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YES!! It's done. I've installed SP3 to C:\ without an optical drive. Thank you to the unattended forums! And special thanks to all those who contributed to this thread (ilko, wimb, Joe, jaclaz,cdob). I'm not entirely clear on the HOW this works, but I have managed to get the installation done on C:\ with my hardware configuration. Here's what I did: 1. Remove U3 from USB stick (standard program from U3 website) 2. Use USB_Multiboot_10 to ready the stick for installation -HP format to NTFS -USB HDD (not USB stick) was used 3. Begin Text-mode setup Boot order is HDD, USB stick USB_Multiboot choice = 1 Partition HDD (HDD is D: and USB stick is C:) Do not complete Text-mode setup (or format or install) Quit using F3 4. Start Text-mode setup (second time) Boot order is still HDD, USB stick USB_Multiboot choice = 1 At partition screen, HDD is now C: and USB stick is D: Complete Text-mode setup (format, install, etc.) 5. Start GUI-mode setup Change boot order (USB stick, then primary HDD) Finish GUI-mode setup 6. Final reboot Boot order is USB stick, then primary HDD USB_Multiboot menu choice = 2 SP3 completes its first login Remove USB stick Edit boot.ini to reflect 1 OS in bootmenu Wish I had better insight into how this works. My mind is a litle dissatisfied not knowing the exact mechanism of success, but practically-speaking I'm very pleased. I should have timed things, but the install did feel much faster than my optical drive installs. Thanks again to all.

Jaclaz-- I did try manually editing migrate.inf to change the USB drive from U: to somehting else, but that did not solve the problem. I can't remember the exact result, but it was either the KBdus.dll error or an inability to install to C:\. Thanks

Ilko, JoeMSFN, Wimb, You all seem to be going down the same road. Sorry for my stubborness that the problem is elsewhere--I really am quite ignorant of some of these things. I will try to remove the U3 or get another USB stick. I'll let you know what happens (...well, maybe I'll have dinner first). Thanks again

JoeMSFN-- ahh... I see (and bow to your knowledge). I guess it might be helpful to un-U3 my USB stick. Do you recommend using Sandisk (or U3's) removal tool available at their website or something else? Thanks U3 is a way of having the system tray menuing system autorun. Since older Win versions (and maybe even XP and Vista) can't autorun from anything other than a CD/DVD, they "fake" a CD drive to autorun the menu.Simply formatting will not get rid of the CD drive. There may be other ways to do this, but the only way I know to "get rid of" the fake CD drive is to run the U3 removal tool (not sure of the real name). If it's a Sandisk, I think you can reverse the removal if you want the CD drive back. If it's another brand product, removing the fake drive is permanent. (unless there's been clever hacks to do it). I have succesfully "un-U3ed" my Sandisk. It's wonderful! because the annoyance is gone. What annoyance...? Read on. I find the fake CD drive an annoyance on slow computers, since it has to install two devices for one physical piece of hardware. Although there are clever folk who have generously contributed various hacks to put a custom ISO on the U3 stick so you can have an auto running software of choice. Also the custom ISO has a very restricting size limit.

Ilko-- Thanks again. Setting USB_Multiboot_10 to USB HDD doesn't really change anything. Thanks for your help my friends (and I hate to disagree), but I really don't think the problem is with the USB stick. I think things lie more towards modification of migrate.INF. Anyone else with a suggestion?

Ilko-- OK. I'll try again. Thanks. Wimb-- Thanks. I think U3 just refers to the name of the USB stick or whatever programs Sandisk put on the USB stick. Of course, I just formatted over whatever they had there. I think, then, that what I have is "just a simple USB stick" and nothing more. I could be wrong, but I really don't think the problem is with the USB stick--I think it has more to do with how Text-mode setup labels the drives. What do you think?

