trainee

I apologize for the somewhat arcane title of this post, but I couldn't think of an adequate description that would fit. Seriously: only the super-anal should review the following question... Sometimes I come across a thread that has gone dormant or has no-replies seemingly becuase there is a similar, active thread nearby. Later when the threads are farthur apart (post date disparity), the less active thread won't make any sense, or appear to be unanswered. Here is an example from Unattended\Device Drivers: Problems installing drivers with F-6 Unattend CD. Which recieved no replies and 17views as of the writing of this post. A few hours later the same user posted a new thread on the same topic: Why is no-one willing to touch this topic. Which inexplicably has recieved 11-replies and 223 views as of the same time. Of course the title of the latter goes against MSFN etiquette, and this user really shouldn't be posting twice. But what should happen to the original thread? Should I post a reply that links to the newer topic? This would maintain continuity, but also have the undesired effect of *bumping* that thread to the top. Wow you must be anal like me if you are still reading this. Should I mail an admin to combine these 2 threads, or atleast delete one of them? Or should I just leave it be and any happless victim who happens to stumble on it is just SOL? I realize that this is a very small pebble on the road of life, but my motto (ATM) is: no question isn't worth an answer! However that other saying is wrong, becuase there absolutely are stupid questions.

Yeah I think we have really entered the 'speculation zone' at this point... I believe that DisabledTrucker is right, and you will have to modify the directory structures of the combined TXTSETUP.OEM file and the seperate .inf's if you use subdirectories for each driver. Subdirectories would be the nicer/cleaner/more appropriate way to do this. However you may have fewer problems if you just try dumping all the files (hopefully there won't be any naming conflicts) into the same TEXTMODE directory (without specific subdirectories) just to get it working. @DisabledTrucker: hey do you use the TEXTMODE method from CD or network? The TEXTMODE people really need to get a thread to share information, becuase there aren't very many of us.

Okay someone has to field this just to stop any new rumors before they start... Ummmm...No. Okay for those of you saying it could be done, then maybe, but really this is a bad idea and you should not persue it. Don't worry I'm not leaving it at that...Why this is a bad idea: Just copying the drivers may not allow for complete installation of related registry & programs Any...lets call it 'Bad Mojo'...that may have found its way into your old driver files...will be carried right into your fresh install If the drivers have been updated since last installed (which is highly probable), you won't be taking advantage of the newest releases It's quite possible that you will run out of space on your XPCD if you copy all of your currently installed drivers. Remember that windows installs and uses a number of default drivers, for example: Intel Pentium Processor Driver It is much easier to just take 15-minutes to figure out what hardware you have in your computer. If you can make an unattended XPCD, then this shouldn't be a problem. I really don't recommend spending any time on this. This sounds like fishing for a CD to me...You MUST have an XPCD to install Windows XP.

Hey don't worry about it Really what's the difference between a newbie and a trainee anyway? Thanks for the information, there are fundamental differences in the way TEXTMODE works for a network install and a CD based install. You should actually have a lot fewer problems doing this with a network install and you *may* not need to combine your TXTSETUP.OEM files. Your question is a more difficult one and is a little outside the mainstream. I belive that most people here are doing CD based installs AND are looking to slipstream drivers for their onboard IDE-RAID/SATA controllers. So there are fewer people who will have the experience to answer your questions. As I mentioned above using the TEXTMODE method from a CD is a lot trickier than over network and I have personal interest in that topic so I was able to respond.Unfortunetly that is where my experience runs out and I have never tried to do a network based install. Usually creating a new thread becuase you don't think people are reading your old one does not go over well with the admins so I would give this one a chance. I think your best bet is to combine the TXTSETUP.OEM files into one and just try the sucker out. Best of luck.

