Agilent 54831D modernising

[ARF]

Okay, I'll make for Norton the partition that you restored  (tested) before via Smart Boot Manager. This will be 1 partition that will take up your entire disk. I won't try to embed updates due to possible driver issues.

[bostonman]

But will unused drive space be usable?

In other words, will I have 27GB of free space to use or will it be unusable?

[ARF]

You restored my last image in which the drivers did not work . I'm sure Norton used all your 27GB, you just didn't notice.

[bostonman]

The new one you’ll make will have the factory part too where I can do a fresh install if I want?

[bostonman]

Have you had a chance to work on a new (and hopefully) final one?

Not to be picky, but can it have the factory raw install section? Most likely I think that's how you'll make it since you saw your drivers didn't seem to work on my scope, but thought to ask.

[J-Dub]

I had a go with my 54831M.. here's where I ended up:

- Using my windows pc, Flashed the Paragon archive to a 120GB drive (msata to 2.5 IDE adapter)
- Installed drive in the scope & Booted... scope app wont load, errors, a bad time.
- rebooted to recovery [CTRL] & reflashed for clean install
- rebooted & scope app loaded successfully, working.
- ran 5.71 installer (took 3 attempts & reboots to finally get it to complete successfully)
- Once installed and rebooted, copied the patched scope app and license. 
- scope app launches with all options enabled! nice!

Now have a working scope in winXP!   it's possible

[croma641]

Very good, but this works unfortunately only with the 2nd revision of the PCI interface card with the scope assembly.

[bostonman]

I had a go with my 54831M.. here's where I ended up:

- Using my windows pc, Flashed the Paragon archive to a 120GB drive (msata to 2.5 IDE adapter)
- Installed drive in the scope & Booted... scope app wont load, errors, a bad time.
- rebooted to recovery [CTRL] & reflashed for clean install
- rebooted & scope app loaded successfully, working.
- ran 5.71 installer (took 3 attempts & reboots to finally get it to complete successfully)
- Once installed and rebooted, copied the patched scope app and license.
- scope app launches with all options enabled! nice!

Now have a working scope in winXP!   it's possible

Yes, this method does work. I think the problem is that it doesn't show the whole 120GB. I don't remember as I've done quite a few methods of installing at this point, but I thought the Paragon method was good too.

[J-Dub]

You can reclaim the extra free space by booting with a gParted CD & moving the 2nd partition (the recovery) to the end of the disk, then expanding the first partition with the rest of the drives space.

[bostonman]

Are you sure?

I've tinkered with two drives (a laptop and this scope drive) and couldn't see any options to move the partitions. They were treated as two separate ones.

[ARF]

If you are a little versed in operating systems, then there is no problem to do everything yourself. I promise I'll make you a new image that will expand to full disk this weekend.

[ARF]

So, I sent you the new link.
It's the image for Norton Ghost and it's based on the recovery partition 3.10 which you have already tested and it worked correctly for you.
Of course, you will have to install update 5.71 and options yourself, as you did before.
To write the image, it is most convenient to use the GHO32.EXE utility for Windows (Win 7, 8, 10 are supported), but I think you already know.
I hope this image suits you perfectly.

[bostonman]

Doesn’t seem to work. It’s showing I need to register windows within three-days.

I tried holding CTRL to do a factory install, but they didn’t work.

[ARF]

CTRL - won't work, it's a clean XP partition, no recovery partition. This is exactly the partition you used to restore through CTRL before.
Are the drivers installed correctly? Does the oscilloscope application start?

[bostonman]

Yes, the drivers seemed to work and the scope loads, but the registration comes up.

I think a previous message stated I can register it easy enough, but I’m thinking in the future I may run into issues if I need to reinstall

[ARF]

You understand that this is exactly the same partition that you restored earlier from the factory backup. At that time, you had no problems with activation. The only difference is that this time you increased the size of the partition to the size of the disk. So Windows thinks that the hardware has changed and activation is required. You can either activate by phone and save the activation code. In the future, it should come up if nothing changes in the hardware equipment. The second option is to keep the size of the partition, then most likely activation is not required. I don't see any problem activating Windows over the phone or using a crack from the internet.

[coromonadalix]

you have tons of serials for old windows sku  floating around ....

[bostonman]

Oh okay, I thought obtaining a number would be more involved.

In the future, it should come up if nothing changes in the hardware equipment

I'm thinking more that I keep your GHO file, and, in the future, I need to reinstall it, then I'll need the number again. I thought the number may be unique and I wouldn't be able to get another one in the future.

