I'm not new to the Windows/multiboot cd world, but this is my first time posting here. I'm in the IT business, I need to install many different variations of windows on a variety of machines several times daily. I have been trying to create a more elegant method of deploying windows on several different hardware with as little media as possible. I have a 500gb portable hard drive which I use for many purposes, this now boots into PE 3.0 installation environment and allows me to install all available versions of windows vista, 7 and 2008. I would like to be able to add XP to the list, however, I know about the issues of deploying an image of Windows XP on incompatable hardware due to the HAL selection and sometimes the Mass storage drivers. I would like to know, which part of the setup process is the HAL detected and used? Could I simply install XP with /makelocalsource /noreboot then take an image of the hard drive and deploy it? If not, Since one of our policies is that we copy the I386 install folder to the root of the hard drive to create a permanant local source, Could I simply build a bootable hard drive image with the CD's boot files and the I386 source folder? This would leave a local source folder, and run full setup on first boot.
