Help wanted with knowledge gap.
 

I've recently had a HDD come into my possesion. It's a Samsung Spinpoint
80GB that was used in a machine in a hot place with no effort made in the
placement of the drive in the case to facilitate cooling.

I got the machine to troubleshoot as it kept crashing out of Windows, with
increasing frequency as it got hotter. It got to the stage where it wouldn't
boot. I replaced the drive and migrated all the data off it onto the
replacement, it was completely accessable as a slave drive. For my troubles
I got to keep the Samsung.

Anyway, it seems that there's something wrong with the MFT or somesuch. Not
only won't it boot but I can't install Windows to it, the installation
routine gives an error. (Can't remember what).

So, I decided to use it as a a data drive. An external USB data drive to be
exact. It works fine as such. I use it to back up certain folders from my
main machine and also to transfer files to other machines.

My problem? I still have a couple machines here that are running Win 89SE
and would like to format the drive with FAT32 as one partition so they can
see it as well. XP won't do this for me. Can anyone advise me of how to do
this? (The 98SE machines are running the "Unnoficial Service Pack" if that
means anything. I haven't tried formatting FAT32 with 98SE yet as those
machines only have USB1.1 and it's slooooow accessing the drive. However, I
will if that's a workable option. I just didn't want to delete the current
50GB of data and try it if it's not going to work).

Also, I need a freeware mirroring program. It gets tedious backing up my
folders to the drive each time, either over-writing the whole folder or just
doing an eye-ball comparison and copying the files selectively. It would be
reall nice to just plug it in and run a program that just copied the changed
or recently added files from the (identically named) source folders. Am I
asking too much? I have several back-up solutions (Some that will do
incremental back-ups) but they all insist on backing up to some proprietry,
compressed format. I just want the files to be backed up as identical to the
originals. That way I can access them from another machine.

Any help on these two problems?

Thanks heaps for any help.

Cheers,
--
~misfit~

Re: Help wanted with knowledge gap.
 

"~misfit~" <misfit61nz@wahoo.co.nz> wrote in
news:43d809e3@news.orcon.net.nz:

> My problem? I still have a couple machines here that are running Win
> 89SE and would like to format the drive with FAT32 as one partition so
> they can see it as well. XP won't do this for me. Can anyone advise me
> of how to do this? (The 98SE machines are running the "Unnoficial
> Service Pack" if that means anything. I haven't tried formatting FAT32
> with 98SE yet as those machines only have USB1.1 and it's slooooow
> accessing the drive. However, I will if that's a workable option. I
> just didn't want to delete the current 50GB of data and try it if it's
> not going to work).

There is no technical reason why Win98 cannot format an 80GB partition as
FAT32. However, to use the drive with the Win98 PCs you really should get a
USB2 PCI card that comes with Win98 drivers (around $25 to $30), otherwise
the speed will be pathetic.

Of course you could easily use more than one partition.

> Also, I need a freeware mirroring program. It gets tedious backing up
> my folders to the drive each time, either over-writing the whole
> folder or just doing an eye-ball comparison and copying the files
> selectively. It would be reall nice to just plug it in and run a
> program that just copied the changed or recently added files from the
> (identically named) source folders. Am I asking too much? I have
> several back-up solutions (Some that will do incremental back-ups) but
> they all insist on backing up to some proprietry, compressed format. I
> just want the files to be backed up as identical to the originals.
> That way I can access them from another machine.

XCOPY? If you use XCOPY /D then it will just copy the newer files. Type
XCOPY/? from the command prompt for the list of options.



--
Mark Heyes (New Zealand)
See my pics at www.gigatech.co.nz (last updated 5-September-05)
"The person on the other side was a young woman. Very obviously a
young woman. There was no possible way she could have been mistaken
for a young man in any language, especially Braille."
Maskerade

Re: Help wanted with knowledge gap.
 

