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Ghost 2003, Img XP > DVD, INCOMPLETE ?? (Read 97004 times)
Dan Goodell
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Re: Ghost 2003, Img XP > DVD, INCOMPLETE ??
Reply #45 - Jun 18th, 2012 at 8:33pm
 
Okay, henriette, let's summarize.  Now we know you've got a Ghost floppy to boot from and another (non-bootable) floppy with mbrwork.exe on it.  So here are the steps you want to follow:

1.  For the sake of safety, disconnect all other hard disks or flash drives so MbrWork only sees one hard disk.  (If you leave flash drives or other HDDs connected, pay attention to step 6.)

2.  Boot from the Ghost floppy and escape to the DOS prompt.  You'll be left at "A:\Ghost".

3.  Type "cd \" and press [Enter].  You should now be at "A:\".

4.  Remove the Ghost floppy and insert the MbrWork floppy.

5.  Type "mbrwork" and press [Enter].  This launches the MbrWork utility.

6.  If the MbrWork menu offers option 7 ("Change active hard disk"), confirm that you're working on the correct HDD (see next post).

7.  Press "1" to backup the first track.

8.  Press "e" to quit MbrWork.  You'll be returned to the A:\> prompt.

9.  Type "dir" and press [Enter].  This lists the files on the floppy.  Confirm that you now have a file named "BACK0   BIN" on the floppy.  It's size should be about 32KB.  (Tip: DOS won't show the "." before the filename extension.)



 
 
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Dan Goodell
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Re: Ghost 2003, Img XP > DVD, INCOMPLETE ??
Reply #46 - Jun 18th, 2012 at 8:33pm
 
MBRWORK - How to tell which HDD you're working on:

MbrWork displays hard disks only--EIDE/PATA, SATA, and connected external HDDs.  CD/DVD drives and floppy drives won't be shown.  Beware: most USB flash drives emulate a hard disk, so *will be enumerated* if they are plugged in.

If there is more than one HDD enumerated, MbrWork will include option 7 ("Change active hard drive") on the menu.  The menu option is suppressed if there is only one HDD.

HDD enumeration (e.g., "HD0" vs "HD1") can change depending on how the system has been booted.  Therefore, you should get into the habit of looking at the partition table to see if it looks like the HDD you mean to be working on.  MbrWork assumes you want to work on HD0 unless you select menu option #7 and switch to another HDD.

If you boot from your main HDD, it will be HD0 and other HDDs (secondaries, externals, and flash drives) will be HD1 and above.  If you boot from a flash drive, the flash drive will be HD0 and other HDDs (including your main HDD) will be HD1 and above.  If you boot from floppy or from CD/DVD, your main HDD will probably be HD0, but get yourself into the habit of checking to be sure.

Clues to look for in the partition table:
  • There are four rows in the partition table.  Are there entries in more than one row (i.e., more than one partition)?  Flash drives will have only a single partition.  Hard disks may have one or more.
  • What file system (see column 6) is the partition using?  NTFS partitions will be shown as "7".  FAT32 partitions will be shown as "b" or "c".  Flash drives will typically have a single FAT32 partition.  Hard disks typically have one or more NTFS partitions.
  • If there is more than one HDD, the MbrWork menu will include option 7 (Change active hard drive).  Switch to the other HDDs and compare partition tables to see if one looks more right than the other.




 
 
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Re: Ghost 2003, Img XP > DVD, INCOMPLETE ??
Reply #47 - Jun 19th, 2012 at 12:24am
 
This is what the TBOSDT lines look like.

...


 
 
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henriette
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Re: Ghost 2003, Img XP > DVD, INCOMPLETE ??
Reply #48 - Jun 19th, 2012 at 4:12am
 
@
NightOwl

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! ... ~~~ dee dle dee dle dumm ~~~

