Installing ReAct OS on a thumb drive possible?

Today, I got React OS to work on my USB thumb drive. The idea dawned on me when I saw the “Drive H” or USB thumb-stick on the monitor in Windows Installation when the OS was about to format a couple days ago when I attempted to install WinXP on my Athlon XP PC. So what I’m about to install on is only 128 MB, but that’s plenty of space since React OS is less than 30 MB. My particular PC has a dual boot partition so it probably couldn’t find where NTFS was on the master boot record (location table on the hard drive). I uploaded FreeDOS onto my USB thumb drive. The next step was installing MS-DOS 6.22, but I didn’t have the original floppies so I went the FreeDOS *open source* route by simply extract the contents of the FreeDOS zip archive to the thumb drive. Now, DOS is running on the USB thumb drive which can be activated by which device boots first from the BIOS menu. I’ve downloaded the ReactOS 0.25 ISO image, and burnt it onto a CDR. Afterwards, boot the CD from the BIOS boot, and went through the instructions until it asked me to partition which drive, and picked my USB thumb drive to format on. It installed about 30 MB worth of OS on it. The speed of the CD-ROM obviously increases the OS latency a lot, but this OS boots up very quickly. I’ve added small programs such as the new self-boot Mozilla Firefox 1.0 Final, Irfanview 3.95 and Winamp 2.95. Finally, Firefox loads in React OS whereas before it couldn’t have. I could hear tunes because I added 1 MP3 file onto the thumb drive as well.

My second idea I had with React OS is my own experiment trying to combine ISO images. That is making a Data CD ISO image with all the files I want to run in React OS made with Nero 6, and combine that with the existing React OS LiveCD ISO image to make a new ISO image. Unfortunately, I don’t know what program to download that’ll combine both ISO images…. I only know it exists somewhere on the web. In theory it shall extend the LiveCD with a bunch of extra programs for React OS. For some reason the WINE’s development team and React’s development team hadn’t yet uploaded a deluxe version of their Live CD for download. Anyways, I recommend someone who’s combining ISOs to download a unity called Daemon Tools (a CD emulator) that can look at the file system of an ISO before I burn to a CD.

On Thursday, the electricians came, and they installed flood lights in the basement as well as CAT5e (1 Gbit RJ-45). I guess the differences between CAT5e and CAT6 is pretty insignificant otherwise I would have CAT6 in my room. If you’re curious about the difference between the two, it’s because CAT6 is standardized at 500 MHz instead of 300 MHz Cat5e. CAT7 RJ-45 STP will be up there around 600 MHz Gigabit Ethernet. Yep, and on top of that – my house will be wireless for satellite Internet which goes up to 1.5 Mbps. I suspect all the satellites are capable of 4 Mbps when the time comes. Only $250 for installation costs: $39 for 386 kbps; $49 for 512 kbps; $59 for 1 Mbps; $69 for 1.5 Mbps, and probably $79 for 2 Mbps.

On Friday, I drove to Toyriffic in River Falls, Wisconsin, and looked around for good deals on above average software. That’s the point of going to Toyriffic…..having an idea what to look for. I wasn’t there to buy any retro games. I saw Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for PS2 for $50 on top of the shelf in the entrance. I’ve starred at it for a long while. 2D fans usually purchase these games either because they hate polygon driven videogames or they believe games have became too sophisticated for their own good. It’s just a 2D fighting game though, probably is worth less than what the store sells it for too. The first thought that came to mind was it’s a rip off deal, but when a game is priced that high, it’s in demand. Well, I like 2D games, but not THAT much. So I look closely at each game for each title. I know what games I own for Xbox which helped me choose which ones I would buy. Splinter Cell 2 - Pandora Tomorrow looked really good, and so did Metal Gear Solid 2 – Substance. It’s another excellent Xbox game made after a Tom Clancy thriller (book). My dad has the book you know. I made my final decision and I was out of there. Then I went to ShopKo and bought Suikoden IV. Suikoden III was very good, I’ve started playing about 5 hours, so I suspect Suikoden IV is also good, but not as good as Suikoden III. I trust IGN though, Suikoden III earned a 9.5/10 and Suikoden IV earned a 7.9/10. Suikoden IV was reduced $39 when I’ve bought it. Was it worth the purchase? I sure hope so because it is a 3D RPG which is my favorite genre or was at one time. That’s about 80 dollars I’ve spent on 3 games on Friday. The Splinter Cell 2 and MGS2 Xbox DVD cases look brand new which is good enough for me.