Maybe I call to register, but also obtain a list of numbers from online to have options in the future.

[bostonman]

Registering XP was easier than I thought. I haven't installed 5.71 yet, but obviously I know how to from previous installs.

For a test run, I installed PDF Creator too so I can print directly to PDFs (and then save them to a thumb drive). This XP copy seems excellent, and, once I install 5.71 (along with the license file), I should be set.

Two questions:

The license file you provided previously, does that contain all the more important features or did you create a better license file?

My other is regarding registering XP. Should in the future Microsoft not offer registering XP, I'll be stuck should I need to reinstall the OS. The number that's generated to register, will that change in the future meaning, is the registration number I got now good for future needs including whether I change any hardware?

I'm curious how I should handle preserving this OS for future needs.


Thanks for all the help!

[coromonadalix]

I'm surprised msoft is still answering activations for xp  since its long dead if its the case


You need to remember the xp version,   Ie: Pro  Family, Oem or Retail  etc ...     and have the correct serial for it,  even upon a reinstallation  you will be able to use the same serial. 

And i would say  do not connect your scope on a network going to the web, you could have some surprises

Archive.org   has some nice iso's   for this, even some with sp3 ....

[ARF]

The license file is a text file that you can edit with any text editor. Add or remove the required option. You can close the oscilloscope application, edit the license file, start the application again and see how the option works. You do not need to reboot the oscilloscope. I added all the basic general purpose options. There are some special options, for example for power probes, but for that you need these probes.

If you do not change the equipment, then the activation code will work the next time you install the system.

If you want, after installing all the options and everything else, you can make your image with Norton Ghost, so that the next time you restore the system, you will automatically get a registered system and with the correct settings.

Don't worry about your internet connection. Everything is legal. The system has a key from my oscilloscope.

[bostonman]

The license file is a text file that you can edit with any text editor. Add or remove the required option. You can close the oscilloscope application, edit the license file, start the application again and see how the option works. You do not need to reboot the oscilloscope. I added all the basic general purpose options. There are some special options, for example for power probes, but for that you need these probes.

This was my question. Is there a set of options you think are more valuable to have installed than others? I'm not sure if you have more than one license file (I've lost track of all the files) and wanted to suggested which options. Obviously I can add them as I want (I already know it's a text file that I can edit).

If you do not change the equipment, then the activation code will work the next time you install the system.

This is my concern. In the future I may need a new hard drive due to this one crashing, or something else. Most likely a new larger hard drive will cause XP to want me to register (you stated that may have the case in this situation). I can reinstall your Ghost file, but that would be set to default requiring me to activate XP again. As you suggested, I can make a Ghost file with my hard drive, but, if I install a new hard drive, it may require me to register again because it will see a new/larger hard drive as a hardware change.

If in a few years Microsoft stops providing activation licenses, and the scope generates a number that the activation license is dependent on, then I may never be able to activate XP. So I'm just trying to protect myself for the future.

[bostonman]

Today I went through all the images you've provided.

The one you sent on March 6 is good. It shows 2.7GB used and 4.6GB free (but wastes the rest of the 32GB hard drive). The best one is the last one you sent and the others aren't very useful.

From what I can tell, I'm on track to completing the XP upgrade and can be done with working on this scope (once I calibrate it and run a self test). As of now, I have your last image on two 32GB drives and just need to install v5.71 along with a PDF creator. In end, I should have two drives; one installed, and a "mirror" that can be used as a replacement should the first one crash.

It seems that reinstalling the image results in XP generating the same product code. You mentioned that codes exist online to register XP, but it seems a program needs to be used that takes the code XP generates and creates the key code to register XP.

I'd like the ability to generate codes in the future should Microsoft stop providing codes and a chance exists I need a different one.

Do you know where to find such a program?

Also, have you looked into which file(s) are created/updated when a self test and calibration are performed? When I used Win98, I found two text files that got updated and saved them should a calibration issue exist in the future. After doing a self test and calibration, I searched the whole hard drive, and discovered only two text files changed time/date and saved them.

I'm curious if you've done a similar search to find out which ones are updated/saved.

[bostonman]

I performed a calibration today and went to look for the file(s). I searched the entire hard drive and couldn’t find a file time stamped that matched when I did the calibration.

Do you know where that file is so I can save it should I ever need it?

[bostonman]

I did two more calibrations, searched for a file that had a new time stamp, and couldn’t find one.

I can’t figure out where the cal data is stored. Also, which file keeps the last setup so when the scope boots, it goes back to the previous setup (I’m assuming this is where the cal data is stored and why I’m asking).