It worked
  Grin Grin Grin

... and I'm
happy


~~~Oh, what a beautiful mo:::::rning~~~

ahem, sorry for my sing-along.

Quote:
*A:\Ghost>* prompt, type *cd ..*,  a space, and the *two periods* is the command to go up to the next level in the DOS directory tree--which in this case would be *A:\>*.  Now you should be able to type the MBRWork.exe command and get the desired results.

Yesssss, now it worked :=)))

I've tried *cd* yesterday, already - just without the space and the two periods [dots] ,,,

First thing today was to look for mail > found your *new* instructions & did as told.

It's done within less than a second (*backup First Track* I mean).

To make sure the *.bin is actually on my floppy > I checked.
> = "BACK0.BIN" | 32kB | date.

Thank you all for making me so happy >
see attachment for you fabulous guys


(Going to read the latest posts now).

henriette



 

GroupHuggg_Mary_.gif (19 KB | 718 )
GroupHuggg_Mary_.gif

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henriette
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Re: Ghost 2003, Img XP > DVD, INCOMPLETE ??
Reply #49 - Jun 19th, 2012 at 5:10am
 
Thanks to
Dan's
additional, most detailed posts, which are most appreciated!  Smiley

As I posted above, I followed NightOwl's email notification instructions, before I came to read the posts in here.

Quote:
For the sake of safety, disconnect all other hard disks or flash drives so MbrWork only sees one hard disk


NightOwl
wrote:
Quote:
you can't cause any harm to your system if you are creating backups--
it's only when you do something that *writes* to your HDD (such as doing a restore of the MBR) that you might get in trouble--if you use the wrong *.bin* file that's outdated or for a different HDD

I will take care of the latter (red), and follow your above instructions if (ever) I'll do a restore Shocked

henriette

 

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Re: Ghost 2003, Img XP > DVD, INCOMPLETE ??
Reply #50 - Jun 19th, 2012 at 9:57am
 
@
henriette

henriette wrote on Jun 19th, 2012 at 4:12am:
First thing today was to look for mail > found your *new* instructions & did as told.


henriette wrote on Jun 19th, 2012 at 5:10am:
As I posted above, I followed NightOwl's email notification instructions, before I came to read the posts in here. 

Appreciate the compliments--but I'm concerned--I didn't email you any instructions!  All of my communications have been postings on the forum.

That's not my way of doing things here on the forum.  I like the communications to be posted for all to see regarding anything we are discussing in a thread.  I rarely use any *Private Messages* (PM's), and almost never emails.  I know sometimes it might be *more efficient* to use non-forum methods of communication--but, then I think the forum community as a whole is being left out, and *suffers* from such behind the scene activity.

I'm hoping that you misread the source of the *email* you are referring to, and it came from someone else here on the forum--maybe mentioning my name or something.

If someone is impersonating me--I guess I need to know that!  If it really looks like the email came from me, we need to *talk* using *PM's* (private messaging).

My concern is that if someone who looks trustworthy is impersonating me--then you are at high risk of getting that MBR or other virus, trojan malware, or other malware of some sort.  Opening an attachment or clicking on a link in such an email could be a real problem!

Make sure you are using an antivirus program that scans emails, up to date definitions--but, even then, clicking an attachment or link may still cause an infection--these types of emails probably will not be caught by the antivirus program!

So let me know the result of your re-checking the email source.  Don't delete it if you haven't already--may need to see information from it, if possible.

Did anyone else here, per chance, send henriette an email?


 

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Re: Ghost 2003, Img XP > DVD, INCOMPLETE ??
Reply #51 - Jun 19th, 2012 at 10:14am
 
@
Dan Goodell

Dan Goodell wrote on Jun 18th, 2012 at 8:33pm:
3.Type "cd \" and press [Enter].You should now be at "A:\".

Ah, yes, the more direct way to get to the *root directory* of a given drive in DOS!  So, there we go--adding another *50 ways* to get to the root directory in DOS using the *change directory* command!

For the record, *cd* is the short hand abbreviation that DOS allows for the longer command name CHDIR.




 

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Dan Goodell
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Re: Ghost 2003, Img XP > DVD, INCOMPLETE ??
Reply #52 - Jun 19th, 2012 at 5:43pm
 
(We're embarking on another tangent here, henriette, so feel free to disregard if you wish.)

NightOwl wrote on Jun 19th, 2012 at 10:14am:
re: Type "cd \" and press [Enter].You should now be at "A:\".

Ah, yes, the more direct way to get to the *root directory* of a given drive in DOS!

I don't know if "given drive" is semantically correct . . . it changes the directory on the current drive, whereas "cd a:\" would change the "given drive", and "a:" is the given.

DOS internally keeps track of the "working directory" on each drive, as well as the "current drive"--as you say, the drive with focus.

To switch the current drive, simply type "a:" or "c:".

