Oleg_II

Interesting feature Too many updates by now...

DYM First of all I'm a bit confused: images made with Symantec and PowerQuest DeployCenter are fully compatible here - I make image with PQ tool and can restore it with Symantec tool, I can make image with Symantec tool and restore it with PQ tool too; I can browse images made by any version of DriveImage Pro and DeployCenter with ImageBrowser from any version (PQ or Symantec - doesn't metter) Maybe something with terminology: GhostConsole is not the same as DeployCenter. Ghost and DriveImage are very similar in functionality but different in internals programs that are not compatible: you can't restore or browse images made with one tool using the other one. I'm not sure about Unicast option because I don't use it. But I'm sure it was possible because it goes from PowerQuest and this company didn't make bad and not working software Maybe you should look at PowerCast Client options (it can be scripted too). A student won't connect to the server with backup but the server will send the backup to the student's computer. Just an idea

Using DeployCenter (not exactly Ghost) here That is very easy to make from bootable USB disk or from the hard disk itself through scripting. If USB sticks are used they should to be bootable on these laptops. Needed files: 1. Booting DOS environment on a USB stick (look for it on these Forums or 911cd.net). 2. Three files from Ghost Suite: pqDplCtr.rtc, PQImgCtr.exe, pqImgCtr.ovl. 3. Image of a working system partition (in my example on partiton D: of a hard drive). 4. Add a line in AUTOEXEC.BAT: PQImgCtr /CMD=rescue.txt /IMG=\\.\disk1.part2\image.pqi /SNC 3. Create text file RESCUE.TXT: SELECT DRIVE 1 SELECT PARTITION 1 SELECT IMAGE 1 RESTORE REBOOT Now if you boot from this USB stick a prepared image of a working system partion on disk D: will be automatically deployed. NOTE: This procedure works flowlessly if there is only one primary partion and others are logical. If there is more then one primary partion on a hard disk maybe some adjustments are needed. You can make some adjustments to the procedure yourself (read included manual about scripting). For example you can place the image to USB stick itself or make some more options in deploying (passwords, deploying through your network, creating backup images of a document partition, running other utilities after deploying, make a menu with multiboot options, etc.). I never tried PowerCasting option (don't have network here) but it is possible to make auto restore procedure with it too (read the manual). Booting from hard disk (no matter if it is FAT or NTFS formated). I posted here my old instructions to boot directly to recovery enviromnent when booting the computer. Now I switch from using Virtual Floppy to Grub4DOS - simply using only one GRLDR file from package in BOOT.INI to make a good looking menu and to boot in any floppy image without actually having floppy and CD-ROM devices (much easier and more universal). If you are interested contact me through PM (I can miss a posting here).

Yes, you can do it Youl will need a couple of files from W2k3 and MobileOSregPatch. Look here (post by dennis123123). The author of initial idea - euhenio - is using nLite and is creating something here (but frankly speaking it would be easier to make it manually as described in the first link).

Just an idea: in Unattended installation there is a way to set a variable for CD drive: for %%i in (C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) do if exist %%i:\cdrom_nt.5 set CDDRIVE=%%i: set WINPATH=%CDDRIVE%\ As you can see a file CDROM_NT.5 (it's a file in the root on Windows 2000 CD disk) is used as a tag file for finding and defining where the installation source is. PS By the way, I'm using DeployCenter (DOS version of PowerQuest DriveImage Pro that is still available from Symantec) and there is a way to specify all needed info in scripts (they have a very good manual). No need to difine a letter for USB drive

@Tomcat76 Frankly speaking I don't know I found this file a lo-o-ong time ago. There was the same question and somebody recommended this version. Maybe that time it was impossible to use XP version on W2k? That file version is 5.1.2499.0. The file version from XP SP2 is 5.1.2600.2180. dirtwarrior Your network settings are initialized. You may set DHCP Client, Telephony, Wireless Zero Configuration and maybe some other network services to manual start. That may speed up loading. But you will have to start the services before you connect to Internet

Special version of msconfig.exe for W2k found somewhere on the net. Place in hfslip\HFEXPERT\win\system32. msconfig.zip

fdv No, it has IE but you can choose install it or not (well, it will install IE core anyway). WinFLPC doesn't have Outlook Express by design. mshtml.dll v6.00.2900.2802 All files come from WinXP SP2. Nothing new and specific in fact The differences are in file list (some are missing) and Regestry hives only.

Except for licencing it doesn't support Dial-Up modems (or I didn't find how to unable it yet). And it's not limited in other ways. Simply XP without some bloat. Well M$ Office won't install just as that... But there is a small trick and it installs smoothly Nearly the same technics is used to run VMWare and maybe a couple more programs that are not installing first. The answer is easy - just add files from real XP that are needed and missing in WinFLPC. Interesting feature - it doesn't have File Protection function at all. I'm not telling that it is a perfect OS but for those who like modified (HFSLIPed or nLited) systems it could be interesting as it's modular and less resource requirering by nature.

