Spinman

I'm operating under the assumption that MS has included updated drivers in SP2. Is there a way I can check to see what devices/versions are included with SP2? For instance - I have a Maxtor ATA/133 PCI card. Maxtor's web site lists a driver issued on Dec 05, 2002. Wondering if this device and version is included, or if I need to add it to my installation process. I'm trying to avoid including drivers in my $oem$ driver section if the same or newer version is already included by default... I thought of running the Nlite program - but I could never get it to load and run after I downloaded it...

If I include the winnt.sif file in the I386 directory and burn a new cd - that will allow the answer file to be read from Cd, rather than Floppy. If I did this, would I then be given the option for F6 to load Raid drivers from floppy - or will it be necessary for me to include these on the CD in the $OEM$ drivers section as well?

Just double checking - The last time I used my winnt.sif answer file on a floppy diskette - it did not display the prompt to press F6 so that I could load my Raid Drivers. I ended up having to to a network install and overwrite my current installation, rather than a "clean" install where I could format the hard drive during installation. When I did it this way, the installation programs were copies to my C:\ drive along with the answer file - and then during the reboot process, I was able to install my raid drivers. Is there a way I can install from CD, using two floppies - one for the answer file and one for my raid drivers? Previous research indicated that I couldn't (and I hope that I am wrong). Thanks!

With the advent of large hard drive capacity - I always copy my I386 folder from the CD to my HardDisk and edit the registry to point to C:\I386 for installation data. Just wondering - do I need to include any/all of the sub-folders (ie: AMS, COMPDATA, DRW, Lang, System32, win9xmig, win9xupg, win9upg) or will the root directory be enough when searching for drivers????

If I slipstream my OEM pre-SP1 disk with SP2 - will that automatically replace NetFramework 1.0 with 1.1_SP1? Just wondering what I'll get if I use the installation menu on the CD... If the menu does not work - do I need to manually install from the SP2 CD? Just curious...

I have a Gigabyte 8I-EXP motherboard. It has 2 fixed USB ports on the motherboard and (2) sets of header pins on the motherboard for 4 additional USB ports - making a total of 6 usb ports off of the motherboard. Recognizing that there are 2 ports per host controller, why am I showing (4) controllers in my device manager? I would have expected to only see (3) controller lines.... Intel® 82801DB/DBM USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller - 24CD Intel® 82801DB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller - 24C2 Intel® 82801DB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller - 24C4 Intel® 82801DB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller - 24C7 Does the 2.0 enhanced controller, control the other controllers? ********************************************** This board came out during the time that USB 2.0 was being introduced - some literature stated that only 2 USB ports were 2.0 and the remainder were 1.1, while I read elsewhere that all were 2.0 capable (with the right drivers). Why does my 1st line show 2.0 enhansed host controller, while the next 3 only list universal host controller? Is this telling me something, or is this normal for USB configurations? *********************************************** Is there a way to test my 6 ports to ensure that they are all capable of USB 2.0? Thanks!

I have tried the vew as a web page option - It shows the file details and clears the space where the preview box would normally be - but no picture (or picture frame) appears. I'm thinking that something got screwed up in the registry during installtion of W98-SE. Althought I'd hate to do it, I wonder if I do a reinstall overlay - it would help correct the problem.

Several questions raised in my mind... Is there a way to set the swap file to another drive during install (normal or unassisted) - or do I need to manually move it once the system is installed? I have the OS and Program files on my c: drive and my documents and settings folder on my d: drive. Is there any benefit to partitioning drive c: to separate the OS and the program files into different partitions - or is that inmaterial? Why is it better to place the swap file on another drive - away from the os? Any problem is it is on drive d: with the d&S folder? Should I partition d: to have a specific area for the swap file? Thanks -

I guess I'm still confused... It's been a few years since I regularly used W98 - but I thought I use to have the feature I'm seeking on my machine. In any event, it did exist last week on my friends computer - until I rebuilt his system. I doubt he had installed any specific software to generate the feature I'm about to describe (unless it came bundled in MS Picture-It or HP's photosmart software). I use to be able to single left click on a photo file (jpg) to select the file. With windows explorer in "web style" mode, there would then be a preview panel on the left side of the screen that would show a small image of the photo, along with file info (size, ext, date, etc). Once I saw the preview and determined it was the one I wanted, I could then double click to open the file or right click for the context menu (such as email photo) There has to be an easy way to get this feature back - is it a matter of configuring windows or downloading a plug-in?

I'm experimenting with my first slipstream of Office 2000 (adm), and could use some help: SP1 has 5 updates: Data1 Data2 ART OWS FPSE I've found instructions and installed Data1 and Data2 w/o any problems How do I install the other 3 packages (what are they and where do I point for the destination file(s)? (Data1 / Data2)? SP3 has 3 updates: SP3CD2FF MAINSP3FF ARTSP3FF I've found instructions and installed SP3CD2FF and MAINSP3FF w/o any problems. How do I install the Artsp3ff patch (what does it do and where do I point for the destination file? (Data1 / Data2)? In addition, SP3 also has an executable file "outlctlx" for patching Outlook. It appears to install to the current installation - not to the adm base files.... Thanks !

W98SE: Helping a friend get started in digital photography. He has some photos stored on his computer *.jpg - but they don't have any preview panel in windows explorer and when I click on the files - I have to select an application to use to open the file. Did W98 come with a native photo viewer for use in windows explorer, or do I need to link to an external 3rd party program to view photos? I'm wonderng if W98 is corrupt or needs a tweak in order for it to open these photos... Hope someone can point me in the right direction!

