Tripredacus

In addition, a very similar thread here and my response: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=132390

I want to comment on a few things. 1. The Boot Sector contains the MBR and other stuff. 2. The above is the reason I believe simply reapplying the MBR.INI with MBRINST (or MBR.DLL) is not enough to make the partition work. There is additional information in the sectors that need to be applied as well. In my experience, simply applying the MBR.INI that the SoftThinks software has in the recovery partition is not enough to activate the function key process. Of course my experience with this is different than yours, as I tried to make this work when using Imagex (file based imaging, as opposed to Ghost, which I use for images with these partitions, which is sector based) to image drives with recovery partitions. 3. My use of Terrabyte's MBR.EXE was not tested on a SoftThinks recovery partition. As noted in my thread, I used it to create my own custom recovery partition what used Win PE 2.1 and Imagex to do a recovery. I had created this because my company does not seem interested in upgrading our licensing agreement to support recovery options for Vista. Plus, if I can streamline this solution, we can dump them altogether. Because we have to pay for SoftThinks but we wouldn't have to pay for our own thing. 4. Concerning point 3, the MBR commands posted in my thread are based upon how I set up the custom recovery partition. Using this on a SoftThinks partition may be totally different. This is because my custom partition is still a hidden ID 7 volume, while SoftThinks is a hidden ID 12 partition. So if you want to test out this program, some different testing of the partition ID to set to may be in order. So this is saying that going from 0xC to 0x1C may not work for a SoftThinks partition 5. Don't get us wrong, we are glad you were able to make your recovery media. Helping out other users is our number 1 priority (other than keeping out the spam lol). The point that Jaclaz was trying to make earlier (I agree as well) is that while you have somewhat solved your problem, you used a workaround and not a real fix. So our initial issue, how to properly resolve a broken recovery partition is still unsolved. The main reason is that you are fortunate to know someone else with a similar computer to you. Many people are not so fortunate, so we still wish to know the true answer, so that we may help others who do not have access to the same model computer. 6. THE MOST IMPORTANT. Before attempting ANYTHING in this thread, make sure to back up your data. Also your MBR if at all possible. Using other MBRs, these programs and boot sectors, etc, may cause your computer not to boot. ahmad2080 had taken the proper precautions prior to doing any fiddling, and (correct me if I am wrong) was willing to accept the fact that this process could render his computer unusable without purchasing the recovery media from HP. So if you are looking for a quick fix to your problem here, be warned that this is all very technological stuff. I'm not trying to downgrade anyone here, but if you are unsure of what you are doing, then you best not do anything until you understand what is possible. As I noted in point 5, we have no clear cut solution at this time to this issue. 7. The F11 problem is caused by the fact that the MBR.INI does not have the code in it that tells it what to do with the partitions. This may be something that is added into the Boot Sector at the time of recovery partition creation. If you look in my custom Recovery Partition thread, you will see the code I use with MBR.EXE. It basically says that when you press (function key) change the boot drive to hidden, and change the hidden drive to bootable. After my recovery partition loads, I had to add another command that resets these values back to normal so that you can boot to Windows again after running the recovery. If you look at the MBR.INI, this type of information is not present. There is no such place where it shows options that change the partition ID at all. I would say that I would like to try testing out this process using the MBR.EXE program next week, but I have about 15 projects I have to work on besides my regular job. I don't think I'll get around to it. I will put it on my list, but it might be a while before I get around to it. Hopefully this will be solved by then, if not, I'll bring this thread back up.

Welcome to the MSFN! Here are a list of possible solutions. The site does not link them individually, but you can search the terms to find their websites. They are not likely free, however but you never know. http://www.cd-writer.com/cd_dvd_copy_protection.html

In the future, I would recommend saving all your downloaded driver updates.

I believe that if you don't unload the hive, it just doesn't save the changes.

