tech toys and me

Force install on C: when it wants to install on H:

mamanerd — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:26:00 +0000

Excerpted from a blog

http://forums.whatthetech.com/New_Hard_Drive_Installed_with_Different_Letter_making_it_hard_to_resto_t90713.html

I recently installed a new hard drive on my Dell Dimension E510 desktop. Before I did so, I backed up all the files that I thought I might want on the new drive with Nero 8. Thinking that I could just install the new drive and then restore all my files from the backup disks. The physical installation of the drive went fine, the installation of Windows XP went ok and after that I have had a lot of trouble with drivers but I think I finally got it back to where it’s in a usable state again.

However…now I have another problem that I have no idea how to rectify. My old hard drive was labeled “C” and my new hard drive is labeled “H”. I didn’t think twice about this before because I didn’t think it really made a difference since everything was going to just go to H now. But I put in the backup disks that I created with Nero and they all have drive C as the location and they can’t restore those files because it can’t find a drive C.

I’ve read a lot about the topic and I know there is an easy way to rename drives, but 1) I’m not sure if I can do that if Windows is on the drive I want to rename and 2) I’ve gone to all the trouble of downloading drivers, Anti-virus software etc and if I change the drive letter I’m afraid those won’t work. Also, it seems that somehow redirecting those Nero files or just copying them to the system is out of the question. They just want to go back to where they came from I guess.

So what do you think is my best bet right now? I’m toying with the idea of reformatting the hard drive again, reinstalling windows and somehow intercepting it to name the new drive C where I let it be H before. But that seems like a lot of time to spend on just changing that one little letter.

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When you load xp it’s preferable that the new drive is the only hard drive connected or active and that it is on the primary number 1 pata or sata connector

Xp wil let you arrage almost all drive letters but C and A.

Windows cannot modify the drive letter of your system volume or boot drive.

so even if C was available you can’t change it from H.

Don’t worry most of us here have done the same thing once upon a time, even if we can’t remember that far back

I deleted a 160 gig data partition once when I forgot to disconnect a pata hard drive in a sata system

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You might try disconnecting all other drives but an optical, and I mean those durn card reader ones also

make sure the system boot drive is connected like i said earlier to a primary controller

run windows as a repair disk

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Turn off the machine and discharge the static.

Open the Tower Case and physically “unplug” the cable that attaches the smart-card reader to the MotherBoard.

Remove the plug from the MotherBoard and just leave the drive unit in place.

Yes, format in NTFS.

You will be offered the choice of “Do you want to install to the selected Drive C:\”

If it were me, I’d get a little more creative and Remove the Partitions.

Then create a Partition from the unpartitioned space for C:\ <– maybe about 20-25gb for Windows and security apps only.

Then create a Partition from the remaining unpartitioned space <– for other apps and saving Docs/images/etc

Then Format and install on C:\

Don’t worry about Formatting D:\

You can do that from Windows Explorer after Windows is installed.

Here is a brief listing of sequence of steps necessary when installing Operating System (XP and earlier)

Reinstall in the following order:

Operating System

SP2 if not included on prior installation CD

DirectX 9.0c

ChipSet Drivers

Firewall

AntiVirus

MS Updates (critical Updates and patches)

AntiSpyware

Hosts File

JAVA Runtime Environment 6.05

optionally Adobe FlashPlayer and Adobe Shockwave (for all selected browsers)

Then peripheral and application files.

After all the above, turn off machine, discharge any static and plug in the cluster of smart cards.

They will be assigned “later” letters appropriate so that your Root remains C:\ and your Opticals are D and E

The second Hard Drive Partition may be assigned a “later” letter, but that’s no biggie.

update windows product key

mamanerd — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 15:46:00 +0000

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/selfhelp/XPPkuinst.aspx?displaylang=en&sGuid=e675a300-dcae-4987-bad0-9772082b58b0

The steps below will help you use the Windows Product Key Update Tool to change your product key. Before running the Windows Product Key update tool, read all instructions to ensure that you understand how the tool works and what information is sent to Microsoft as a result of the update process. You may also wish to print this page before starting the update process.

Microsoft recommends creating a system restore point before any operating system changes.

The Windows Product Key Update Tool:

What it does

The Windows Product Key Update Tool will make changes to your Windows installation to update your product key. In addition, the product key update tool will scan a number of key Windows files to determine if they have been tampered with. If tampered files are discovered the product key update tool will alert you before continuing.

