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Bios seeing USB stick as floppy

barnai

By barnai
in Install Windows from USB

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barnai

barnai

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@Siginet:

I tried ur exe, but when I choose the USB boot option in the startup menu, I just get a black screen with "XO" at top left, and nothing more is possible except pressing ctrl+alt+suppr to reboot.

Thanks for ur concern anyway :)

@ilko_t:

I tried something else after Siginet's tool: I added a line in boot.ini to try and locate the usb:

multi(0)disk(0)X\grldr="USB boot"

with different possibilities for X:

1. rdisk(1)partition(1)

2. fdisk(0)

3. fdisk(0)partition(1)

4. fdisk(0)partition(0)

For 1 and 3 I just get the error message meaning the location does not exist. But 2 and 4 (which I suspect must be equivalent :unsure: ) yield:

Windows could not start because <Systemroot>\system32\hal.dll is corrupted or missing

or so. I suppose it means that were hitting the right place, but with some ingredient still missing.

Hope it helps.

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ilko_t

ilko_t

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Lets go step-by-step.

How is setup launched- grub4dos' grldr loads setupldr.bin, which looks on several places for ntdetect.com

and txtsetup.sif. After ntdetect.com is executed and passed back the hardware information, txtsetup.sif is read.

The directives BootDevice and BootPath tell setupldr where to continue loading files from, up to the EULA screen, or if disabled- to the partitioning screen. In your case we need to get past this point. After that SetupSourceDevice and SetupSourcePath tell Setup where to find the source files which will be copied, you have not reached this point yet, so those values should not be relevant.

BootPath is the directory where I386 can be found, this is in the device, specified by BootDevice.

For BootDevice we need to figure out what would be acceptable syntax. For USB disk seen as hard disks there is a proper ARC path created- multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(X), since its the first booted device, and it's a hard disk. Using grub4dos mapping we can "swap" places with the internal hard disk, so Setup places boot files on the internal disk, which after "swapping" Setup thinks it's the boot device. Basically we amend the ARC path with this mapping.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/102873

For sticks seen as FDD, there might not be an ARC path created at all, or we missed the proper syntax, which should be something like these:

multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)

multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)partition(0)

multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)partition(1)

In this case, when seen as floppy, there is no need to "swap" hard drives, as our internal one is already the first internal hard disk, and boot files will go there.

If you still have a working widnows on this machine, try WinObj, go to GLOBAL?? and find all symlinks to your USB stick, there will be several. Can you list them all here, even better with a few screenshots for complete view.

Another shot- try changing all names, including directory names from WIN_SETUP to WINSETUP. Next change XP_Pro_SP2 or whatever you have to XP.

You need to change directory names and BootPath and SetupSourcePath in TXTSETUP.SIF, also winsetup.lst.

If none the above helps, we can try to put the first files windows loads on the USB stick, and try to boot them with various options in boot.ini, which would be on the USB stick.

Another idea- try to create a single partition when formatting with RMPrepUSB or Bootice, if you created two.

And another one- try launching PLoP first, the select USB, then try setup again, but with rdisk(1) values in txtsetup.sif and mapping in winsetup.lst.

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jaclaz

jaclaz

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For sticks seen as FDD, there might not be an ARC path created at all, or we missed the proper syntax, which should be something like these:

multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)

multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)partition(0)

multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)partition(1)

The "right" one should be this one:

multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)

multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)\WINDOWS

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=22716

On floppy it is possible that files go into root (instead of a subdir), see cdob's post in the above.

jaclaz

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barnai

barnai

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- Concerning winobj, here is a screenshot of the usb devices:

winobj.png

The device selected in the image is also appearing in front of the name corresponding to the drive letter (E:).

- I shortened the directory name as advised, fell back to BootDevice=multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0) (same for SetupSourceDevice) and guess what ? The install still stops immedialtely, the message still talks about biosinfo.inf which could not be loaded, but the error code is now 1 ! :wacko:

Talking seriously though, it could be helpful to know the exact meaning of those error codes. Otherwise were kind of shooting blindfold. I tried to find something but even on microsoft pages, theres not much about that kind of messages...

