[/os/windows/utilities] permanent link

The Disk Management utility that comes with Microsoft Windows operating systems can be used to view details of drives and partitions in the system and attached to the system via USB. To start the utility, you can type diskmgmt.msc in the Windows search field, which you can access by clicking on the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen on a Windows 11 system or by typing diskmgmt.msc in the Type here to search field on a Windows 10 system. To use the utility, you must run it as an administrator, so if you are not logged into an administrator account, you need to right-click on the utility when you see it returned in the search results and choose "Run as administrator".

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[/os/windows/utilities/diskmgmt] permanent link

I checked the status of drives attached to the system by opening a command prompt window and issuing a Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC) command, but the results indicated all of the drives were OK.

C:\>wmic diskdrive get status, size, model
Model                            Size           Status
DELL PERC S150 SCSI Disk Device  999642954240   OK
WD Elements SE 2622 USB Device   1000169372160  OK
PNY USB 2.0 FD USB Device        62018611200    OK


C:>

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[/os/windows/utilities/sysmgmt] permanent link

robocopy D:\ACCI E:\ACI\Backups\ACCI /MIR /W:0 /R:1 >> E:\ACI\Backups\RoboCopyBackup.log

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[/os/windows/utilities/backup/robocopy] permanent link

Total Uninstall stores the data for programs installed under its monitoring in .tun files. The data for version 6 is placed in C:\ProgramData\Martau\Total Uninstall 6\Monitored Programs while the data for version 7 is placed in C:\ProgramData\Martau\Total Uninstall 7\Monitored Programs. After I imported the data from version 6 into version 7, I saw that a host of .tun files now appeared in the version 7 Monitored Programs directory with "IMPORTED@" prepended to the file names, e.g., IMPORTED@SpeedFan 4.52.tun for the SpeedFan 4.52.tun file in the version 6 Monitored Programs directory.

[/os/windows/utilities/sysmgmt] permanent link

C:\WINDOWS\system32>wbadmin get versions
wbadmin 1.0 - Backup command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Backup time: 2/19/2017 8:31 PM
Backup target: 1394/USB Disk labeled Seagate Backup Plus Drive(E:)
Version identifier: 02/20/2017-01:31
Can recover: Volume(s), File(s), Application(s), Bare Metal Recovery, System State
Snapshot ID: {d4a62a80-ac6f-4aba-8886-6ba570c1284a}


C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Once you have the version identifier(s), you can use it to view the details regarding what volumes were backed up on the system to the external USB drive using a command in the form wbadmin get items -version:version_id.

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[/os/windows/utilities/backup] permanent link

Batch File

@echo off
echo Set oWMP = CreateObject("WMPlayer.OCX.7")  >> %temp%\temp.vbs
echo Set colCDROMs = oWMP.cdromCollection       >> %temp%\temp.vbs
echo For i = 0 to colCDROMs.Count-1             >> %temp%\temp.vbs
echo colCDROMs.Item(i).Eject                    >> %temp%\temp.vbs
echo next                                       >> %temp%\temp.vbs
echo oWMP.close                                 >> %temp%\temp.vbs
%temp%\temp.vbs
timeout /t 1
del %temp%\temp.vbs

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[/os/windows/utilities] permanent link

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[/os/windows/utilities/sysmgmt] permanent link

I downloaded Windows Installer 3.1 Redistributable (v2) From Microsoft's Download Center and installed it, but I got the same results when I tried to reinstall Symantec Ghost 7.5.

Microsoft's article, "Error 1719: The Windows Installer service could not be accessed" error message when you try to add or remove a program states the behavior may occur if the following conditions are true:

• The Windows Installer files that are on your hard disk are damaged or are missing.
• You install or remove a program that uses the Windows Installer Microsoft Software Installation (MSI) package file (.msi). For example, this may occur when you try to install Microsoft Office on your computer.

I was starting the Symantec Gost 7.5 installation process from a CD with an autorun file, but I noticed there was a file, Symantec Ghost.msi in an Install directory on the CD. The installation process likely uses the .msi file for the installation.

Microsoft's article recommends steps to resolve the problem. You should first determine the location of the file msiexec.exe on your system. The file will be in the Windows system32 directory, which is usually either C:\Windows\system32 or C:\WINNT\system32 for versions of Windows after Windows 98. For Windows 98 the file is usually in C:\Windows\System. You can search for the file or you can determine the Windows directory by obtaining a command prompt and checking the value of the %WINDIR% environment variable with echo %WINDIR%, which will tell you which directory is the Windows directory on a system. You can then verify that msiexec.exe is in that directory.

