jaclaz

The English form is "to compare apples with oranges", but it has been scientifically debunked: http://www.improb.com/airchives/paperair/v...1-3-apples.html jaclaz

Just for the sake of the discussion, let's say that Vista is the bestOSever. Can we say that even if it is the best one and has no matches, it could be made even a tiny bit better? Are we allowed to "whine" a little about the, rest assured very very few, things that might have been or that can be made better? jaclaz

Just a guess, but you need to make the USB source "read only". Try using this: http://www.xabersoft.com/ http://www.xabersoft.com/freebies.html http://www.xabersoft.com/download/usbwriteblocker.zip Would it work in BartPE? Cannot say. The only alternatives that come to my mind: 1) Use a RAMDISK loading of a .ISO for booting BartPE (needs files from Server2003 SP1 or R2) 2) Use EWF (needs files from Windows Embedded) jaclaz

Heck, I am not sure either. You asked: Had you asked: I would have replied: jaclaz

Isn't enough as soon as the BIOS starts to press and keep pressed the [DOWN ARROW] key? jaclaz

Most probably you can re-create a XP Home CD from the files within your Recovery CD, or from the \I386 directory on your hard disk (you will need either the said NTF4DOS or a PE of some kind and a USB stick or USB hard disk to get the latter ones). Check this: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16381 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...16381&st=18 jaclaz

I beg your pardon? You're welcome. jaclaz

Yes, I mean it is a possibility. If you look at the "story" of WINNT.EXE and of WINNT32.EXE, and cross it with the traditional way MS guys work (or at least as how it seems like they work, seen from their products) it sounds very, very possible. NT3.51 install CD's were NOT bootable. The everywhere spread OS was DOS, hence the need for WINNT.EXE. NT 4.00 CD's were (actually some of them, I remember seing some that were NOT bootable) bootable, but used the "strict" ISO9660 specifications (no joliet, no iso-level 4 - ISO9660:1999). See here: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=19948 Until NT 4.00, any PC had as OS either DOS or Windows 95 or NT 3.51 and at the time a vast number of PC's still could NOT boot from CD or could not boot from a no-emulation boot CD, hence the need for WINNT.EXE (to install from DOS) and of WINNT32.EXE to install from Windows 95 or NT 3.51 - and to make the boot floppies if needed. Win2K CD's were bootable, but still a number of people as well used WINNT32.EXE to upgrade from NT to Windows 2000. Off topic, but I've seen people crying for the "small issue" described here :whistling:: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...=11383&st=3 Though WINNT.EXE and WINNT32.EXE are still used by the few "tweakers at heart" or by some system administrators, since the advent of XP, say 99% of the people use the no-emulation CD or, since XP has been mainly an OEM success, the non-install method that most laptop have ("stupid" recovery partition, image of pre-set drive). It would not surprise me in the least that these "old" methods of installing have not been fully updated to take care of the new filesystems/naming conventions. The packages you are trying to install/integrate, on the other hand, were not "integrated" by MS in an OS release, so it is perfectly possible that they use different "specifications" as they were never possibly tested with WINNT32.EXE, let alone WINNT.EXE. Again off-topic, if you want a quick laugh, check how the Recovery Console is started, and my fictional psychodrama that tries to explain what could have happened : http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=2362&st=6 jaclaz

A SATA disk not set as "simulate IDE/ATAPI" or "disabled" or "PATA access" (or whatever the setting is) in BIOS? jaclaz

Maybe this : http://www.msfn.org/board/Generic-98-USB-d...cks-t99220.html will be of interest to you. jaclaz

Also, though not strictly speaking a "PE builder" applications, this is a very handy way to boot a minimal "recovery" system: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=3806 http://rescup.wordpress.com/ jaclaz

[sarcasm] Great. I guess that now we are much closer to find the object of this topic, we have someone who saw pictures of it..... [/sarcasm] jaclaz

