Refthoom

AFAIK during and right after install u can only use screen resolutions that are in the standard VGA range, because all other resolutions rely on the video driver. So the max would be 800x600x16

@winnie I think you may be overlooking something. Afaik when you make an installable hdd with winnt32 from an PE environment, there's no way to integrate SATA/RAID drivers which are neccesary on most new PC's today. In other words, a PC cannot boot from a RIS or alike prepared hdd without the SATA/RAID drivers being in memory, which it can't load from hdd because it has no drivers in memory... Or maybe I'm the one overlooking something?

I don't think it matters the majority of this conversation took place in may, if GM doesn't need them he won't pick'm up here. So, [url="http://www.webzaken.nl/PromiseFastTrakUltraMB133Lite.exe"]here[/url] are my drivers. They're from an ATA RAID chipset on a Gigabyte MoBo: Promis Fastrak Ultra MB133 Lite. This chipset is for RAID or IDE only, no SATA. Since the driver is about two years old now, I suppose there will be an updated version somewhere. However, this is the one I use.

Maybe his keyboard's broken... lol

The problem here is that the EULA from M$ states what you may and may not do with the software, but that this EULA is in fact in violation of some laws, depending of the country in which the software is bought. For instance, in the USA the EULA from M$ is perfectly legal, but in the Netherlands it isn't. According to Dutch law, once you've bought the software you can do with it whatever you like (resell, put on a new computer, whatever except copying). According to the OEM EULA you only buy the right to use the software on the PC you bought it with. The Retail EULA states you may only use it on the first PC you install it. Of course that is quite hard to prove and that's why retail versions cost much more. That is also one of the reasons for Windows Activation policy. Because activation uses a per hardware unique identifier, M$ can (theoretically, anyway) see wheter you install you're Windows software on more than 1 PC. Through this, M$ also wants to prevent that, when you scrap your old PC and buy a new one, you would re-use your legal copy of Windows on your new PC. Understand why I refer to M$ instead of MS? For the same legal reasons, in some countries it is legal to sell OEM licenses apart from a PC. Hope this helps, Refthoom

I suppose you already set the boot order in your BIOS to boot from CD?

I've been using Irfanview for years now and it works like a charm. Make sure to dl the plugin pack as well.

Yup. I've tested it like jobbie suggested and now it works perfectly. Great! The CD I now have doesn't seem to work though. The PC keeps rebooting. Booting form the original CD is no prob. I'll try another one, maybe just some burn error. @GM: I know I'm new here, but can I test the new version? I've got a whole new, blank PC here just for testing purpose, no VM or VPC.

There is -I think- a small bug in XPCreate regarding one of the very first actions it takes. I didn't find this on the forum with the search function, but maybe I used the wrong search params. So if this is a known bug, sorry for the inconveniance. I followed the instructions on GM's site; dl'd and extracted to a new folder (C:\XPCreate) and ran 1st time. Folders created neatly. Next I made the OEM folders (made my own little cmd there to ease that). Next, I changed INI to reflect my settings, according to GM's explanation on his site: [XPCREATE] BOOTIMGFILE= CDBURNER=E: CDERASE=NO CDLABEL=XPCREATE CDSPEED=8 COPYSOURCE=NO DELISOS=NO DELROOT=NO DELTEMP=YES DLAUTO=NO DLURL=http://xpcreate.wiretapped.us/HFLISTS DOCABS=YES DOCD=NO DOISO=YES DOPATH=YES DOSATA=YES DOSVCPACK=YES DRIVERDIR=$OEM$\$1\DRIVERS EXITQUIET=NO OVERWRITEOEM=YES QLOG= SILENTINSTALL=NO SLIPHF1=YES SLIPHF2=YES SLIPMDC=YES SLIPSPK=YES XPISO=XPCREATE.ISO XPSOURCE=D: Changes mainly being to set the drive letters of Burner and Source. Also I set the burnspeed to a low value to prevent burning errors (once I get to that stage). Ok, saved that and fired up XPCreate 2nd time. I now get an error on the extraction of the bootimage stating that the source doesn't seem to be a CD. I found out that when I change XPSOURCE=D: to XPSOURCE=D the extraction of the boot image works fine but then it hangs on another error stating that the source isn't correct: CDSOURCE\I386. Now when I change XPSOURCE=D back to XPSOURCE=D: it works fine. Of course the image file is already on HDD now and the first line of the INI was changed to BOOTIMGFILE=BOOT\XPCTBOOT.BIN by XPCreate. I have been able to repeat this. My humble conclusion: - BBIE uses XPSOURCE=D - The rest of the process uses XPSOURCE=D: I think this little bug is overlooked because after the 2nd run the image file is already on HDD and you never notice it again. Hope this helps for future versions

.... ... Well, missed that obviously. Sorry. Added to my favorites... Tx.

@prathapml: Tx. I've been reading up on those yesterday evening. And most of the other members' pages. And some threads here. Boy, some of'm go on just for ever... I've also been reading up on M$ Resource regarding this. @buletov: Tx. I've been reading his stuff as well. Even dl'd his packages, but at this point I'm not quite sure what to do with it . What I realy missed in it is a small text file that describes the different versions of each driver. That could also help with keeping a package up to date. I'll post a message or send him a pm and ask him how I can be of help. @Famer: Tx. U2. Off topic: Can any1 point me to a place where there is a beginning-end description of the installation time line that I see mentioned many times, with the actions and the answer/setup files that are used? (or a thread where I can ask this n00b question) What I'm looking for is something like: t1 - textmode setup = initialisation of system, copying files, ...? = uses setup.inf for initial info (??) t19 - ??? = first login??? = PnP detection ??? (I have no idea ) = uses winnt.sif for settings This would greatly help me in understanding the whole process. TIA.

Hello, like the rest, just introducing myself here. I'm from Holland, married, 3 kids (and ever so tired from that ). I've been dabbling with PC's for almost 20 years now and have a good deal of hardware knowledge. I tried programming but that didn't go beyond basic (remember that?) and some scripting in js/vbs/asp. I've been around in other fora for other topics. I'm sure it's as good here as it was elsewhere. Because I work in a PC shop I have -and have had in the past- access to plenty hardware and software, so my knowledge is wide but not very deep. Although I always like to try out stuff and experiment etc. I come here to hopefully learn to make an unattended setup CD that I can use in my job. In return I may be able to provide drivers since we sell hardware that is usually accompanied by a driver CD (duh). Cheers, Refthoom.