thaimin

Sorry for bringing up a little bit of an old topic, but I found some information somewhere else that relates and wish it had been here. If the disk id is preceded by _ (underscore) then that file is subject to a file-size check when copied. If the file is not the same size as listed in layout.inf Windows installation dies right there. So if you are copying a modified file, make sure to update the file size in layout.inf or remove the _ preceding the name. This only counts for layout.inf and not txtsetup.sif (which includes no file sizes). For an underscore after the diskid see deadbug's post.

That is essentially what I did, and it worked just fine. Upon further testing, this occurs even after installing with the right drivers initially in ACHI mode and never switching it. So, it has to be something more than just that. In fact, when installing in ACHI mode upon the first restart before it goes to the second stage of installing it already has the problem. Additionally, if I switch the disk back to IDE mode and not even worry about Windows, it still has the problem.

I was testing out a new system and came across one hell of a weird behavior. I have found a work-around already, but would like to understand the real reason and find a better solution if possible. Setup: Motherboard: AOpen i45GMt-HD (a mini-ITX board with very little consumer presence...) Intel ICH9M chipset 3 Internal SATA ports, 1 eSATA, Can do IDE or ACHI but no RAID No PATA, no floppy [*]SATA1: 160GB Hitachi 7200RPM 2.5" HDD [*]SATA2: CD/DVD Optical Drive What I did: Set SATA to IDE mode (otherwise installer did a BSOD after saying "Starting Windows...") Installed XP from a nLite slipstreamed disk that integrated SP3 (no other modifications) Installed all drivers, nothing else Enabled XP to allow ACHI mode, switched to ACHI mode, XP works fine Made a new XP Install Disk with textmode ACHI driver based on the slipstreamed disk Problem: At this point is when all the weirdness happens. Either the original install disk or the one containing the textmode drivers fails to even load! It does ask for me to press enter to use disk (so it is not skipping that) then goes BLACK. Never shows the blue screen. Stays black for over 20 min when I give up. Does this in IDE or ACHI mode. Status lights indicate system is on, and there is HDD activity, but optical drive is not doing anything. Unplugging the HDD allows the installer to get past starting up and just tells me there are no drives to install to. Work Around: I blasted the hard drive MBR and partition table into oblivion with KNOPPIX and the following command: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=10M count=1 Which writes 0s over the first 10 MB of the disk. Now both disks work, and ACHI mode works with the disk with the drivers built-in. I made some dummy partitions with KNOPPIX and it works fine as well. So what do you guys think is going on here? Why does a previous Windows install prevent another install from even trying to start? I plan on doing many installs as I work on perfecting a stream-lined XP install so this is going to get obnoxious...but I can live with it. Thanks for any input! Edit: Tested it again, immediately after the first restart during installation this problem arises, so even before Windows ever boots. Also, if a disable the "Please press any key to boot CD..." with nLite it still happens. Maybe something to do with a boot flag?

So, I found out why. This is not really bug in nLite, at least how I originally thought it. Basically, I was using a Win XP SP 2 source, loading the saved configuration file, then applying SP 3. The application of SP 3 most add some extra languages and components that when not seeing them at first, but then later being added with SP3 they get unchecked. The other settings must also get somehow changed during the integration of the service pack. To remedy the situation I have created a SP 3 source and now use that as the base and all the settings stay.

While making my minimized unattended nLited install, I typically wanted hidden windows. I tried cmdow but it didn't seem to work too well and all of those **** security warnings about it, so I instead made my own. This program cannot do the cool feature of cmdow which is hiding the current window, but it does allow you to call a program or whatever that is completely hidden. You would use it like: hide my_command_file arg1 arg2 Basically, it takes the entire command line (minus the "hide") and runs that in a hidden window with its own environment. I tried to make this as small as possible (46kb), however have not succeeded in even achieving the size of cmdow (which is about 31kb). It requires no libraries other than basic Windows libraries (ones you cannot remove at all). When compiling with Visual Studio, it does make it an awesome 7 kb, however it than requires 1.5 MB of MS Visual Studio 9 DLLs to go with it. This version is compiled using Borland C++ compiler 5.5 (from 2000). Anyone have any other suggestions on minimizing the size? A different compiler? Options should try (obviously I already tried -O1 for size). I know the difference between 46kb and say 15kb really isnt that much, but it is the principal of the idea. hide.exe

My current computer setup I have 2 SATA ports that act as the Primary Channel. There is a 750 GB hard drive on SATA1 and is the master, and nothing on SATA2. The IDE channel is served through the IDE port and a compact-flash card slot built into the motherboard. There is a jumper on the motherboard to select either master or slave for the flash card. The IDE port has a slimline CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive attached. The cable attaching it is currently only with two ends (whereas the typical IDE cable has 3). There is no way for me to select master/slave for the CD drive, so my guess is that it is cable-select. In any case it is always master. So the flash card must be set to slave. In Knoppix, both the flash card and the CD drive are accessible. A Windows 98 SE Boot disk works fine from the CD drive. Windows will install off the CD drive. However, as soon as Windows installation is complete, the CD drive stops working and acts as though every CD put in has nothing on it. If I remove the flash card (requiring a reboot), the CD drive starts working. The flash card is treated as an internal hard drive by the motherboard, however the card itself does not have the "non-removable" bit set so Windows mistakes it for a removable disk. I am trying to get a firmware update from the manufacture to correct this issue. I am trying to get another cable so I can test this setup but with CD drive as slave and compact flash as master (it is a 44-pin IDE cable, not the typical 40-pin). In the mean time, is there anything else I can do? There is obviously nothing wrong with the hardware itself since Knoppix and "dumb" Windows (Windows Installer) can use both the CD drive and compact flash drive fine. Anything I can do in Windows to correct this problem? Jeff

When using the presets a number of the settings are not saved and/or reloaded and must be manually entered every time in the newest version . This includes (from my experience): a number of the keyboards and languages on the Components page program file path on the Unattended->General page (the default/custom setting is saved, but the path itself is not) everything on the Unattended->Users page the Location and Timezone settings on the Unattended->Regional page all settings on both tabs of the Options page Additionally, the Unattended->Network page adds a new adapter every time a preset is loaded and then re-saved.