Information collected

Using the product key update tool results in information being sent to Microsoft. The information collected will not be used to identify or contact you. The information sent is standard Windows validation information as well as information related to the file tampering scan.
I understand this tool will send the above information to Microsoft.

To update your product key, follow these steps:

Select Run when prompted.

Enter the product key found on your COA where requested, and then click Next to begin the update.

Once the update is complete, click Finish to restart your computer. When your computer restarts, your computer’s product key will match the COA product key. If this tool fails to change your product key to match your COA, contact Microsoft Support.

After updating your product key you will be required to activate Windows. Once Windows is activated, you can verify that your copy of Windows is genuine by going to http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/selfhelp/default.aspx?displaylang=en and clicking Validate Windows.

tools to do restore when unbootable windows

mamanerd — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:15:00 +0000

http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/perform-system-restore-rollback-on-non-bootable-xp-computer/

Has your Windows XP system become unbootable after making some configuration changes, and you want to perform a System Restore rollback to a previous date? Windows Vista has the Startup Repairfeature using which you can restore the system to an earlier restore point. But no such feature exists in Windows XP. After searching around the internet, I came across a great tool to recover Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003 PCs.

Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset

Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (MSDaRT) from Microsoft provides powerful tools to help administrators recover PCs that have become unusable, and easily identify root causes of system issues. This toolset is part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack.

30 day evaluation of MSDaRT is available from the following link:

Download details: Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (MSDaRT50Eval.msi – 64.2 MB)

Microsoft DaRT includes the following tools:

Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) Commander
ERD Commander Boot Media Wizard
ERD Help
Chkdsk
Command Line
ERD Explorer
File Search
Notepad
Unzip
Windows Shell
Crash Analyzer Wizard
Disk Commander Wizard
Disk Wipe
ERD Registry Editor
ERD System Restore Wizard
File Restore
Hotfix Uninstall Wizard
Locksmith Wizard
Solution Wizard
System File Repair Wizard
Autoruns
Disk Management
Event Viewer
Services and Drivers
System Information
File Sharing
Map Network Drive
TCP/IP Configuration

The ERD System Restore Wizard can be used to restore a system that cannot be started to a previous restore point.

Note: All of the utilities provided with ERD Commander, except ERD System Restore Wizard, are compatible with Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. ERD System Restore Wizard is compatible only with Windows XP. Do not use the ERD Commander Boot CD in Windows Vista systems.

Limitations of ERD System Restore Wizard: [Quoted from MSDaRT Release Notes] The ERD System Restore Wizard does not perform a complete System Restore operation as the Windows System Restore of Windows XP SP2. The ERD System Restore Wizard does NOT restore the following information:

ACL changes on files and folders support
SAM Password hashes
Attribute changes
Alternate data streams

Therefore, once the Windows XP SP2 system is back online, it is recommended that you execute a Windows System Restore from a restore point of your choice. The ERD System Restore Wizard should be used to perform the bare minimum of actions that will enable a Windows XP system to start.

Note that the ERD System Restore Wizard is only supported on Windows XP SP2. Windows Server 2003 does not implement the Windows System Restore.

Editor’s note: ERD System Restore Wizard worked just fine when used in a Windows XP SP3 system.

System Restore rollback using ERD Commander

Using another computer, create a Boot CD for ERD Commander. Follow these steps:

1. Download and install MSDaRT

2. Read the MSDaRT CHM Help file, Release Notes (recommended) and the License agreement. The help file and release notes are available in the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset folder under the Program Files folder.

3. If you don’t already have a third-party CD Recording software to burn ISO image to CD, then download the free ISO Recorder PowerToy.

4. After installing the ISO Recorder PowerToy, open the following folder

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset

5. Right-click the file erd50.iso and click Copy image to CD

6. Follow the onscreen instructions and burn the ISO to a CD. This is the ERD Commander Boot CD

7. Insert the ERD Commander Boot CD into the drive and restart the system

8. Boot the computer using ERD Commander Boot CD. You may have to set the boot order in the BIOS first.

9. From the ERD Commander menu (Start menu) that is displayed, click System Tools, and then click System Restore.

10. Click Next when you see the Welcome to the ERD System Restore Wizard screen

11. Select Roll back to an existing restore point created by Windows. ERD System Restore Wizard only performs a partial rollback. (For more information, see paragraph “Limitations of ERD System Restore Wizard” above.)

