Hi 'Derrick' ;)
Thanks for your input.
Again, yezzz, I did all the usual stuff, plus some of the nasty stuff, including all the undocumented stuff, but everything to no avail - first then I chose to write this
list.
Just like you, in the begining, I had a problem accepting that some crappy piece of (HP) software should be in my way of backing up the system the way I want to, yet
everything pointed towards it.
But, yes, this IS the case with the HP G62 laptop, unfortunately.
This is a very clear "Go-HP-or-no-go"-laptop case, also according to HP on the
mentioned web site.
HP support being almost non-exsistant on the subject therefore makes me
recommend NEVER to buy an HP laptop. Ever.
<insert HUGE FART here/>
Not anything left to do on this subject, I'm afraid.
/s
Gaffer wrote:
Hi Soren,
Replys In Line,
On Friday 29 October 2010 20:38:20 Soren wrote:
Hi Derrick,
Thanks a lot for your very thourough input.
However, I've tried out everything you mention, then plus++ some,
sorry.
The main problem is a request for a redirector within *any* DOS,
without neither *any* DOS nor Win7 reacting from input from this
redirector.
While the solution to this problem obviously should be within the
world of specs that the HWG members move within, this turned out NOT
to be the case with this laptop.
Quite burried into the HP support sites (referred from acronis.com),
I finally found a page saying that the HP software on a G62 laptop
*will block* any "foreign software", including any access to the HDD.
Are you sure that you have read this correctly ? I've got a heavily
virused G6200 on the bench at the moment and have to backup the clients
data. There is a mechanism that if activated, will prevent any attempt
to access the HDD without a password, it will also prevent any
attempted access by removing the HDD and placing it in another machine,
it would probably cause the issue that you have. But as far as I am
aware you don't have to activate the protection unless you want to use
it.
Furthermore, uninstalling this HP software
I'm not sure that the software that does the drive protection and
locking can be removed ! I am under the impression that its some kind
of interaction between the machine BIOS and the HDD BIOS. Although the
bit of software that is used to configure it could be removed.
will void the warranty,
which is out of the question because of Danish Law about a two years
mandatory warranty. Nice. Well, depending... one could blame oneself
by naming this a "feature" ;)
Conclusion on this journey: Never buy an HP laptop, unless you want
to use everything as dictated by MS and especially HP.
I can't disagree there ! :-)
I had to talk
my mom into investing in a USB HDD, from which back up of course
still will take forever, but still keeping it doable. Right now I'm
wondering about keeping all the "profile" files on an USB pen, only
this isn't much different from the *nix distro I use myself. But,
"Moms on *nix"...? Nope, I don't think so :)
As of laptops, I've experienced a different brand of laptops as a
completely different story, but that subject is off list.
/s
Gaffer wrote:
On Friday 08 October 2010 19:59:12 Soren wrote:
Booting from a normally usable floppy on CD (floppy disk
emulation), it only generates this exact error message:
"Type the name of the command interpreter (e.g.,
C:\WINDOWS.COMMAND.COM) A>"
NOTE: When I refer to "bootable floppy disk" I mean "bootable floppy
disk image" ! By default when you make a bootable CD, it doesn't copy
all the files needed to access anything other than the HDD. You need
to create a fully configured boot image and then write that to the CD.
Basically that error message is saying "I can't find Command.com on
drive C:" In which case just reply "A:\command.com" assuming a DOS
bootable floppy disk.
Or make sure that the disk is bootable and "Command.com" is in the
root directory of the floppy disk. You may need a "Config.sys"
file with the line "A:\command.com" in it.
Well, after getting an external USB floppy drive ('only' 45 US
bucks here in DK...), the laptop now boots properly from a floppy
disk, except no CD/DVD drive is detected. I tried this with no
less than eleven diferent boot disks, and all were no-go. "The CD
driver isn't loaded" is the common error message.
In that case you need a driver for the CD and a line in the
"Config.sys" file pointing to it eg: "A:\CD.sys". You will now
need an "Autoexec.bat" file with the correct parameters for the CD
drive.
Easiest way to do this is copy the parameters from a "DOS6.22" boot
disk.
The second - and maybe most important thing - is that while it's
possible to start ghost.exe from this USB floppy drive, the error
message is "...no drive to clone (11093)..." appears. Nice :)
Thats simply because you don't have a CD driver loaded ! Ghost
can't see the CD drive.
This could be caused by either the fact that a CD driver is not
loaded, or that a 2003 Ghost is not supporting newer systems. A
Google search didn't bring me any closer.
Ghost works just fine from a floppy with access to a usable CD
drive.
To say it straight, forget about Linux's dd, and Acronis in this
case, as I want absolute reliablity, and neither do serve that.
Rubbish ! If used properly then both work as advertised.
I know Symantec is working on a new version of Ghost that works
within Win7, so this could be a common problem?
Any suggestions?
If SATA's the problem (seems obvious), where do I find a boot
floppy for this??? (bootdisk.com doesn't fix this)
Assuming SATA is supported by the BIOS then it shouldn't be a
problem. If drivers are needed then they will probably be available
somewhere on the net. Though I must admit I've not yet met a
situation where I've needed SATA drivers.
Thanks.
/soren
HTH, YMMV.