Hi Rui Pereira, and welcome to MSFN! This is a great question, and no I don't believe it has ever been asked before. First to answer your question: I believe that you can only have ONE (1) TXTSETUP.OEM file. I have never actually had to slipstream multiple drivers for the same computer so I don't know if this is set in stone, but all of the research I have done indicates that you will have to manually *marry* the different TXTSETUP.OEM files together. As long as the other filenames don't conflict you should be able to dump all of them into the same TEXTMODE folder without individual subdirectories. And you *should* just be able to pick 1 of the [defualt] SCSI entries, and dump the rest. Now I have a few questions for you (watch out they becoming increasingly complex!): 1.) Are you doing a CD or Network based install? 2.) Have you tested any of your mass storage drivers slipstreamed by themselves (to verify that they work individually)? 3.) If YES to #2 and CD to #1: did you use a method VERY similar to the one posted here? 4.) If YES to #2, NO to #3 and CD to #1: please detail the differences 5.) What are ALL of the mass storage drivers you are trying to slipstream (just so we know)? hmmmmm...this one is not more complex than quesiton #4 *yet* so...what is the meaning of life? I may get more out of this thread than you but I hope I helped a little bit.

Okay, Im slightly reluctant to reply again, but no one wants to jump on this so I will... I think that you are trying to do TOO MANY THINGS AT ONCE. No offense or anything but you seem a little confused about exactly what eash utilitiy does. Integrating raid drivers *could* be the most difficult part of your unattended CD. So you shouldn't throw everything into the same pot...mix...and cross your fingers that it works. What you should do is get a virgin copy of XP (the original CD), follow the unattended.msfn.org guide to create a winnt.sif (with basic settings!) and THEN attempt to add drivers to that. No crazy component/nLite or anything else settings, the winnt.sif from your original post (here) was far, far, far too complicated to debug while slipstreaming drivers. I do not claim to be any sort of expert on nLite...but...nLite is NOT a tool for integrating drivers. nLite is a tool for paring down your XP installation to remove specific components and extras you might not use and to free up space on your XPCD. This is an extrememly simplified description but just hold off on using nLite until you can get your drivers slipstreamed properly. Now in your original post (here again) it appeared that you were trying to slipstream drivers to an Adaptec ultra 160 controller. While I would love for you to get this working with M2 I just want to get you moving along so.... please see RyanVM's post (here). His pack might already be able to slipstream the appropriate drivers. Now to the confusion: Ummm what? what card is this? is this the same card as before or different? how does an adaptec card have HP drivers? I know there is some reasonable explanation but I'm no mind reader: you have to tell me what card you are using, what drivers (including the version) you are using, and hopefully indicate where you obtained them from.Even more confusion: again whats going on here? I think you are referring to the "TXTSETUP.OEM" not being found, but I'm not positive. Secondly, what did you do to remedy this? Copied TXTSETUP.OEM to the CD root directory? I have no idea how that would work.I apologize in advance if this post feels heavy-handed but you really need to include some more concise, well-organized information. Take your time and make a good, detailed post of your situation. I really am trying to help, but you have to throw me a friggin bone here. Everyone has had difficulty with this stuff, I made about 3 bonehead posts in the nVidia driver thread just this week, but I gave enough information so that someone could quickly point me in the right direction. 15-minutes spent on making one really good, detailed post will get a much better response then fifteen 1-minute posts that appear to be all over the map.

I believe that slipstreaming raid/sata drivers into textmode is the same if you use nLite to slim down your XPCD or not. There are a number of topics on the forums covering slipstreaming raid/sata drivers, and perhaps someone has already posted a solution for yours. A good overview of the different methods available is maintained by my2001 here. Perhaps someone knows which driver twindude is talking about....wait a minute twindude I just remembered that you already have a thread about this same problem! You should really post some more information about your problem and stick with 1 thread please! Your original thread is here and I pretty much said the same thing the first time, please give us some more information and maybe we can help.

@prathapml: you are absolutely right! I hadn't even noticed the "Microsoft Corporation" in parentheses. @Anyone: Assuming that I already use "DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore", is there a way to get the non-mircosoft sourced drivers to install? I'm not asking anyone to do the legwork for me, but if someone already has a good working solution, that would be great to post to this thread.

