Tag: xp

Installing Windows XP x64 with AHCI Enabled on a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R Motherboard

There are two SATA controllers on the motherboard. The Intel SATA interface and the Gigabyte (JMicron) SATA interface. In order for AHCI to work with the Intel SATA interface, you must install the drivers at Windows install time or you can perform a hack after Windows is installed. Here is what you need to do for a clean install of Windows XP x64:

  1. Make the Windows x64 “pre-installation” driver floppy disk for the Intel SATA controller. You can get this off the Gigabyte website with the other motherboard drivers.
  2. In the BIOS enable AHCI for the Intel interface but set the Gigabyte SATA interface to “IDE” mode. If you don’t set the Gigabyte interface to “IDE” mode then the Windows setup program will not see drives connected to that interface.
  3. Boot off the Windows XP x64 installation CD and press “F6” when the installation program prompts to do so in order to install the Intel SATA interface drivers off the driver floppy disk you made in step one.
  4. Complete the installation of Windows XP x64.
  5. Download the Gigabyte SATA interface driver from the Gigabyte website and install it in Windows. Then reboot the computer.
  6. When the computer reboots, enter the BIOS
  7. Enable AHCI for the Gigabyte SATA interface and then save the change.
  8. When Windows XP x64 boot, it should recognize the AHCI mode of the Gigabyte SATA interface and install the drivers. Then it will prompt you to reboot.
  9. After Windows XP x64 reboots, the Gigabyte SATA interface will now be in AHCI mode.

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R Motherboard

Using Robocopy to Copy Files and Folders While Maintaining ACLs

Robocopy is a Windows Server Resource Kit command line tool that allow you to copy files and folders while maintaining ACLs. In addition it allows you to copy files across networks with fault tolerance capabilities – if the network connection is disrupted, the copy operation will continue where it left off when the connection is restored. Robocopy will also allow you to synchronize local or remote directories and if changes are detected, only the changed bits in a file are copied as opposed to the entire file being copied.

How to use Robocopy to copy the contents of one directory to another while maintaining ACLs:

  • NOTE: Do not put a trailing backslash at the end of the directory paths. The destination directory does not have to currently exist.
robocopy c:\pathToSourceDirectory c:\pathToDestinationDirectory /E /SEC

Here is a link to a Microsoft article that talks about the GUI version of Robocopy: Link

Robo

Windows Prefetch Cache

The Windows XP prefetch cache is a cache meant to speed up the launch of programs by keeping the first few bytes of a program on disk in order to have them preloaded before the user launched the program. Only commonly used programs are cached in the prefetch. You can use the prefetch cache to see what programs were launched at the time a computer was compromised in order to see what programs were run on the computer.

Detective

Zune – Installing Zune 2 Software in Windows XP Professional x64

Update: These instructions still work when installing the recently released Zune 2.5 software.

Microsoft currently does not support Zune software being installed on Windows XP Professional x64. The only 64-bit operating system the software officially supports is Vista 64-bit edition. However there is a hack to get the Zune 2 software to work with Windows XP Pro x64 and the syncing with the Zune device works as well. The instructions for doing this are available on this blog post.

Here is a copy of the instructions which appear on the blog site (without the screenshots):

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