"E00040004 Disk is Full"-error for empty USB flash drive

Yes, MudCrab's real name is Paul.

My view on the "user-friendly option" to save current MBR is that this is not necessary - if someone is copying to file/restoring sectors directly using a disk editor, they should be knowledgeable enough to do this without help, otherwise they shouldn't be doing it. I actually use HxD to save the sector contents, because then it can be opened as a file, so it is much easier to examine. I also look at them with my favorite editor, VEDIT. Acronis Disk Editor does not have the ability to look at files like this. Then one can do file compare to see how sectors have changed. You don't want to make direct disk editing too easy, otherwise newbies can totally destroy their disks in short order.

As example of what I mean, I've attached a screen shot of saved MRB (sector 0, partition table entries in view) from activites I was doing yesterday, namely resizing my system partition and creating a new data partition. So I saved (using HxD) the MBR before resizing, after resizing, and after creation of the new partition - all partition work done with DD10 booting from an ISOLINUX CD.

Hi Gary (and hi Paul and Mark ;-) and hello everyone else in here,

thanks for the interesting screenshot and software tips, neither did i know HxD nor VEDIT before. For sure the most potent and highly esteemed hex editor *is* winhex; both HxD and winhex seem to originate from German coders by chance! The world's #1 best-seller as for commercial text editors is probably UltraEdit but that product has grown to a b*ast, so i am glad to hear about another powerful text editor, i'll check it out.
Today i found some time to test a few command driven (cmd.exe commad line application) MBR saving tools (collections of them are found on bootCDs of diverse origin, e.g. UltimateBootCD), many work under DOS and some only under windows. In summary, none of their file outputs can be trusted - most tools/utilities use their own format! Thanks god, Acronis DDS and Paragon have 100% exactly the same output: 512Bytes, a 1:1 Byte-per-Byte copy of the sector0. So far I found only 1 tool to produce the same output file (*.bin, or *.dat, or *.txt -- file extension doesnt matter) as Acronis&Paragon .. called MBRWizard. And finally, a perfect visual file&folder comparison tool is.. not Araxis.. but BeyondCompare (has a support forum too), it really simplifies the task to compare binary files, text files, image files, etc. Compared with Acronis products, all the little tools (winhex, ultraedit, araxis(!), beyondcompare, VEDIT -- for sure you know all those sophisticated tools) are quite pricey -- but that's another story.

Yah, disk editing should not be made too easy, i totally agree. But *backing up* the MBR before and after partitioning operations (like you did!!) should be made easy - the user should be prompted to save to an 'external' storage medium (floppy, usb, wlan, ahci). Paragon has some easy (and safe) way to save sectors from within the disk editor, prompting to save as *.bin files. Feels safer than the select/writetofile procedure with Acronis diskedit.

Just good to know that, in hex editors or hex view, the first 512 Bytes are defined by the hexadecimal offsets 000h - 1FFh
(1FFh (in hex) = 511d (in dec)), so they are easy to mark/select/define with hex editors such as HxD (see attached screenshot).

Anyway, i am still interested to see the novelty and improvements of DSS 11 and its OSS.

Peter-

You had wondered about more information regarding Grub4Dos, but actually, I found the diddy.boot-land.net link in your first posting to be very useful myself for conceptual information. There is a option to save an off-line HTM zip file (duplicating the web site pages), and between these and MudCrab's guide (which is excellent for crucial installation tips that the boot-land material totally leaves out...), as well as Mark's comments, I have a much better feel for what is going on.

I like HxD because it is free and it works well. I like the ability to save sectors/bytes as files and then view/edit them as files - one of the few things that Acronis Disk Editor does not do, so far as I know. Disk Editor excels at information display and disk navigation. I agree everyone should save their MBR, as well as appropriate partition bootsector contents, prior to any disk work.

VEDIT I have been using since 1989, and I think it is one of the best pieces of software ever. I don't think I could use a computer without it, or at least I wouldn't want to. The parallel DOS version (you get this with the Windows version) actually is a very powerful disk editor, too, but has to run under DOS, not even in a DOS box under Windows.

> ...and also boot the OS's which are installed on HDD (in case the HDD's MBR

> and partition table is corrupt). (ok, i've invented the last one. i dont know if that is feasible lol ;)

Thanks Gary, i've downloaded diddy's *.CHM-file and at the end of Introduction it linked me to Embedded Menu and there i found the documentation of the above cool feature (which was mentioned before here in the thread)! Beforehand i reset the HDD's MBR (with the Paragon's Update MBR-function) so that grub4dos code would be off the records (MBR). Then i prepared my 8GB USB-stick with grubinst_gui.exe as Floppy image and copied only the grldr onto the stick. BIOS boot sequence is CD/USB/HDD/otha. Cool result:

+ my hdd does not have *any* boot manager installed, i.e. the MBR is untouched

+ if no usb pen is plugged, then the system would boot (C:)WinXP32

+ if the usb pen is plugged, then the system would boot from usb but searchfindnload the config file (menu.lst) from hd(0,0) (because that's the only location where i put it in the root dir of any drive or partition!) and i would see the full grub4dos boot menu as expected. Then i select x64 and (C*:)WinXP64 would boot.

