Dave-H

Yes on PC1XP4096 I'm getting this - Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600](C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.C:\XP User Files\Dave>diskpartMicrosoft DiskPart version 5.1.3565Copyright (C) 1999-2003 Microsoft Corporation.On computer: AshfieldCourtDISKPART> select disk 5Disk 5 is now the selected disk.DISKPART> list partition Partition ### Type Size Offset ------------- ---------------- ------- ------- Partition 1 Extended 4096 B 252 KB Partition 2 Logical 931 GB 32 MB Partition 3 Primary 254 MB 256 KBDISKPART> exitLeaving DiskPart...C:\XP User Files\Dave>And on PC1814096, just rebooting into a different OS without changing anything else, I'm getting this - Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600](c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.C:\WINDOWS\system32>diskpartMicrosoft DiskPart version 6.3.9600Copyright (C) 1999-2013 Microsoft Corporation.On computer: ASHFIELDCOURTDISKPART> select disk 5Disk 5 is now the selected disk.DISKPART> list partition Partition ### Type Size Offset ------------- ---------------- ------- ------- Partition 0 Extended 4096 B 252 KB Partition 1 Primary 254 MB 256 KB Partition 2 Primary 931 GB 32 MBDISKPART>BTW I think what we're doing now, just using the one machine (PC1) with both interfaces is much better than swapping between machines, as it has removed any possible confusion caused by the network drive on the other machine, and the different drive letters being assigned on the two machines.

OK, here's what I got (PC1814096) - Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600](c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.C:\WINDOWS\system32>diskpartMicrosoft DiskPart version 6.3.9600Copyright (C) 1999-2013 Microsoft Corporation.On computer: ASHFIELDCOURTDISKPART> select disk 5Disk 5 is now the selected disk.DISKPART> detail diskWDC WD10 EZEX-00BN5A0 USB DeviceDisk ID: 4C415544Type : USBStatus : OnlinePath : 0Target : 0LUN ID : 0Location Path : UNAVAILABLECurrent Read-only State : NoRead-only : NoBoot Disk : NoPagefile Disk : NoHibernation File Disk : NoCrashdump Disk : NoClustered Disk : No Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 8 I FAT Partition 254 MB HealthyDISKPART> list partition Partition ### Type Size Offset ------------- ---------------- ------- ------- Partition 0 Extended 4096 B 252 KB Partition 1 Primary 254 MB 256 KB Partition 2 Primary 931 GB 32 MBDISKPART> select partition 2Partition 2 is now the selected partition.DISKPART> detail partitionPartition 2Type : 07Hidden: NoActive: NoOffset in Bytes: 33554432There is no volume associated with this partition.DISKPART> list volume Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 0 G DVD-ROM 0 B No Media Volume 1 H DVD-ROM 0 B No Media Volume 2 F CAPTURE FAT32 Partition 55 GB Healthy Volume 3 C Windows 8.1 NTFS Partition 119 GB Healthy System Volume 4 S NTFS Dump NTFS Partition 59 GB Healthy Pagefile Volume 5 W WIN98 WINXP FAT32 Partition 102 GB Healthy Volume 6 D WINXP BOOT FAT32 Partition 34 GB Healthy Volume 7 E ARCHIVE FAT32 Partition 279 GB Healthy Volume 8 I FAT Partition 254 MB HealthyDISKPART> exitLeaving DiskPart...C:\WINDOWS\system32>mountvol>mountvol.logC:\WINDOWS\system32>reg query hklm\system\mounteddevices>regexe.logC:\WINDOWS\system32>And here's the two logs. Logs.zip

All still OK on XP, although there is a long pause at one point in the batch where a "please wait" might be good. Same problem on 8.1 though, although now when I try to switch from 512 to 4096 I just get - Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600](c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.C:\WINDOWS\system32>I:I:\>switcherngVista , or later, ...OK, I am a local admin ..."DUAL" disk found as \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE5Disk is connected as 4096 bytes/sectorTHe NTFS volume has not been found.Press any key to continue . . .I:\>The drive is still not showing up correctly in Disk Management of course, so can't be seen as it apparently has no file system or drive letter.

