jaclaz

Previous discussion starting around here on reboot.pro (so that hopefully already provided info is available) : http://reboot.pro/topic/10126-nt-6x-fast-installer-install-win7-directly-to-usb-external-drive/?p=207883 According to the test: http://reboot.pro/topic/10126-nt-6x-fast-installer-install-win7-directly-to-usb-external-drive/?p=207932 the disk is 512 bytes logical sector. jaclaz

Cannot you download an install ISO from MS? Like: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO I have no idea how the validation process (if needed) will behave, normally activation will be automatic on a reinstall, but cannot say specifically in the case of an upgrade from 8. jaclaz

Time for a meme: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/you-had-one-job https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/505265-you-had-one-job jaclaz

The good news: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/fixed-windows-10-october-2018-update-released-to-insiders-for-testing/ And the bad ones: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/hp-pcs-getting-wdf-violation-bsod-after-installing-windows-10-updates/ https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-10-audio-not-working-after-installing-latest-windows-updates/ jaclaz

... the actual problem being that it is a single track tunnel... jaclaz

MInd you we have no actual proof of a link between the firing and the 5 article, John C. Dvorak did share the letter he got on twitter (the tweet is now not anymore available [1]) , whatever the real motives/reasons, if I ever saw a badly written e-mail to fire someone [2] - particularly someone that collaborated for some thirty + years (controversial as he might be) - that was the one. Surely the reasons provided in the e-mail seem (again set aside the utter lack of civility) pretty much *vague*, "put all outside columns on hiatus", reviewing "production operations and budget" for Q4 2018 on the second half of September, come on. The disappearing of the 5G column (actually not much the disappearing in itself, but the redirecting to another column by another Author) is hard to be called "coincidence". BTW Gibbs Rule #39 excludes that: http://ncis.wikia.com/wiki/Leroy_Jethro_Gibbs/Gibbs's_Rules but the column has been re-instated, right now it is live: https://www.pcmag.com/article/345387/what-is-5gpcmag.com/commentary/363244/the-problem-with-5g jaclaz [1] but still avaiable here: https://web.archive.org/web/20180922134632/https://twitter.com/THErealDVORAK/status/1043180806020116480 [2] provided that is admissible by basic courtesy and professionalism to part ways through such an e-mail

Not at all, quite the contrary, at least for the lazy[1]. Once (lazy[1]) IT guys would have suggested, no matter what the problem was, that a re-install was needed and proposed it as either the only solution or the best one. Of course most of the time they were lying, With the advent of Windows 10 they still suggest that the only or best solution to any problem is a reinstall, but now they don't suffer from the (little[2]) stress caused by telling lies. jaclaz [1] the amount of them is of course variable from one place/organization to the other but in my experience they prevail in number [2] I have been lied to by a large number of people, but IT guys (and Lawyers ) have traditionally been the most swift at it

Sure , I can draw links pretty fast, you know : http://reboot.pro/topic/21659-smart-hd/?p=205209 jaclaz

Just in case: http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/linkshellextension.html You will need some time as there are a lot of topics on that page, but it is really informative and useful (before and besides the actual tool/program). jaclaz

Well, for the moment it seems like the first observed effect of 5G is the firing (after more than 30 years BTW) of John C. Dvorak from PC magazine, JFYI: https://medium.com/@dvorak/5g-got-me-fired-ce407e584c4a the actual article has been removed from the India version of PC Magazine too (please note the 403 and not the 404): https://in.pcmag.com/opinion/124983/the-problem-with-5g here it is via Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20180823130336/https://in.pcmag.com/opinion/124983/the-problem-with-5g jaclaz

If I get this right, you attempted to boot a Windows OS originally installed on a given hardware on a completely different, new, hardware. It simply cannot work, the HAL may be different but besides that most drivers will surely be different. Which EXACT version of Windows is that? Have you disabled "auto reboot"? Assuming it is a Windows NT of some kind that should be the first thing to do, this way you will have a (hopefully meaningful) STOP ERROR on a BSOD, What is the actual STOP ERROR? Usually the procedure is called "migration" and the easiest would be to "prepare" the OS/install on the old hardware it worked on (if it is still available), example: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html jaclaz

Not really-really, to be picky. They changed that for *whatever reasons they saw fit* while telling everyone that it was to improve security. jaclaz

A new definition for "Just in time" (pausing an update) ... Just sayin': https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/6/17944966/microsoft-windows-10-october-2018-update-documents-deleted-issues-windows-update-paused jaclaz

