Windows 7: Create a Recovery Partition

This tip will help you easily create a "recovery" partition: 

After some testing with Windows 7, it is probably possible to create a hidden partition, allowing access to all repair tools, and the ability to completely reinstall the system,therefore no need to use DVD or USB key. 


To begin with, you'll need: 

• A PC functional 
• A blank hard disk, (that intended to receive the recovery partition)
• Your DVD of Windows 7. (or iso file to extract the content) 

Preparation of hard disk

The disk drive must be partitioned into two. Consider a partition of about 3.5GB, at beginning of the disk, so that this partition can contain all the files from the DVD and one for the system partition. 

Copying files

Once the partitions of 3 to 4 GB created, simply just copy the entire DVD on this partition, and make this partition bootable.

Prepare of the partition to make it bootable

Open the command prompt and run this: 

1. x:
2. cd /boot
3. bootsect /nt60 X:
4. (x being your partition) 

A message "boot code was successfully updated on all targeted volumes" should appear. 
Then check that the partition is marked "active" in disk management. 
If necessary, right click on the partition and "mark partition as active" 

Now mount the HDD in the PC and boot.

• The PC will automatically launch the installer from the partition and add an entry "Windows setup" in the entries in bcd. (so no need to use third party software to edit the boot entries)
• Everything is done automatically!
• You now have a PC with a recovery partition that lets you reinstall new Windows 7 in case of problems.

How to clone a hackintosh hard drive on a mac

I have found that CLONING a hackintosh hard drive is a little difficult compared to cloning a PC hard drive. With a PC I can simply clone the drive with things like Ghost or Acronis tools. These are my favourites, but by no means the only method..

Tools needed for the job

• iBoot bootable CD
• Multibeast
• Retail Copy of Snow Leopard

The first thing we need to know is that on the Snow Leopard bootable DVD there is something called Disk Utility. This little app is all you need to CLONE your hard drive. 

.. Yeah I know, I was shocked at that little gem of wisdom too!

With Disk Utility you can create an image of the whole hard drive. There is one very important step you need to take to make your CLONE work properly. In the toolbar click on Images > Scan image for Restore. This one single step, makes the image hardware independant. In other words you can restore your CLONED hard drive to any Mac regardless of the hardward used when the image was created!

Back in a sec ..

How to build a Hackintosh on an ASUS P5Q Motherboard

Download these files:

Retail Copy of Snow Leopard 10.6.3
Latest Apple Combo Update
Kext Helper b7.zip
MultiBeast.zip
AttansicL1eEthernet_0418_64.zip
ALC1200_1063.zip
iBoot.zip

Extract iBoot.zip and burn iBoot.iso to CD

Get a Flash drive or external usb hard drive ( at least 2GB ) and copy these files onto it.

Latest Apple Combo Update
Kext Helper b7.zip
MultiBeast.zip
AttansicL1eEthernet_0418_64.zip
ALC1200_1063.zip

Restore the Snow Leopard Retail Install DVD 10.6.3 to USB Flash drive using Disk Utility on a MAC.

Setup BIOS as follows

Restore BIOS to Setup Defaults
Set to boot from CD first
Set power management to S3
Set ACPI mode 2
Set ALL hard drives to AHCI mode

Insert iBoot CD from step 1 reboot the computer. Once in iBoot insert your USB Flash Drive with Snow Leopard Retail 10.6.3 and hit F5 on the keyboard. You should see another icon appear after a few seconds. Select this icon and it enter to start the installation process. Fill in all the options as required. I un-tick all extra options like printers X11 etc. You can install this lot later. Once the install completes the computer will restart.

Once the computer has rebooted into iBoot, you will see another icon which is your newly created Mac installation. Select it and boot into Mac OS X Leopard. Setup the Mac as you want it. Don't worry about applications yet.

Open MultiBeast and install the Combo Update 10.6.5 from the flash drive ( step 2 ) DO NOT REBOOT YET ! Once the installation of the combo update has completed, click on MultiBeast and run it. Do not reboot yet!

Extract AttansicL1eEthernet_0418_64.zip and ALC1200_1063.zip to the desktop. Open Kext Helper and drag both the extracted kext files onto Kext Helper Type in your Mac password and run it.

Now take out the iBoot cd and reboot. You should now boot straight into Mac OS X Leopard.

Congrats! you are done.

[PC] Codemasters F1 2010 Replay Mode

The new patch v1.01 for Codemasters F1 2010 game allows you to save your replays in .f1player format and replay them at your leisure. 


Heres how you do it:

This is exactly how it should look in the target path box:
"C:\Program Files\Codemasters\F1 2010\f1_2010.exe" -savereplay
"C:\Program Files\Codemasters\F1 2010\f1_2010.exe" -replayui


The only space is after the .exe" and before -savereplay and -replayui