I have not spent very long on this, but when installing using OemPnpDriversPath the control panel does not install for me on my Geforce FX 5200. The drivers install correctly and everything seems to be fine, but the extended control panel (available under "advanced') does not install. VIA Based Motherboard, XP SP2, Geforce FX 5200 Thats all I can think of, just my experience up to this point as I haven't played around with it very much.

After using the new gui version (haven't tried the commandline version), I recieve an error for WINNTBBU.DLL during TEXTMODE installation (slipstreamed SP2 RTW). I have successfully used modifype.exe to get past the problem but I was wondering if anyone else was having the problem and if there was a known fix (besides modifype). Thanks. And Thanks SCP for the program.

Hi twindude, Unfortunetly this type of driver integration is a "little" trickier to get working than this. Any Mass-Storage driver slipstreaming involving TXTSETUP.OEM is generally referred to as Method 2 (M2). My2001 has put together a good overview here. And I have put together an overview of how to make (hopefully) the M2 method work. You can see it here. I think your main problem right now is that you don't have your files copied to ALL of the necessary locations. Wait there's more! Incase you don't already know, you can use virtualpc to check that txtsetup.oem and associated files parse correctly so you don't have to keep buring CDs. Ohhh and happy Friday the 13th! I know I won't be driving anywhere today.

Thanks Ponzandro! I eagerly await the results of your test. If anyone has tried this method and has problems or especially if you have been successful with this method Please Please Please post details here. I have responded to a number of posts but no one has yet told me if they were successful. I would really like to extend the known working list beyond the 3ware 7002. Thanks and good luck.

@Maelstorm: Okay as far as i can tell windows doesn't have any problems parsing the TXTSETUP.OEM file with virtualpc. Even though it doesn't simulate the hardware, an XP install on virtualpc will choke if it doesn't like the file or can't find a file referenced from it (I know from experience) I have included the changes I made below for you (using M2) Note: CDROOT\ indicates the root of you CD... so if your CD drive was D:\ then CDROOT\ would correspond to D:\ after you have created the cd. I downloaded the driver zip from the SIIG website and unzipped it. There is a TXTSETUP.OEM file and a lot of subfolders. Since this is going to be an XP install (it is right?) we only need the TXTSETUP.OEM file and the WinXP directory. I copy the file and the whole directory to 2 locations. CDROOT\$OEM$\TEXTMODE\TXTSETUP.OEM CDROOT\$OEM$\TEXTMODE\WinXP\* <the entire folder resides inside the TEXTMODE folder> CDROOT\I386\$OEM$\TXTSETUP.OEM CDROOT\I386\$OEM$\WinXP\* <again the entire folder is copied> Now a few additions need to happen in your winnt.sif: [MassStorageDrivers] "SIIG AP-20/AP-40 SCSI Pro Windows XP MINIPORT DRIVER" = "OEM" "IDE CD-ROM (ATAPI 1.2)/PCI IDE Controller" = "RETAIL" [OemBootFiles] TXTSETUP.OEM WinXP\Sc247xu.inf WinXP\SC247XU.SYS See how the [OemBootFiles] entry references the subdirectory? this is actually one of the most basic TXTSETUP.OEM files I have seen (it only reference 2 files!) so I have high hopes that this will work for you. Below is my entire winnt.sif (with personal information x'd out of course) so that you can see all of the options I have set. I am pretty sure that you must have OemPreinstall=Yes for this method to work. Just use this as a comparison to your own. ;SetupMgrTag [Data] MsDosInitiated="0" UnattendedInstall="Yes" [Unattended] DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore Repartition=Yes UnattendMode=FullUnattended OemSkipEula=Yes OemPreinstall=Yes UnattendSwitch="Yes" WaitForReboot="No" TargetPath=\WINDOWS OemPnPDriversPath="Sources\System\Microsoft;Sources\System\ATI\Driver" [GuiUnattended] AdminPassword=xxxxxxxx EncryptedAdminPassword=No OEMSkipRegional=1 TimeZone=4 OemSkipWelcome=1 AutoLogon=Yes AutoLogonCount=1 [UserData] ProductKey=xxxxxxxx FullName="xxxxxxxx" OrgName="xxxxxxxx" ComputerName=xxxxxxxx [Identification] JoinWorkgroup=xxxxxxxx [Networking] InstallDefaultComponents=Yes [MassStorageDrivers] "SIIG AP-20/AP-40 SCSI Pro Windows XP MINIPORT DRIVER" = "OEM" "IDE CD-ROM (ATAPI 1.2)/PCI IDE Controller" = "RETAIL" [OemBootFiles] TXTSETUP.OEM WinXP\Sc247xu.inf WinXP\SC247XU.SYS I hope that this helps and if you have any more problems OR SUCCESS! please post back here. If you see windows formatting your harddrive then you know that it worked! So if you have a problem subsequent to formatting then the error is somewhere else.