"MarkH" <markat@atdot.dot.dot> wrote in message
news:1dUBf.273105$gj3.34115@fe02.news.easynews.com ...
> "~misfit~" <misfit61nz@wahoo.co.nz> wrote in
> news:43d809e3@news.orcon.net.nz:
>
>> My problem? I still have a couple machines here that are running Win
>> 89SE and would like to format the drive with FAT32 as one partition so
>> they can see it as well. XP won't do this for me. Can anyone advise me
>> of how to do this? (The 98SE machines are running the "Unnoficial
>> Service Pack" if that means anything. I haven't tried formatting FAT32
>> with 98SE yet as those machines only have USB1.1 and it's slooooow
>> accessing the drive. However, I will if that's a workable option. I
>> just didn't want to delete the current 50GB of data and try it if it's
>> not going to work).
>
> There is no technical reason why Win98 cannot format an 80GB partition as
> FAT32. However, to use the drive with the Win98 PCs you really should get
> a
> USB2 PCI card that comes with Win98 drivers (around $25 to $30), otherwise
> the speed will be pathetic.
>
> Of course you could easily use more than one partition.
>
>> Also, I need a freeware mirroring program. It gets tedious backing up
>> my folders to the drive each time, either over-writing the whole
>> folder or just doing an eye-ball comparison and copying the files
>> selectively. It would be reall nice to just plug it in and run a
>> program that just copied the changed or recently added files from the
>> (identically named) source folders. Am I asking too much? I have
>> several back-up solutions (Some that will do incremental back-ups) but
>> they all insist on backing up to some proprietry, compressed format. I
>> just want the files to be backed up as identical to the originals.
>> That way I can access them from another machine.
>
> XCOPY? If you use XCOPY /D then it will just copy the newer files. Type
> XCOPY/? from the command prompt for the list of options.
>
>
>
> --
> Mark Heyes (New Zealand)
> See my pics at www.gigatech.co.nz (last updated 5-September-05)
> "The person on the other side was a young woman. Very obviously a
> young woman. There was no possible way she could have been mistaken
> for a young man in any language, especially Braille."
> Maskerade

Or, try ...microsoft synctoy...very very nice piece of software.

Just setup this thing to echo from one folder to another. You can schedule
this to run automatically via windows task scheduler.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

Re: Help wanted with knowledge gap.
 

~misfit~ wrote:

> My problem? I still have a couple machines here that are running Win 89SE
> and would like to format the drive with FAT32 as one partition so they can
> see it as well. XP won't do this for me.

Boot a live Linux CD and create the partition.

Then format it as "vfat".

Presto.....a Windows partition.

Re: Help wanted with knowledge gap.
 

~misfit~ wrote:
> I've recently had a HDD come into my possesion. It's a Samsung Spinpoint
> 80GB that was used in a machine in a hot place with no effort made in the
> placement of the drive in the case to facilitate cooling.
>
> I got the machine to troubleshoot as it kept crashing out of Windows, with
> increasing frequency as it got hotter. It got to the stage where it wouldn't
> boot. I replaced the drive and migrated all the data off it onto the
> replacement, it was completely accessable as a slave drive. For my troubles
> I got to keep the Samsung.
>
> Anyway, it seems that there's something wrong with the MFT or somesuch. Not
> only won't it boot but I can't install Windows to it, the installation
> routine gives an error. (Can't remember what).
>
> So, I decided to use it as a a data drive. An external USB data drive to be
> exact. It works fine as such. I use it to back up certain folders from my
> main machine and also to transfer files to other machines.
>
> My problem? I still have a couple machines here that are running Win 89SE
> and would like to format the drive with FAT32 as one partition so they can
> see it as well. XP won't do this for me. Can anyone advise me of how to do
> this? (The 98SE machines are running the "Unnoficial Service Pack" if that
> means anything. I haven't tried formatting FAT32 with 98SE yet as those
> machines only have USB1.1 and it's slooooow accessing the drive. However, I
> will if that's a workable option. I just didn't want to delete the current
> 50GB of data and try it if it's not going to work).
>
> Also, I need a freeware mirroring program. It gets tedious backing up my
> folders to the drive each time, either over-writing the whole folder or just
> doing an eye-ball comparison and copying the files selectively. It would be
> reall nice to just plug it in and run a program that just copied the changed
> or recently added files from the (identically named) source folders. Am I
> asking too much? I have several back-up solutions (Some that will do
> incremental back-ups) but they all insist on backing up to some proprietry,
> compressed format. I just want the files to be backed up as identical to the
> originals. That way I can access them from another machine.
>
> Any help on these two problems?

No, but given the drive's history, have you run a SMART reporting tool
on it?

Something like HDD Tune, HDD Health or Everest Home Edition will tell
you more than you might like to know about the drive and may be able to
indicate if some kinds of failure are likely. Usually SMART enabled
drives will report serious errors on boot, but you need one of those
tools to see what has been happening before things get too serious.

Re: Help wanted with knowledge gap.
 

On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 12:22:16 +1300, ~misfit~ wrote:

> Also, I need a freeware mirroring program. It gets tedious backing up my
> folders to the drive each time, either over-writing the whole folder or just
> doing an eye-ball comparison and copying the files selectively. It would be
> reall nice to just plug it in and run a program that just copied the changed
> or recently added files from the (identically named) source folders. Am I
> asking too much?

Have you seen Cobian backup?

http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm

Set it up the backup what you want when you want and four types of backup.
Compression, or not, as you wish.

Option is keep x number of backup copies.

Re: Help wanted with knowledge gap.
 