- The solution with boot.ini could be interesting, but I wont be able to do anything by myself since I have no clue regarding which files would be needed. Anyway I have the feeling that the floppy detection business wont make things easy for us there either :whistle:

- I created a single partition with Bootice. Besides I made a few tries with 2 or more partitions when we started all this (when I could not boot on the stick) and it doesnt help the detection as USB-HDD if thats what u have in mind.

- Finally concerning plop I suppose ur proposing to install it on the stick and not on my main HD. I tried to install through the windows boot menu, but the setup seemed unable to detect the stick: the choices offered to select the destination disk did not work (I did not try the default choice since it must correspond to the main HD).

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jaclaz

jaclaz

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Very good. :)

You just joined the club of blindfolded troubleshooters. :thumbup

It is OBVIOUS that MS has not documented anything about this :whistle: , they have been bragging around for years saying it was IMPOSSIBLE. :ph34r: (just like Internet Explorer being a "core OS" file, running 2K/XP from a USB stick, etc., etc.)

Of course to get some target when shooting blindfolded you need lots of patience and you need to shoot a lot. ;)

As always, the suggestion is to forget (for the moment ) the actual XP install from your USB floppy like device, and start finding the solutions.

What I would do would be (if I get it right you now have a booting USB stick capable through grub4dos to chainload SETUPLDR.BIN) to leave just grldr and menu.lst on the stick, removing all the rest and add to it the contents of the boot floppies mentioned by cdob:

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=22716

Open the downloaded file with 7-zip, then from within it open .rsrc, then open RCDATA then open CABINET then open each of the floppy images and extract from it the files to root of the stick.

Try booting from the stick, you should get past the errors you are getting now. (and stop to something else :().

The TXTSETUP.SI_ in the floppy set has:

