Antivirus software question

"Virus Guy" <Virus.RemoveThis@Guy.com> wrote in message news:43E2B89D.884A0224@Guy.com...

> Alternatively, you could simply mount a second drive inside your
> existing computer, clone your XP drive to it, and then from the BIOS
> setting you can choose which one to boot from. You can install AV
> software on the clone drive, and when you boot from it, your existing
> XP drive becomes a slave and you can scan it.

Aren't the master/slave settings done with jumpers?
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Jake Dodd wrote:

> > Alternatively, you could simply mount a second drive inside
> > your existing computer (...)
>
> Aren't the master/slave settings done with jumpers?

Yes.

Most likely, you have 1 hard drive and 1 optical drive on your
system. If so, then most likely your hard drive will be connected to
your motherboard by it's own ribbon cable, and the optical drive will
also have it's own cable (ie they will both be configured as "masters"
with the hard drive connected to the primary IDE channel and the
optical drive connected to the secondary IDE channel). In that case,
the jumper settings for both your hard and optical drive will be set
for "single" or "single or master".

The second (new) drive should be set as the slave and connected to the
same ribbon cable as your existing hard drive. The jumpers on your
existing drive should be changed to "master" or "master with slave
present".

Your BIOS should give you the option of which drive to boot from (ie
the boot-order) - like A, HDD-0, HDD-1, CD-Rom, etc. If it doesn't,
then you'd have to make the new drive the master and the existing
drive the slave (and then de-activate the master drive in the bios in
order to force the system to boot from the slave - which would be your
existing drive).

Just remember that when messing with drives in XP, that XP may
invalidate itself if it thinks the hardware has changed too much since
it was initially installed. You might want to look for a program
called "XPinfo.exe" that will tell you how close your system is to
invalidating itself.
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Virus Guy wrote:
>
> Just remember that when messing with drives in XP, that XP may
> invalidate itself if it thinks the hardware has changed too much since
> it was initially installed. You might want to look for a program
> called "XPinfo.exe" that will tell you how close your system is to
> invalidating itself.

When I try to run XPinfo.exe, downloaded from http://www.licenturion.com
it responds:
~~~~~
Cannot collect configuration data (-204).

(a) You are running a volume-licensed version or OEM release of Windows XP.
(b) You have not activated your installation of Windows XP, yet.
~~~~~
I am, indeed, running the OEM copy of XP installed by Dell on my
Inspiron 1300, so what do I do to determine how close my system is to
invalidating itself? Or don't OEM copies have this problem?
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NeoPhyte_Rep wrote:

> When I try to run XPinfo.exe, downloaded from
> http://www.licenturion.com it responds:
> ~~~~~
> Cannot collect configuration data (-204).
>
> (a) You are running a volume-licensed version or OEM release
> of Windows XP.
> (b) You have not activated your installation of Windows XP,
> yet.
> ~~~~~
> I am, indeed, running the OEM copy of XP installed by Dell
> on my Inspiron 1300, so what do I do to determine how close
> my system is to invalidating itself? Or don't OEM copies
> have this problem?

Micro$hit has been doing quite a few screwy things with WPA/WGA
lately, so perhaps they've modified their own code that enables XPInfo
to run. I haven't run XPInfo for a few months now, but it should be
easy to verify if indeed it still runs or not. I'll try it in the
next day or two. And yes, my experience is with OEM versions of XP
(really generic "system-builder" versions, not mass-market corporate
versions like dell, gateway, compaq, etc).

I usually see that message when a system has INVALIDATED itself due to
hardware changes. But you should be seeing messages that your system
needs to be re-validated if that were the case.
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Virus Guy wrote:
> NeoPhyte_Rep wrote:
>
>> When I try to run XPinfo.exe, downloaded from
>> http://www.licenturion.com it responds:
>> ~~~~~
>> Cannot collect configuration data (-204).
>>
>> (a) You are running a volume-licensed version or OEM release
>> of Windows XP.
>> (b) You have not activated your installation of Windows XP,
>> yet.
>> ~~~~~
>> I am, indeed, running the OEM copy of XP installed by Dell
>> on my Inspiron 1300, so what do I do to determine how close
>> my system is to invalidating itself? Or don't OEM copies
>> have this problem?
>
> Micro$hit has been doing quite a few screwy things with WPA/WGA
> lately, so perhaps they've modified their own code that enables XPInfo
> to run. I haven't run XPInfo for a few months now, but it should be
> easy to verify if indeed it still runs or not. I'll try it in the
> next day or two. And yes, my experience is with OEM versions of XP
> (really generic "system-builder" versions, not mass-market corporate
> versions like dell, gateway, compaq, etc).
>
> I usually see that message when a system has INVALIDATED itself due to
> hardware changes. But you should be seeing messages that your system
> needs to be re-validated if that were the case.

