As for the forum, don’t worry, you didn’t start anything and you are fine asking questions and proposing any topic you want, its just a reaction which has come from seeing many people abuse the system, that’s all. Don’t take it personally and I hope you return to the forum.

Oh, and I don’t plan on returning to the forums after the first initial response. I ask questions of curiosity not those that will cause a flame war. I believe I stated something similar in my initial post.

Well I am glad that you are alright and the problem is resolved. I appreciate the concern and thank you for it; however, despite the weird weather we have been having, compared to the rest of the country and the world, we have not had as much problems and have been fairly lucky in the grand scheme of things. I wish you the best of luck and hope you get your setup fixed and back in order. Take care.

Yes, thank you for adding that information. I am sure it will be useful to the many who are forced nowadays to deal with x64 bit machines loaded with x64 bit OS (or choose to use it) and unlike myself do not remove and install the x86 (32 bit) instead.

I do it mostly because of the failure of the x64 community and vendors to keep up with drivers that are compatible and the application vendors who fail to make it properly compatible and the problems caused by WOW attempt to bridge that gap resulting in some unwanted and/or undesired behavior by some applications.

Thanks for the contribution.

“c:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\ARM\1.0\AdobeARM.exe” /product:Acrobat /VERSION:9.0 /MODE:1

Yes, I am still alive and I am sorry if you felt that I gave you no answer, I was under the impression that we had reached a resolution and that you were able to do what you needed, although difficult and without manufacturer’s help.

I am sorry if you felt ignored, I just didn’t know what else to say and I was quite busy, so I assumed the matter to be done, my apologies. Are you still having issues?

Wow, I thought M$ support was full of bloated, canned, crap which is full of useless responses. They are basically saying, oh well we did our part but your problem is yours. Irks me to to no end. So let me see what I can figure out for you.

Fragmentation degree is being calculated as a ‘fragmented file size’ / ‘total disk capacity’ ratio. So if the second drive contains a pretty big fragmented backup archive, 90% fragmentation degree is quite possible.

Unfortunately, we cannot give you any exact recommendations about the problem with boot warning, it can be caused by lots of reasons. If it is a laptop, perhaps you should contact a technician to check it – hardware malfunction also isn’t ruled out.

Good luck!

–

Best regards,

Gennady Dmitriev,

Support Team | Auslogics Software Pty Ltd

Sydney, Australia

http://www.auslogics.com

I shall look forward to it and do the best I can to help. I know how frustrating life can get and I know that I have had some kind people help me, so I am just trying to balance the universe and pay back karma by passing on whatever help I can. No worries.

Now looking at the report you sent me, I am beginning to think your problem is an NTFS stream lock that was performed for an operation and it didn’t terminate properly and it is STILL locked and the system is literally confused as to what to do with it. Another way to put it, the state it SHOULD be in has been placed in LIMBO with an orphaned state that it HAD at some point. So now this is going to make you laugh or even think, well hell that’s a stupid idea, but you will be amazed how may times (batting 99% for me over the years) it works and fixes the problems. I am going to write up a decision tree style way of going about it, so that we account of as many conditions of your system as we can possibly foresee.

1. If your system makes it past the windows is loading screen, or at least to that point, before dying, then I need you to reboot the machine and go into SAFE MODE mode. I am sure you know how but just in case, lets review shall we? When you turn on your machine, as soon as the BIOS POST (the initial info like showing the brand logo (dell, sony, toshiba, etc.) or if it is not in quick mode and shows other stuff (like the phoenix, or whatever BIOS vendor) screen is done showing, begin pressing the [ F8 ] button over and over until it shows you an old DOS looking menu with a bunch of choices. Choose the option for “SAFE MODE” {AND NOTHING ELSE, no networking, nothing} and basically what’s going to happen is that if we are lucky we will get the skeleton shell needed to to run our scan. If you get in there (it will be slow, will look funky, don’t worry about it) then I need you to open “My Computer” and then [ RIGHT-CLICK ] on the drive with the problem and click on [ PROPERTIES ] and then select the [ TOOLS ] tab and then click on the [ CHECK NOW ] button. Make sure both check boxes are selected and then let it run and wait until it finishes. Then restart into normal mode and see what happens and if all is working now.

2. If you can’t get into the full SAFE MODE interface to do this the easy way, then try again to get on that menu using the F8 trick I mentioned earlier and this time choose SAFE MODE COMMAND PROMPT instead, it usually works like a giant DOS command prompt and not much else at which time you can manually type the following command in there and sit back and let it do its thing: CHKDSK C: /F /R /X /B and if you want me to see the outcome so I can see what’s up, just add to the end of this command I gave you CHKDSK C: /F /R /X /B > c:\check_log.txt and all this does is save the output on the screen that you see for me to see too, if you choose to send it later ok? But that’s not necessary and is entirely your call.

3. Now if you can’t get your system to do ANY of these methods, you need to get a hold of an installation disc for your operating system, whatever it is, and then load from it at startup ad use the built-in “REPAIR” function to see if they can help you, otherwise, I have no idea at the moment what else I can suggest for you my friend. So just give these a shot and see how it goes and keep me posted.