OK, I've now done some more tests with Windows 8.1. This time I concentrated just on the primary machine, on which I can use both interfaces. On the USB (4096) interface it behaves exactly the same as the secondary machine. It seems that everything is fine in Windows XP, but in Windows 8.1 it is possible to switch from 4096 to 512, but not the other way. I left it switched to 4096 using XP, then went to 8.1, and the smaller drive was recognised OK (although it said it had errors and needed to be scanned as the secondary machine had done) but the larger partition didn't appear, and again appears in Disk Management as an unformatted primary partition. I can switch it to 512 OK and it then works, but trying to switch back just produces "the parameter is incorrect" again, so I can only switch back using XP. In XP the large partition appears as a logical drive in an extended partition, as it should. Could this be anything to do with poor (or lack of) support for this on Windows 8.1? I noticed very early on when I started working with 8.1 that it doesn't seem to be possible to create extended partitions and logical drives using Disk Management as you can in XP. It only seems to create primary partitions, at least on simple volumes.

Thanks Oldbie! Sorry, I should have mentioned of course, but forgot, that I use the same card (but with a later driver) on Windows XP, and it always works perfectly. I can use it on Windows 8.1 as well, although I don't normally, and it's no problem there either (different (64 bit) driver again of course!) I've therefore no reason to think that there's anything physically wrong with the card. The monitor resolution (1920x1080 60Hz) is the same now as it was with the old motherboard, so that hasn't changed either.

I rebuilt my machine with a different motherboard last year, and have managed to get Windows 98SE running on it pretty well. I've ended up using two graphics cards, with an old ATI X850 card for Windows 98 compatibility, and a current nVidia card as well mainly for use on Windows 8.1. The latter is in an x16 PCIe slot, the former in an x4 PCIe slot. The problem is that the ATI graphics driver on Windows 98 seems to crash or something when I do any intensive things like moving large numbers of files with Windows Explorer. The monitor will suddenly black out with an "out of range" indication, and the only way I've found out of that other than forcibly rebooting is to use the "sleep" button on the keyboard. This has the effect of resetting the driver, but it comes back as shown in the picture, with a strange looking mouse cursor and a square of shash up in the top left hand corner. I can use it quite happily like that, and it never crashes again until after the next reboot. The only way I've found to stop it crashing at all is to put the hardware acceleration slider down two notches (one is not enough) but this results in not being able to use large fonts and/or having poor colour depth. The strange thing is that the old motherboard had an AGP slot, and I was using there the AGP version of the X850 card, with exactly the same driver (Catalyst 6.2, the last version that works on Windows 98) and it was perfectly stable. The card I have now is simply the PCIe version of the same card, with the same driver, and it crashes! Anyone any idea how to troubleshoot this, as it's very annoying! Cheers, Dave.

OK, I've checked things out completely again on XP, and everything seems to be working fine, including the PC1XP4096 USB connection. The only thing that didn't go completely as expected was that after I'd set the drive to 4096 using the primary machine on USB, when I re-plugged the disk to the secondary machine, the large drive didn't appear. When I looked in Disk Management I found that it had been assigned drive letter E: again, and was not appearing in Explorer because I still have a network drive assigned to E:! Changing the drive letter to H: in Disk Management fixed that and all then seemed to be OK. I'll now have another go in 8.1 and see if I can switch between the two modes just on the primary machine, which I've not tried before.

The "gap" is the primary machine being used on Windows 8.1 with a USB connection rather than the eSATA connection. I haven't actually tried using the primary machine with its USB connection at all, only the primary machine on eSATA and the secondary machine on USB (which is all that it has). I'm afraid that I didn't check PC1XP4096 either, as I had no reason to think that it would be any different to the secondary machine (PC2XP4096)! I haven't tried going back to the start yet, and I won't now of course until to tell me to. I will go back to XP on both machines though and make sure that the disk as it is now will work successfully on both machines and on all connection options. Also I'll check whether the same problem exists on the USB connection with Windows 8.1 on the primary machine as on the secondary machine.