new games: Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 2 (PS2), Suikoden IV (PS2), Splinter Cell 2 (XBOX), MGS2: Substance (Xbox), World of Warcraft (PC)

I’ve been playing Metroid via Metroid Prime by activating a code that’ll bypass the GBA link cable connection. The cheat is activated by R trigger + B during the menu screen and Metroid will automatically boot off the disc. The emulator lets me use the joystick + directional pad. I got pass the wasps where the platforms are. I kept hitting the moving platform and got zapped! After 25 minutes of retries, I’ve gotten frustrated, and stopped playing once and for all. Afterwards, I’ve played Metroid Prime because I was sick of dieing in Metroid, and I couldn’t find a way into the abandoned space pirate space station after that first room with the ejection pods. I’ve scanned everything with Samus’s visor for 40 minutes without luck. A game faq would have solved this problem, but I’ve wanted to figure out how to get out of the room myself. It’s my stubbornness. I’ve updated my game list to version 1.23 on this site.

Saturday, I was continuing working on Chapter 4 of Visual Basic .Net 2003 Standard the non-pirated version. This time the book is asking me to insert code into the graphical interface I’ve made. Some of the code has “Private btnCompute_Click” the name of a button or textbox. This is why it’s difficult to insert code since the book is instructing me to name every object in the program, and one typo would create errors, and could prevent everything from compiling. Thank God, I’ve got pass Chapter 3. Chapter 3 was horrible which took me two weeks to get pass reading and understanding it. Well, I wasn’t exactly working hard every day to finish chapter 3. That may be my fault. I’ve been on the gaming boards this week and today especially. My pleasure is conversation with other gamers about various topic including next generation consoles.

Later today, I am going to get out of this dungeon of a room, and expose myself more to the outside world by conversation. I like conversation if it’s fair. Maybe I shall go to the local state park, and walk around and enjoy the scenery? Perhaps play Frisbee Golf? The truth is I’m too lazy to do any of those! I haven’t the slightest what shall happen today. These pass days I continue pondering about my college life and what videogames I shall pursue playing in my room. I’m thinking I’ve done enough pondering. The NFL Super Bowl XXXIX is on today too. I’ll be glued to the TV for that event. Now, that’s a huge event in America, watching the Super Bowl is like watching the FIFA World Cup in Europe. Seriously! I hope the New England Patriots win.

On Monday, I am driving over to WITC to get my custom PC back. It’s a hard drive problem; the master boot record is gone. The BIOS detects the hard drive though which means there must be a possibility to run a low-level format on it. The other PC (650 MHz Athlon Thunderbird) I brought over (thinking the motherboards shot) just to make sure. The CPU fan is getting an adequate power supply for the motherboard being fried – that’s for certain. The Athlon XP PC may not be the fastest computer in my room, but it does do basic 2D-based applications very well. Yeah, it also has a Geforce 5600 FX in it so it can do recently released computer games if I wanted it too.

If I made a new friend I would try to play videogames with him/her. Yeah, but that’s just me. I have a whole bunch of Game Informer Mags, and it would be nice if we could just chat about the reviews. A movie or pepperoni pizza would be fine. Any sort of multiplayer is preferred. Extensive game collecting would be appreciated. Remembering back to those endless nights of Diablo 2 online play on Battlenet USEAST, that’s what I bought World of Warcraft for (to play on Battlenet USEAST again). I imagine an online account as a place to make new friends and well as new foes. If this is as good as Neverwinter Nights which had few legacy (modem) issues along with it, I would be happier than a lark. It’s supposed to be better than Diablo 2 which is shocking because Diablo 2 was just right in terms of difficulty. I still need to get my hands on a credit card so I can pay the monthly fee. I wanted to do this with Final Fantasy XI a year ago. Yets see here, it’s Final Fantasy…the top notch RPG franchise that won the world over from Playstation (and NES, SNES) to it’s 3rd installment on PC. Well, most of the world. I almost forgot about that game. Today, I was looking at the 140 page thick game manual that came with the box. The book gives a lengthy description of all the characters in the game as well as all the hints a noob like me can hope to grasp. Yeah, all I know about the game is from Internet reviews. I hear it’s huge when playing on foot.

This is Ian Signing off.