SSPP

@ Jaclaz Very funny. Thanks for the reply though. @Ponch I never said that admins must use nLite for creating such a stick. Did I? Regards.

First of all, thank you very much for replying. I hope I am not hijacking the topic - if so, can you please move my topic to a new thread? Allow me to clear up my view when I create an universal usb boot stick. My points are: 1) FAT32 is really slow in WinXP installation. So, FAT16 is the source partition (NTFS is not my option ). 2) FAT16 is limited to 2GB(64kb cluster is simply wastage of space and limited to 4gb) and I need a lot of recovery/repairing tool on the usb stick. Hence the second partition. 3) Some tools are used from windows, so the partition holding such tools must be visible from installed windows to be able to repair a devective installation/ recovering lost files. Of course this partition must be the first one. 4) The above implies that the WinXP source must be the second partition with the benefit that in case of infected system, at least always you have a virus free source in hand as the second partition is not seen by the infected system for infection. 5) You can of course, toggle something to fool XP setup and revert back; but consider the case of incomplete installation - where you toggled something and final command for revering back is not executed. Next time you try to install XP you need to repair your disk first. what a controversy!! By the way, I don't use the batch files for renaming the source folders during text mode setup for the same reason - I use write protection for the first copying portion and a tool DriveEject.exe which ejects the drive just before the setup completes, from winnt.sif. So, no file deletion during the setup from usb stick and no flipping of folder name. 6) I also use Win98 DOS on usb stick - you people know it's invaluable still now for quick repairing/access utitlities like undelete. So, XP setup is also accessable from DOS using winnt.exe - in case any system betray booting from usb. I can always dump the source on hard disk and run the setup from there by copying relevant files like io.sys...etc and transferring GRUB to mbr from still existing Windows. Hence, I propose creating an USB stick with two partitions: 1) A big FAT32 partition holding all windows tools visible from existing Windows in first position 2) A 2gb active FAT16 partition holding XP source and DOS system/tools protected from infection for emergencies. 3) GRUB in 2nd partition boot sector thus somewhat protected from sudden overwrite of mbr and non bootability from any kind of mistake/infection. Simple recover of mbr boot code from any machine would revive your stick back. 4) Optional SysLinux in 1st partition boot sector for backup/additional operations like linux booting. 5) Optional ISO/linux files in 1st partition/3rd partition for linux rescue or special cases like NT password reset, Acronis bootdisk, KAV rescue cd etc. Thus creating an all round usb stick for perfect system administrator who has to manage various odd sitiations at various locations. Carring such a portable utility stick as his weapon is obvious need. Finally, this is all possible only when I can integrate cfadisk in XP setup source and make it bootable from 2nd partition. While it is perfectly doable using the current thread, the only bar is the setup is scanning the disks just before the file copy process and stuck saying the partition holding the source is corrupted and setup can not continue. Without cfadisk from 1st partition it is running properly. I used nlite to optimize the setup and integrated the mass storage drivers from driverpack. Can the presetup scan be bypassed? Any other idea? What does it mean? Why the Lord of WinXP is so negative? Any other taker? Regards.

Quite old topic, but I am stuck here. I followed the steps from cdob but when the setup checks the disk for error - it says that the drive U: is corrupted and setup can not continue. Any idea? I am trying to install XP Pro from an usb stick (second partition, so integrated cfadisk driver) to hard didk partition. U: is the drive letter of the usb stick through migrate.inf. Master Jaclaz, where are you? Thanks in advance.