Sorry for the delay again. I just tried using the disk in Windows 8.1 "as is" from Windows XP. When I connected it to the USB machine (PC2814096) drive G: appeared but it said there was a problem with it and invited me to scan it. I didn't scan it, and it appears in Explorer OK and the files seem to be OK on it. Drive H: the large drive is nowhere to be seen however, and Disk Management again shows it as a primary partition with no file system or drive letter. It was left working fine on that machine in Windows XP. The other machine (PC181512) showed it as unformatted as I would expect. Using the switcher on that machine switched it successfully. Going back to the PC2814096 machine produced the same result as before, no large partition. Running the switcher just gave this again - Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600](c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.C:\windows\system32>g:G:\>switcherVista , or later, ...OK, I am a local admin ..."DUAL" disk found as \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1Disk is connected as 4096 bytes/sectorChecking Drive Letter H:Attempting to mount the NTFS volume to drive H: ......The parameter is incorrect.Checking Drive Letter H:Attempting to mount the NTFS volume to drive H: ......The parameter is incorrect.Checking Drive Letter H:Attempting to mount the NTFS volume to drive H: ......The parameter is incorrect.Checking Drive Letter H:Attempting to mount the NTFS volume to drive H: ......The parameter is incorrect.Checking Drive Letter H:Attempting to mount the NTFS volume to drive H: ......The parameter is incorrect.Checking Drive Letter H:Attempting to mount the NTFS volume to drive H: ......The parameter is incorrect.Checking Drive Letter H:Attempting to mount the NTFS volume to drive H: ......The parameter is incorrect.Checking Drive Letter H:Attempting to mount the NTFS volume to drive H: ......The parameter is incorrect.Checking Drive Letter H:Attempting to mount the NTFS volume to drive H: ......The parameter is incorrect.Checking Drive Letter H:Attempting to mount the NTFS volume to drive H: ......The parameter is incorrect.Checking Drive Letter H:Attempting to mount the NTFS volume to drive H: ......The parameter is incorrect.etc. etc............ I will try it again but this time I'll delete all the partitions first and start from scratch using 8.1 to see if that gives a different result.

I can beat that, I'm still using Office XP (2002)! I wonder for how much longer they will issue updates for the 2007 compatibility pack, is it normally ten years?

OK, I put my network drive back to E: and disconnected and re-connected the external drive. Only the large partition appeared, as drive G:, not the small one, so I couldn't run the switcher. I assumed this was because it wanted to be drive E: and I had taken that letter away from it! Disconnecting the network drive immediately fixed it and it reappeared as drive E:. I used Disk Management to change the large partition to H: and the small partition to G:, ran the switcher on G:, and it worked! Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600](C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.D:\Users\Dave>g:G:\>switcherXP or 2003 ..."DUAL" disk found as \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1Disk is connected as 4096 bytes/sectorChecking Drive Letter H:OK, NTFS volume is mounted to drive H: ......Currently deployed bootsector is the 512 bytes/sector oneCurrently mounted NTFS bootsector is NOT the 4kb bytes/sector one.Trying to refresh mounting ...NTFS Volume is Volume 3Microsoft DiskPart version 5.1.3565Copyright (C) 1999-2003 Microsoft Corporation.On computer: NETBOOKDISKPART>Please wait while DiskPart scans your configuration.............DiskPart has finished scanning your configuration.DISKPART> Removing drive letter H: ......done.Re-assigning drive letter H:...done. Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info Volume 0 C Windows 8.1 NTFS Partition 140 GB Healthy System Volume 1 D Windows XP NTFS Partition 140 GB Healthy Boot Volume 2 F Shared Driv NTFS Partition 18 GB Healthy Volume 3 H Partition 931 GB Healthy Volume 4 G FAT Partition 254 MB HealthyNo dice, going to switch it ...Do you want to switch to the 4kb bootsector? [Y/N]ydsfi \\.\H: 0 0 as4kbNTFS.bssOK, written 4096 bytes at offset 0NTFS Volume is Volume 3Microsoft DiskPart version 5.1.3565Copyright (C) 1999-2003 Microsoft Corporation.On computer: NETBOOKDISKPART>Please wait while DiskPart scans your configuration.............DiskPart has finished scanning your configuration.DISKPART> Removing drive letter H: ......done.Re-assigning drive letter H:...done. Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info Volume 0 C Windows 8.1 NTFS Partition 140 GB Healthy System Volume 1 D Windows XP NTFS Partition 140 GB Healthy Boot Volume 2 F Shared Driv NTFS Partition 18 GB Healthy Volume 3 H New Volume NTFS Partition 931 GB Healthy Volume 4 G FAT Partition 254 MB HealthyChecking Drive Letter H:OK, NTFS volume is mounted to drive H: ......Currently deployed bootsector is the 4kb bytes/sector oneCurrent NTFS bootsector is the 4kb bytes/sector one, good.Nothing to switch.Press any key to continue . . .G:\>Will try again on Windows 8.1 in a while, but it's now looking good!