~misfit~ wrote:

> I've recently had a HDD come into my possesion. It's a Samsung Spinpoint
> 80GB that was used in a machine in a hot place with no effort made in the
> placement of the drive in the case to facilitate cooling.
>
> I got the machine to troubleshoot as it kept crashing out of Windows, with
> increasing frequency as it got hotter. It got to the stage where it
> wouldn't boot. I replaced the drive and migrated all the data off it onto
> the replacement, it was completely accessable as a slave drive. For my
> troubles I got to keep the Samsung.
>
> Anyway, it seems that there's something wrong with the MFT or somesuch.
> Not only won't it boot but I can't install Windows to it, the installation
> routine gives an error. (Can't remember what).
>
> So, I decided to use it as a a data drive. An external USB data drive to
> be exact. It works fine as such. I use it to back up certain folders from
> my main machine and also to transfer files to other machines.
>
> My problem? I still have a couple machines here that are running Win 89SE
> and would like to format the drive with FAT32 as one partition so they can
> see it as well. XP won't do this for me. Can anyone advise me of how to do
> this? (The 98SE machines are running the "Unnoficial Service Pack" if that
> means anything. I haven't tried formatting FAT32 with 98SE yet as those
> machines only have USB1.1 and it's slooooow accessing the drive. However,
> I will if that's a workable option. I just didn't want to delete the
> current 50GB of data and try it if it's not going to work).
>
> Also, I need a freeware mirroring program. It gets tedious backing up my
> folders to the drive each time, either over-writing the whole folder or
> just doing an eye-ball comparison and copying the files selectively. It
> would be reall nice to just plug it in and run a program that just copied
> the changed or recently added files from the (identically named) source
> folders. Am I asking too much? I have several back-up solutions (Some that
> will do incremental back-ups) but they all insist on backing up to some
> proprietry, compressed format. I just want the files to be backed up as
> identical to the originals. That way I can access them from another
> machine.
>
> Any help on these two problems?
>
> Thanks heaps for any help.
>
> Cheers,
Hi
Try this one..it's freeware :-)

http://3d2f.com/programs/0-39-syncback-download.shtml

--
Cheers
Malcolm °¿°
"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is
that it has never tried to contact us - Bill Watterson".

Re: Help wanted with knowledge gap.
 

On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 13:47:02 +1300, news.xtra.co.nz wrote:

> Or, try ...microsoft synctoy...very very nice piece of software.
>
> Just setup this thing to echo from one folder to another. You can schedule
> this to run automatically via windows task scheduler.
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

Something is wrong, it says its Microsoft web site and yet it reads like
the PR people were sleeping when this was released. The tone/language is
like from someone who has been involved in its creation. These are people
who believe that the software is useful. We have built this programme to
help people. They explain the problem in a real world way, no gloss
bullshit here.

Still, when you give it away, you can focus on the software.

The other thing which is strange is that the programme size is only 844KB.

To quote

Overview
SyncToy v1.0 is available as a free download on the Microsoft Download Center.
The easy to use, customizable application helps you copy, move, rename,
and delete files between folders and computers.

There are new sources of files coming from every direction: digital cameras, e-mail,
cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops.
Increasingly, computer users are using different folders, drives, and even
different computers (such as a laptop and a desktop) to store and retrieve
files. Yet managing hundreds or thousands of files is still largely a
manual operation. In some cases it is necessary to get copies of files
from one place; in other cases there is a need to keep two storage
locations exactly in sync. Some users manage files manually, dragging and
dropping from one place to another and keeping a mental card catalog in
their heads. Others use one or more applications to provide this
functionality for them.

Now there is an easier way. SyncToy, a free PowerToy for Microsoft Windows XP,
is an easy to use, highly customizable program that helps users to do the
heavy lifting involved with the copying, moving, and synchronization of
different directories. Most common operations can be performed with just a
few clicks of the mouse, and additional customization is available without
added complexity. SyncToy can manage multiple sets of folders at the same
time; it can combine files from two folders in one case, and mimic renames
and deletes in another. Unlike other applications, SyncToy actually keeps
track of renames to files and will make sure those changes get carried
over to the synchronized folder.

We listened to your feedback. SyncToy was released as a beta in early August 2005.
We collected feedback from the discussion forum on the Windows XP
Professional Photography web site, from the customer feedback survey in
the product (to access the online survey, open SyncToy and select Help,
then select Customer Feedback), from a large number of professional and
hobbyist photographers at Microsoft, and from various world-wide forums,
sites, reviews and blogs on the web. Most of you (55%) asked for the
ability to type in a UNC path to select a folder. We added this feature
between the beta release and the current v1.0 release. Features we added
in response to customer feedback include:

To end quote.

Ah Ha Firefox has MS interest
 

On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 13:47:02 +1300, news.xtra.co.nz wrote:

> Or, try ...microsoft synctoy...very very nice piece of software.
>
> Just setup this thing to echo from one folder to another. You can schedule
> this to run automatically via windows task scheduler.
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

Right then gentle people, the aim of posting a URL is so that others may
visit it. Which I did. Web browser, Firefox, platform Linux.