@Maelstorm: I'm still around to help people try to make this method work, but in general I need some more info to go on that you have supplied in your previous post. What card do you have exactly? Just looking at the D1 line you quote it appears that you have either a SIIG AP-20 or AP-40 Ultra Wide Scsi controller card. Soooo.... I went over to the SIIG site to download the drivers myself. I'm guessing you have harware revision #2 with the acard chipset since hardware revision #1 already has its drivers built into winXP. I also assume that you have tried this with a floppy and everything was A-OK so you know the driver works. One of the craziest problems I ever had was when my driver download became corrupted and I didn't figure it out for hours. And again another assumption: your unattended XP cd actually does work. Okay I don't see anything terrible awry with the TXTSETUP.OEM file but if you could tell me more about where the error occurs and what the exact error you encounter is that would be helpful. Believe it or not the wierd D1\Disk1\etc entries have yet to be the problem in the ohhhhh... two whole cases I've dealt with, but still. I am going to go ahead and slipstream-up a set of the AP-40 using M2 and see where I can get in Virtualpc. I can't vouch for them actually working with the hardware, but I will be able to see if the TXTSETUP.OEM parses out correctly. I'll post my results ASAP, but like I said any additional information would help us both get this working for you.

Hi, I was pretty late getting on the XPLODE bandwagon but I have to say that I love using it for my unattended installs. I have been searching the forums and I don't have an exact idea of when network access becomes available (for shares). I believe that Wraith said he was unable to get access to shares at T-15 (T-13?). I know there is access at guirunonce. Has anyone had success with network access between these 2 times? While I am open to doing the trial and error with virtualpc, I thought I would inquire first. I currently use XPLODE @T-13 for hotfixes and @GuiRunOnce for hotfixes & programs which I download first over the network And since I haven't said it before: Thank you Wraith for an excellent piece of software. I am sorry to hear you have lost interest in it but I hope that you have as great success in your future endevors.

@Gamehead: Yes I have noticed that eMax is very popular here and appears to be a good solution for many as it includes a lot of standard features. One of my hosting needs is ASP support (which I personally like). I also really like having unlimited subdomains. eMax has unlimited emails which I like as well, but was willing to give up for ASP support. I was just suggesting another provider that might meet peoples needs. the eMax $5.95 account has the same webspace and bandwidth as the m6.net $4.00 account which also might be a deciding factor for people who just want webspace. However I think there are even better deals to be had for that (no database or scripting support). XtremeMac's host (www.hostacres.com) gives him a static-ip which he seems to like. When there are more options I think everyone is better off