+ when i now, which is too early!!, unplug the usb and do a reboot, automatically (C:)WinXP32 is booted (in unstable mode). unstable because, that's what DDS displays as flags:

WinXP32 = Pri, Act.,Hid.

WinXP64 (C:) = Pri

Win7 = Pri, Hid.

Programs (D:) =

Archive (E:) =

Hidden = Hid.

Consequently, in order to revert to the previous stable state (the PC boots always WinXP32 whenever i turn on or reboot the machine), i must reboot the machine once more with the usb key plugged selecting WinXP32 from the boot menu, in order to "save" this original (and stable) state of flags as last configuration. This also means that the usb key needs to be plugged all the time whenever i wish to have the WinXP64 system up running.

OK, i've fixed this ..hehe.. by adding the command makeactive to each stance in the config file. This way the last active system (e.g. win64) will boot again automatically (here: win64) when there is no usb key plugged in during the system bootup. In other words, the usb key serves as a temporary boot manager with a 'permanent' switch ... as permanent as i dont boot from the usb key again in order to change the "switch" position.

this is mega cool and fun: i dont have any boot manager installed on my system ("clean MBR"), and *if* i want to have a HDD boot manager menu, then i boot from usb key and set my preferred system active by booting it (and it stays active).

A prerequisite for all this is.. that your USB key is bootable and stays bootable. Let's recall, as long as you have OSS installed, your USB key will die sooner or later. Then game over. No more fun with booting usb sticks :P

Apart from being fun and cool to bootmanage your PC from usb, it is also really safe. And the user has full control over boot sequence, MBR's, and fixing eventual problems (caused by othas). Again, farewell OSS!!! :P 

re: http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/embedded.htm

Peter Kreisler wrote:

... i dont have any boot manager installed on my system ("clean MBR")...

Actually, you do; the PC would not boot without having some executable MBR code. You have Microsoft's MBR boot code installed (the first 380 bytes in sector 0). This is an extremely simple and unsophisticated boot manager whose workings are hidden from the user. Its only task is to search the partition table looking for the one entry marked as "Active".

When found, control is transferred to the initial program loader (IPL), another small and simple piece of code located in the first sector of the active partition. The IPL is loaded into memory and executes. For Windows XP this IPL searches the partition for the file NTLDR, finds it, and executes it. NTLDR then loads NTDETECT.COM, BOOT.INI and BOOTSECT.DOS and displays the Windows XP boot manager menu (the menu does not appear if you only have one Windows XP system installed and unhidden). Following menu selection, NTLDR executes NTOSKRNL.EXE to begin loading and running Windows XP. On Vista and Windows 7 PCs the IPL searches for the file "bootmgr", finds it, and executes it. BOOTMGR loads the BCD (Boot configuration database) and displays the Vista/Win7 boot manager menu (which again will not display if there is only one Microsoft OS installed and unhidden). After menu selection, BOOTMGR then executes WINLOAD.EXE to begin loading and executing Windows Vista/Windows 7.

Since you're getting into the inner workings of a boot manager, this article (and others on the same web site) explains the MBR in great detail http://thestarman.pcministry.com/asm/mbr/Win2kmbr.htm

Most of us take these things for granted until our PC fails to boot. However, a little time spent reading about the boot process will be helpful if and when that occurs, and will greatly enhance one's ability to apply the correct recovery measures.

wah, what a fine (and colourful ;) article. Great resource thank you! Yes, i am studying now a little more about booting and grub4dos, so i'll save that webpage for reference.

[...]

The preparation of USB pens (to work as the HDD's bootmanager) doesnt seem to work for *all* USB pens. I am using the grub4dos-installer. The correct command should be:

grub4dos wrote:

grubinst.exe --pause --floppy (hd1)

it worked fine for my 512MB pen. With my 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB pens i am having some issues with this command...
of course, i am also trying to format correctly (e.g. by using different file systems, HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool 2.2.3)...
If some has a clue.. plz!