All files on original (gold) and "integrated-by-Microsoft" SP1 and SP2 CD's have generally names compliant with 8.3 convention, with some exceptions, but the CD uses of course the CDFS filesystem. This is clearly a problem with this issue. This seemingly unrelated article: http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserve...3.mspx?mfr=true affirms that: WINNT.EXE actually NEEDS 8.3 names, whilst WINNT32.EXE supports Long File Names, But Long File Names, may NOT cover on ALL filesyatems: 1) extension longer than three characters 2) "multi-dot" filenames Possibly they are "considered" as valid when on CDFS, but they are NOT when on FAT or FAT32 (most probably NTFS is OK). If we are talking of a few files, the most straightforward solution should be that of finding references to them in .sif, .inf and similar setup files, change them and rename the corresponding files to a 8.3 or however non-multi-dot AND non-more-than-three-characters-extension filename. jaclaz

...and if I may, some considerations: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21691 jaclaz

Vista can be installed on USB drives, so it should be possible on CF cards too. Start from Tutorial 8 in Dietmar's Signature: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=14181 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...181&st=1707 jaclaz

NOT the Holy Grail (but the search for it never ends ), but this could be a substitute: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=4283 jaclaz

There are consistent reports that in some (actually very few cases) the HP tool is ineffective/does not produce a working stick. A solution that has proved to be working is simply that of zeroing the first few sectors of the stick, typically first 100 sectors, by using a disk/hex editor or dsfo/dsfi. http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=3453&st=8 jaclaz

1) Download USBoot 1.16.zip: http://www.usboot.org/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=2 2) Open the compressed archive 3) Copy the contents to a folder on your hard disk 4) READ QuickStart.txt 5) act according to instructions therein jaclaz

@Fredledingue I had taken this: as: "it's impossible to extract individual files from batch script" and just wanted to let you know that it is actually possible. Definitely easier. jaclaz

Besides the hint I gave previously, it should be possible, using NTFS hardlinks: http://jameser.blogspot.com/2006/08/tip-37...d-links-in.html to have the same effect of the CDFS feature that allows the "-duplicate-once" when building .iso's. If you are game for this, here is a page with links to some Free utilities: http://flipsidereality.com/blog/nix/howto-...ith-hard-links/ This one: http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/finddupe/ or the mentioned Perl script should do. Of course the device NEEDS to be NTFS, and while this is NOT recommended generally for Flash based devices, if the stick is used only for installs it should create no problems with durability of the hardware. jaclaz

@dencorso From batch, you use a DOS file splitter, like PARTCOPY: http://web.archive.org/web/20010116021600/...ine/pcopy02.zip (courtesy of the Wayback Machine) or a similar one, to make a file from the bytes starting from byte 67224 (or use GSAR to find occurence of "MSCF"), then run EXTRACT.EXE on the partial "tail" file. Not exactly starightforward, but allows for doing everything on a DOS machine. jaclaz

nuhi, maybe off-topic, or cpmpletely unrelated, but could any of the problems with WINNT.EXE (or WINNT32.EXE) installs be related to this thing reported by BinkinDutchman? : http://www.msfn.org/board/Windows-XP-SP3-s...up-t118781.html jaclaz

@vivian Re-read my post, I gave you links for BOTH scenarios. @BikinDutchman Re-read vivian's post, he/she wants to run a full XP, not install one to internal drive. jaclaz

@vivian Are you trying to install and run "full" XP on a USB stick? Or, as lost101 is saying you want to install XP from a USB stick? If the first one check this: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=14181 (and tutorials linked to in Dietmar's signature) OFFLINE right now this: http://forums.ngine.de/viewforum.php?f=4 http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176 http://forums.ngine.de/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1243 but, first thing try this: http://www.usboot.org/tiki-index.php If the second one, check this: http://www.msfn.org/board/Install-XP-from-USB-f157.html @lost101 Just for the record, the limit of FAT16 is around 2 Gb (NOT 4 Gb), and there is no problem with FAT32 formatted sticks, if you fdisk/format them properly. jaclaz

It does sound logic, but unfortunately logic does not always apply. No, there is no way you can "revert", AFAIK. jaclaz