Report for user “User”

Disk: RECOVERY (D:), NTFS
Disk Defragmentation Summary

Disk Size 11.62 GB
Free Space Size 1.84 GB
Clusters 3046655
Sectors per cluster 8
Bytes per sector 512
Started defragmentation 17/11/2010 1:53:09 PM
Completed defragmentation 17/11/2010 1:53:09 PM
Elapsed time 00:00:00
Total Files 496
Total Directories 37
Fragmented Files 1
Defragmented Files 0
Skipped Files 1
Fragmentation Before 90.20% ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fragmentation After 90.20% ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Disk Defragmentation Details
Fragments Clusters Size Result File Name
15 1523463 / 3837223 8.83 GB free space not found D:\PRELOAD\BASE.WIM

——————————————————————————–

File Defragmentation Summary
Result Description
OK file successfully defragmented
unmovable file file in use, access denied
cancelled file defragmentation cancelled
free space not found unable to find free contiguous disk space
cannot defragment cannot defragment, defragmentation error

——————————————————————————–

Auslogics

This is the report for (D) partition (recovery)

You actually didn’t need the full version but that’s fine too. Keep in mind that fragmentation methods are a bit different depending on what you are trying to achieve. If you are trying say to optimize for speed, you might end up with lots of fragmented files because they are so often used that its best to keep them where they are and as they are; however, if you are aiming for neatness or space reclamation then you need to set the system files to the beginning, the folders next and then less used files after that and finally the last items being the most used items, that will both save you space and also make your fragmentation smaller.

I would say at this point you are fine but in the meantime wait and see what they have to say on the subject and share it with me and I can tell you better if they are giving you the up and up response or some canned runaround ok? Also just for covering all bases, have you looked at your boot.ini file to see how its configured? It might be your problem and why its giving you some issues, especially if any boot loader type software has made modifications to it. You can post it here and I can audit it and tell you if that’s causing it and at least eliminate it as the problem.

I have not personally experienced this and I have not gotten any reports of it either but that doesn’t mean its not happening. I personally do not use the windows built-in defragger as it is slow and inefficient, although most tools out there also use the windows defrag API. I use the free tool provided by Auslogic on my primary machine and I also use the free tool provided by Piriform for other machines. They are both fast, full of features and my recommendation instead of the built-in windows tool.

I would recommend that you try one of these tools instead and see if it works fine, both have manual, command-line and boot-time defragment so you should be able to see if it works and since they both use the windows API, if they work, then the problem is something else, if not then its something in the windows core that is causing the problem. Let me know how it goes, good luck.

I agree with you 100% and wholeheartedly that Adobe needs to get their act together and design and support their software much better and have better testing to account for these kind of things where you can provide people better support and remedy then just throwing your arm up and saying, there is a security problem. It is the developer’s job to account for these things and through better testing before deploying, they could have avoided it, but they failed the users once again. It is not the first and certainly when it comes to Adobe, it won’t be the last either. They are so focused on pushing out software and shoving new gimmicks down the users’ throat, that they don’t care about the quality of their software and usability, that’s a shame.

Thank you for sharing that and yes generally that will do it, but unfortunately until they update their program to automatically and intelligently prompt for administrator rights at the proper time, it will sometimes create fringe cases as stated here that require extra steps. Also note that most don’t want to run the PDF in full administrator rights and neither should they and to make it so as to resolve an asinine mistake is even worse.

1. Is your account an [Administrator] account on this machine or a limited account? I know it seems obvious but you’d be surprised how many times people don’t realize there is an Active Directory policy or simply an User Account setup that makes them limited users on a machine. If not, then see if you can make your account a local admin account on that machine, if yes, then we move to the next step.

2. Do you have a firewall, such as Norton, McAfee, or Comodo, etc, that is blocking your connection to the internet? Additionally do you have any system protection software, such as Comodo Defense+ or Avast, etc, on the machine that is controlling how a piece of software behaves on the machine and what it has access to? If any of these cases are true, temporarily disable them and finish your update and then re-enable them, if none of these cases are true, then we move to the next step.

3. Check to make sure, especially if you have installed the software using Warez or “hacked” methods, that you don’t have the Adobe resources blocked in your host file located at [C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts] because those are intended to loop those systems back to 127.0.0.1 to bypass the activation and serial checks that are performed and that could also prevent you from accessing their system in this case. Some of the items, although not a complete list, that may be in there and being blocked are as follows:

127.0.0.1 activate.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 practivate.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate.wip3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 3dns-3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 3dns-2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobe-dns.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobe-dns-2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobe-dns-3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.wip3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate-sea.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip60.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate-sjc0.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobe.activate.com
127.0.0.1 adobeereg.com
127.0.0.1 adobeereg.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip60.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 125.252.224.90
127.0.0.1 125.252.224.91
127.0.0.1 hl2rcv.adobe.com

If you do, then you might want to temporarily comment them out and see if that resolves your problem; however, please note that if you comment these items, 1) you need to reboot the machine to make sure they are completely purged from memory for that session, 2) you will probably defeat the purpose of them being there which means if you have a hacked copy, it will probably phone home and find out and disable your installation, so use at your own risk here, if not then we move to the next and final step that we can try.