Directory di C:\Downloaded\XPSETUPFLOPPIES\Root_of_stick

19/12/2009  20.46    <DIR>          .
19/12/2009  20.46    <DIR>          ..
17/08/2001  14.06            28.558 1394BUS.SY_
17/08/2001  14.06             6.259 1394VDBG.SY_
17/08/2001  13.52            13.699 ABP480N5.SY_
17/08/2001  13.57            91.441 ACPI.SY_
17/08/2001  13.57             6.449 ACPIEC.SY_
17/08/2001  14.07            50.331 ADPU160M.SY_
17/08/2001  13.52             8.038 AHA154X.SY_
17/08/2001  14.07            29.912 AIC78U2.SY_
17/08/2001  14.07            30.488 AIC78XX.SY_
17/08/2001  13.51             2.839 ALIIDE.SY_
17/08/2001  13.52             7.277 AMSINT.SY_
17/08/2001  13.52            15.258 ASC.SY_
17/08/2001  13.52            13.211 ASC3350P.SY_
17/08/2001  13.51             8.936 ASC3550.SY_
17/08/2001  13.51            47.118 ATAPI.SY_
17/08/2001  12.01            46.843 BIOSINFO.INF
17/08/2001  13.49             6.232 BOOTVID.DL_
17/08/2001  13.52             7.630 CBIDF2K.SY_
17/08/2001  13.52             3.975 CD20XRNT.SY_
17/08/2001  22.24            34.873 CDFS.SY_
17/08/2001  13.52            24.094 CDROM.SY_
17/08/2001  22.24            25.873 CLASSPNP.SY_
17/08/2001  13.51             3.671 CMDIDE.SY_
17/08/2001  13.52             8.537 CPQARRAY.SY_
21/07/2001  14.20             1.479 C_1252.NL_
21/07/2001  14.20             1.642 C_437.NL_
17/08/2001  13.52            29.302 DAC2W2K.SY_
17/08/2001  13.52             8.001 DAC960NT.SY_
17/08/2001  13.52            18.935 DISK.SY_
17/08/2001  23.20                 2 DISK101
17/08/2001  23.20                 2 DISK102
17/08/2001  23.20                 2 DISK103
17/08/2001  23.20                 2 DISK104
17/08/2001  23.20                 2 DISK105
17/08/2001  23.20                 2 DISK106
17/08/2001  13.58           121.923 DMBOOT.SY_
17/08/2001  13.58            69.563 DMIO.SY_
17/08/2001  13.58             2.859 DMLOAD.SY_
17/08/2001  14.07            10.997 DPTI2O.SY_
17/08/2001  14.26             8.104 DRVMAIN.SDB
17/08/2001  22.24            76.742 FASTFAT.SY_
17/08/2001  13.51            14.958 FDC.SY_
17/08/2001  13.51            11.193 FLPYDISK.SY_
17/08/2001  13.52            60.791 FTDISK.SY_
17/08/2001  13.48            53.060 HAL.DL_
17/08/2001  13.48            46.309 HALAACPI.DL_
17/08/2001  13.48            39.492 HALACPI.DL_
17/08/2001  13.48            50.996 HALAPIC.DL_
17/08/2001  13.48            47.895 HALMACPI.DL_
17/08/2001  13.48            52.257 HALMPS.DL_
17/08/2001  13.48            37.640 HALSP.DL_
17/08/2001  14.02            19.169 HIDCLASS.SY_
17/08/2001  14.02            12.269 HIDPARSE.SY_
17/08/2001  14.02             5.265 HIDUSB.SY_
17/08/2001  14.07            15.648 HPN.SY_
17/08/2001  13.52            23.251 HPT3XX.SY_
17/08/2001  13.56             3.862 I2OMGMT.SY_
17/08/2001  13.56            10.086 I2OMP.SY_
17/08/2001  22.24            25.795 I8042PRT.SY_
17/08/2001  13.52             8.560 INI910U.SY_
17/08/2001  13.51             2.587 INTELIDE.SY_
17/08/2001  13.58            20.351 ISAPNP.SY_
17/08/2001  22.34             5.632 KBDA1.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             5.632 KBDA2.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             5.632 KBDA3.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.656 KBDAL.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.120 KBDARME.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.120 KBDARMW.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDAZE.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDAZEL.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDBE.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDBLR.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDBR.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDBU.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDCA.DLL
17/08/2001  13.47            12.049 KBDCLASS.SY_
17/08/2001  14.55             6.656 KBDCR.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             7.168 KBDCZ.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.656 KBDCZ1.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.656 KBDCZ2.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDDA.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             5.632 KBDDIV1.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             5.632 KBDDIV2.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.120 KBDDV.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDES.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDEST.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             5.632 KBDFA.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDFC.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDFI.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDFR.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDGAE.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.120 KBDGEO.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDGKL.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDGR.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDGR1.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDHE.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDHE220.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDHE319.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             5.632 KBDHEB.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDHELA2.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.656 KBDHELA3.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             8.192 KBDHEPT.DLL
17/08/2001  13.48             7.707 KBDHID.SY_