Thank you.

By The Way, when I select the OK button on the message window, XPInfo
displays another window entitled "XP-Info - 2003-07-31" that displays
"Fully Licensed" in a bright red banner, a Copyright, the licenturion
URL, and a "Hardware status and product key" sub-pane that is mostly
grayed out, but displays a partial key for running XP. The key has five
sections of five characters a piece with the last two as ?????-?????.
Just above the key on the right is a sub-sub-pane with "(unknown)" inside.

I await your test.
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NeoPhyte_Rep wrote:

> >> When I try to run XPinfo.exe it responds:
> >> ~~~~~
> >> Cannot collect configuration data (-204).
> >>
> >> (a) You are running a volume-licensed version or OEM release
> >> of Windows XP.
> >> (b) You have not activated your installation of Windows XP,
> >> yet.
> >> ~~~~~
> >> I am, indeed, running the OEM copy of XP installed by Dell
> >> on my Inspiron 1300, so what do I do to determine how close
> >> my system is to invalidating itself? Or don't OEM copies
> >> have this problem?
>
> By The Way, when I select the OK button on the message window,
> XPInfo displays another window entitled "XP-Info - 2003-07-31"
> that displays "Fully Licensed" in a bright red banner, a
> Copyright, the licenturion URL, and a "Hardware status and
> product key" sub-pane that is mostly grayed out, but displays
> a partial key for running XP. The key has five sections of
> five characters a piece with the last two as ?????-?????.
> Just above the key on the right is a sub-sub-pane with
> "(unknown)" inside.
>
> I await your test.

I have run XP-info on a "system builder" OEM version of XP, both
before and after the most recent batch of security patches (30-odd mb
of them). XP-info functions just fine.

I see everything that you describe above, except that in the sub-pane
where you see "(unknown)" I see "not dockable" (or something like
that) which I think indicates that it is not a laptop. XP gives
laptops PC's more leeway as far as validation is concerned because a
docking station can have a different MAC address and video card
signature than the laptop itself.

I think the reason why XPInfo is having problems on your system is
because it can't figure out if it's using a corporate license, or if
it's a laptop or desktop installation (or maybe it knows, and you are
using a corporate version license).
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Virus Guy wrote:
> NeoPhyte_Rep wrote:
>
>>>> When I try to run XPinfo.exe it responds:
>>>> ~~~~~
>>>> Cannot collect configuration data (-204).
>>>>
>>>> (a) You are running a volume-licensed version or OEM release
>>>> of Windows XP.
>>>> (b) You have not activated your installation of Windows XP,
>>>> yet.
>>>> ~~~~~
>>>> I am, indeed, running the OEM copy of XP installed by Dell
>>>> on my Inspiron 1300, so what do I do to determine how close
>>>> my system is to invalidating itself? Or don't OEM copies
>>>> have this problem?
>> By The Way, when I select the OK button on the message window,
>> XPInfo displays another window entitled "XP-Info - 2003-07-31"
>> that displays "Fully Licensed" in a bright red banner, a
>> Copyright, the licenturion URL, and a "Hardware status and
>> product key" sub-pane that is mostly grayed out, but displays
>> a partial key for running XP. The key has five sections of
>> five characters a piece with the last two as ?????-?????.
>> Just above the key on the right is a sub-sub-pane with
>> "(unknown)" inside.
>>
>> I await your test.
>
> I have run XP-info on a "system builder" OEM version of XP, both
> before and after the most recent batch of security patches (30-odd mb
> of them). XP-info functions just fine.
>
> I see everything that you describe above, except that in the sub-pane
> where you see "(unknown)" I see "not dockable" (or something like
> that) which I think indicates that it is not a laptop. XP gives
> laptops PC's more leeway as far as validation is concerned because a
> docking station can have a different MAC address and video card
> signature than the laptop itself.
>
> I think the reason why XPInfo is having problems on your system is
> because it can't figure out if it's using a corporate license, or if
> it's a laptop or desktop installation (or maybe it knows, and you are
> using a corporate version license).

Thank you.
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