When I reconnected the drive, the small partition appeared as E: and the large one as G: (unformatted). Running the switcher seemed to work this time - Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600](C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.D:\Users\Dave>e:E:\>switcherdhXP or 2003 ..."DUAL" disk found as \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1Disk is connected as 4096 bytes/sectorChecking Drive Letter G:OK, NTFS volume is mounted to drive G: ......Currently deployed bootsector is the 512 bytes/sector oneCurrently mounted NTFS bootsector is NOT the 4kb bytes/sector one.Trying to refresh mounting ...This is :doremountCopyright (C) 1999-2003 Microsoft Corporation.On computer: NETBOOKDisk 1 is now the selected disk. Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 0 C Windows 8.1 NTFS Partition 140 GB Healthy System Volume 1 D Windows XP NTFS Partition 140 GB Healthy Boot Volume 2 F Shared Driv NTFS Partition 18 GB Healthy Volume 3 G Partition 931 GB Healthy Volume 4 E FAT Partition 254 MB HealthyVolume#=3Press any key to continue . . .Removing drive letter G: ......done.Re-assigning drive letter G:...done.No dice, going to switch it ...Do you want to switch to the 4kb bootsector? [Y/N]ydsfi \\.\G: 0 0 as4kbNTFS.bssOK, written 4096 bytes at offset 0This is :doremountCopyright (C) 1999-2003 Microsoft Corporation.On computer: NETBOOKDisk 1 is now the selected disk. Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 0 C Windows 8.1 NTFS Partition 140 GB Healthy System Volume 1 D Windows XP NTFS Partition 140 GB Healthy Boot Volume 2 F Shared Driv NTFS Partition 18 GB Healthy Volume 3 G New Volume NTFS Partition 931 GB Healthy Volume 4 E FAT Partition 254 MB HealthyVolume#=3Press any key to continue . . .Removing drive letter G: ......done.Re-assigning drive letter G:...done.Checking Drive Letter G:OK, NTFS volume is mounted to drive G: ......Currently deployed bootsector is the 4kb bytes/sector oneCurrent NTFS bootsector is the 4kb bytes/sector one, good.Nothing to switch.Press any key to continue . . .E:\>Subsequently running your command line gave this - D:\Users\Dave>wmic path win32_logicaldisk get name, drivetypeDriveType Name3 C:3 D:3 E:3 F:3 G:4 Z:D:\Users\Dave>

OK, here's what I got what I ran the new version of the switcher - Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600](C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.D:\Users\Dave>g:G:\>switcherdhXP or 2003 ..."DUAL" disk found as \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1Disk is connected as 4096 bytes/sectorChecking Drive Letter E:Environment variable Second not definedVolIndex_1=\\?\Volume{2952b50f-2f76-11e2-bcf2-806d6172696f}\VolIndex_2=\\?\Volume{71d4ba4a-5179-11e3-b24b-806d6172696f}\VolIndex_3=\\?\Volume{71d4ba4b-5179-11e3-b24b-806d6172696f}\VolIndex_4=\\?\Volume{e579176a-b23d-11e4-8fd5-b46c9d6c66ad}\VolIndex_5=\\?\Volume{e579176b-b23d-11e4-8fd5-b46c9d6c66ad}\DriveLetter1=C:\DriveLetter2=D:\DriveLetter3=F:\DriveLetter4=G:\DriveLetter5=E:\Volume found:Press any key to continue . . .Attempting to mount the NTFS volume to drive H: ......The parameter is incorrect.Checking Drive Letter E:Environment variable Second not definedVolIndex_1=\\?\Volume{2952b50f-2f76-11e2-bcf2-806d6172696f}\VolIndex_2=\\?\Volume{71d4ba4a-5179-11e3-b24b-806d6172696f}\VolIndex_3=\\?\Volume{71d4ba4b-5179-11e3-b24b-806d6172696f}\VolIndex_4=\\?\Volume{e579176a-b23d-11e4-8fd5-b46c9d6c66ad}\VolIndex_5=\\?\Volume{e579176b-b23d-11e4-8fd5-b46c9d6c66ad}\DriveLetter1=C:\DriveLetter2=D:\DriveLetter3=F:\DriveLetter4=G:\DriveLetter5=E:\Volume found:Press any key to continue . . .Attempting to mount the NTFS volume to drive H: ......The parameter is incorrect.Checking Drive Letter E:Environment variable Second not definedVolIndex_1=\\?\Volume{2952b50f-2f76-11e2-bcf2-806d6172696f}\VolIndex_2=\\?\Volume{71d4ba4a-5179-11e3-b24b-806d6172696f}\VolIndex_3=\\?\Volume{71d4ba4b-5179-11e3-b24b-806d6172696f}\VolIndex_4=\\?\Volume{e579176a-b23d-11e4-8fd5-b46c9d6c66ad}\VolIndex_5=\\?\Volume{e579176b-b23d-11e4-8fd5-b46c9d6c66ad}\DriveLetter1=C:\DriveLetter2=D:\DriveLetter3=F:\DriveLetter4=G:\DriveLetter5=E:\Volume found:Press any key to continue . . .Attempting to mount the NTFS volume to drive H: ......The parameter is incorrect.Checking Drive Letter E:Environment variable Second not definedVolIndex_1=\\?\Volume{2952b50f-2f76-11e2-bcf2-806d6172696f}\VolIndex_2=\\?\Volume{71d4ba4a-5179-11e3-b24b-806d6172696f}\VolIndex_3=\\?\Volume{71d4ba4b-5179-11e3-b24b-806d6172696f}\VolIndex_4=\\?\Volume{e579176a-b23d-11e4-8fd5-b46c9d6c66ad}\VolIndex_5=\\?\Volume{e579176b-b23d-11e4-8fd5-b46c9d6c66ad}\DriveLetter1=C:\DriveLetter2=D:\DriveLetter3=F:\DriveLetter4=G:\DriveLetter5=E:\Volume found:Press any key to continue . . .This repeated over and over. The other two logs are attached. logs.zip