It wasn't "suddenly". The router (for *whatever* reason) needed a reset. AFTER doing that (successfully BTW) Trip decided to have a look at the router settings (something that possibly he hadn't done in weeks or months) and the automagic smart updating of his "modern" browsers bit him. Clearly the (oldish) router web frontend used a "normal" protocol BUT his browsers were considering that as "old" and "unsafe" (even if the connection is "local") and prevented him to access the router page. jaclaz

Well, you don't need a *modern* browser to access an old router (or any site where a *modern* browser shows the stupid "ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH" error). 99.99% QTWEB would do just fine. SInce it is "inherently portable", it shouldn't be an issue to just use it when needed: http://www.qtweb.net/ jaclaz

I pinged Daniel B.Sedory (The Starman) about the topic and he plans to make a page similar to : https://thestarman.pcministry.com/asm/mbr/WTC.htm but related to "where is the code" in 9x. For the moment he quickly checked a few more files and found another other copy of the MBR code in OEMSETUP.EXE. While the files tffsprop.dll and tformat.exe contain a copy of the "Standard" (since MS-DOS 3.30 and up to 95 A) MBR code: http://starman.vertcomp.com/asm/mbr/STDMBR.htm jaclaz

Yep , but it remains "queer" because usually in MS programs (including FDISK) the strings are 00 terminated, in FDISK, there is - besides the 00 separator - a field for length of the string, as described by the given link, which - while being different from "normal" C programs string storage - makes (to me at least) more sense as this "length" field most probably simplifies the command used to write it. jaclaz

Good. In the meantime I checked (only out of curiosity) with gsar the expanded contents of the first files on win98 SE install (up to base4.cab) and besides the matches (9) in FDISK.EXE, there is ONLY a match for SUWIN.EXE: suwin.exe: 0xe6c2 suwin.exe: 1 match found and there the MBR is in its "expanded" 512 bytes form (though still missing the error messages) between a copy of the FAT12 (/16) and a copy of the FAT32 bootsectors. The error messages are a little past that at 0xEEDF in the form of strings "queerly" separated by Hex 24 character . jaclaz

Which is good, so that or similar sequence of bytes is likely to be *in some other file*, as said (check point #3 above). The technique used to store the sequence of bytes is very likely to be similar. jaclaz

What happens (or should happen) *sometimes* during the setup is that a command (not entirely unlike dd) is used to overwrite the first 440 bytes of the MBR (i.e. first absolute sector or sector LBA0) and possibly the magic bytes 55AA. To be copied these 440 bytes must exist *somewhere* (possibly also with an ending 55AA) most probably embedded in this (or that) file. The file in question (again very likely) is connected with partitioning, and as a first attempt I would look inside FDISK.EXE... ... hey, wait, it is there and it is actually documented by The Starman: https://thestarman.pcministry.com/asm/mbr/FDISK.htm https://thestarman.pcministry.com/asm/mbr/95BMEMBR.htm#CHS the issue is that it is "interspersed" with some unknown bytes and there is a "hole" for the error messages (that can still be found in FDISK, but at another address) and another "hole" for the partition data (just before the ending 55AA), and there are the mistery 00 bytes: https://thestarman.pcministry.com/asm/mbr/mystery.htm In a nutshell, and if you have - besides the time - the guts for it, you could test if: 1) your current MBR code is compatible (or can be made compatible) with the "segmentation" with which the original MBR is stored inside FDISK 2) if yes, if when you change ALL instances of the MBR code inside FDISK (and probably you will also need to modify the "error messages") FDISK (from a boot floppy or however from a pure DOS) does actually manage to write your modified MBR code (or throws a checksum error or whatever 3) if the above works, try if setup actually uses the data strored inside FDISK or gets the bytes from somewhere else, and if this latter is the case, look for the file that contains it (maybe a .dll?), rinse and repeat. jaclaz

You mean in the 20th century? jaclaz

Interesting. Didn't know about that, and it does also Secure Erase, which is something that can be usually done with this or that hdparm port, but that is complicated. Though seemingly, all it does (related to secure erase) is to prepare a small Linux based USB stick: https://www.naraeon.net/en/naraeon-help-ko-main/erase-pm/ able to run sedutil-cli: https://github.com/Drive-Trust-Alliance/sedutil/wiki/Command-Syntax jaclaz

@sdfox7 Feel free to use this, in case of need : https://msfn.org/board/topic/152748-custom-avatars-and-signatures/?do=findComment&comment=1015974 jaclaz

I don't see anywhere in your post the proper adverbs , like, you know, surprisingly, unexpextedly, strangely, etc. Generally speaking, plugging square pegs in round holes is a lot of fun but rarely works . There are exceptions, of course : jaclaz

Ok, then it is a problem, but still an easily solvable one (by restoring the MBR). Your actual problem is having the stupid install take care of usbccgp.sys jaclaz