How To Avoid BSOD 0x7B When Moving Hard Disk From One Machine to Another

Windows 2000 and XP produces a blue-screen of 0x7b after you transfer a Disk from one motherboard to another. The reason for it, is the difference in the IDE Disk controller.

Windows will only boot successfully using the same IDE controller of the same manufacturer (i.e. Intel, VIA etc..). It’s not that the Windows plug’n'play mechanism can’t handle the change, but that Microsoft doesn’t really want us to take one Windows from an old system and move in to a new one. so logically it is programmed to produce an error message.

To successfully make the change, you have 3 options to choose from:

1. Run a Repair installation to make Windows reinstall on its hardware.
2. Find a new motherboard that contains a chipset from the same manufacturer.
3. Run the following cool procedure…. :))

Thankfully, there’s a working workaround straight from Microsoft’s Knowledgebase (KB314082). What we will basically do is to tell Windows that it already “knows” all of the generic IDE types from all vendors. that way, when it will boot up, it will only install the new hardware and not refuse to boot because it is missing the old one.

The procedure described in the article takes you through extracting some drivers from the I386 and importing some registry data from a text file to the system.

But as you all already knows- I like Automation!!

so I’ve writen a script called UpdateIDE that checks whether you run it on a Win2000/XP/2003 and does the patching needed for the HD relocation.

What you basically need to do is:

1. Run the script while the disk is still installed on the original machine.

2. Shutdown, Relocate the disk to the new system & boot.

3. Windows will do it’s hardware recognition magic and you’re up & running 

While working in Microsoft’s IT team back in 2002, I’ve used this tool to create a master Ghost image that I could deploy on all the laptops brands & models we’ve had to support.

But What Can I do if my old Motherboard is Dead?

If you can’t run the script on your original machine beforehand, we’ll have to you another working system.

1. we’ll connect the drive as a secondary disk on a working machine (so it will appear as drive “D” for example….)

2. we will have to make the file copying manually. according to your Windows version (2K/XP), copy & rename these 4 files as follows:

• atapi.xp –> d:\windows\system32\driver\atapi.sys
• pciide.xp –> d:\windows\system32\driver\pciide.sys
• pciidex.xp –> d:\windows\system32\driver\pciidex.sys
• intelide.xp –> d:\windows\system32\driver\intelide.sys

* The d: stands for the drive letter as it appears on your system.

3. Using RegEdit, we will load the System hive of the drive we’ve connected, and we will import the registry data to it.

a. open RegEdit, stand on Local Machine.

b. in the File menu choose “Load Hive”. now browse and select the file:

d:\windows\system32\config\system.name it as “OldSys”. it will now appear as another hive in Regedit.

c. to import the registry data found in the file Merge.xp (or merge.2k) we will first need to update it to fit the new situation:

Open the file Merge.xp using Notepad. Run a Find & Replace from “\SYSTEM\” to “\OldSys\”

Now save the file as: Merge.reg

Double-click on it to make the actual import process.

d. when finished, stand on the “OldSys” hive and choose “Unload Hive” from the File menu.

That’s it! now replace the drive into your new system and boot to victory!
Note: if you’re changing your system from and old IDE drive to a brand new SATA drive, this procedure can only work if your Bios can turn off the “SATA Native mode” and emulate it to be recognized as an IDE drive.

Cheers,

Yaron

Default Passwords of Hardware Devices

The following sites keeps a database of the default username+passwords that are originaly used by the manufacturers of different hardware devices.
you can use it to find out how to login to an unknown router or wireless-AP you found. there's always the chance that the original password was replaced but you can usually to a reset procedure by pressing an external button for a few seconds to flush the user settings and restore factory-defaults.
note the security risk that comes from keeping the original passwords unchanged!!
the list:
http://www.cirt.net/passwords
http://www.phenoelit-us.org/dpl/dpl.html
http://www.vulnerabilityassessment.co.uk/passwordsA.htm

Office 2003 Activation Wizard disappears when you use the telephone option to activate a Microsoft Office 2003 license

Symptoms:

The Microsoft Office 2003 Activation Wizard disappears when you use the telephone option to activate a Microsoft Office 2003 license.