Well it looks OK, having checked out what you said. I think you need to check the modified version over yourself to make sure I've done all the modifications correctly. Switcher.cmd

OK, I tried again after doing the edits to switcher.cmd. The drive is still set for 512 and is fine on the eSATA machine (PC1XP512). Running the modified switcher on the USB connected 4096 machine (PC2XP4096) gave this - Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600](C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.D:\Users\Dave>g:G:\>switcherXP or 2003 ..."DUAL" disk found as \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1Disk is mounted as 4096 bytes/sectorVolume found:Attempting to mount the NTFS volume to drive H: ......The parameter is incorrect.Volume found:Attempting to mount the NTFS volume to drive H: ......The parameter is incorrect.Volume found:Attempting to mount the NTFS volume to drive H: ......The parameter is incorrect.Volume found:Attempting to mount the NTFS volume to drive H: ......The parameter is incorrect.This just repeated over and over until the windows was closed. I don't know why it's saying "Disk is mounted as 4096 bytes/sector" as surely it isn't. Unless I've got completely confused the eSATA interface is 512 and the USB interface is 4096. Running the switcher on the eSATA machine (PC1XP512) gives this, which is correct - Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600](C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.C:\XP User Files\Dave>i:I:\>switcherXP or 2003 ..."DUAL" disk found as \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE5Disk is mounted as 512 bytes/sectorOK, NTFS volume is mounted to drive J: ......Currently deployed bootsector is the 512 bytes/sector oneCurrent NTFS bootsector is the 512 bytes/sector one, good.Nothing to switch.Press any key to continue . . .I:\>

Thanks jaclaz, i will report back after the switcher file modification. I was actually a bit concerned that it reported "OK, NTFS volume is mounted to drive E: ..." Why would it report that? It hadn't actually done it. There is already a drive E: on the USB machine (PC2XP4096) which is what I was using, it's a network drive on that machine. In fact it's the main archive drive that's physically in the other machine, where it also appears as drive E: and I certainly don't want anything messing with that! Here's the details of the machines - 1. PC1XP512 Primary machine Windows XP 32 bit with eSATA connection 2. PC1XP4096 Primary Machine Windows XP 32 bit with USB connection 3. PC181512 Primary machine Windows 8.1 64 bit with eSATA connection 4. PC1814096 Primary machine Windows 8.1 64 bit with USB connection 5. PC2XP512 Secondary machine not applicable - no eSATA connection 6 PC2XP4096 Secondary machine Windows XP 32 bit USB connection 7. PC281512 Secondary machine not applicable - no eSATA connection 8. PC2814096 Secondary machine Windows 8.1 32 bit USB connection

Hi jaclaz. Before doing anything else, I just wanted to let you know completely what is happening with XP at the moment. Going over to the eSATA machine and running switched worked fine, although as you can see the resulting layout in Disk Management is even stranger than it is on the USB machine! From what you say however, this does not matter, but you should mention it in the readme file so people don't panic! The drives are actually working fine. Going back to the USB machine and running switcher wasn't successful however. Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600](C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.D:\Users\Dave>g:G:\>switcherXP or 2003 ..."DUAL" disk found as \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1Disk is mounted as 4096 bytes/sectorOK, NTFS volume is mounted to drive H: ......Currently deployed bootsector is the 512 bytes/sector oneCurrently mounted NTFS bootsector is NOT the 4kb bytes/sector one.Trying to refresh mounting ...Removing drive letter H: ......done.Re-assigning drive letter H:...done.No dice, going to switch it ...Do you want to switch to the 4kb bootsector? [Y/N]ydsfi \\.\H: 0 0 as4kbNTFS.bss\\.\H: - The system cannot find the file specified.Removing drive letter H: ......done.Re-assigning drive letter H:...done.OK, NTFS volume is mounted to drive E: ......Currently deployed bootsector is the 512 bytes/sector oneCurrent NTFS bootsector is the 4kb bytes/sector one, good.Nothing to switch.Press any key to continue . . .G:\>As you can see, it's saying at one point that it can't find a file, which is puzzling as both dsfi.exe and as4kbNTFS.bss are definitely on drive G: in the root. Anyway the result is that the large NTFS partition isn't mounted, and switching back to the eSATA machine shows that nothing has actually changed.