17/08/2001  14.55             6.656 KBDHU.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDHU1.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDIC.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             5.632 KBDINDEV.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             5.632 KBDINGUJ.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             5.632 KBDINHIN.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             5.632 KBDINKAN.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             5.632 KBDINMAR.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             6.144 KBDINPUN.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             5.632 KBDINTAM.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             5.632 KBDINTEL.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDIR.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDIT.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDIT142.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDKAZ.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             5.632 KBDKYR.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.656 KBDLA.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDLT.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDLT1.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDLV.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDLV1.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             5.632 KBDMON.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDNE.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             7.168 KBDNEC.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDNO.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.656 KBDPL.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDPL1.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDPO.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDRO.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDRU.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDRU1.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDSF.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.656 KBDSG.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.656 KBDSL.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.656 KBDSL1.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDSP.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDSW.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             5.632 KBDSYR1.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             5.632 KBDSYR2.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDTAT.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             5.632 KBDTH0.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             5.632 KBDTH1.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             6.144 KBDTH2.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             6.144 KBDTH3.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDTUF.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDTUQ.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDUK.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDUR.DLL
17/08/2001  22.34             5.632 KBDURDU.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDUS.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDUSL.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDUSR.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.144 KBDUSX.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDUZB.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDVNTC.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             5.632 KBDYCC.DLL
17/08/2001  14.55             6.656 KBDYCL.DLL
17/08/2001  13.49             6.327 KD1394.DL_
17/08/2001  13.49             4.184 KDCOM.DL_
17/08/2001  13.50            79.744 KSECDD.SYS
17/08/2001  13.51            14.354 LBRTFDC.SY_
21/07/2001  14.20               847 L_INTL.NL_
17/08/2001  13.47            19.213 MOUNTMGR.SY_
17/08/2001  13.52             9.785 MRAID35X.SY_
17/08/2001  12.42            45.124 NTDETECT.COM
17/08/2001  22.24           533.504 NTFS.SYS
17/08/2001  22.24           938.895 NTKRNLMP.EX_
17/08/2001  14.06            35.701 OHCI1394.SY_
17/08/2001  13.57             1.629 OPRGHDLR.SY_
17/08/2001  22.24            10.256 PARTMGR.SY_
17/08/2001  13.58            35.550 PCI.SY_
17/08/2001  13.51             1.695 PCIIDE.SY_
17/08/2001  13.51            13.478 PCIIDEX.SY_
17/08/2001  13.58            54.287 PCMCIA.SY_
17/08/2001  14.07            16.328 PERC2.SY_
17/08/2001  14.07             3.363 PERC2HIB.SY_
17/08/2001  13.52            22.761 QL1080.SY_
17/08/2001  13.52            18.888 QL10WNT.SY_
17/08/2001  13.52            25.938 QL12160.SY_
17/08/2001  13.52            22.855 QL1240.SY_
17/08/2001  13.52            27.359 QL1280.SY_
17/08/2001  13.56             4.750 RAMDISK.SY_
17/08/2001  13.52            21.479 SBP2PORT.SY_
17/08/2001  13.51            50.517 SCSIPORT.SY_
17/08/2001  13.50             8.226 SERENUM.SY_
17/08/2001  22.24            29.943 SERIAL.SY_
17/08/2001  13.56           198.488 SETUPDD.SY_
17/08/2001  13.49           237.728 SETUPLDR.BIN
17/08/2001  11.57           262.144 SETUPREG.HIV
17/08/2001  13.52             6.092 SFLOPPY.SY_
17/08/2001  14.07             5.519 SLIP.SY_
17/08/2001  14.07            11.098 SPARROW.SY_
05/10/2001  08.57           225.152 SPCMDCON.SYS
17/08/2001  13.56             1.599 SPDDLANG.SY_
17/08/2001  14.07             6.751 STREAMIP.SY_
17/08/2001  14.07             8.352 SYMC810.SY_
17/08/2001  14.07            18.304 SYMC8XX.SY_
17/08/2001  14.07            16.761 SYM_HI.SY_
17/08/2001  14.07            17.923 SYM_U3.SY_
19/12/2009  20.46    <DIR>          SYSTEM32
17/08/2001  13.52            36.527 TFFSPORT.SY_
17/08/2001  13.51             2.629 TOSIDE.SY_
17/08/2001  12.04            71.155 TXTSETUP.SI_
17/08/2001  13.52            15.864 ULTRA.SY_
17/08/2001  14.03            11.490 USBCCGP.SY_
17/08/2001  14.03             2.495 USBD.SY_
17/08/2001  14.03            27.955 USBHUB.SY_
17/08/2001  14.03             8.900 USBOHCI.SY_
17/08/2001  14.03            54.560 USBPORT.SY_
17/08/2001  14.03            12.620 USBSTOR.SY_
17/08/2001  14.03            10.834 USBUHCI.SY_
17/08/2001  13.57            10.088 VGA.SY_
21/07/2001  14.40             2.437 VGAOEM.FO_
17/08/2001  13.51             2.475 VIAIDE.SY_
17/08/2001  13.57            33.045 VIDEOPRT.SY_
17/08/2001  14.07             2.509 WMILIB.SY_
             218 File      5.402.669 byte

