majormashup

mr_smartepants, I'm getting a 500 internal server error on this link. I never knew this addon existed. I've been playing with unattended OEM xp builds for a collection of dell's for quite a while. after eventually giving up stripping out the original Dell reinstall's I learnt about PID's and OEM licensing etc. and built my own from a VLK disc with some changes to incorporate the OEMBIOS checking files, pidgen.dll etc. (instructions here) It would be really useful if I could make one disc for all of the main manufacturers. If you would be so kind as to repost a properly working link I'd be very very grateful!

what files are inside the .zip?

If your computer is not under warranty you should still be able to contact the manufacturer and get a "recovery CD" (usually in the form of an OEM XP installation with OEMBIOS files for activation) you will be able to use this to either run the repair function (in my experience not very good), use the recovery console or reinstall windows. My first recommendation however would be to run checkdisk from the recovery console to make sure it is not a case of your HDD failing. If your disk is failing or you cannot recover windows I'd recommend booting an ubuntu live CD, backing up your important files and reinstalling windows either on a new or existing drive (dependant on the result of your diskchecking) hope some of this helps!

I'd take a look at this tutorial if for whatever reason you need to repackage anything as an .msi I would recommend checking out Scriptlogic MSI Studio which isn't cheap but you can get a fully-functional free trial. I hope this helps

If you have an OEM license for your copy of windows XP and would like to reinstall your OS without all of the generic rubbish that manufacturers usually put on their reinstallation CD’s then read on… NOTE: this is for people who own an OEM licenses for their PC only. Attempting to install OEM software illegally is not condoned by myself or MSFN. I have found this very useful in a corporate environment with OEM licensed windows XP PC's as it has meant I can build required software packages into the CD and speed up my re-imaging process. What you will need: A copy of nlite from http://www.nliteos.com A corporate (volume license) copy of Windows XP A copy of the OEM install disc that came with your PC Some patience Preparing the disc: Extract the contents of your corporate disc to a folder on your local drive (nlite seems to have issues with network shares on the odd occaision) If necessary patch the install with the latest service pack (nlite has a very straightforward wizard for this). My source came pre-patched with SP3. Open the directory with your install files in (now referred to as winstalldir) and go into the i386 directory. In here is a file called setupp.ini which contains a line reading something like this: pid=XXXXX270 all that needs to be done to this file is for the last three characters of that string to be changed to “OEM” so it will read something like this: pid=XXXXXOEM now save the file and close it. Next you will need to extract some files from your OEM disc (now referred to as OEMsourcedir). Gather OEMBIOS.BI_, OEMBIOS.CA_, OEMBIOS_DA_, OEMBIOS.SI_, DPCDLL.DL_ and pidgin.dll from the OEMsourcedir\i386 folder and put them somewhere safe. Copy all of these except pidgen.dll to your winstalldir\i386 folder. Now open nlite and click next (unless you don’t speak English and need to change the language). Click browse and point nlite to winstalldir. When you have done that click next again. You now have the option to load your last session – skip it. On the next screen select unattended and Bootable ISO and click next. Under Unattended options enter the following product key: MVF4D-W774K-MC4VM-QY6XY-R38TB This is the universal OEM product key as released by Microsoft and as long as you have an OEM license for the machine you are installing to should activate with no technical or legal concerns (unless of course you are breaking the law). If you click next you will be asked if you want to start the process, click yes and wait until it finishes. Click next and before you make an ISO copy pidgin.dll from OEMsourcedir\i386 to winstalldir\i386 (overwriting the one that already exists) Now click make ISO. Once this is completed you have an image of a disc that is the same as the Manufacturers install CD’s but with nothing removed and no junk added. Well done. Test the disk on a virtual (or real) PC and make sure you don’t get any error messages saying “Invalid Product ID”. These usually occur when you forget to copy one of the files from the OEM disc. After all of this is complete start the whole process over in the knowledge you have it right and integrate any addons, remove junk and slipstream driverpacks as you see fit!

Meat_PoPsiclez, I don't know if you are still having issues with this but activation of OEM licenses is always needed unless you have the original CD that came with your Dell/HP/Compaq/etc PC. These CD's contain a number of files that verify the brand/type of PC using bios checks (this can be problematic if you update your bios in some cases). It is however possible to build an OEM licensed disc that will activate on install. I plan on posting a tutorial here soon and will post a link on this thread when i do Unfortunatley though OEM licensing does bind the license to the PC it was initially supplied with and there is no way of automating OEM activation without at least knowing the brand of the intended PC for it to be installed on. Sorry I couldn't help more.

I've been having the same problem with the 330's but found this thread which prompted me to change the sata operation from AHCI to ATA which did the job! This has been my first attempt at building a UXPCD and has been driving me utterly mad. I urge anyone that has a 330 in a corporate environment to change this bios setting as soon as they arrive in the office. Also my thanks to MSFN and its users for all of the help that I've found in these forums!