That's what I've done! Strange because I didn't think that the system allowed you to hide "critical" updates. No other problems so far (touch wood!)

Well something is certainly amiss, as I've just tried again from scratch using XP on the USB connected machine, and everything apparently went OK again. Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600](C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.D:\Users\Dave>c:C:\>cd mkprilogC:\mkprilog>mkprilogplease input an approximated size in Megabytes for the FAT12 partition, minimum1, maximum 32...The image will be created in the same folder as this batchand will be named PriLog.img32Writing MBR at offset 0 ...... done.Writing the 512 bytes/sector bootsector BPB at offset 32768 ...... done.Writing the 4096 bytes/sector bootsector BPB at offset 262144...... done.Writing FAT tables incipit ...... done.Press any key to continue . . ..The image should have been created as PriLog.img, now you need tomanually dd it to the destination disk, a suitable command would be:dsfi.exe \\.\PhysicalDrive[n] 0 0 PriLog.imgMake sure that you use the RIGHT Disk Number [n], do check in Disk Manager.The disk can be mounted indifferently through the 4kb or the 512 bytes/sectorinterface to deploy the image.Once the image has been deployed you may need to disconnect and reconnect thedisk to have the FAT12 volume be recognized and mounted to a drive letter.Then you can go to Disk Manager and create a Primary partition, NTFS formattedextending on all the available space on disk (or on just a portion of it).The size of the NTFS partition you create must be at least 7 times the size ofthe FAT12 one.It is "better" to use a Vista (or later) OS to create the NTFS partition asthe partition would be better if Megabyte aligned.(or do it manually or use a suitable third-party tool) as the XP will align iton head/cylinder boundaries, whilst a MB-aligned partition will be faster onslow buses such as USB 2.0The partition and the NTFS filesystem MUST be created when the disk is connectedas a 4kb sectored device, this is NOT negotiable.Once the second partition has been created, and I repeat, this MUST be donewith the device connected as 4kb sectored, you can run the mkdualdisk.cmdWhich will modify the disk and create the needed EPBR's.Press any key to continue . . .C:\mkprilog>dsfi \\.\PhysicalDisk1 0 0 PriLog.img\\.\PhysicalDisk1 - The system cannot find the file specified.C:\mkprilog>mkprilogplease input an approximated size in Megabytes for the FAT12 partition, minimum1, maximum 32...The image will be created in the same folder as this batchand will be named PriLog.img32Writing MBR at offset 0 ...... done.Writing the 512 bytes/sector bootsector BPB at offset 32768 ...... done.Writing the 4096 bytes/sector bootsector BPB at offset 262144...... done.Writing FAT tables incipit ...... done.Press any key to continue . . ..The image should have been created as PriLog.img, now you need tomanually dd it to the destination disk, a suitable command would be:dsfi.exe \\.