So after trying to download the file I arrive here

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/M...displaylang=en

Which says in part

Quote

Windows Genuine Advantage plug-in installation

Some downloads are made available only after users have validated their
versions of Microsoft Windows. Firefox and Netscape Navigator browser
users may install a helper program, the Windows Genuine Advantage plug-in,
to enhance their download experience.

Unquote

Now this is interesting. Must switch platforms and try again using
Firefox. Nevertheless why should a web broswer need a MS plug in, to
download a file?

So you want to stop non genuine windows users, read ripped off copies of
users, not being able to get this piece of software. Fair enuff, so why
not put in the programme a check?

So the ripped off copy versions user can not get this programme, I suggest
that there are alternatives out there and they will be used. Sorry but I
trust these.

More importantly what does this progarmme (the plug in ) do to ones
system? ( After all Sony has shown us what is possible, but technically
and policy wise from a big multi national company )

A FAQ from MS is here

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/dow...displayLang=en

In part



Q:


What is an ActiveX control, and how is it used in the validation process?

A:


An ActiveX control is a small, executable code package that users of
Internet Explorer can download and run on their PCs. The Windows Genuine
Advantage validation process uses the ActiveX control to check the
authenticity of your Windows software. If the ActiveX control successfully
validates your Windows software, it stores a special download key on your
PC for future use.


Q:


Are ActiveX controls safe to run on my PC?

A:


ActiveX controls are officially signed with their publisher’s name, which
allows you to judge for yourself whether or not they are safe to run on
your PC. The official signature is listed prominently in a dialog box that
is displayed before the control is installed on your system. If an ActiveX
control does not contain a valid publisher signature, Internet Explorer
will prompt you with a security warning and prevent you from downloading
it to your PC.


Q:


How do I know if the ActiveX control used by WGA is safe to run on my PC?

A:


The first time you request a genuine Windows download from the Download
Center or Windows Update, you will be asked to install an ActiveX control.
The ActiveX control used by Windows Genuine Advantage is signed by
Microsoft Corp. If you do not see sufficient evidence of this signature,
you should not download the control.



Q:


Some companies do not allow employees to install ActiveX.
How can they take advantage of the WGA validation process?

A:


Users can validate using the alternative method, which entails running a small
executable file. A link for the executable file is available on the page
containing the instructions for the ActiveX control.


Q:


Will the validation process work with the Firefox Web browser?

A:


Yes, you can complete the validation process using the Firefox Web browser.
Users of the Firefox browser are automatically offered a Firefox browser
plug-in for WGA validation and instructions for plug-in installation. The
browser plug-in provides the same Windows validation as the ActiveX
control. English-language users who have trouble running the Firefox
browser plug-in may access the WGA Diagnostic Site for troubleshooting.


Q:


Will the validation process work with non-Microsoft Web browsers?

A:


Yes, you can complete the validation process using a non-Microsoft Web browser.
Mozilla Firefox users: Although the instructions for the validation tool
executable file say to open or run the file from its current location,
Firefox will not present you with either of those options. Instead, save
the file to your PC, and then double-click the file to run it.



Q:


Will systems running WINE pass WGA validation?

A:


Wine is an implementation of the Windows 3.x and Win32 APIs on top of X
and Unix. When WGA validation detects WINE running on the system, it will
notify users that they are running non-genuine Windows, and it will not
allow genuine Windows downloads for that system. Users of WINE should
consult the WINE community for WINE updates. It is important to note that
WINE users, and other users of non-genuine Windows, can continue to
download updates for most Microsoft applications from Microsoft
application-specific sites, such as Office Update


Unquote.

All very interesting stuff.

Firefox and *inx has entered the MS web site.

Another question, If MS activation system is so **** hot as they have said
it is, how the hell are their ripped off copies out there?

As it is not Sunday, and yet I can hear some bells ringing I shall move
away from all of this as suddenly I have lost interest.

Re: Help wanted with knowledge gap.
 

~misfit~ wrote:
>
> Also, I need a freeware mirroring program. It gets tedious backing up
> my folders to the drive each time, either over-writing the whole
> folder or just doing an eye-ball comparison and copying the files
> selectively. It would be reall nice to just plug it in and run a
> program that just copied the changed or recently added files from the
> (identically named) source folders. Am I asking too much? I have
> several back-up solutions (Some that will do incremental back-ups)
> but they all insist on backing up to some proprietry, compressed
> format. I just want the files to be backed up as identical to the
> originals. That way I can access them from another machine.
>
xcopy comes with Windows. I think that it goes back to 98SE but I'm not
sure.

Cheers,

Cliff