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zomos

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  1. I can do it but the problem I see is how do you want me to identify disks/partitions that do not have any letters assigned ? A hard disk can have partitions without drive letters and so can a USB disk. If you want to help me, search the net how to enumerate all of the physical disks attached to the system in User Mode and without WMI (note: I am not interested in enumerating partitions). Below is an example how to do it in Kernel Mode, but I prefer not to load any drivers to accomplish such simple task. Enumerating device objects representing disks and partitions
  2. Maybe, but please convince me that this cannot be done by: 1) First setting the drive letters with MMC/Disk Management 2) Next generating a migrate.inf file based on settings made in pt.1. After all, with Disk Management, you can remove drive letters and even add letters to partitions that do not have any letters assigned.
  3. Trance, I already did it. It works well if I migrate nLite settings from HIVESFT.INF to WINNT.SIF and TXTSETUP.SIF files. It just bothers me that I have to make a utility to correct nLite's output, but I will make it if nLite's author does not give me a good reason why he keeps these vital settings in HIVESFT.INF instead of the documented ProfilesDir, etc. in WINNT.SIF.
  4. Yes, I wrote it. No, MkMigrateInf.cmd nor MkMigrateInf2.cmd did not work for me because: 1) It does not produce a full migrate.inf with all the current drive assignments 2) It does not handle backslashes correctly 3) It does not wrap the lines for long values like in a real migrate.inf 4) It produces invalid migrate.inf file if there are non REG_BINARY values in the registry (as with some RAID systems) 5) It uses REG.EXE that does not work without LSASS - when nobody is loged on (e.g.: PicoXP) On the cosmetic side: MakeMigrateInf.exe is smaller and faster than Reg.exe + MkMigrateInf.cmd and there is only one file to distrubute. When I enable the command line parsing, MkMigrateInf.exe can be renamed to Reg2Inf.exe and used to export any Registry Key as an *.inf file ( in INF format ). That was its primary purpose to start with. Zomos P.S. Reg.exe cannot export from registry in INF format.
  5. The drive letter ordering IS NOT DEPENDENT on the "harddrives order connecting" with my method. Windows uses partition signatures to assign drive leters. Drive and Partition order just does not matter for letter assignment because migrate.inf persistently overrides the default values proposed by Windows. The utility I had written to generate migrate.inf copies the current drive assignments WHATEVER THEY ARE set to in the PE (including USB drives). These assignemts in migrate.inf are later used by the text mode setup, REGARDLESS of "harddrives order connecting". If the "Program Files" and "Documents And Settings" are on a different physical drives Windows will run much faster because the I/O can be done in parallel on multiple physical drives. The same statement is not true for different partition on the same physical drive. Apparently you had not read the outline of my method nor tried it. Zomos
  6. It is possible to exactly define the drive letters before the Windows XP installation. It is possible to choose your drive letters without such silly things as removing hard drives or deleting partitions. It is even possible to put "Program Files" and "Documents and Settings" on different physical drives so Windows runs faster. See the solution outlined at the link below: http://www.msfn.org/board/profiles-directo...me-t125819.html
  7. Hello? Anybody out there with an answer to the ProfilesDir problem ? Should I start making a utility for migrating nLite settings from HIVESFT.INF to WINNT.SIF and TXTSETUP.SIF files ?
  8. Ponch is right. The BOOTFIX.BIN that is responsible for displaying the "Press any key to boot from CD....." will skip this prompt IF there are no alternatives to booting from CD. For example: if there is no bootable hard disk partition. I can make a custom BOOTFIX.BIN that always displays the "Press any key to boot from CD....." prompt, but what would be the point of it ?
  9. Ponch is right. The BOOTFIX.BIN that is responsible for displaying the "Press any key to boot from CD....." will skip this prompt IF there are no alternatives to booting from CD. For example: if there is no bootable hard disk partition.
