS is the old way (but still simpler) to address sectors. I'll try to explain it as best as I can: 1) Track 0 (zero) is the 1st sector in the hard disk (512 bytes long) 2) It's address is CHS 0 0 1 or LBA 1 3) In track 0 is stored the MBR (or Master Boot Record) 4) The MBR is composed of two main parts, see here for reference: http://therdcom.com/asm/mbr/MBR_in_detail.htm the first part is the boot (more properly IPL Initial Program Loading) code, whilst the second (the last 66 bytes) are the 64 byte Partition table plus the 55AA "signature bytes". 5) All FDISK tools will default the first partition entry to CHS 0 1 1 6) supposing that the disk (like almost all of them) has 63 sectors per head, this leaves the 62 sectors gap you mention: Total of sectors on Cilynder 0 Head 0 Sector 1 = 63 - 1 sector (taken by MBR) leaves 62 of them. Track as used in point one above is actually not a proper term, unless it is used as Track0 , which it is the only one that we know about. No one, apart from disk manufacturers, actually know how many tracks are actually on the disk, to say it better, track is a name for a physical thing, let's call it a "magnetic groove", of which there is a certain number on the disk's surfaces. This unknown number of physical tracks are identified and numbered, by the disk on-board controller, in an unknown way, then this physical address is "translated" to the "outside" (the BIOS) as consecutive 512 bytes SECTORS. Finally this address can be interpreted either as CHS or LBA. Actually on a disk there are quite a few more "tracks" than the ones reported from the controller. This is because on ALL disks there is a certain number of defective tracks, that are marked as bad by the manufacturer "LOW-LEVEL" utilities. I hope that the above does help. jaclaz

By the way, the Windows 98 fdisk /mbr command will write, guess what, a Win98 MBR, NOT a NT/Win2k/XP/2003 one. The only ways to write a new NT/Win2k/XP/2003 MBR I know of, apart the utility from Kaares here are: 1) Microsoft's FixMBR (that will run in the Recovery Console only) 2) Ranish partition manager (that will work from DOS only) which writes a standard IPL code, not the win2k one You can extract the MBR IPL code from files on your Win2k/XP and write it manually with an Hex/disk editor: http://therdcom.com/asm/mbr/Win2kmbr.htm The very good utility MBRwizard by Roger Layton can read (and store) MBR data, then can write it from the stored file, but it DOES NOT create it as the above two do. To edit/replace the BOOT RECORD (not the MBR) there is this fine Bootpart by Gilles Vollant (that will have direct disk access under DOS only), that works on FAT volumes. A further step could be to make an unified GUI for the three of them: Bootpart MBRfix MBRwizard and for some other related utility, so that you have a complete repair solution. Every suggestion is welcome. jaclaz

Yes, I think that the accent should be posed to the fact that in the setup mecnet exposed there is NO CONCURRENT use of the program (and license). So I would say that one license should be OK. (my two cents only, of course) To make sure, you could install it to a "common" partition, then use it by either of the double boot Operating Systems. jaclaz

OK, guys, here it is: MBRfix GUI. Enjoy! jaclaz MBRfixgui.zip

This might be good (or bad $$) news: http://www.prime-expert.com/flashboot/features.php BUT: jaclaz

Have a look here: http://johnhaller.com/jh/mozilla/portable_firefox/ jaclaz

Ok, I'll post it as soon as I make it. Doh! Stupid of me, I'll PM him, you are right. jaclaz

I have used (mind you that I am NO programmer) this nifty little tool here: The Wizard's Apprentice http://wizapp.sourceforge.net/ the exe file is only 70 Kb Though it is aimed as a GUI overlay for batch install routines, it has enough options available to be used as a GUI to ANY batch file. See here the example I made: http://home.graffiti.net/jaclaz:graffiti.n...ts/VDM/vdm.html jaclaz

Axcel216's: http://members.aol.com/axcel216/ jaclaz

Foxit PDF reader (small and fast PDF reader) nPop (small POP3 mail client)

ialmrnt5 is part of the video drivers. Make a google search for "ialmrnt5" or "ialmrnt5.dll". You can try upgrading/reinstalling video drivers. It could also be a "too aggressive" setting for memory, see here: http://www.computing.net/drivers/wwwboard/forum/3756.html jaclaz

I suspect that is something related to the way your disks are partitioned, and how XP assigns letters, see here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=35329 Hope that helps, jaclaz

I tested it a little bit. The only thing that seems nice is the ability to give more "power" to foreground app, at the cost (quite obviously) to really slowdown background apps. Maybe there is a misunderstanding between "speed" and "responsiveness". I made some search on the matter, it seems to be quite popular between gamers, but cannot say that's just because it "looks" nifty. The built-in benchmark is a laugh, it just starts and in no time says that system has accelerated (in my case 65%), it does not say in WHAT! Real benchmarks are a different thing. Here is a related thread on another board: http://forum.misec.net/board/3PSoftware/1091705057 that seems to me quite realistic. jaclaz

Actually that I know of there are at least 5 methods, a couple commercial and the other ones freeware to access an NTFS volume. And another 5 or 6 to discover/change/reset the Administrator password. The ONLY way to really protect a volume is NTFS encryption, quite safe, but VERY RISKY as in case of corruption can be a problem to recover data, (and by the way NOT unbreakable). They may be "commom burglars", but they surely have a "geek" friend that does this. jaclaz