Removing Authorizations in DOS Mode

[Peter Nachtwey]

My master boot record (MBR) has been corrupted. I have manganged to make a disk to recover my files in dos mode but now I need to remove the authorizations for my RS500, RS5000 and Step7. Evmove works in does mode it it gives me an error that says the activation file may be in use, disk may be write protected or sharing services may be missing.

Any clues? Someone must have done this before.

 

[bob1371]

Peter

Have you tried to repair the Master boot record?

From the DOS prompt type
fdisk /mbr or maybe its fdisk \mbr
cant remember which way the slash goes.
this has saved me a few times.

As for Emove in dos mode I have never had to do it myself.


Bob

 

[Peter Nachtwey]

Peter

Have you tried to repair the Master boot record?

Bob

I am glad it work. I got a warning saying it may make the data unreadable. I thought I would save this for a last option.
Thanks.

 

[Peter Nachtwey]

A lost cause

I called Rockwell support. The evmove will not work unless you have full rights to the system.

 

[Hootnholler]

Hi Peter,

I can't say for sure how to do an evmove as you have asked, but maybe some background on the computer end may help you.

If you are using windows 95/98, as stated, it's fdisk /mbr. Just startup with the windows startup disk, enter dos mode, and type that at the prompt. It will redo the boot record to a standard setup. In my experiences (have done this literally hundreds of times) have never had it make data unreadable. I have seen it make the program that altered the mbr unreadable, but that's usually due to a virus of some sort.

Since rockwell told you that you have to have full rights to the system, I'm guessing that you're using an nt kernel based windows for the operating system, either NT, 2k or XP. If that is the case, just put in the windows cd, restart the pc (make sure the cd rom is in the boot sequence before hard drive in the BIOS). When you get to the first screen, it will ask you if you wish to repair, or enter recovery console. Enter recovery console, and then log on with your administrator account. When you do that, it's fixmbr to repair the master boot record.

If you can give me a bit more background on the issue, I'll try and come up with more, if you wish. I'm a computer geek first, and a PLC wannabe programmer second

Hoot

 

[Peter Nachtwey]

I got it going well enough to get the authorizations

The system was WIN2K formated with FAT32. This was a hand me down laptop. I managed to get the program files off that I needed. I had given up and I went to setup. It detected by existing WIN2K and offered to repair it so I though OK. If it didn't work it would take just another 15 minutes. The repair worked where the previous fixmbr and fixboot didn't. The system is flakey now but I got the Rockwell and S7 authorizations off. I will loose my Mathcad authorization but Mathsoft provides no way to remove the authorizations. I will format with NTFS tomorrow.

 

[Hootnholler]

Peter,

Hopefully I caught you before you formatted and fdisked, etc...

The repair was a good idea. But, there are some limitations to what it can do for you. I'll try and explain a bit on what happens, and maybe figure out a way for you to keep your mathcad program.

The repair option goes through your windows files and system files to see if any are corrupt or missing. This usually works pretty good, but the limitation is when you install other software. Quite a few of the files that it will go through and change are called .dll's, or direct link libraries. A direct link library is a file that is used on several programs, not just one. If it notices that an installation of another program has changed the .dll to another format than what windows had installed, it will wipe out your new .dll and replace it with the old version from the windows cabinet (.cab) files. New installations use the original windows .dll files and enhances them, for easier programming. Imagine having a plc program setup with subroutines. The .dll file is a subroutine, but in windows, if it comes across a piece of code that it's not using, or does not recognize, it will skip over it. You can see how easy it is for the programmers to go through and just add to the original code, instead of having to literally do thousands of lines over again.

What you can try and do for your machine, figure out what programs are acting flakey and reinstall them. This is called a 'dirty install' and just may be able to get you past your issue. The 'dirty install' will do the same as the windows repair, it will scan the files that it needs, see which ones have been altered, and change anything that does not meet the installation. I have done this on several windows machines, with a pretty good success rate.

IF that does work for you, to convert to ntfs, just use this command from start/run... (assuming your hard drive, or drive that you want converted is c: )
convert c: /fs:ntfs

If, for example, it's d:, just use convert d: /fs:ntfs, etc...

It will convert from fat32 to ntfs for you the next time you restart. It will not lose any data. The only warning I can give you on this, is once you convert to ntfs, you cannot reinstall a fat32 operating system easily. Usually involves a low level format... but that's another story.

Hope you're able to salvage all your stuff, Pete.

Hoot