12. Select the date, and pick a Restore Point from the list.

13. Click Yes to perform System Restore rollback.

14. To view the change log (optional), click the View Details button. This opens a log file using Notepad, which contains the list of changes made to the registry and the file system. To close the dialog, click Finish. The system will restart to complete the System Restore rollback operation.

More Information

When creating the ERD Commander Boot CD, you can add additional files (such as Scripts, stand-alone executables etc). For more information about this option, and to learn about other great tools included in ERD Commander, read the MSDaRT Help (.chm) file. Another excellent tool in this suite is the Crash Analyzer Wizard, using which you can debug crash dump files.

autologin vista

mamanerd — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:36:00 +0000

From annother website: not my comments:

http://itsvista.com/2006/12/itsvista-tip-5-autologin-on-vista/

I‘m used to having my home computer automatically login when I start it since I’m the only user. In Windows XP I used TweakUI to set this, but how do I do it in Vista? A little searching turned up this tip from Spooky on the MSFN.org forums:

Go to the Start Menu, type netplwiz in the search box, and press Enter

If you have UAC active (which you should), you’ll need to give permission for the program to start.

The User Accounts window will open. Notice the option Users must enter a name and password to use this computer, uncheck the box and click OK.

You will be prompted for the login name and password of the user that you want automatically logged in. Enter the information for a user account that already exists and click OK.

That’s it! A couple things to keep in mind:

You should always have a password assigned, even if you are automatically logging in, to help prevent remote access to your machine

If your machine is physically accessible to others, setting your machine to automatically login will allow them the same access that you have, not recommended for work!

remote desktop on vista home premium

mamanerd — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:12:00 +0000

mstsc.exe is the remote desktop client program

To get home premium to be able to be controlled, see

http://www.unet.fi/fransblog/2007/08/30/enable-remote-desktop-connection-on-vista-home-premium

for a batch file for vista sp1 to enable the incoming, and open port 3389

I still like Logmein better, but this helps get to our servers when needed

recover damaged profile

mamanerd — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:59:00 +0000

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=769&tag=nl.e064

Yahoo online chat

mamanerd — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 03:30:00 +0000

Did you know as a Premium User you can chat live with Yahoo for support?

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/yahoomail/forms_index.htmlm

recovering xp to an unreachable restore point

mamanerd — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 03:15:00 +0000

Got the dreaded “windows could not start system” with the SYSTEM file being identified as missing or damaged.

Remembered there was a way to hack back into old restore points. You have to use either bartpe or recovery console mode, get the files from the original windows build (\windows\repair)and copy them to the boot up location to get into safe mode. Then in safe mode you can get access to the restore volume information, and copy the appropriate restore point 5 files to another neutral zone. Then rename them to the right things and copy them back into \windows\system32\config

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

This did work on Dell xp pro though they warn about OEM versions.

took about 1.5 hours to find this, find my bartpe disk and/or xp boot disk.

If you only have the windows cd, DON”T PUT RECOVERY FILES AT THE ROOT!

xp recovery console won’t let you get to there.

Have to put into subdir of windows\system32 or such.

Found this out AFTER I DELETED THEM FROM windows\system32\config directory

So couldn’t get into safe mode anymore.

But, Hurrah for Bart-PE!

update failure

mamanerd — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 23:26:00 +0000

after 2 hours, the update to sp1 on Peggy’s laptop failed… I guess it was too much to hope for. Since the basic problem was the sl ui service and the Software licensing service would not start, it then thinks that its a bad license for Vista….. ah well. Restore from backup.

I had to restore from the Dell recovery partition, got a temporary heart attack when it said the software license service wasn’t running. I gasped, found control panel working and started the service. Then did a system checkpoint. Then found an article mentioning a fix was to install sp1. So I did… that seemed to go find this time. Put in adobe, itunes, flash, java, all seems ok… Hope that’s it!!

process running nero mobile ad

mamanerd — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 17:20:00 +0000

Vista found process running “neromobilead.exe” taking 30% of cpu. Turns out it was a failed ad installment for my windows mobile device. How long THAT’s been running, I don’t know!!

Re: Turn off Nero Mobile Advertisment ?

Just delete the reference to it. Here are some possibilities why you receive these messages:

http://www.pocketpcfaq.com/raj/AppMgr.html

tech toys and me

Force install on C: when it wants to install on H:

update windows product key

tools to do restore when unbootable windows

Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset

System Restore rollback using ERD Commander

More Information

See also

autologin vista

remote desktop on vista home premium

recover damaged profile

Yahoo online chat

recovering xp to an unreachable restore point

update failure

process running nero mobile ad