If the above does not work, you may have a large number of spyware. I recently ran into such a system. The following should get you access to Windows, but only if you have a newer keyboard. After which, you should back up your data (if possible) and reinstall or run a recovery (if you have that option). 1. Press (Windows key) + U. This will bring up the Utility Manager. 2. Exit the Narrator. 3. on the Utility Manager window, click Help. A Utility Manager help screen will open. 4. Right click in the right pane somewhere and choose 'View Source'. This should open Notepad. 5. In Notepad, click File, Open, Change "Files of Type" to "all files *.* 6. This will give you access to all the files and programs on your computer. You will also be looking at the system32 folder. 7. Do a folder up (its a button with a folder with an up arrow on it) to get to the Windows folder. 8. Find the explorer.exe and right-click and choose open. If this does not work, find cmd.exe (its back in the system32 folder, so use the back button, green arrow pointing left) and right-click and choose open. If you can open the command prompt, you can run anything, including explorer.exe. A friend of mine used this method to backup his severely infected PC before running a recovery on it. He had a CD burner and a USB drive to save files to. Hope this helps.

Hmmm.... I have to accomplish a similar task. My thread about this (disk performance) is here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=131023

If you can wait until Monday, I can look into it. It may be possible as long as your PC keeps the updates after running them. In the mean time, if you are curious, turn on the viewing of hidden and protected system files, then look in the Windows folder. You should have a bunch of folders at the top with long names/numbers. I don't keep these folders on my computer at home, so I can't tell you what is in them.

Ah did they decrease their size? I remember them being very large, but if memory serves me right, they were mostly ads. There are a lot less print adders than there used to be. Grow with the times I guess.

Tony Bacala - Decepticon War Theme some of his tracks are available here: TFW2005

I am thinking that your best option would be to pre-qualify the clients into WDS/Active Directory. Then create a deployment exception (rule) that makes those said computers use a different boot rom than the default. wdsutil.exe /set-device /Device:SERVER01 /BootProgram:Boot\x86\pxeboot.n12 See: http://blogs.artinsoft.net/jose_aguilar_bl...05/16/1442.aspx So, create a rule for your pre-qualified clients to receive the x86 boot file, and only use 1 x86 Boot Image. Then set your default boot image to x64, and only use 1 x64 boot image. The x64 could be used by developers and should be able to deploy x86 images. However, if you have more clients than developers, you may want to pre-qualify the dev computers instead. If you are running any asset management environments (such as Altiris Notification Server) you could probably script it to pre-qualify them automatically, presuming you can set up the appropriate container. Otherwise you'd have to enter this information manually. If this seems confusing, let me know exactly how your WDS is laid out. Myself, for example, have 2 Boot Images and 7 Install Images. You have an additional option as well, if there is only 1 client "system image", aka a captured and sysprepped image, you could pre-qualify your client machines to boot into a standard WinPE, and then script it appropriately to deploy the image. That way the client would not have any option to do a selection. As far as "no authentication" this is incorrect. Although, this does depend on where you are getting these boot images from. A standard Win PE does not, this is correct, but the boot.wim from a Vista disc does. Let me know your thoughts about this.

Does your video controller happen to an nVidia chipset?

If use smallMBR doesn't work, try this in MasterBootRecord instead: STR_BS_ERROR="Missing OS\n" STR_ERROR="MBR Error\n" STR_PRESSAKEY=" " STR_START="\nPress F11 " Also you can take out the lines starting with a semi-colon ( ; ) because they are comments. My mbr.ini files do not have those comment lines in them. :\

I only have a couple things to mention. 1. Make sure your hardware is Server 2008 certified. I am not familiar with AMD based board in 2008. 2. Check the terms of service with your ISP. They likely will require you to have a business account in order to run a web server or mail server off their network. If you don't plan on making the server accessible outside your network, do not worry about it. 3. The Set-up Your Server window is pretty straight forward. If you run into a problem adding roles or features, try only adding one at a time. 4. You can try turning off the Link-Layer Topology options (use GP) on the server and on the workstations (only if they are Vista) to see if it increases your speed.

I've only had moderate success with that method. The reason is likely because it isn't the only reason this behaviour happens. Its funny about this thread really. I removed a fake antivirus program from a friends computer (same OS as yours) and it started doing the same thing. I ended up doing a system recovery on it instead.