First off let me say that I do not work for m6.net. I hadn't seen a post about m6.net (which I recently switched to), and I wanted to let people know about it. It *may* provide competition to other inexpensive hosting providers already mentioned in the forum, and it was my final decision after about 2days of research. So...I have m6.net Micro package for $4.00 per month (prepaid for 12months) Pros Scripting...ASP, ASP.net, CGI, Perl, PHP Unlmited subdomains Unlimited email aliases Unlimited email attachment size (sending & recieving) Shared 128bit SSL Standard 250mb webspace 20GB bandwidth Cons No MySQL (Access only, MySQL available with higher account) 50 Full email accounts (better than some, but not all) No scheduled applications 1 FTP Obviously they have higher plans for more money. Check them out at www.m6.net I personally like to code in ASP so that really drove my choice of hosts, however I think that the extensive script support would make this a good host for others as well. I used to get hosting from parcom.net ($3.95 per month, 3month contract), and they had 999emails per account, but they had a horrible 1mb email attachment limit that was killing me. And they charged for every subdomain I setup. However if you don't care about those 2 things, they had ASP hosting and a bit more webspace.

Okay, the other thing that I was hoping someone would mention was changing the search date. The defualt is the last 30days. Often I think people expect it to be all posts unless they choose to limit it, however that is not the case. Furthermore, it searches posts, not entire threads. So back to the 3ware example, even though there was a reply in that thread within the last 30days (an active topic) those replies don't mention 3ware, so the thread won't come up. Love it, hate it, thats the way it works. For people who have been on the boards for awhile this is great becuase it already cuts down on posts you have probably already seen. However I think that new people or people who are trying to research the topic for the first time have a different expectation and may not pay attention to this default setting. @Drewdatrip, I think a 'How to Search' guide or addition to the forum rules is an excellent idea. If this does happen and I can help in any way, please let me know.

@Aaron, thanks for the comment, and for the move to the proper section This certianly is one of the big reasons people miss posts: not refining searches. But wait there's one more really big one that I was hoping someone would point out! This would actually solve the problem described in the first post. When you so a search and you get so few hits that refining your search won't help, you may want to...???? This probably isn't the most exciting topic in the world, so if someone doesn't guess by tomorrow I'll just post it.

Search Function I'm curious about people's experience with the board search function? I've noted that many times people are told to use the search function, and I agree that it often seems that time isn't spent searching for an appropriate answer. I think that lots of new posts on the same topic clutter the board and can confuse people who actually do spend time searching because there are NOW tons of threads to look through. However, my personal experience with the search function has been fair at best. Often times I will search for a keyword and topics wont come up, even though I know I have seen them on the board. Other times it complains that my search terms are too short, which can be difficult since many acronyms are 3-letters long. So here's a quick example (relevant to unattended windows), searching for a topic that I posted: Search for "3ware" = 3 results 1. Relevant 2. Not relevant 3. Not truly Relevant The topic I created in MSFN\Unattended\Device Drivers\: link Which has 3ware in the subtitle, and has "3ware" appear 17-times in the body of the post, is never displayed. 17-times! both by itself and as a part of another word. So maybe it won't show me threads that I started myself right? Search for "massstoragedrivers" = 4 results 1. MY POST! so this obnoxious term that you would virtually have to know before you started looking, found my own post. Search for "txtmode" = 2 results Another issue for searching is really long threads: 1. Relevant However the actual word "txtmode" doesn't appear until page 8 For many posts, especially stickies, the term you searched for can be buried many pages in. And unless there is an option I'm missing (I hope there is), there is no way to go directly to the first reply that has the search term in a thread. MSFN? This is not a MSFN thing. I participate in a few other forums and the same search problem occurs on a regular basis and people are told they are not searching. More or less it appears to be an 'Invision Power Board' deficiency, which will hopefully be improved in the future. IMHO 'Invision Power Board' is still the nicest board out there and makes for a very nice community, but no piece of software is perfect. When people do ask questions that have been asked before, I try to think about what kind of information they are looking for and how it may or may not be difficult to construct a successful search for it. I think that links to the older threads work as a great response because it makes "all roads lead" to a specific thread. I certainly don't feel that all comments about "use the search function" or "look around" are bad. Many times I feel that people need to be reminded that you get more out of the community when you invest time in it (in this case reading through threads). So, just my 2cents, and I am relatively new to the MSFN community so I don't know if there was a horrible wave of reposts in the past. Comments and differing opinions welcome. <- Yes I know that I make long boring posts. Awww man I didn't even post in the right section. Thanks for the move Aaron.

