jaclaz

1) No, in this context (Primary Partition=Volume) may not be the same with Extended partition as it contains one or more Volumes. Read here: http://www.ranish.com/part/primer.htm 2) Yes. jaclaz

Bolding is mine. See this for some general advice: http://www.msfn.org/board/Vista-single-CD-t97813.html Point is that you should start from default settings and ADD or REMOVE just a few things at the time, in order to be able to identify WHAT breaks the build. Moreover, generally speaking some OEM sources (typically DELL ones) have some modified files that make the build not work properly, if it's a "generic" OEM CD, it should work allright. jaclaz

Open TXTSETUP.SIF (if you have it as TXTSETUP.SI_ you need to EXPAND it) Open it with a text editor, or you may use ninf: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/nInf-t3960.html Search for text "[WinntDirectories]". Look at the line that starts with 307. Search in the file for all occurrencies of the value of the key. Post the line that begins with 307 and all the ones that you found with the search. jaclaz

The idea of the given thread is: 1) forget for one moment nlite 2) recreate a XP CD from the files you have 3) the problem "nlite no winxp cd" becomes "nlite WITH winxp cd" jaclaz

For example: Recovery Console DOS/FreeDOS Linux ...you name it. Start reading about grub4dos: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/Grub4dos-f66.html jaclaz

Of course NO, you see, the whole point of the login screen is to give (supposedly) an increased security to the OS (I guess we are talking here about NT/2K/XP/2003 or Vista), you cannot perform any action BEFORE logging in. Only once you are logged in you are allowed to use the OS. Depending on what you want to do with the Command Console, you may however want to boot to something else BEFORE booting to XP, do whatever you want to do and only then start teh OS. jaclaz

Hmmm, loved the sub-title : "a very neat trick to prevent a lot of people from helping you if they DO NOT know the answer! I am not sure about what you are actually asking, so I'll risk trying to help you nonetheless. If you want to login directly to the Command Console, you can set CMD.EXE as shell, and later "switch" to "normal" Explorer. Be VERY, VERY careful when playing with "shell switchers": http://www.dx13.co.uk/programs/index.html http://www.dx13.co.uk/programs/shellonv2.html http://www.dx13.co.uk/programs/shellonv3.html http://www.donationcoder.com/Forums/bb/ind...pic=196.msg2736 http://homepage.ntlworld.com/malacandra/SwitchIt.zip http://www.sharpe-shell.org/page.php?7 http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/sharpe/...ce.exe?download jaclaz

Strange! Setting is here: http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/788/ jaclaz

Read this thread: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16381 it should contain all the info you need. jaclaz

Why you don't try using Netscan (FREEWARE): http://www.softperfect.com/products/networkscanner/ it will list everything in your local network and allow you to connect to each found IP with a number of protocols. jaclaz

The method: http://www.msfn.org/board/Install-XP-USB-f157.html is not "strictly" reserved to USB devices, it can be adapted to internal hard disks too. jaclaz

The "Missing operating system" comes from the MBR, not from the bootsector. This can be caused by either "wrong" address info in the partition table or it not being set as active with hex code 80. Try examining the MBR with beeblebrox: http://students.cs.byu.edu/~codyb/ Or, if you wish so, do the following: 1) Get HDHACKER here: http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/ 2) Use it to make a copy of BOTH MBR and bootsector (respectively Physical and Logical drive) 3) zip together the files and post the .zip file here, so I can have a look at them Ideally you should create six set of files (first four sets with just the MBR, as the bootsector data should not exist at that time) 1) before anything 2) after the diskpart CLEAN command 3) after the diskpart CREATE command 4) after the diskpart ACTIVE command 5) after the diskpart FORMAT command 6) after the bootsect.exe /nt52 C: It is also possible that it is Virtual PC's BIOS that creates problems, the user on the thread on 911CD forum reports this method to be working on real hardware, exception made for the "alignment" problem, that should be solved by the use of the Registry fix. Can you try the same approach on another VM, say VirtualBox or Qemu? jaclaz