C:\>dir %WINDIR%\system32\msiexec.exe
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is E88C-7773

 Directory of C:\Windows\system32

03/21/2005  02:00 PM            78,848 msiexec.exe
               1 File(s)         78,848 bytes

You then need to check the registry to make sure that HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSIServer\ImagePath has a value that corresponds to the actual location of the msiexec.exe file on the system. You can do so using the regedit command or using a reg query command from a command prompt.

C:\>reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSIServer

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSIServer
    Description    REG_SZ    Adds, modifies, and removes applications provided a
s a Windows Installer (*.msi) package. If this service is disabled, any services
 that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.
    Type    REG_DWORD    0x20
    Start    REG_DWORD    0x3
    ErrorControl    REG_DWORD    0x1
    ImagePath    REG_EXPAND_SZ    C:\Windows\system32\msiexec.exe /V
    DisplayName    REG_SZ    Windows Installer
    DependOnService    REG_MULTI_SZ    RpcSs
    DependOnGroup    REG_MULTI_SZ
    ObjectName    REG_SZ    LocalSystem

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSIServer\Security
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSIServer\Enum

If the msiexec.exe file is in C:\Windows\System32, you should see C:\Windows\System32\Msiexec.exe /V as the value in the key. In the case of the system I was working on, the file location matched the registry value.

If the values don't match, you will need to enter the correct path in the registry or put the file in the directory listed in the registry. Once the values match, you will need to reregister the msiexec.exe file. To do so, restart the computer in Safe Mode (hit F8 to get the menu of boot options before Windows starts when you reboot).

Once you've logged into an administrator account on the system in Safe Mode, you will need to use the following procedure:

Click Start, click Run, type the following line, and then click OK:

msiexec /regserver

Note: For 64-bit operating systems, you also need to reregister the 64-bit MSI installer. To do this, click Start, click Run, type the following line, and then click OK:

Drive:\Windows\Syswow64\Msiexec /regserver

On 64-bit editions of a Windows operating system, 32-bit binaries are located in %systemroot%\SysWow64 folder. 64-bit binaries are located in the %systemroot%\System32 folder.

Once you have reregistered the msiexec.exe file, you will need to reboot into standard mode. Then try the installation process again that failed previously. If that fails, Microsoft does offer another alternative for dealing with the problem. See "Method 2" at "Error 1719: The Windows Installer service could not be accessed" error message when you try to add or remove a program.

In my case, I was then able to successfully reinstall Symantec Ghost 7.5 on the system, though I did receive another error at the end of the process that was not associated with the previous installer problem. The error I received at the end is shown below.

References:

1. Windows Installer 3.1 Redistributable (v2)
   Date Published: September 2, 2005
   Microsoft Download Center
2. "Error 1719: The Windows Installer service could not be accessed" error message when you try to add or remove a program
   Article ID : 315346
   Last Review : March 1, 2007
   Microsoft Help and Support
3. File Extension Details for .MSI
   FileExt

[/os/windows/utilities/backup/ghost] permanent link

The unregistered version has a limitation preventing you from saving an image greater than 300 MB, but in my case that was not an issue since the image size was 175 MB.

I did purchase the software though, since it worked well and I often deal with much larger ISO files. When you purchase the software, you will receive a zip file by email containing a .reg file, which will provide you a temporary license. Extract the .reg file from the .zip file, and double-click on it to create the registry entries to register the software. You should later receive a permanent serial number.

The steps to take to insert or replace a file within an existing ISO file using MagicISO are listed below:

1. Select File.
2. Select Open.
3. Browse to the location of the ISO file you wish to modify and open it.
4. If you have a Windows Explorer window open side-by-side with the Magic ISO Maker window, you can drag the file you want to insert into the ISO file over into the Magic ISO Maker window and into the directory there where you wish to insert the copy of the file into the ISO file. If a file by that name already exists, a "Query for overwriting" window will appear notifying you that the file already exists and asking if you want to overwrite it. You can click on the Yes button to overwrite the file.
5. Click on File then Save as to save the update to the ISO file in a new ISO file, since you can't save to the ISO file you have open within Magic ISO Maker.

VirusTotal analysis of Setup_MagicISO.exe on 2014-08-09

[/os/windows/utilities/MagicISO] permanent link