tested on a wind notebook, works great. anyway, is possible to have the "recovery" iso, in a way, in case vista not booting, can use a pendrive, instead a dvd/cd drive, cause many notebooks like this one, are missing odd
So it should be fixed, shouldn't it ? I can test, but give some more tips how to boot Vista "manually" from that GRUB prompt. Vista is there on first partition and its loader too. I've run uninstall.cmd (original MBR restore) and voila Vista is booting again.
Of course, bootmgr is in root on Vista partition - (hd0,0) in GRUB nomenclature. Like I said Vista is perfectly bootable before WOW and after using uninstall.cmd and restoring original MBR. I installed WOW from running Vista of course. Unfortunately I don't fully understand the sequence of patching SLIC that way so I can't simply change configuration. As far as I know it goes: 1. grub4dos loads from mbr 2. it boots wow.img that makes the job with SLIC 3. what next ? 4. something triggers original Vista bootmgr 5. normal loading of Vista procedure Am I right ? Could you explain 3) and 4) points ? PS. Ok, now I assume that wow.img runs slic-patch and then runs grub.exe itself with own menu.lst. I need to edit that file for my purpose - is it possible ? What software do you recommend to do that ? TIA
Use WinImage 6 for editing the wow.img file. If you want I can do the edit of menu.lst to commands you like. Current menu.lst default 0 hiddenmenu map (fd0) (fd0) map --unhook find --set-root /bootmgr chainloader /bootmgr Boot process goes like this. MBR starts grldr, grldr makes virtual floppy and boots it. Inside wow.img runs MS-DOS that run autoexec.bat that executes wow.exe, the grub.exe. grub uses above menu.lst to unmap floppy, find bootmgr and lauch it.
1. grub4dos loads from mbr 2. it boots wow.img that makes the job with SLIC. Wow.img is a windows 98 bootable DOS floppyImage, which boots to dos and runs flagmax' patch file. After that it executes grub at image, which has got its own menu.lst. Grub unmaps Fd0 and looks for Vistas bootmgr to execute Vista. Open wow.img with winimage, extract and edit its menu.lst. After that replace it. Edit: Hi flagmax, you were faster................... You can try this: (bootmgr must be at (hd0,0)) default 0 hiddenmenu map (fd0) (fd0) map --unhook root (hd0,0) chainloader /bootmgr
Larus: Just try manually typing those commands at grub> prompt: Maybe need to add another command at the end: boot
Thanks for Yen Thanks a lot, yes, after I have modified my BIOS, I have found out that there is no hope to activate Windows Vista since the SLIC table is already presented correctly. After I have posted the last reply with a new .ats file, I have reinstalled Windows Vista by using a upgrade option since this option can keep all the security settings and user files. But I found a funny thing thing that after the reinstallation, Windows is activated by Vista Loader v3.0.0.1 and Microsoft Update do not require my machine to install the Microsoft "Important" Update 940510 again lol". The Microsoft "Important" Update 940510 was totally disappeared - -". Is this means that the Microsoft "Important" Update 940510 is a part of security settings or user files? lol" Now I have reinstalled Windows Vista with a clean installation and formatting process of harddisk since I cannot rearm the Software License after updating my BIOS lol" (The CMOS time problem). However, one of the most important things that I want to warn all you guys, please do not try to remove all the folders inside C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Appdata (%USERNAME% is your Windows Account Name). Remeber, *NEVER*, *NEVER*, *NEVER*. After you have removed all the folders inside C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Appdata, your Windows Vista may become *inactivated* and there is no hope for a easy recovering method (May be you can try file restoration if you have not reused the sectors in harddisk yet). In addition, I would like to congratulate Yen for his great new method to activate Windows Vista. Without visiting this forum for two weaks, your method has been developed into a greater and faster method that only require installation once and do not need for posting .ats file again. If I am guessing correctly, actually your method is to modify the content of the RAM to include a correct table of SLIP, and then reactivate Windows Vista by installing the certificate immediately. P.S. I know that some users here have required a method to run the programs when the computer starts. I prefer two ways to run the program on startup. First, using the HKLM startup key, which located at HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run. Second, I will prefer using a .sys file (driver) to load the program or modify the content of RAM. The reason of using a driver is that it can hook the process and other files. This make the process or files cannot be detected by Microsoft (because Microsoft cannot access the files from Windows API =]). But the second method may be detected by some Anti-Virus software as a rootkit and ask the user to delete it. But I know that this issue has been fixed now since the "WoW" program now only require a one-click of installation.