@Inferno: see if this thread helps (link) @Inferno: yes I have been successful using this method from CD. However very few people seem to have confirmed with their own hardware, so if you are up to it, lets try to get yours to work. And welcome to MSFN, I'm surprised your name wasn't taken! First, the txtsetup.oem and your additions to the winnt.sif appear to be fine. You shouldn't need to post the .inf file however the following information / tips would be helpful: When posting code / codelike files, please put them in tags because it is much easier to read If possible please post your entire winnt.sif (with personal stuff like product ID removed) because some of the other entries may be relevant What is the exact hardware you are trying to install? Where do you get the error? (ex. before drive format, after drive format, after first reboot, during file copy, etc) What does your Disk1 file contain? Okay, here is the weird thing about your error: the filename does not appear to be associated with the driver. The file "oemdisk.c" is not listed in your txtsetup.oem or winnt.sif oembootfiles. So I don't understand how these would be related. So have you.. Compared your install to the one described in the guide? Copied the driver files to ALL the locations described in the guide? Tried NOT listing Disk1 in your [oembootfiles] entry? Ensured that your CD isn't 'FULL'? I know this sounds stupid, but I was using 650mb CD-RWs and I couldn’t figure out for about half a day why I kept getting random errors. I never had a write error, but I had crazy error 18's and file read errors for hours, until I switched to 700mb CD-R's. (no comments from the n-lite crowd please) tried installing with virtualpc from the CD image? You can try a failsafe this way too, without the driver files, to make sure it isn't something with the rest of the CD that is causing the problem and not the textmode driver. I believe that a error (18) is a file not found error (but don't take my word for it). I also am not an expert on slipstreamed CD's but I use XPCREATE and the path you have listed is very different from anything I appear to have. Hope this helps. If you tell me the exact driver I can try to replicate your problems with my slipstreamed CD in virtualpc.

I really should let someone else field this (I'm pretty tired) but here goes: It sounds like you are trying to do an unattended install while still hitting F6 for floppy supplied drivers. This WON'T work for XP, so I doubt it will work for 2003. The "can't copy file" error would occur if you tried to do an unattended with F6 (I hate to admit it, but I have tried it myself). Do your floppy drivers work when you do an ATTENDED install (think no winnt.sif)? If they don't work for an attended install then they won't work for unattended. I have already linked to my2001's link summary for SATA/RAID methods so I might as well link it again (click me!) Unfortunetly there is a slight learning curve associated with adding drivers to a CD, but a little research and a lot of reading can go a long way. I hope this helps. You may have better luck hacking in just your drivers from Ryan's pack instead of the whole pack (M1-style). Or (shameless plug) once you know what M2 is...try it! Edit: ughhh my 13th post.

woah woah woah! I just saw this post. It looks like you are trying to do a Method 2 (M2) style driver install. My2001 has a new thread (here) with links to the 3 known methods of adding SATA/RAID/SCSI drivers to an unattended install. M1&M3 are more widely used than M2 and you may be able to find someone else who already has this driver working with these other methods. I encourage you to try M2! I have a guide posted here. If you are trying to use it I can already see that you have a problem with your [MassStorageDrivers] entry in your winnt.sif. It does not list your CD-ROM drive and that will cause a BSOD after your first installation reboot. Also you have not copied your files into all of the neccesary locations (again please see my guide). I hope this helps. I am currently on a trip but I will try to respond to any M2 related questions as quickly as possible.