Resolutions:

To resolve this behavior, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type the following location:
   C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\Data
3. Click OK.
4. In the Windows Explorer Data folder, click Folder Options on the Tools menu, and then click the View tab.
5. Under Advanced settings, click to select the Show Hidden Files and Folders option, click to clear the Hide Extensions for Known File Types check box, and then click OK.
6. Right-click the opa11.dat file, and then click Delete.
7. Close the Data folder, and then start any Office 2003 program to start the Office 2003 Activation Wizard.

Reference: MS-KB 875452

Outlook: Add Jewish & Israeli Holidays to the Outlook Calendar updated until 2010

Download the file and extract the Outlook PST files.
Add the PST to the Outlook profile by using File>Data File Management>Add>Choose file..

Goto the Folder List View and choose the new calendar from the new PST file.
in the View menu change the Current View to be sort by Category
select all the objects in the list, right click and choose Move to Folder> then point it to your calendar.

There are two versions of PST with holidays label in English and Hebrew:
Download: OutlookHolidays2010.rar

Windows Mobile: Fix Daylight Saving causing appointments appear in the wrong hour

After the change of clock to the Daylight-Saving appointments might show a one hour difference in the mobile calendar between Outlook calendar.
use the following fix to update the Windows Mobile device.
this fix was provided by Microsoft Israel - read provided readme file for more details.

Download: MobileDaylight2008.rar

Outlook: How to open blocked attachments in Outlook like VBS, MSI etc..

for obvious security risks, Outlook by default block certains risky file extensions.
the lists of block file types are:

.ade;.adp;.asx;.bas;.bat;.chm;.cmd;.com;.cpl;.crt;.exe;.hlp;.hta;.inf;.ins;.isp;.js;.jse;.lnk;.mda;.mdb;.mde;.mdz;.msc;.msi;.msp;.mst;.pcd;.pif;.prf;.reg;.scf;.scr;.sct;.shb;.shs;.url;.vb;.vbe;.vbs;.wsc;.wsf;.wsh

you can unblock it by using the following tweaks:
Office 2003: Out2k3 Dis_AttachBlock
Office 2007: Out2k7 Dis_AttachBlock

Close Outlook.
Download and run.
Run Outlook.

Office: How to change the Office Serial / Key after installation

Use the following Scripts to force Office to pop-up a wizard for replacing your serial.
you can use this method to fix the the Office Genuine Update warnings by replacing the bad serial with a new genuine one.

Close all running Office Applications, Download and run the script.
Office 2003: ReplaceOfficeSerial2003
Office 2007: ReplaceOfficeSerial2007
Afterwards, open an Office application, like word, and a wizard will come-up asking for a serial.
Note: you can use this method manually for different products from the Office family (like Visio, Publisher etc.) just open RegEdit and goto:
"HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\{Office GUID}\Registration\"
then delete the "DigitalProductID" and the "ProductID" values.

It works like magic!

Outlook: How to minize Outlook to the system tray

This tweak will make Outlook minimize itself to a small icon in the system tray notification area instead of the taskbar.
Download and run this: MinToTrayOutlook.reg

This tweak will affect Outlook 2002/2003.

Office: How to disable the annoying Clipboard Manager in the SysTray

Use the following Registry tweak to disable this useless feature of Office.
Download and run: DisableClipboardMgr.reg

Note: this tweak will affect Office versions 2000/2002/2003
You might need to Restart the machine for the tweak to take effect.

Outlook Error when opening TIF Attachment files

You may receive the following error message when opening attachments in Outlook (such as PDF faxes): "Can't create file: FAX.TIF. Right-Click the folder you want to create the file in, and then click Properties on the shortcut menu to check your permissions on the folder."

Microsoft Outlook uses a temporary folder to save and open the attachments. By default that folder is:
"C:\Documents and Settings\%USER_NAME%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK#\" (where # is a random number) Some of the latest security updates for Windows 2000 and XP are preventing folders to be created in that folder. The solution is to use the regular TEMP folder.
NOTE for Vista Users: the folders path is changed in Vista to: 
"C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files"


1. Use REGEDIT.EXE to locate the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security
(Note: Depending on your version you may have to modify that path after the "Office" key. You may have folders 8.0, 9.0, 10.0, 11.0, go the highest number. This is probably the version that you use.)

2. Modify the Key "OutlookSecureTempFolder", by replacing "Temporary Internet Files" with "Temp". For example:
OLD VALUE: "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK177\"
(Note: There may be a different number than 177)

NEW VALUE: "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temp\OLK177\"

3. Restart Microsoft Outlook.






Credit goes to JacksonTechnical

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