Ilko-- Thanks for the input. I guess I didn't make things clear. I already solved the problem with the RAID drivers. My TXTSETUP.sif file is already customized and the jraid.sys file has been added appropriately. Once I took care of the RAID issue, my main problem comes up (which is the KBdus.dll error). I believe this problem is coming from the final step in USB_Multiboot_10 where the user is asked to "Make USB-stick in XP Setup to be Preferred Boot Drive U:". When I do this, I get stuck in Text-mode setup with this error message: "Setup cannot load the keyboard layout file KBdus.dll". This happens before any oppportunity to format/partition drives. As I said in the OP, I think the problem is coming from Windows (or MountMgr) not being able to assign a drive letter to USB flash drive (see MSN article Q239722). I can solve this problem by setting USB_Multiboot_10 to [NO] " For Mixed SATA/PATA Config: Don't change migrate.inf". With this setting, I avoid the KBdus.dll error and can get to the Text-mode setup format/partition screen. From here, the computer registers 2 drives: the USB stick and the HDD (listed as D:\). I can successfully partition, NTFS format, and install windows (well... at least the Text-mode setup portion). BUT I believe this solution is suboptimal since I am forced to install Windows to D: (versus C:). Like I said in the OP, I could live with this, but it isn't ideal. I think that answers your questions, but for completeness: -Question 1-add a few lines to TXTSETUP.SIF in root, Did you do that? - Yes (RAID drivers are not an issue) -Question 2-Are you sure that your HARD DISK was displayed when you got past Text Mode? - Yes (I definitely installed to the HDD and not the USB stick) -Question 3-What drive letter each hard disk and USB stick got? - USB stick is labeled as C:\ (at the Text-mode setup screen) - HDD is labeled as D:\ (at the Text-mode setup screen) Anyone else with suggestions (or questions regarding what I did/didn't do)? Thanks

Thanks for all the hard work on this great project. I searched the forum, FAQ, and google for information on this, but I still haven't been able to resolve it successfully. I don't think it has been covered before (at least, not directly). Forgive me if I've omitted something important; I've tried to be thorough, but I'm still learning here. I am trying to install SP3. In the past I've had successful unattended SP3 installs using CD/HDD (on hardware, not just simulated). Being a beginner to USB installation, I pretty much followed the instructions in the guide here. Settings (all done from within USB_Multiboot_10): HP USB format tool (NTFS, 4GB andisk U3 Micro flash drive) [uSB stick] for drive type [C:\SP3] for XP source (YES to custom winnt.sif and $OEM$, unattended) [K:\] for USB target [YES] for copy LANG/WIN98X (actually I tried both yes and no) [C:\MULTI_CONTENT] for USB content source (acutlly I tried with and without these extras) [b_ini_XP_Setup_boot.ini] [w_sif\Current_winnt.sif] [C:\SP3\$OEM$] yes to "copy XP + EXTRA sources to USB-Drive" yes to "Make USB-stick in XP Setup to be Preferred Boot Drive U:" Multiboot finished without errors. First install (failed): I installed to an 8GB RAID-0 drive, Gibabyte 965P, Intel Pentium D 805 with no other HDD/optical drives/card readers connected. This attempt failed in Text-mode setup (at the very end of the drivers being loaded, but before format/partition) due to missing raid drivers for the HDD. Second install (failed): I fixed the RAID driver problem by copying a raid driver (jraid.sys) to K:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\ and modifying TXTSETUP.sif. On this installation, I can enter Text-mode setup and drivers are correctly loaded. But before I get to the format/partition screen and error message comes up: "Setup cannot load the keyboard layout file KBdus.dll". From what I could find off google, this is not a problem with a missing or corrupt KBdus.dll file. Microsoft says in Q239722: There is also another article from Microsoft which says: Of course, both these refer to Windows 2000 which I am not using. BUt they shed some light on what might be happening. Third install (semi-successful, but not optimal): The first MSN article makes me think that setting the USB drive to U: is the problem. I redid my flash drive using USB_Multboot_10 again, but this time I changed the final setting to [NO] " For Mixed SATA/PATA Config: Don't change migrate.inf". On this installation, I went through the Text-mode setup without a problem (no RAID driver or KBdus.dll problems). Problem is, the HDD is listed as D:\ and the USB stick is listed as C:\ (at Text-mode setup's format/partition screen). Therefore, SP3 is being installed to D:\ (which I could live with, but this is not ideal). Fourth install (failed): In order to install SP3 to C:\, I tried this from the FAQ (Q&A #13): enter Text-mode setup, partition the HDD (which is not listed as C:\), quit using F3, reboot, enter Text-mode setup again (at which point, the drive should be set to C:). I did this--enter Text-mode setup, partition HDD (the one listed as D:\), quit via F3, reboot, and re-enter Text-mode setup a second time. But now, on the second Text-mode setup, I get this error (before the Format/Partition/Install screens): "Setup cannot load the keyboard layout file KBdus.dll". I'm really at the limit of my technical ability here. I don't need anything particularly fancy--I just want to get SP3 onto my C:\. Has anyone else resolved this issue? Thanks.