4. Although uncommon for most people, make sure you are not running inside a sandbox software, such as Sandboxie, or alike, as they do not give you the necessary direct system access, low-level access, and registry access that would be required to successfully complete this. The best solution is to run the update outside the sandbox and as a regular application. If none of these are present or the issue on your machine, then I have to say honestly that I don’t know what else could be your problem and short of being at your machine and checking everything manually and systematically, I have to say I don’t know what else could be causing it.

I hope this helps you figure this out and get it fixed but if not then I am sorry, at least I tried which is more than I can say for the Adobe people. Good luck and let me know how it goes. Take care.

I may sometimes find myself a bit resentful, tired, or simply disappointed at the progress, but I never give up because I am striving towards something that I feel to be worthwhile.

Ditto, give me million any day sorry, couldn’t resist. I never forget to be thankful with what I have, but I feel that I owe it to myself to try for something more and perhaps alternatively meaningful as well.

While you are reading the blog, keep in mind that most of the time, its just the ramblings of a law student who is working 40 hours a week and just needs to vent somewhere In hindsight I may even disagree with myself sometimes but I usually leave it because it is only fair that you be reminded that you are not always right.

As long as you are happy with your path, then it’s all good. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with immersing oneself in hard work as long as its fulfilling and personally profitable–and I don’t necessarily mean in a monetary sense, although there is nothing wrong with wanting to earn money either. I think it’s the philosophy some people have wanting to earn money that is questionable.

Personally I’d prefer to earn a million dollars and not have it change my personal philosophy rather than scrape by my whole life, too. On the other hand not having money doesn’t bother me too much either, as long as I have food and shelter and money to do some fun things. Ultimately, I believe experiences are the most valuable things we can have.

I’m enjoying your blog and reading your thoughts.

I guess I just got tired of people sending me various attempts to say, don’t work so hard, don’t study so hard, life will pass you by, just enjoy what you have, as if my attempt to better myself is somehow wrong, or the fact that I don’t want to live paycheck to paycheck and retire into nothingness like my parents is wrong.

I DO thank you for sharing your view though, its refreshing to get an honest opinion without a coat of bull attached to it. Very refreshing.

If someone judges me by my vessel that’s their problem. What my material self and all the fine material things I have around me are just as likely to be a distraction rather than a benefit.

On the other hand there’s nothing wrong with drinking a fine cup of hot chocolate out of a gold chalice as long as you take the chalice for what it is.

Bush has not been trying to start a war with Iran. With Iraq, it took a full 12 years of sanctions before we got to the point of invasion with a mostly uncommitted military and you think Bush is somehow to going to go from multiparty negotiations to a full-blown war in a year and with our current military situation in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Furthermore, not every single report on Iran has said they were innocent. In fact, every report prior to the recent NIE ranged from them continuing their program to Iran’s government being less than forthcoming with UN inspectors. Even the recent NIE report that you’re citing said that they stopped their program in 2003 (around the same time another major event happened next door), but did not dismantle it…meaning that they can restart it at any time and, currently, are gaining the means to make it even stronger. In fact, the only reason they know it stopped in 2003 was because they intercepted messages from Iranian military brass expressing REGRET that their stopping of the program left them in a weaker military position. Sometimes, it would do you well to read more than just the headlines of a major story like this. If you think the Iranians are innocent or that the Iranian government’s actions in any way represent their people’s wishes, you are fooling yourself.

Labelling the Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization had absolutely nothing to do with Iran’s nuclear program. It was because of their support for Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as their activities with Shi’ite militias in Iraq who are attacking your beloved Corps.

And since when is Sarkozy an American “mole”? Of all the dumb statements in this post, this has to be the second-dumbest (I’ll get to the dumbest a little later). On what basis are you saying that he’s a US mole? Because he refused to hamstring his diplomatic efforts by publicly ruling out military action? Because he’s to the right of most French politicians? Because he’s not kissing the ass of every anti-American leader on the planet? Because he (Heaven forbid!) likes America? It’s interesting that you bang your chest about being a former Marine because the Marines I know would kick your ass for making retarded posts like this.

Now, the absolute dumbest thing you said in this post was that the US dollar is now one of the most worthless monies on the planet. It’s not and it hasn’t been since before our grandparents were around. Yes, the value of the US dollar fell recently. However, it didn’t fall very far (it was briefly a little less than the Canadian dollar) and it’s on its way back up (right now, it has surpassed the Canadian dollar). Iran did not just simply switch to the euro. It had to trade all its stocks of US dollars to European countries in exchange for euros. Now the European countries have these dollars and will spend them in the only place that any ordinary person can spend US dollars…the US. Plus, Iran’s economy is in the gutter and has been for some time, so acting like this was no big deal for them matches the ignorance and illogic that fills the rest of your post.

Grow up, read a non-biased news source, and stop blindly hating the government. That is all.