Today I tried using UBCD4Win to recover some date from a client's computer. I was able to boot fine, see the hard drives, open Windows Explorer or any of the other file browsers.

However, when I tried to copy a file from the hard drive to a USB stick (formatted as FAT32 and tested as working on my home machine), I could "Copy" a file with the right click context menu, but there was no "Paste" capability in the right click when I went to paste it.

Is this because there is no clipboard support or because Internet Explorer (on which Explorer depends) is not present in UBCD4Win?

Is there a way around this that doesn't involve using the command line to do file copies (I could do that fine.)

Also, when I used to "Send To" function to send a file to the USB stick, at the end of every send, I got an error message that said something about "The target cannot accept this kind of document" - even though it appeared the files were being copied to the stick. Anybody seen this before?

One way around the problem use MS Explorer, along the top use Edit and you'll see copy and paste listed (unless something has happened to paste). I'm sure the other file managers have the same functions on there menu's as well.

Does control+V work???

Nope - neither the Edit Menu nor any other method works.

After running through all 105 pages of questions here (search didn't spot it), I did find one thread that discussed this issue. The consensus at that time was that the guy (MattInLA) was using a Dell Recovery CD to build his UBCD4Win and he had some old Internet Explorer (or Explorer, I forget which) files from 2002 in there somehow.

His last two posts on this were:


"PROBLEM IDENTIFIED:
Ok, I checked further on my source XP files and slipstream files etc, and I apparently have some very old files from 2002 in the final slipstream build, i.e. explorer.exe is 2002, and on my computer, it's 2004, therefore I have a slipstreaming build issue with obsolete files present, need to examine this, do this again, and this is clearly the problem and thank you all.

THIS PROBLEM IS CLOSED!
Used an XP SP2 disc I already slipstreamed sometime ago, copied the directories onto the hard drive, rebuilt the .iso file burned it and it runs perfectly in QEMU or booted. WHEW!

INTERESTING IDEA: There must be many dolts like me that use or unwittingly use incorrect builds or builds of XP incorrectly slipstreamed. I looked at my DELL CD and it is a restore CD, and moreover, when looking at it there is a directory that says $OEM$. Uh-oh! Was this even usable? That's question 1."


That does not seem to apply in my case. I'm running Windows XP which originally came IIRC from the student software distribution project Microsoft has where if you are a student at a university, you can get free copies of XP, 2003 Server, etc. I did that probably, oh, a couple of years ago. And I have updated to Service Pack 2 many months ago.

However, my IE is now IE7, not 6 as in previous builds I've done. Is it possible that the change in IE has caused this?

I will reread that previous thread and see if there's anything relevant to my XP files, but I don't see anything there. I will check the dates on my IE and Explorer, but they should be current as of SP2 - if not, my system would be bizarre! If I find anything relevant, I will post a correction.

Also, the clilent machine I was working on was a Dell - which itself makes me nervous. I repeat, however, that the UBCD4Win I built was based entirely on my home PC, which is a white box clone running a full install of XP.

Actually, let me correct myself. The build is based on my original Windows XP copied to the hard drive with SP2 slipstreamed in using AutoStreamer and the UBCD4Win built using the V3.0, not the latest 3.02. I will try to download the latest version and rebuild and see if it makes a difference.

I had to build the thing in a hurry today since I was late for a client. Didn't have time to test everything on my machine, just that it booted (and most everything else worked fine at the client site, except I couldn't get the network install to work with their Broadcom NIC - I've also looked at several threads here about that sort of thing for later.)

Proved to be highly embarassing when I couldn't copy off files from their unbootable laptop using a nice quick cut and paste...:=( Needless to say, it freaked me out being utterly unable to copy files except using "Send To" (which gave me a weird error message about "Target cannot accept this type of document") and using copy from the command line. Since I have a "no fix, no charge" policy, I pissed away several hours with no income to show for it. This will teach me to stress test my tools more before using them in combat...:-) Fortunately I had Knoppix 3.9 available which will do the job - but we ran out of time (it was late at night).

If I can solve this copy/paste issue, perhaps I can redeem my reputation with this client. So any help would be appreciated!

Try using Roadkil's unstopable copier which is on the CD, you'll find it file then recovery. It's meant for use with drives with bad sectors etc.... but as an emergency you can just use it to copy files, however it's not as quick as using an explorer type program.

However if the explorer programs aren't functioning then this tool may also fail.

Also try handy recovery, this will also allow files which haven't been deleted to be recovered.

ADRC Recovery - 45kb file.

Put this little tool on a usb drive or make a simple plugin for it, it doesn't require any files or reg entries to run and may be quicker than Roadkils tool, again it may still suffer from the same problem and not copy.

Have you got another winxp source to build from? If you have try to build with that and see if that eliminates the problem.

Your move to IE7 shouldn't be a problem unless you've slipstreamed that into source, however this is MS where talking about so anything is possible.

This is most certainly a source file issue... try getting a standard Retail or Upgrade copy of XP or even a plain jane OEM copy that comes direct from Microsoft and has not been altered by a third party and rebuild with it instead of the copy you used. It should have SP1 or SP2 with no additional updates slipstreamed into them... There are also several file explorer programs... several which allow two pane layouts that allow you to copy from one pane to the other.