Your "search-fu" was low. Here: http://www.msfn.org/board/hidden-restore-p...ion-t47773.html http://www.msfn.org/board/System-recovery-...ion-t84411.html http://www.msfn.org/board/PE-partition-rep...ini-t86662.html http://www.msfn.org/board/Creating-WinPE-b...on-t106822.html http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=12447 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=18480 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=19351 jaclaz

Yep, it's in the linked to thread as well : http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...21186&st=18 but, as said, that should be independent from the booting.... jaclaz

For the record, a shot at UNIVBE often results in a success: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/Universal-...driver-f60.html jaclaz

Well, there are the problems with CHS/LBA, but those ones should NOT affect the booting: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=21186&hl= jaclaz

If I may, check this: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechn...y.mspx?mfr=true (bolding is mine) Are you sure this does not apply to the version you are using as well? What is the need of /Syspart in your setup? The procedure could be this: This way the partition is formatted by diskpart, but since it is Diskpart from WinPE 2.0, the bootsector will be that of Vista, and you need to later run the bootsect.exe /nt52 C: Is it possible that when run under (Vista) WinPE 2.0 WINNT32.EXE behaves differently? In "normal" BartPE it works: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=21192&hl= but after the primary partition is formatted and active.... jaclaz

If I remember correctly, Nero Smartstart does not provide for an option to create a bootable CD. "Full" Nero does, but won't it be better to use mkisofs (optionally wuth a GUI for it)? Even a very simple one like these will work: http://mysite.verizon.net/hartsec/make.htm http://www.solriche.co.uk/files/mgiso/mgiso.htm (second one has pre-sets for XP boot CD's, if I recall right) jaclaz

NO, you cannot replace files WHILE they are in use, bit you can "schedule" the replacement at next boot. There are several utilities/tools to do so, some examples: Manually: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/181345/en-us Utilities: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/228930/en-us http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/ http://www.thescarms.com/VBasic/FilesInUse.aspx http://www.snapfiles.com/get/moveonboot.html http://www.snapfiles.com/get/copylock.html http://noeld.com/programs.asp?cat=misc http://www.docsdownloads.com/Tier1/dr-delete.htm http://comandiux.scot.sk/ http://comandiux.scot.sk/parameters.htm jaclaz

So, all you want to do is a slipstreamed SP2 XP pro install CD? Can you post a link to the guide you used? Also, saying "I used CDIMAGE" says nothing, I mean WHICH command line options you used with it? You can also try using nlite to create a slipstreamed SP2 XP pro install CD: http://www.nliteos.com/ http://www.msfn.org/board/nLite-f89.html jaclaz

As expected: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction...;guiLanguage=en jaclaz

The above makes me wonder... ...you could use SUBST: http://www.computerhope.com/substhlp.htm to map the \Main and the \Sheets to a "plain" drive letter. jaclaz

There are some paths and filenames ENCODED inside SETUPLDR.BIN. Tipically: \I386\ on CD's \minint\ on HD like devices (with the /minint switch \$WIN_NT$.~BT\ for pre-installation files on HD like devices \CMDCONS\ for Recovery Console If your CD searches for anything inside \$WIN_NT$.~BT\ instead of \I386\ some file is missing or the build procedure is wrong. If the file is missing AFTER the pre-install bootfiles have been copied to HD, again something is wrong, probably in txtsetup.sif, but cannot say for sure. HOW did you create the CD, I mean WHICH tutorial/howto/method did you use to create the .iso? WHEN exactly in the booting process does it happen? What EXACT error code does it show (like error 18)? jaclaz

Yep, but if, for any reason, H:\Main and H:\Sheets are "far apart" physically on the drive, the seeking back and forth may be increased. I would test both solutions with the same set of files and see if there is a noticeable difference in speed, the hardware specs appear to be extremely low. jaclaz

Well, then, yes, the: For %%A in (H:\Main\*.*) Do Copy /Y H:\Main\%%A C:\Data1 For %%A in (H:\Main\*.*) Do Copy /Y H:\Sheets\%%A C:\Data2 Should work allright. jaclaz