(Aside:  DOS commands are not case-sensitive.  The command line is internally converted to uppercase by the command interpreter--e.g., io.sys, so case is irrelevant.)

DOS was beautiful in that it followed rigid rules.  Drives are denoted by a letter followed by a colon.  Backslashes denote directories.  The two special directory names, "." (current directory) and ".." (parent directory), are references that make the backslash relative instead of absolute.

"A:" refers to drive A:, "A:\" refers to the root directory of drive A:, and "\" refers to the root directory of the current drive.

DOS internally keeps track of the working directory of each drive, so if the working directory of C: is C:\BIN and the working directory of A: is A:\BACKUP, then typing "a:" or "c:" switches directly between A:\BACKUP and C:\BIN.

The CHDIR command (aka, "CD") changes the working directory.  Entering "cd foobar" is different from "cd \foobar", which is different from "cd c:\foobar", which is different from "cd c:foobar".

For illustration, suppose the working drive of C: is c:\dos\files, your current drive is A:, and the current working directory is a:\data\stuff.  Put all the rules together and you have the following very consistent and predictable results:
    command: result:
    cd foobar changes A: working dir to a:\data\stuff\foobar
    cd \foobar changes A: working dir to a:\foobar
    cd .\foobar changes A: working dir to a:\data\stuff\foobar
    cd ..\foobar changes A: working dir to a:\data\foobar
    cd c:foobar changes C: working dir to c:\dos\files\foobar
    cd c:\foobar changes C: working dir to c:\foobar
    cd c:.\foobar changes C: working dir to c:\dos\files\foobar
    cd c:..\foobar changes C: working dir to c:\dos\foobar
    cd c:..\..\foobar changes C: working dir to c:\foobar
(Note the changes to C: won't be apparent while A: is the current drive, but when you enter "c:" to switch the current drive you'll see the change.)

All this versatility isn't just for the convenience of the user, it's also for the benefit of programs.  A program can be installed in a directory with its own special subdirectories, and then be able to access files without having to worry about whether the user installed it somewhere other than the default or changed the name of the installation directory.

I'm sure you've heard stories of brain-dead programs that would only install to the C: drive or would only install to a specific, hard-coded directory.  That's not DOS's fault--it provided the options but the programmer didn't use them.



 
 
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henriette
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Re: Ghost 2003, Img XP > DVD, INCOMPLETE ??
Reply #53 - Jun 20th, 2012 at 6:34am
 
@
NightOwl

Quote:
I'm concerned--I didn't email you any instructions!  All of my communications have been postings on the forum.

... My concern is that if someone ... is impersonating me ... Opening an attachment or clicking on a link in such an email could be a real problem!

You don't have to be concerned,
please read the attachment = "Topic Notification", as I receive it.
--- (sorry, formatting went down the drain > *.eml to *.txt).
I called it *email notification instructions* in my post Roll Eyes

Facts:

Email *program* = Outlook Express > run with IE in private (newsletters)!
> I'm taking extra care of e.g. sorting out spam, deleting, not opening attachments etc. - in case of doubt I read the source code first, etc. etc.

Antivirus program = *ESET NOD32 v5* - NO freeware.
Always up to date definitions! Scans all emails.

There's no U.S. link available - so I've picked the u.k.:
http://www.eset.co.uk/Home/Smart-Security

As for the notification:
I don't receive the °header° only but also the content of the post + link.

After the link the line:
No more notifications will be sent until you visit the topic again.

Always had been that way. Also from other boards/forums. 

Still concerned  ?

henriette 



 

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henriette
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Re: Ghost 2003, Img XP > DVD, INCOMPLETE ??
Reply #54 - Jun 20th, 2012 at 7:33am
 
@
Dan

Quote:
We're embarking on another tangent here, henriette, so feel free to disregard if you wish

No way  Smiley

DOS is a most interesting *part* of the computer - its heart, if I may say so.

In other words: when I boot into DOS, I feel kinda *within* my PC ... just the fact that I lack in commands ---
*to lack the knack*, as the Brits say Grin

Mind: both my XP and my keyboard [QWERT
Z
] are all German. When it comes to DOS, though, it's all English >>> meaning also, I have to take the picture of an English keyboard [QWERT
Y
] in order to press the right keys.

No big problem, except > never forget that Z=Y!!! < most important when making changes in BIOS, after which you're asked to *save changes* --->
Y
ES =
Z
ES! Wink

I know there are tools where you can switch a German keyboard to English ... I refuse to try those odd tools!

Oh, I'm reading & trying to learn with utmost interest what you teach about DOS and it's commands.

henriette   Smiley






 

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Re: Ghost 2003, Img XP > DVD, INCOMPLETE ??
Reply #55 - Jun 20th, 2012 at 9:30am
 
@
henriette

henriette wrote on Jun 20th, 2012 at 6:34am:
Still concerned?

Nope! (Whew!).  You were talking *apples*, and I was thinking *oranges*!  The forum's email notification that a new replies have been added to a topic is not a problem at all.   

It's just the way you worded your response--I thought you were saying you got an email directly from me with the information on how to work with the *change directory* command in it, as opposed to a notification that new reply(s) were available on the forum.


 

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Re: Ghost 2003, Img XP > DVD, INCOMPLETE ??
Reply #56 - Jun 20th, 2012 at 9:40am
 
@
Dan Goodell

Dan Goodell wrote on Jun 19th, 2012 at 5:43pm:
(We're embarking on another tangent here,

Nice--*Summer School* session has started  Smiley !

Dan Goodell wrote on Jun 19th, 2012 at 5:43pm:
I don't know if "given drive" is semantically correct . . .

Indeed!  Bad semantics--computers and software really don't like that, do they  Wink !

One minor addition to your explanation:

Dan Goodell wrote on Jun 19th, 2012 at 5:43pm:
For illustration, suppose the working drive of C: is c:\dos\files, your current drive is A:, and the current working directory is a:\data\stuff. 

I think the directory *foobar* has to actually exist in all the locations that you use *cd* to change to--otherwise I get the error message *Invalid directory*!


Dan Goodell wrote on Jun 19th, 2012 at 5:43pm:
(Aside:DOS commands are not case-sensitive.The command line is internally converted to uppercase by the command interpreter--e.g., io.sys, so case is irrelevant.)

That must not have been *always* true.  Way back when, I can remember instructions saying DOS commands need to be all uppercase.  So, I assume somewhere along the line--probably long before DOS v6.22, the command interpreter wasn't so *smart*.
 

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Re: Ghost 2003, Img XP > DVD, INCOMPLETE ??
Reply #57 - Jun 20th, 2012 at 10:02am
 
@
henriette

henriette wrote on Jun 20th, 2012 at 7:33am:
when I boot into DOS, I feel kinda *within* my PC ... just the fact that I lack in commands --- 

My above reference to the [CHDIR] command--you can find all the DOS 6.22 commands at the site:  MS-DOS v6.22 Help: Command Reference.

I use it often when working out how to do things in DOS.

Just for the record--if opening a *command* window from within Windows--some *DOS* commands are different now compared to what they were back in the DOS 6.22 days.  So, you have to look up the correct *syntax* for whatever version of Windows you are currently using!

henriette wrote on Jun 20th, 2012 at 7:33am:
I know there are tools where you can switch a German keyboard to English ... I refuse to try those odd tools!

They're not so *odd*!  I think there are both DOS tools (drivers) and Windows tools for doing that--if you want to start another topic on how to do that (if it is of any value to you)--I'm sure we can probably walk you through it.

 

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Re: Ghost 2003, Img XP > DVD, INCOMPLETE ??
Reply #58 - Jun 20th, 2012 at 6:07pm
 
Dan,

While we are on a tangent can you explain what this does...

CD /d %~dp0

I've used it to change to the directory in use but I don't entirely understand what I've done.
 
 
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Re: Ghost 2003, Img XP > DVD, INCOMPLETE ??
Reply #59 - Jun 20th, 2012 at 7:56pm
 
NightOwl wrote on Jun 20th, 2012 at 9:40am:
I think the directory *foobar* has to actually exist in all the locations that you use *cd* to change to--otherwise I get the error message *Invalid directory*!

Correct.



Quote:
re: "The command line is internally converted to uppercase by the command interpreter--e.g., io.sys, so case is irrelevant."

That must not have been *always* true. Way back when, I can remember instructions saying DOS commands need to be all uppercase.

No, DOS commands have always been case-insensitive.  I remember, ages ago when I was teaching myself assembly language, I reverse engineered the DOS 2.1 and 3.3 command interpeters to see how they worked.  I could see in the assembly code where they read the keyboard buffer and looped alpha chars through an AND mask to strip out bit-5, effectively turning them into uppercase.

Aside: Take a look at a hexadecimal ASCII chart and you may notice the uppercase alphabet and lowercase alphabet differ only by bit-5.  For example, a "T" is 0x54 (binary 01010100) while "t" is 0x74 (binary 01110100).  If you clear/set bit-5 (third from the left), you can force the character to be upper/lower case.  The ASCII sequence was purposely designed that way.

Back then, memory space was precious so program code had to be lean and mean.  It was much more efficient to store the command table (inside the interpreter) all in one case, convert the keyboard command to the same case with an efficient, couple-byte program loop, then do a direct table comparison to find the jump vector to the command's subroutine.

I suppose I could point out that programmers might need to be alert to case within their program code sometimes, particularly if your program was trying to find comparisons to command or filename strings elsewhere.  But the command line itself, having to pass through DOS's command interpreter, has always been case insensitive.





 
 
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