Hey! I am still on a long trip so please excuse any errors in this post, I'm just trying to give my 'quick' 2cents. Assuming that you are trying to get a specific driver working It is usually easiest to find an example of someone who already has that driver working and then go with that. Obviously I am a big fan of M2 and I have been hoping that other people will try it out, but it is the least verified of the 3 methods and therefore the least help is available for it. If you just want to get it done, I suggest M1. My answers to your questions: Q1 & Q2. This summary seems correct, however Pure Krome's method evolved significantly into XP Basic CD Unattended SATA/RAID Install , How to avoid hitting F6 for CD Install. This is effectively M2 to the 20th power which is to say that it is somewhat complex (in my opinion anyway). However this is not to say it is incorrect, and may work for some drivers that the standard M2 method does not work for. As for my credit for M2, I certainly did not 'create it' however I did write the most recent and (hopefully) most complete guide. This newer Pure Krome link is more appropriate for something like M2.b and should be used instead of the other Pure Krome link. For those concerned that M1&M3 involve too much direct hacking of driver setup files, or have drivers like the 3ware's with more than 1 driver per Hardware ID, M2 may be the best alternative. You may also want to reference the M1-style integration of certain drivers into GM's XPCREATE, which is very easy for people who have those drivers. It's only a subset of the drivers that have been shown to work with M1 however. I would try to include only the most current/complete topics for each method since there is a lot of old/incorrect information that has been talked about while people were simply trying to figure things out. Actually your current list seems very good. I have no personal experince with Pyron's method so I can't say much about it. I like the M1, M2 etc. nomencalture so M3 gets my vote, but I will leave it to someone more 'senior' than me to confirm this naming. Q3. M2 does NOT require editing of TXTSETUP.SIF (well M2.a? anyway, I have not looked at M2.b in some time so it may or may not). Q4. I have no experience with this either, however Bâshrat's is usually right on top of things and you should get an answer from him pretty soon I would think Compaq/IBM Tools I think that Bilou_Gateux is showing these 2 tools as proof that the M2 method is the 'proper' way to install drivers (since these large companies appear to use it). I personally feel that the 'proper' way to install drivers would be for Microsoft to let us drop the driver files in a folder and let-er-rip without any setup file hacking. I don't think this will happen any time soon. I am willing to bet that there is a whole lot of 'other' stuff giong on in these 2 tools that makes the M2 method work so well for them, I mean c'mon they want you to buy a service contract to use them. That's It Okay, I will end by saying that if you anyone has a chance or inclination to try out M2 for your hardware please do so! Right now the only confirmed M2 drivers (that I know of) are the 3ware 7k/8k drivers. Edit: Yes! I am aware that I need to work on my conciseness

Thanks for the comments guys! I'm sure it will take a while for people to actually try the method out on different hardware setups, since it involves formatting their hard drive(s). @Bashrat: Thanks for the .cat clarification. And I've been meaning to say: cool avatar. @edmoncu: yeah I saw that you've been looking at this method for well over a year now. @GM: XPCREATE is awesome! Unfortunately the 3ware drivers aren't digitally signed which I believe is a prerequisite for their inclusion with XPCREATE. I kept trying to integrate them at a lot of different points with XPCREATE (before, after, and I even tried hacking the xpcreate.cab to put the 3ware drivers in) but no dice. I was afraid of messing up the changes that XPCREATE makes to TXTSETUP.SIF, and ultimately I was unable to make M1 work. I agree that your simplified Raskren method is clean as well (and involves fewer copies of the driver files!), I just couldn't make it work (please see additional errata below). I absolutely think that having XPCREATE detect and add the drivers is the best way to go so any chance you want to add the 3ware's to it? Additional Errata: I think one of the weird things about the 3ware drivers is that there are 2 drivers, but only 1 PCI/VEN ID #. I know that some drivers associate with multiple PCI ID's, but I don't know of another example where a single PCI ID associates with multiple drivers. This left me kind of dumbstruck when it came to editing the TXTSETUP.SIF. Anyone else come across a similar situation? I'm hopeful that someone will be able to confirm M2 with another driver just so the option exists.