 Directory di C:\Downloaded\XPSETUPFLOPPIES\Root_of_stick\SYSTEM32

19/12/2009  20.46    <DIR>          .
19/12/2009  20.46    <DIR>          ..
17/08/2001  22.21           674.304 NTDLL.DLL
17/08/2001  22.37           469.504 SMSS.EXE
               2 File      1.143.808 byte

     Totale file elencati:
             220 File      6.546.477 byte

jaclaz

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ilko_t

ilko_t

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It's quite likely when setup loads from a floppy, to ignore BootPath directive, which works for CD and HD installs, and to look for the rest of the boot files in root.

You can try copying biosinfo.inf to root of USB stick and see if error message changes to another file name.

If that's the case, we need to figure out how to successfully map fd0 to hd1. Using the apparently proper multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0) would not help much, unless we use root for holding all files. Not quite sure how would we point to the source files once reach the file copy stage, no wonder if there is something else hardcoded again, just as msdosinitiated=1 behavior :angry:

Looking at microsoft support wouldn't help, most of this is undocumented at all, actually the whole project for installing from USB was developed mostly by experimenting, very often using random shots in the darkness ;)

PLoP is included by default in the next beta, which I should be posting in a few hours in the main WinSetupFromUSB thread.

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barnai

barnai

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Open the downloaded file with 7-zip, then from within it open .rsrc, then open RCDATA then open CABINET then open each of the floppy images and extract from it the files to root of the stick.

There is no .rsrc file in the exe file I downloaded. The image files are directly at the root, along with 2 other exe files. And when I open the images there is not that many files: e.g in cdboot3.img there is one file called fdc.sys, and in fdc.sys there are only 7 files. And similarly for most of the images.

Am I missing something ? Or didnt I downloaded the right file ?

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jaclaz

jaclaz

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Open the downloaded file with 7-zip, then from within it open .rsrc, then open RCDATA then open CABINET then open each of the floppy images and extract from it the files to root of the stick.

There is no .rsrc file in the exe file I downloaded. The image files are directly at the root, along with 2 other exe files. And when I open the images there is not that many files: e.g in cdboot3.img there is one file called fdc.sys, and in fdc.sys there are only 7 files. And similarly for most of the images.

Am I missing something ? Or didnt I downloaded the right file ?

Which files did you download?

The ones I am talking about are the ones on the reference given by cdob:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994

Files are Respectively SP0, SP1 and sP2:

  • WinXP_EN_PRO_BF.EXE
  • winxpsp1_en_pro_bf.exe
  • WindowsXP-KB310994-SP2-Pro-BootDisk-ENU.exe

Are you using 7-zip or another app?

I am using right now 9.07 Beta.

In cdboot3.img there is a number of files, among which there is fdc.sy_ which contains (ONLY ;)) fdc.sys .

jaclaz

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barnai

barnai

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@ilko_t:

I tried to put biosinfo.inf at the root of the stick but there wasnt any change. Bad news or bad news ? :P

I am using right now 9.07 Beta.

Precisely ! I was using v4.65 and apparently the result of archives decompression varies from one version to another... :blink:

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jaclaz

jaclaz

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Precisely ! I was using v4.65 and apparently the result of archives decompression varies from one version to another... :blink:

Yes :), usually later versions have "better" capabilities and work "smoother", (the 7-zip developer likes to work this way, as opposed to the usual MS way ;))

:P

jaclaz

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ilko_t

ilko_t

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Posted
@ilko_t:

I tried to put biosinfo.inf at the root of the stick but there wasnt any change. Bad news or bad news ? :P

Just another piece of puzzle, which is pushing me to find a similar machine and play a bit on it.
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