That is true. I still get the same error 1. Their error doc has the following info:

Unfortunately, using a WIM file to image an XP machine still doesn't remove the limitations of the HAL. Using a WIM only gives you a file-based structure to store the base image, but it doesn't change the limitations XP has on the HAL. There are some other posts on the unattended XP section on ways to get XP to install on multiple hardware devices, but these are all independent of what imaging software you're using (ultimately, WIM won't help you achieve this). The best implementation of Hal trickery that I have seen so far (concerning WIMs) is TheReasonIFail's: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=115243

This will be my first official project post thread. In this project, I am attempting to get PassMark's Burn In Test program to work in Windows PE 2.1 x86. Here are the project details: Windows PE: v2.1 x86 (32 bit) Application: BurnInTest v6.0.1002.0 Developer URL: PassMark Software Additional Software Microsoft Process Monitor Heaven Tools PE Explorer (30 day trial, purchase for continued use) This program comes with a plug-in to work in BartPE and Windows PE 1.x environments. Taco Bell has also been working on getting this program to work properly in v2.1. Currently, PassMark is in process of offering official support for this environment. While Taco Bell has been able to get the program to launch properly (using the /x switch), it still fails for me. This thread will be my log of my experiences. The current instructions are to install the program on any computer. Then take the \BurnInTest folder and copy it into the WinPE. The BartPE plugin merely adds an option to launch BIT from its menu. You also need to copy MSVFW32.DLL into \SYSTEM32. After doing this and launching the PE, an attempt to run the program returns the following: and Taco Bell has noted that he had not experienced the Error Number 1 issue. My first step was to run a ProcMon on bit.exe to see what files it uses to and then compare that with what I already had. I had originally run PE Explorer on bit.exe because it has a dependency scanner, however, ProcMon detailed additional dependency files not listed by PE Explorer. The following is the full list of files it uses: Items in normal (black) text were already present in my winpe.wim. Items in Red were not present, and were not present in my VistaBusiness32.wim. Items in Green were not in the PE but were in the Vista WIM. I copied the known files from the Vista WIM into the Winpe.wim and committed the changes. Some things that are noticable: The program uses the process of creating a patch for itself on systems that are not fully supported. This is noticed because it ended up writing into sysmain.sdb, which is the main application compatibility database for Windows. It also (appears) to create make it compatible with XP SP2, as it looks for that file as well. This is only my guess atm. I'm off to test. If anyone has any ideas, let me know. I believe it is safe to ignore the DirectX warning.

Oblivion, aka Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, also has an expansion pack which was originally available separately. It is called Shivering Isles. The extra disc may be the additional mods, like Horse Armor, etc. If the box says it comes with those things, then its the right one. Make sure to check for updates once you get it installed.

This is an unfortunate mis-use of terms. Your notebook actually has an SVGA connection. VGA hasn't been used for a very long time. I don't know why the term SVGA isn't used as it should be.

Sorry, my computer at home died and I have been busy at work fixing that (I brought it in) as well as my regular work things. So not much time to be on MSFN this week so far. And yes my reply were to your older posts. Its obvious you and Jaclaz have moved along a lot further since my last contribution, so stay on track with him for now and see where that leads.

BS Explorer, aka BoaSoftware Explorer, is a custom shell created to be used in Windows PE. It appears, based upon a quick glance, that the text (if comparing screenshots on their site) is controlled via bs_explorer.ini. You may try inserting a NULL character into that option, such as ALT+255, and see what that does. Also, when in doubt, try looking for the developer's forum or contact email.

What operating system are you using? Since those were instructions for XP, it is possible the OS you are using has different commands or even registry keys to work with.

I see a lot of posts about people wanting to put the profile on other volumes, and frankly it doesn't make much sense to me. I am presuming its the fact that once the profile gets to a certain size, the OS slows down. My solution to that is to not use the profile for anything that gives me a choice of where to put files.

OK a couple of things to try. Obviously there is a peice missing, and it is likely a dependency. 1. Make sure you are using the files to match your PE type. If using a 32bit PE, use the netsh and dhcpmon.dll from a 32bit Vista machine. 2. On a Vista PC, use Procmon and run your command. Make note of any additional files it is reading, including registry entries. 3. Run depends on netsh and dhcpmon.dll. You may be missing a dependency. I have done very little with getting the PE to do things that aren't documented, but this is always a starting point for me.