EDIT: Yeehah, i've ruined now the 512MB too! :)=) How? I've zero'ed the whole space, from sector0 to the end (with Winhex) because i wanted to reproduce the positive findings with the 512MB pen. And now.. grubinst.exe has the same problems as with the other pens. *ggg*
----> i should have saved the MBR of the 512MB stick before zeroing it :P

Who can help? -->> In order to use my USB sticks as "external bootmanager" they need to be recognized as (fd) and not as (hd) by grub4dos. I am guessing that the problem is caused by the wrong formatting of the usb drive.

save the following instructions for future reference and or share with mates. i am not an expert but i took the efforts to do some testing and i think the following is foolproof and reproducible for *any* type of "usb memory stick" "usb flash drive" "usb key" "usb pen drive" however you call it. lemme call it simple "pen" in the following:

If you want to use your pen as external boot manager (i.e. no boot manager is installed on your PC but the PC is a multiboot system with a menu.lst saved e.g. in the root dir of your otherwise bootable system partition hd(0,0) ), then the pen needs special preparation *different from* the boot-ISOz-from-pen-story described at: http://www.themudcrab.com/acronis_grub4dos.php

Here we go:

0) make sure that you dont have any boot manager installed. your PC boots and reboots always the same OS from the same boot partition. but. also make sure that you save your menu.lst (it is a text file!!) to the root dir of your, say, first primary partition.

EDIT: in fact, it doesnt matter much where you save the menu.lst. You can safely delete all copies of menu.lst and grldr from your HDD partitions and just have 1 copy of menu.lst on your pen!

1) under WindowsXP, fill all sectors of the pen (sector0, sector1, etc.) with 00h's (=hexadecimal zeroes), or alternatively run a low-level format. (i prefer the zero'ing method ;) to ensure that the pen is totally blank/reset.

2) unplug the pen, and replug it. then try to access it with Windows Explorer ("Would you like to format?"). DONT USE ANY THIRD-PARTY FORMAT TOOL. right-click on the drive, select "Format...". For current pen sizes (4GB, 8GB), Windows should give you just 1(one) option for the filesystem: FAT32. Do a Quick Format. (For smaller pen sizes, choose FAT32, not FAT.)

3) unplug the pen, and replug it.

4) launch the grubinst_gui.exe, and make sure that you select the right "hd"-number (Device Name:Disk:Refresh: select from dropdown menu your pen!)

5) now the crucial step. Device Name:PartList:Refresh ---> When you click on this button, the checkbox for "Floppy image" should get automatically checked. So watch it! Leave it checked. And leave all others unchecked.

6) another crucial step. Device Name:PartList:dropdownmenu ---> the dropdown menu should give just 1(one) option, e.g. something like "Whole disk (FAT 32)". choose this unique option.

7) click on install. you should see a successful message.

8 - ALT1) copy the grldr file to the root dir of your pen. nothing else. the system will load your menu.lst from HDD (first location found)

8 - ALT2) copy the grldr file to the root dir of your pen. moreover, cut and paste your menu.lst as is from HDD location to your pen, again root dir. now you have 2 files on your pen. later on, the system will load your menu.lst from the pen (because it is the first location found).

9) reboot your PC and make sure that the BIOS attempts to boot from the plugged pen. this will fail (i dunno why) : the PC boots your active OS-partition like normal. nothing happens. geez. hehe.

10) go back to step 4) and repeat the procedure from step 4) to step 7), skip step 8), and goto step 9). THIS TIME (i dunno why!) the BIOS will boot from pen (namely load its MBR and grldr) and search for your HDD's for the config file (menu.lst) and load it too.

11) your HDD boot menu (according to menu.lst) is booted and should work properly! ta-rah!! :D

12) if your menu.lst is intelligent enough, it can point back to your pen drive ( should be (fd) ) and boot *.ISO-files.

Nobody asked for the above instructions. But since i didnt find such on the web, i've written them down for us. Those who already have a menu.lst ready, please would you try out my above instructions and let me/us know, will you guys? Thanks!!

This procedure has been successfully tested with 5 pens: 256MB, 512MB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB !!

Once you have your working menu.lst, using a pen to control the booting of your machine is no doubt a very safe method (because the MBR of your HDD stays untouched for ever!). And the deactivation of this boot management is hilarious: SIMPLY DONT PLUG IN DE PEN!!