\PhysicalDrive[n] 0 0 PriLog.imgMake sure that you use the RIGHT Disk Number [n], do check in Disk Manager.The disk can be mounted indifferently through the 4kb or the 512 bytes/sectorinterface to deploy the image.Once the image has been deployed you may need to disconnect and reconnect thedisk to have the FAT12 volume be recognized and mounted to a drive letter.Then you can go to Disk Manager and create a Primary partition, NTFS formattedextending on all the available space on disk (or on just a portion of it).The size of the NTFS partition you create must be at least 7 times the size ofthe FAT12 one.It is "better" to use a Vista (or later) OS to create the NTFS partition asthe partition would be better if Megabyte aligned.(or do it manually or use a suitable third-party tool) as the XP will align iton head/cylinder boundaries, whilst a MB-aligned partition will be faster onslow buses such as USB 2.0The partition and the NTFS filesystem MUST be created when the disk is connectedas a 4kb sectored device, this is NOT negotiable.Once the second partition has been created, and I repeat, this MUST be donewith the device connected as 4kb sectored, you can run the mkdualdisk.cmdWhich will modify the disk and create the needed EPBR's.Press any key to continue . . .C:\mkprilog>dsfi \\.\PhysicalDrive1 0 0 PriLog.imgOK, written 33554432 bytes at offset 0C:\mkprilog>mkdualdisk"DUAL" disk found as \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1Creating a temporary copy of the MBRdsfo \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 0 4096 temp.mbrOK, 4096 bytes, 0.031s, MD5 = 0a3a478c442a5936d930dc6c0b739a1aNow the extent of the FAT12 partition is 8128We need to multiply this value by 8Now the extent of the FAT12 partition is 65024000001B8h: 44 55 41 4C DUAL000001BEh: 00 00 00 00 0F 00 00 00 3F 00 00 00 01 00 00 00000001CEh: 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 00 FE 00 00000001DEh: 00 82 03 00 07 FE FF FF 00 20 00 00 60 E3 8D 0E000001EEh: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00The disk was recognized as created with the Prilog schemeCreating a temporary copy of the NTFS partition bootsectordsfo \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 33554432 4096 tempNTFS.bssOK, 4096 bytes, 0.015s, MD5 = 74b25dd76463c358c9212b5cff6e1808Press any key to continue . . .and copying it to the filedsfo tempNTFS.bss 0 0 as4kbNTFS.bssOK, 4096 bytes, 0.000s, MD5 = 74b25dd76463c358c9212b5cff6e1808Creating a copy of the 4kb bytes/sector NTFS bootsectorAnd modifying it to become the 512 bytes/sector NTFS bootsectordsfo tempNTFS.bss 0 0 as512NTFS.bssOK, 4096 bytes, 0.000s, MD5 = d5989789ba3a5e789756481f81d0cf03Press any key to continue . . .Creating a copy of the 4kb bytes/sector EPBRand writing to it the values for the NTFS volumeOK, 4096 bytes, 0.000s, MD5 = fc86b746e3b8c6f0108aaf1a1ac6271aCreating a copy of the 512 bytes/sector EPBRand writing to it the values for the NTFS volumeOK, 4096 bytes, 0.015s, MD5 = 620f0b67a91f7f74151bc5be745b7110Press any key to continue . . .Now we write the sectors to the diskdsfi \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 0 4096 Prilog.mbrOK, written 4096 bytes at offset 0dsfi \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 29672 4096 EPBR1_512.epbOK, written 4096 bytes at offset 29672dsfi \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 258048 4096 EPBR1_4Kb.epbOK, written 4096 bytes at offset 258048Deleting temporary files ...temp.mbr deletedtempNTFS.bss deletedPrilog.mbr deletedEPBR1_4kb.epb deletedEPBR1_512.epb deletedPress any key to continue . . .C:\mkprilog>However, once again when the disk was disconnected and re-connected, although everything looked fine in Explorer, Disk Management was still wrong.