Well, I have Windows 2000 without IE and heavily reduced on my working and home computers (7). Working fine for office needs and my home purposes. I introduce it to some of my friends and know for sure there are a few more computers out of here are running Windows 2000 without IE But I was interested in WinPE and BartPE enviroment at the beginning of this year and I found that XP can be run complitely in RAM after some modifications. It can be loaded from CD or USB device like BartPE build but much faster and more flexible cause you can do with it everything you want to do with a full OS. It's amazing and I liked the feature very much! Unfortunately running XP in RAM needs some reducing (working system shouldn't be bigger than 500MB - when using NTFS compression it could be a bit bigger but still need reducing from the full installation). And it's a hard task to reduce XP and leave all the features I want without bugs. I tried nLite, xplite and Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PC's (made from XP files) - all of these methods are good but have some drawbacks... Unfortunately there is no FDV's fileset for XP like for W2k Maybe even XP has some drawbacks for me comparing with W2k. (Note: W2k can be run in RAM too but it needs a commercial driver that has, I'd said, a very nasty limitations so I don't like it. I don't mind to pay for a program that I like but as there is no such program and we have a "free" solution with XP, I'll try to use it.) By the way, Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PC's is really interesting. If you have a chance to try it - do it! It's nearly the same as XP Home Edition and work fine on old computers. You can choose to install or not IE, Media Player and some other features. I'd like it for my purposes but M$ made it based on WinPE2003 that let me have at least a separate installation CD and a lot of memory on a computer for installation (not sure, maybe not less that 512MB). I still don't exclued it from my choices and myabe I'll use it for RAM boot with some modifications. I tried Vista - interesting but I'd better install Linux if I have to change my OS I tried Linux (one was pre-installed on a new notebook) - very interesting but maybe I'm too old to learn new things And there are some problems with Wi-Fi on Linux yet... Maybe I'll give a try to other distributive in the future, I personaly like Slackware cause it's very customizable

I think you should check the topics about integrating SATA/RAID drivers in apropriate section - adding drivers are nearly the same for WinPE enviroment (some TXTSETUP.SIF editing in 4 sections is needed - this is not an OEM method).

Well, USP may be a little out of date... but it includes some files from hot fixes that were not publically available. For example: I have a USB CDROM and when installing from it some time I get blue sreen... It appeared that this problem is known and M$ even issued a hot fix for this but it is not publically available. I have an origial box retail Windows 2000 but I don't know how and wher to ask for this fix USP helped me - there are newer USB supporting files in it.

I'm still here but is also busy with other projects My standard build with DirectX9C and some other additional files included is 92MB (without Chinese language support files in LANG folder that you usually delete After some trying with XP and LiveCD projects I found some more files could be deleted from W2k and it could be less 10MB or even more too but I don't have enough time these days.

Sgt_Strider Well, this method works on some drivers and it needs regular updates... maybe even some files should be included in a separate package. But I don't have time and not very interested in this right now (I don't have SATA/RAID controllers and I'm not working in IT business). The idea is based on working solution and it's good. But somebody needs to develope it

Don't understand what are you talking about gentelmen I don't have any problems in Control Panel and I can create shortcuts (created tons of them until now But I mostly create shortcuts by right clicking on an item and choosing Send To > Create shortcut. Create shortcut through File > New is also working fine in my reduced W2k (just tried and it works

Sgt_Strider I've got your message today... Well, if the info from the liks I provided didn't help you I really don't know where is the bug I'm a bit busy these days and I can only check some more info in a few day. I have an idea: there is pretty good mass storage driver collection in Symantec LiveCd (Ghost, LiveState Recovery and so on). And some time they include TXTSETUP.OEM renamed to INF file - they say some drivers need this. If you have Ghost v9-10 you can check it youself. Talk to you later...

whitehorses If you are using removers from there it's probably not my set I didn't know it is on HFSLIP.ORG I thought there are general removers on the site only. Could you give me the link where you downloaded the set? dirtwarrior So we have the same results Camarade_Tux Interesting method we have here

dirtwarrior I add a lot of other stuff in i386 folder too so it's difficult to say how big it is "clean". Let me guess: mine is about 104MB with USP5.02, DirectX9C and all that stuff (Chinese language support in LANG folder takes 14MB so I think it would be about 80MB of Windows files only. As for commit it's about 30MB without drivers and RAM disk. But when I add drivers and RAM disk it's about 65MB. And of course when I run programs it increases too.

Well, it's just a thought You can't use Unicode, then try something else - why not ANSI? As for charecters - I don't think there will be problems with installing drivers. But there will be unreadable lines in drevices > drivers. Unfortunatelly there is no other way to deal with it except creating driver packs or just INF pack for replacement. Or editing it manually PS Or maybe you find the way to edit Unicode files...

I read about Unicode2ANSI conventer somewhere on the sites about BartPE...

It also may have some influence from hardware but I tried it on 5 complitelly different computers and it worked smoothly. Only one note - I include video adapter driver in my installation - if it is not in the distribution the setup proccess asks about a couple of files to add. I don't remember if I excluded these files from reducers in the package. Try arrange all folders and put all needed files in them including FDV's fileset. And only after that, just before running HFSLIP.CMD, put the reducers and included files in (there should be some files in separate folders in package). If it asks about replacing files just agree and replace them.

whitehorses I use the same removers as you (maybe just 3-5 more files deleted since then) and don't have this issue I'm writing from the computer where the system was installed from HFSLIPed source + my reducers There was no complain about missing files during installation and later. The only reason I can think about is: you add FDV's set after including my files - I canged a few things in there and it's better to add my files after FDV's fileset in order not to replaced changed files.

daddydave Wow! Just come by this topic! You rock! By the way. It is easy to convert INF files from Unicode and they only loose the characters from some languages. The work around is still manual editing of INF file - change the strings in that language to English and then convert from Unicode. Don't have an idea how to do it with your utility but maybe it's possible it checks if INF is in Unicode and worns a user about this?

That was a double post. Sorry... rsdrans Try using this STORAGE.INI with your driver files (copy, past to Notepad and save as STORAG.INI): Please post if it worked or not.

rsdrans I'll give you the example for STORAGE.INI file to try a bit later.