Thank you for the clear instructions flagmax & Yen! You are simply great And there is no need to modify files for me, I like discovering myself And that's what I got: The problem is in the command: Code: chainloader /bootmgr Strange but it is to blame for not boot. Changing it inside wow.img to: Code: chainloader (hd0,0)+1 ...did the trick Works perfect! Great job! Thanks!
@ Larus I’m glad, you’ve got it! Thanks for that information, it’s probably useful for others as well. Grub is a bit strange regarding commands…… @ unknownzd About Wow: The ‘heart’ of it was written by flagmax, he explained already how it works. The idea to patch a SLIC came from Regina. The original goal was to fool the HP flash tool. Soon vladman discovered rw-everything and AutoexNt service method. I’ve acted as coordinator. I’ve opened threads to gather info and I wanted to find a hardcoded solution first……I’ve pushed this project, otherwise it would have been died. First we wrote into RAM with HwDirect manually, it worked, so the approach was done already. I was convinced…… Flagmax’ code searches the RSD PTR and gets the all the needed info by itself. Please don’t say it’s ‘my’ method, it’s a cooperation……I have developed a few methods, yes. But they are about bios modding. About to execute a program at start up: Question: When is activation verified? Put it into autostart folder---> execution too late! HKLM startup key--> execution too late! Start script added with gpedit.msc---->execution too late! Run by autoexnt service ---> moment of execution OK, runs only at 32 bit! Run via bootloader in a DOS environment, BEFORE Vista boots at all---> best solution. Running by sys driver---> easy to disable by M$ (see Paradox) If you don’t want to use a boot loader, use the autoexnt method. (32 bit only this time)
Yes, it's strange. I've tried to install Wow 1.02 at Vista, located at H:\temp. It worked! And yes the right commands are: instexnt remove or INSTSRV autoexnt REMOVE At next release I'll add the attributes, systemfile, hidden and read-only. I didn't that so far since there are others who want them to see / edit........ Thanks.
We got grub to do the dirty work an it works, but I am wondering, are there side affects from installing grub in mbr on PCs that have manufacturer recovery console? Can you still get into it to Recover? I don't know grub much and what I've read is that it can not chainload another mbr code. In theory, it would be nice if a loader can load original mbr after running wow.exe. Then I think everything would work as previous setup. So perhaps we need to look into other bootloaders than grub.
Grubinst backups original mbr to a second one. There is also a grubinst_gui.exe at which you can see different options. It's not clear to me what it means: previous mbr first! Does it mean it installs it to second mbr and leaves to original alone? Or is it where it looks first to find grldr.mbr??? Have to get more information. Also I don't know why I'm getting a write error when I'm trying to install it at Vista partition. My personal opinion: I don't need a hidden recovery partition, a waste of space. Recovery partitions are full of trial licenses junk and spam crap. I want to make my own partitions with unique size. If I want a backup I would use TrueImage and DVD's.............
Hi ...i just joined recently ...and i just modded my HP a1532n...to enable SLIC...and it shows SLIC (=HP)...under Everest....I just wanted to know right now if my SLIC if half mapped before i install Vista...just to make sure my Vista will be activated..here is the ats file done with ACPI scope...i would really appreciate if someone can check this...thanks a lot
Thank you so much reginakampher...so if i understand...if it is fully mapped ..there's no problem and..my vista will be activated..and i wont need hard modded bios?? ...im confused Thank you vry much