Doing an XP ASR (automated system recovery, aka automatic system restore) using a mapped network drive

Google Search: "automated system recovery" "command console"To put it mildly, this is not supported by Microsoft -- though it should be. I couldn't find an easier approach. It would be great to be able to burn an ASR recovery CD.

From: "Ray Bush [MSFT]"
References: <5e2ca337.0301140311.1d47b7cf@posting.google.com>
Subject: Re: Use ASR to restore backups from network?
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 07:49:54 -0800

ASR backup sets are to be stored on tape devices, removable media, or a
fixed drive that will be available at restore time. Storing an ASR backup
set on a network share is not supported by Microsoft...

But...it is possible...Go through the ASR process...the restore process
should hang at the point when NTBackup is called to start restoring data
back to your system. At this point, you will need to a map a drive to the
share and point ntbackup at this share. If you are needing to load drivers
at this point for a NIC....you may be at a dead end...

Good luck.

Ray

From: "Colin Jones"
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.win2000.file_system
Subject: Re: Use ASR to restore backups from network?

Here's what I did to get the ASR process in XP professional to work:

1) Insert XP CD and boot from CD starting ASR process as normal with F2

2) As Ray said, followed normal ASR process until it got to run Backup to
start to restore, at which point it said it could not find the backup set on
\\MyBackupPC\Backups (which is where my backup is stored).

3) Pressed Shift-F10 to bring up command console.

4) Connected my USB pen drive which had my network drivers on it.
Surprisingly XP detected the pen drive OK, and allowed me to change to that
directory at the command prompt - if this hadn't worked I could have easily
done it via CD drive instead. Installed the network drivers by running
their setup program from command prompt (which opens their normal setup
window).[jf: I presume he means they were installed onto the boot diskette! It would need to be unlocked.]

5) The network driver install completed but then I required a reboot, so I
exited the command prompt, and cancelled the ASR restore process, thereby
terminating the ASR (an error message comes up saying ASR could not
complete). The PC then reboots.

6) Allowed the PC to reboot, and it then starts to run the ASR process again
automatically, during the install however it now detected the wireless
drivers and popped up the windows compatibility dialog (as they are
unsigned) and asks me if I want to install them - I say yes. Once again it
gets to the backup/restore and stopped saying it can't find the backup set.

7) This time press Shift-F10 again to get a command prompt. Run the Belkin
wireless network configuration program by typing 'belsta' at the prompt.
This opened the config program allowing me to select my wireless settings
(peer-to-peer, channel etc).

8) At the command prompt typed 'services' in order to start networking and
allow mapping

9) At the command prompt typed 'net use \\MyBackupPC\Backups' this connected
to the backup PC and asked me to log in with username and password.

10) Typed 'exit' at the command prompt

11) Clicked OK at the restore warning dialog, it then started the ASR wizard
and asked where to find the backup set, so I just used the default UNC path
that was already pointing to my backup set.

12) This time it found the backup set and proceeded to run the ASR from
across the network. When completed the PC rebooted, et voila, here I am
typing in at my newly restored PC!

Hidden Google Tools

Hidden Google Tools

Hidden Google Tools
By Mary Ellen Bates, Guest Writer...

Google has a synonym feature that lets you search for not only the word you type in the search box but also for some common synonyms of the word. The synonym symbol is the tilde (~), and the syntax is ~word. For example, if you type ~food in the search box, you will also retrieve web pages that have the word cooking, nutrition, recipe or restaurant....

For those of us in the US, a handy new tool is Google's "Search by Number" feature. Google now recognizes the pattern for Federal Express, UPS and USPS tracking numbers; vehicle ID numbers, US patent numbers, UPC codes, area codes, and even FCC equipment IDs and FAA airplane reservation numbers. For most of these searches, you can just type the number into the search box; for patent numbers, you have to add the word "patent" to the beginning of the number, and for FCC equipment IDs, you need to add the word "fcc" at the beginning.

Related to this feature is the ability to see the current status of any US flight. Type the airline name and the flight number in the search box, and you will see a link to the arrival/departure information screen for that flight, provided by Travelocity.

Removing the 'Shortcut to...' prefix from shortcuts - Tweaks @ Sanx

Removing the 'Shortcut to...' prefix from shortcuts - Tweaks @ Sanx

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I had a surprisingly hard time finding this. I do it once with each machine and then forget. TweakUI used to do it. At one time Windows did it automatically if you removed the stupid prefix often enough.

More Safari Bookmark JavaScript tricks (via Macintouch)

Safari 1.2: "Sending web pages from Safari
Davide Guarisco
R.Benz asked 'How do you send a web page in Safari? ...The only workaround I figured out is to click drag the URL from the window's URL box to an open page in my email program, which works but does not title the email like the send page command would and is also less convenient than a keyboard command.'
Create a bookmark entry (I call mine 'e' and place it in my Bookmarks Bar) and enter the following under Address:
javascript:location.href='mailto:?SUBJECT='+document.title+'&BODY='+escape(location.href)
Now, every time you want to mail the page you are on, click on that bookmark and your favorite email client will compose a new message with the appropriate title. Works in Mail and Eudora (and possibly others...).

Fred Jensen
Add an 'email' bookmark with the following in the address field (you can edit the address field by selecting the menu item 'Show All Bookmarks'):
javascript:void(document.location='mailto:?subject='+document.title+'&body='+document.location)
You can also create a custom search option with a bookmark like:
javascript:x=escape(getSelection());window.location='http://www.google.ca/search?q='+x+'&meta=cr%3DcountryCA'; "

Scriptable Applications: Safari Bookmarks controlling applications

Scriptable Applications: Safari BookmarksVery nice set of features. New to me!

Safari's robust JavaScript support and Mac OS X's built-in URL architecture enable direct communication between Safari and other applications via special bookmarks. Using these special bookmarks you can select text on a webpage and use it to search the iTunes Music Store or a Sherlock web-service. The following examples can be copied and added to your Safari bookmark collection.

Modifying a Linksys router to add new functionality: Alternative Updates

Slashdot | Creating A Super-Router (For Free)

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Linksys software and hardware is relatively poor quality. This stuff sounds interesting.

Framework Lives ...

Framework home page & the FRED Computer Language, Framework IV, II, III, V, VI, VI, VII

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This DOS application had ideas and functions that were never again approached in a mainstream application. Astoundingly, it's still sold!