You are only the second person to report this particular error. I wrote the systemcore for ubcd4win and it actually does have both internet explorer and clipboard support although I'm not certain that I added the gui portion of the clipboard, just the functionality.

The core has not been changed since it's release in may 06 and has been extensivly tested on XP HOME SP1&2, XP PRO SP1&2, 2K3 & 2K3 SP1.
I imagine that when you examine your source files you will either find a few files that are way out of date or have been modified for some reason. I also wonder when you say your machine is now at IE7, is this just your installed windows or did you slipstream IE7 into your setup files? No testing has been done with IE7 and I would not expect it to work at all due to the nature of that release there is a good chance that IE7 will not ever be suported by the systemcore unless I get the time to examine all the different file dependancies see what internal functions really have been changed by the release. The systemcore is almost 25,000 lines of code so updating every time MS changes something is simply not going to happen.

Hopefully you will get a working build and regain your reputation as a miriacle worker and make plenty of money while using this project as the source of your sucess like many others have done in the past and will continue due to the nature of this project. There is nothing wrong with that as long as you are following the EULA's from the software you are using and have a dedicated copy of your XP Source CD for each copy of this project that is being used at the same time. BTW: Did you notice the donation buttons on the main site?

Good to know that IE and clipboard are there. I figured since I was only the second person to run into this (lucky me!) that it was some sort of bug somewhere in my build process.

IE7 is not slipstreamed into the setup, it was installed onto my home machine as an update as usual.

The version of XP that I have IS a vanilla XP that is unmodified as far as I know. The student program that City College of San Francisco participates in (I forget the name of the program) distributes completely unmodified full licensed copies of much of the Microsoft product line (except the cash cow Office, of course). You can get Windows Server 2003, Visio, Project Manager, XP Pro, Exchange Server, pretty much the major programs. And they stay fully licensed even after you stop being a student.

I'm sure it's some sort of error introduced by Autostreamer or something. I'll try a couple of rebuilds by recopying the XP files onto the hard drive, restreaming SP2, and rebuilding with V3.02 of UBCD4Win and see if that resolves the problem and post the results here.

Have you tried xplorer2? It's a double pane window, so you can navigate to the files in the top window, have your USB drive in the bottom window, then you should be able to highlight the files, and then drag and drop them. I'm pretty sure I've done this in the past, but it's been a while so my memory may be off a bit.

I don't think I tried that one - I tried A43 and Explorer only, I think. I'll give it a shot just for giggles.

The version of Explorer I have in my xpcd directory from which I built UBCD4W (the various explore.* files) appears to have a date of 3/31/2003. That shouldn't be too old, should it?

But Service Pack 2 came out in 2004! So maybe my Autostream didn't work? The version of Explorer I have in my Windows directory is dated 8/04/2004, so obviously I have the wrong Explorer in the build!

The hell with it. This weekend I'll completely blow away the xpcd directory I used for the Autostream, the ubcd directory I used for the build, reinstall UBCD4W 3.02, recopy my original XP CD files, and redo the Autostreamer with the latest Autostreamer build. Then we'll see what UBCD4W comes up with when I rebuild it.

Report later.

Actually I could have solved my client's problem if I had a full-size USB external hard disk - I could have used the UBCD4W backup tools to backup the whole system or selected directories. But all I had at the time was a 1GB USB key, and manually copying the 6 or 8GB of files - including random long-named files scattered in various places - a gig at a time would have taken too long. I'm getting an external USB enclosure for one of my old 3.5" 60GB hard drives tomorrow - that should solve that problem.

I almost pulled it out with Knoppix 3.9, but I forgot to mount the drives as r/w instead of r/o, and we ran out of time. Knoppix would have pulled everything over (a gig at a time anyway) no sweat. In fact they have a DVD burner ON the laptop and I had several empty DVD +R's I could have burned everything using the K3B burner in Knoppix - but I ran out of time.

Should have said the hell with it as soon as I ran into the problem - but then another problem surfaced. I was trying to research the first issue when their Norton AV on their desktop screwed up and dragged the entire system to a crawl. I had to wait minutes for Internet Explorer to even open up! I had to uninstall Norton and install Avast AV to get their desktop back in working order. (They're better off with Avast anyway - it's free and light on resources.) That was partly why we ran out of time.

God, I hate Dell! God, I hate Norton! God, I hate Windows!

Later.

Since files can have modified dates, dates they were extracted etc.. I never go by date... go by version instead... in SP2 Explorer.exe is version 6.0.2900.2180

One other point to add, UBCD4Win has CD/DVD burning software included also. You could have used that to burn the data. However if it's a 1 optical drive system, you probably would have to reboot after doing the first DVD in order to then burn the second DVD. There are just some slight issues with burning on a single optical drive system. The burning software becomes "confused" because after the burn it is looking for it's application files on the CD but can't find them. You pretty much have to reboot then because the system becomes unstable.