:D

Peter Kreisler wrote:

12) if your menu.lst is intelligent enough, it can point back to your pen drive ( should be (fd) ) and boot *.ISO-files.

ok, i figured it out, wasnt too hard *ggg*. here the final version of menu.lst saved in C:\menu.lst (WinXP32)

menu.lst wrote:

#Peter Kreisler's menu file
#final version

splashimage /grub/sunset.gz
timeout 30
default 0

title Windows XP Professional (Deutsch)
root (hd0,0)
hide (hd0,1)
hide (hd0,2)
unhide (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader /ntldr

title Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (German User Interface)
root (hd0,1)
hide (hd0,0)
hide (hd0,2)
unhide (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader /ntldr

title Windows 7 (EMPTY PARTITION. DON'T SELECT!)
root (hd0,2)
hide (hd0,0)
hide (hd0,1)
unhide (hd0,2)
makeactive
chainloader /bootmgr

title Acronis Disk Director 10 ISO
map --mem (hd0,0)/images/dd10.iso (hd32)
map --hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot

title Paragon Hard Disk Manager 2010 Professional (WinPE-based) ISO
map (hd0,0)/images/Paragon-155-PRE_WinPERCD_10.0.10.10769_000.iso (hd32)
map --hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot

title USB KEY as FLOPPY: ParagonBootCD (Linux/DOS-based) ISO
map (fd0)/paragonlinuxbootcd.iso (hd32)
map --hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot

title USB KEY as FLOPPY: UltimateBootCD 5.0.0 ISO
map (fd0)/ubcd50.iso (hd32)
map --hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot

title Command line prompt [grub> ]
commandline

title Reboot PC
reboot

title Shut down PC
halt

This menu is now much more flexible than any other boot manager:

1. when the pen is plugged (during boot up only), the above menu appears. you have the full choice: you can boot ISOz stored on the HDD, or those stored on your pen, or simply boot one of your operating systems.

2. when the pen is unplugged, during boot up, no menu appears. the last active OS (or boot partition) will be automatically loaded

:)=)

So... when will the new version of OSS hit the market? :)

the below topic is worth being discussed in a new thread but.. anyway.. etc.. :

PRACTICABILITY ISSUE OF RESCUE CD

With Acronis DSS 10 i burned the rescue boot CD directly to CD-RW.

Let's assume that DDS 10 displays all of my HDD as "Unallocated Space" because of MBR corruption (incl. corrupted partition table). Since i dont have any floppy drive, i was so wise to somehow backup/save the MBR on an external medium, namely on an USB pen (bootable/nonbootable pen, doesnt matter here)!

So let's assume that's all i can work with: my dead PC, the official Acronis DDS 10 bootable rescue CD, and the pen with the saved MBR (e.g. as "myhddmbr.bin" or "myhddmbr.mbr", 512Bytes).

THEN I SHOULD BE ABLE TO USE the rescue boot CD to restore the MBR with DDS10's disk editor (hex view), RIGHT?

Right.

The big problem now is: In DDS10 Disk Editor, in the "Read from file"-dialogue, when you click on "Browse":"Select File" only your intact partitions of "My Computer", e.g. (C:)WIN32XP, (D:)PROGRAMS, (E:)ARCHIV), are shown and not any further drives, such as floppy drive, optical drive, or plugged pens (at least not those pens which were formatted as floppy disks. let's call them "floppy pens" ;-). Can anyone confirm this observation?

(let's recall, your partitions are not intact because we already assumed that DDS displays the whole hdd as Unallocated Space)

In other words, i am not given the chance to access the pen and read/restore the MBR backup from it! GAME OVER :(

(btw, Paragon's rescue CD comes with an Disk Editor which let's you select all kinds of file source locations: floppy drives, optical drives, plugged pens, floppy pens, plugged external hard drives, etc.)

Peter:

I tried this with DD10 build 2160. It works fine if DD is started in "Safe" mode but this is dependent on how your computer's BIOS handles USB devices. My ThinkPad X61T enumerates all attached USB devices at power-on, so they appear as disks in Disk Director. But to get this to happen they must be attached at power-up time; you can't hot plug them. Once this happens DD can work with them as with any attached hard disks. But again, each PC BIOS is different and if you have a PC that does not enumerate USB devices at power-on then DD won't see them.

Try your test again but this time have the pen drive plugged in before you turn the PC on.

Hi. Yes you were right :) If i use "MudCrab's pen" (as opposed to the "floppy pen"), then DDS lists the USB as "hard drive". So, if a pen is listed by DDS, besides your reasoning, also depends very much on the preparation of the pen (the formatting + the grubinst_gui.exe).

The advantage of the floppy pen is that all is clear (the logics of the command, menu.lst) and it works just perfectly. The disadvantage, as i found out, is that the Acronis ISOz (and other ISOz present on the floppy pen) load/boot extremely slowly, even with ultrafast USB memory chips.

So now i am thinking of using the original method (MudCrab) .. but writing the menu.lst is now a little trickier, since the pen with its menu.lst is recognized as harddrive (hd0,0). I wrote some code which works as external bootmanager as long as you ignore the error message "NTRDL missing" by clicking it away. I think that i need to use the map command several times in a stance..