I've tried leaving things exactly as they are, and simply re-booted the USB connected machine into XP. Both G: and H: drives appear correctly in Explorer! Disk Management is still not as it should be though. It correctly shows drive G: as a 254 MB primary FAT partition, but there are two other large partitions shown. One is a logical drive within an extended partition of 931.48 GB, NTFS formatted, and allocated as drive H: and the other is a 932.25 GB partition shown as unallocated! I will try the whole thing from scratch again just using XP to make sure that it does work properly with both machines in XP, and then I'll try again doing the first part in 8.1 and the second part in XP as you suggested.

Not that I'm aware of. Uninstalling KB3013455 fixed the fonts, all the other updates are still installed. Is there anything else I should look out for?

Hi Jaclaz, and sorry for the delay in replying. Tried with the new batches, with the USB connection on 8.1 with elevated prompts. Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600](c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.C:\windows\system32>cd\mkprilogC:\mkprilog>mkprilogplease input an approximated size in Megabytes for the FAT12 partition, minimum1, maximum 32...The image will be created in the same folder as this batchand will be named PriLog.img32Writing MBR at offset 0 ...... done.Writing the 512 bytes/sector bootsector BPB at offset 32768 ...... done.Writing the 4096 bytes/sector bootsector BPB at offset 262144...... done.Writing FAT tables incipit ...... done.Press any key to continue . . ..The image should have been created as PriLog.img, now you need tomanually dd it to the destination disk, a suitable command would be:dsfi.exe \\.\PhysicalDrive[n] 0 0 PriLog.imgMake sure that you use the RIGHT Disk Number [n], do check in Disk Manager.The disk can be mounted indifferently through the 4kb or the 512 bytes/sectorinterface to deploy the image.Once the image has been deployed you may need to disconnect and reconnect thedisk to have the FAT12 volume be recognized and mounted to a drive letter.Then you can go to Disk Manager and create a Primary partition, NTFS formattedextending on all the available space on disk (or on just a portion of it).The size of the NTFS partition you create must be at least 7 times the size ofthe FAT12 one.It is "better" to use a Vista (or later) OS to create the NTFS partition asthe partition would be better if Megabyte aligned.(or do it manually or use a suitable third-party tool) as the XP will align iton head/cylinder boundaries, whilst a MB-aligned partition will be faster onslow buses such as USB 2.0The partition and the NTFS filesystem MUST be created when the disk is connectedas a 4kb sectored device, this is NOT negotiable.Once the second partition has been created, and I repeat, this MUST be donewith the device connected as 4kb sectored, you can run the mkdualdisk.cmdWhich will modify the disk and create the needed EPBR's.Press any key to continue . . .C:\mkprilog>dsfi \\.\PhysicalDrive1 0 0 PriLog.imgOK, written 33554432 bytes at offset 0C:\mkprilog>mkdualdisk"DUAL" disk found as \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1Creating a temporary copy of the MBRdsfo \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 0 4096 temp.mbrOK, 4096 bytes, 0.031s, MD5 = dde5a655ffb6537e52cf7d354f811bdfNow the extent of the FAT12 partition is 8128We need to multiply this value by 8Now the extent of the FAT12 partition is 65024000001B8h: 44 55 41 4C DUAL000001BEh: 00 00 00 00 0F 00 00 00 3F 00 00 00 01 00 00 00000001CEh: 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 00 FE 00 00000001DEh: 00 82 03 00 07 FE FF FF 00 20 00 00 00 EB 8D 0E000001EEh: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00The disk was recognized as created with the Prilog schemeCreating a temporary copy of the NTFS partition bootsectordsfo \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 33554432 4096 tempNTFS.bssOK, 4096 bytes, 0.016s, MD5 = 8310c91f046fe453459d5affed51743aPress any key to continue . . .and copying it to the filedsfo tempNTFS.bss 0 0 as4kbNTFS.bssOK, 4096 bytes, 0.000s, MD5 = 8310c91f046fe453459d5affed51743aCreating a copy of the 4kb bytes/sector NTFS bootsectorAnd modifying it to become the 512 bytes/sector NTFS bootsectordsfo tempNTFS.bss 0 0 as512NTFS.bssOK, 4096 bytes, 0.000s, MD5 = 403674ef19b611fab1bd61e66a629842Press any key to continue . . .Creating a copy of the 4kb bytes/sector EPBRand writing to it the values for the NTFS volumeOK, 4096 bytes, 0.000s, MD5 = fc86b746e3b8c6f0108aaf1a1ac6271aCreating a copy of the 512 bytes/sector EPBRand writing to it the values for the NTFS volumeOK, 4096 bytes, 0.000s, MD5 = 620f0b67a91f7f74151bc5be745b7110Press any key to continue . . .Now we write the sectors to the diskdsfi \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 0 4096 Prilog.mbrOK, written 4096 bytes at offset 0dsfi \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 29672 4096 EPBR1_512.epbOK, written 4096 bytes at offset 29672dsfi \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 258048 4096 EPBR1_4Kb.epbOK, written 4096 bytes at offset 258048Deleting temporary files ...temp.mbr deletedtempNTFS.bss deletedPrilog.mbr deletedEPBR1_4kb.epb deletedEPBR1_512.epb deletedPress any key to continue . . .C:\mkprilog>Everything was fine, with drive G: and drive H: present and correct until I unplugged and re-plugged the disk. At that point only the first drive G: returned, drive H: had gone and Disk Management again showed it as a "blank" primary partition, with no drive number or file system as in my previous screen grab. Copying the switching files across to G: and running the switcher just produced "the parameter is incorrect" repeated over and over.

Yes I have.

You've no idea how glad I was to see this thread this morning! I installed all the updates yesterday, and my fonts were badly screwed up. I've uninstalled KB3013455 and everything now seems to be back to normal. That update seems to just replace win32k.sys. It seemed to me experimenting yesterday that it was the ClearType system that was messed up, switching it off resulted in the fonts returning reasonably to normal, switching it on made them look far worse, to the point of illegibility in some cases,rather than better! Let's hope MS fix the problem soon, as it's obviously happening on some supported systems as well as on XP.

I installed 4.5.2015.7 and everything seemed to be fine initially, but I then found that my e-mail program (Eudora 7.1.0.9) was apparently not closing down properly, although it seemed to be working normally in every other respect. Immediately after Eudora apparently closed, the system was freezing solid. Disabling the KernelEx extensions on eudora.exe fixed the problem. One to watch out for, as this could presumably potentially happen with other programs too!