Don't kick yourself in the ass for trying. I admire the fact that you wouldn't give up on the system or UBCD4Win, while it may be possible that Knoppix could have taken care of your issues.....UBCD4Win can also. Some people probably give up if something doesn't work "right" the first time. They are in a hurry or just don't care, they think their time is too important....almost expecting something free to do all of their work for them. We have worked our asses off for almost 3 years now making this project as good as we possibly can. While we really don't make money or anything from people using the project (unless they donate or something) we have pride in the project. We want to help people and just want to try and make their computing lives easier.

Yeah, I wasn't aware that I could burn with swapping the CD - I just assumed I couldn't which is why I considered Knoppix. Good to know. In many cases, a client will probably have less than 4GB of critical data they need moved off (if they have a DVD burner, which unfortunately is still fairly rare, although a lot of people have CD burners, so burning one DVD might work in a lot of cases. This client had maybe 6GB plus or minus, so I would have had to do it twice - no big deal. But the USB backup is a lot better - I'll be getting an enclosure for my older 60GB HD today. Both UBCD4W and Knoppix will be able to use it (I just got the latest Knoppix yesterday as well - 5.1)

"We want to help people and just want to try and make their computing lives easier." My motivation, too - although of course I expect to get paid doing it for clients. But I have a fairly rigid "no fix, no charge" policy - which has cost me money in the past. I had one client with what appeared to be a dead SCSI scanner - but since I had no utility to PROVE it was dead (I had SCSI HD utilities, but nothing to prove a SCSI card or SCSI scanner was dead), I had to write off four hours of work. But clients do really appreciate that policy - and many a time they will insist on paying me for at least some of my time - which I never refuse, of course!

I'm about to start rebuilding everything. I'll let you know how it goes.

I don't really know if this is a similar situation, but something I feel worth mentioning. Having fun with your customers too.

How many times do you hear customers say they have to have their data, it's priceless, and recently we "saved Xmas" because we showed someone how to burn their DVD project correctly.

My boss turns it into fun when the customer asks "How much do I owe you?" Which most of the time it's about 5-30 minutes of work to do. That's when he says stuff like:
"Well, you said priceless....how much is that worth to you? $200? $500?"
"We saved Christmas, so what's it worth to save Christmas?"

After a few minutes of screwing with the customer, he usually says $10 or $20. Sometimes when people bring something in and it's really easy. He tells them don't worry about it, it's free today. Hopefully that makes them appreciate us and bring their "real" business to us if they ever have a problem again. Sometimes people insist on giving something, so we of course take it. Last time was a little old lady that left us $8 on the table.

SUCCESS!

It WORKS, baby!



I downloaded V3.0.3, ran hashcheck on the download, all OK, extracted by double-clicking, the dialog box reported everything OK, everything in J:\ubcd4win directory.

I copied my original XP CD to the hard drive in J:\xpcd

I copied my SP2 CD to the hard drive in J:\sp2

Ran the latest stable version of *restricted project name, please email Ben for support* rather than Autostreamer this time because I saw a post on another forum where somebody used Autostreamer and it did not update his XP and gave him no errors. Another guy there suggested using *restricted project name, please email Ben for support* because it worked for him, and it worked for the other guy, so I decided to try it.

Seems to have worked fine for me as well.

After slipstreaming SP2, I ran UBCD4Win.exe and removed a few plugins I didn't need (I have a lot of Add-ons in the separate add-on directory I use for malware removal, and I get a very full CD), and configured the AV tools using the Config button on the Plugin dialog screen.

Created the ISO, burned it with Nero, booted it.

Went to Explorer, which BTW shows me to be at Service Pack 2, used right-click options to copy and paste files between directories - WORKED!

Whatever it was, it's gone now!

I even managed to figure out how to get my DSL connection working - I'm typing this while connected via Firefox from UCBD4Win. I've always had problems with the networking before - it's a little confusing since I didn't realize I had to run the "dial up networking" stuff to access via broadband (for an old timer like me, broadband is not dialup - a modem - a real modem, not a router thingy - is "dialup").

Anyhoo, it all seems to be working again! All I need to do now is go buy a USB enclosure, and maybe I can salvage my rep with the client!

Thanks for the assistance, guys! UBCD4Win is a great and essential tool!

Great to hear you got it working... and I'm suprised it was done using N Lite which uses non-standard methods to attempt to slipstream updates into a XP source... I guess you stayed away from the other updates or something... we usually only hear about problems with this method. Personally.. I download the SP, extract it and then just use the command line to slipstream with.. its a little more work, but it doesn't mess up. I've played with Autostreamer and it was ok.. just not to my liking either.

Yeah, I didn't try to do any other updates or patches - that would have been too risky, and not terribly useful to me anyway. I just need an XP with SP2 to run malware cleaning and do miscellaneous analysis of a client's system. Who cares about any other patches, basically? They're mostly only useful if you're running a "real" XP.

I'll keep your comments in mind, though, if I ever do decide to add other patches. If I do, it will be for my OTHER installable Windows XP - a copy of the slipstreamed XP I keep around just in case I need to install it on somebody's machine temporarily for some reason - which has never arisen so far. I won't bother with other patches for my UBCD4Win XP, just for the other installable copy. And my original XP stays untouched since I burned it back in 2004.