  10. No, it is not only an nLite feature. Changing the "Profiles path" has been available since Windows NT. Search the following Microsoft document for "ProfilesDir" HTTP://Changing Profiles Path
  11. Although the info below in not germane to answering my original question. I'd like to share my goal with you: GOAL: Install nLited Windows XP to the drive letters and paths of MY CHOICE. Here is how I do it: 1) I make a nLited Windows XP +SP3 ISO image. 2) To this ISO, I add an additional directory with WinBuilder's NativeEx Preinstalation Environmet (PE) - (it's a mini Windows XP installation that boots from a CD only) 3) I edit the SETUPLDR.BIN of NativeEx PE so it can boot from this additional directory mentioned in pt.2 4) I replace the Boot Sector in the ISO image with my own Custom Boot Sector that allows me to boot from different directories on the CD (by holding down the CTRL key) 5) I burn the altered ISO image to a CD, and I boot from it. (I hold down the CTRL key to boot into NativeEx PE) 6) I partition and assign MY drive letters using the MMC/Disk Management in NativeEx PE. 7) I execute WINNT32.EXE with command line options from NativeEx PE, using the attached batch file InstallXP.bat. 8) WINNT32.EXE creates the directory $WIN_NT$.~BT on my hard drive and copies some preliminary Text Mode setup files to it and sets up the hard drive to boot from $WIN_NT$.~BT/BOOTSECT.DAT. 9) The batch file also generates the file $WIN_NT$.~BT\MIGRATE.INF based on the drive letter assignments mentioned in pt.6 (see the attached MakeMigrateInf.exe file that does this ) 10) I reboot the computer allowing the Microsoft's Text Mode Installer to boot from the hard drive (exactly from $WIN_NT$.~BT/BOOTSECT.DAT ). 11) The Text Mode Installer uses the drive letter assignments I made in pt.6 because they are stored in the MIGRATE.INF file on the hard drive in the $WIN_NT$.~BT directory Between pt.9 and pt.10, I would like to be able to define an arbitrary "Profiles Path"without burning a new CD, but I cannot do it by editing the WINNT.SIF in the $WIN_NT$.~BT directory See the attached files mentioned above.... MakeMigrateInf.rar
  12. That's exactly my point! Editing WINNT.SIF will not accomplish anything because the "Profiles path" IS NOT defined in winnt.sif !!! Hence my original question: WHY isn't it ? Editing $WIN_NT$.~BT\WINNT.SIF after the WINNT32.EXE copies it to a hard drive in some kind of WinPE, would be a good solution because I can write to files in the $WIN_NT$.~BT hard drive directory. This would allow me to edit the "Profiles path" at setup-time each time I use this nLited CD to install Windows XP. Right now I have to burn a separate CD for each different "Profiles Path". Ridiculous ! I cannot edit the HIVESFT.INF either, because the Text Mode Windows Installer ($WIN_NT$.~BT/BOOTSECT.DAT) reads this file from a CD which is Read Only I do not want to copy all of my nLited source installation files to the hard drive, just so I can modify one *.inf file, because I'm trying to save space. How do I get attention of this nuhi guru ? Regards, Zomos
  13. Dear Experts, The nLite v1.4.9.1 has an entry named "Profiles path" in the Options Menu/General Tab/Folders Branch. The "Profiles path" entry defines the name and location of the so called "Documents and Settings" directory, sometimes also called "User Profiles" or "Profiles Directory". I expected that changes made to this entry will appear in the WINNT.SIF file, as illustrated below: WINNT.SIF [GuiUnattended] ProfilesDir = D:\ProfilesPath Unfortunately nLite elects to change the "Profiles path" in a different manner, and I am asking why did the nLite authors chose to use an UNDOCUMENTED way of changing the "Profiles path" rather then taking advantage of the documented "ProfilesDir" parameter in the WINNT.SIF answer file ? Regards, Zomos P.S. I think that to accomplish its feat, nLite modifies the file HIVESFT.INF, but I am only moderately interested WHERE nLite sets the "Profiles path". I am more interested: why not in WINNT.SIF ?
  14. Why nLite doesn't use the profiles directory parameter in the answer file? Thanks in advance.
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