Also wanted to ask - I am always unable to access the "safely remove hardward" option from the tray - it always tells me to try again later. Don't know why anything would be accessing the drive - it is only video files. I merely shut down and assume that the shutdown process will safely park the drive. Once the system is off, I power off the USB drive box. Hoping that this is not contributing to my generation of lost clusters.....

Been there, Done that. Just checked again - the optimize for performance was already selected. However, the box marked - enable write caching on this disk was not. I checked the box and closed all the open windows. Called it back up again, and the box was not checked. Something is erasing the entry and not permitting it to be saved. I tried to copy something to the disk - and got the delayed write error again. ************************** Also tried to do a disk check on the drive. Both MS and Norton would not check the disk - wanted to schedule a check after next reboot. I selected yes - but it never ran a test when rebooting. Can you do a checkdisk with a USB drive? ************************ I misstated the drive size earlier - it is a 250g drive not a 200g drive. Despite what ADS tech support says - is there a size limitation for USD drives? Do I need to partition? Currently only one large partition for video storage. ********************** I hooked the drive back up to my PCI ATA/100 controller card and ran a disk check. Lots of lost cluster errors (this happens everytime I hookup to ATA controller). Copies the additional data files I wanted from C:\ to the drive and hooked it back up to my USB box. Was able to read the newly transfered files w/o any problems. ***********************

Having a bit of a problem - and hope someone can point me in the right direction. I have a Maxtor 200g 8mb ATA/133 hard drive. When I hook it up to a PCI ATA/133 or PCI ATA/100 controller card - it works fine. When I hook it up to an ADS UBS 2.0 external Drive Kit - I can read data already on the drive - but I can't write to it. It constantly generates delayed write errors. I checked with ADS tech support - they said there were no limitation as to drive size, etc, etc, etc. According to them - it should work. I'm running XP-home SP1. One of the checks for this error is to check the system bios to be sure it is not set to force data at a higher rate than the device is capable of handling. That makes sense for an EIDE drive - but for USB? Anyway, I checked my bios options - and don't see anything applicable (Gigabyte 8I-EXP rev 2). Is there a drive jumper to handle the speed issue? Other thoughts? BTW - I'm also experiencing delayed write errors when I hook up a WD 160g drive (ata/100 2mb) to my PCI ATA/133 controller. I had to drop back to a ATA/100 controller card to resolve the errors with that drive. So because I am experiencing the problem with both ATA/133 connected to a USB 2.0 case and an ATA/100 conncected to an ATA/133 controller - I would assume that there is something generic in my system that needs to be adjusted to resolve both problems....

As I recall, I had to use smaller case letters. When I used caps, it didn't recognize the key as being valid....

A final question on RAID configuration and sizing... I have just switched from Lite RAID (only RAID 0 or RAID 1 using 2 drives) on my motherboard (Promise 20276 chip) to a hacked version of Full RAID - with the intention of setting up a 4 drive 0+1 RAID configuration, because I need additional mirror capacity (have yet to install the drives and call up the configuration menu)... As mentioned above, I currently have spare drives = (2) 160g and (2) 120g hard drives. Rather than obtaining 240g capacity - can I set up two Raid 1 Arrays - one with 120g mirror capacity and one with 160g mirror capacity? Or is this not an option provided under full raid (FastTrak TX2000 drivers)... Thanks -

I know this is not the right forum, but in as much as we are already talking about RAID, maybe someone can answer a question for me... I am currently running RAID 1 (mirror) I understand that the drive capacity of the mirror raid is limited to the smallest drive (ie: Drive 0 = 160g Drive 1 = 120g / Mirror Raid = 120g) What happens under RAID 0 (Stripe)? Are the drives still limited to the smallest capacity? (ie: Drive 0 = 160g Drive 1 = 120g / Stripe Raid = 240g) or can you get max utilization? (ie: Drive 0 = 160g Drive 1 = 120g / Stripe Raid = 280g) Thanks!

Sounds interesting - So we'll still need to keep the bat procedure to apply the IE, OE, Java, etc... I anxiously await AaronXP's promisted (future) posting on procedures and screens for the uninformed....

Searching KB and various HF sites - unable to identify anything that mentions "lack of acivity" 1) Can someone point me in the right direction with a Qxxxxxx # ? I'm trying to build a basic install disk w/o any hotfixes - but if I need this one, so be it... Hopefully, I won't have to wait for SP-2 to be released to see if this solves the slipstream problem. 2) I assume that hotfixes are installed prior to the reboot sequency (where my system hangs). Thanks -

Just reviewed my documentation - I assume that I no longer need the following as well - IE6 Patch July 14, 2003 Q816868 IE6 Patch June 21, 2003 Q818060 IE6 Patch June 18, 2003 Q817979 as these should all be covered by the cumulative patch Q822925

But in my case, I don't believe the installation has completed. Are there not additional steps taken to get windows ready for its first run following the reboot? Is my "lack of activity" caused by something I can correct when I build / burn my slipstream disk - If I have to wait and eventually go to windows update - that defeats the purpose of having a unattended install cd available for use.... When I install xp and sp1 in two steps instead of the slipstream - everything loads and boots without problem.... Thats what takes me back to the availability and use of dynamic updates so that I have a stable installation platform. Just scratching my head...

I assume the 30 minutes is abnormal..... Which leads me to my next question - I was wondering about the need and availability of obtaining and installing dynamic updates onto my slipstream disk (assuming that this would contain the fix you refer to). Is there a download site where I can obtain dynamic updates for HOME (everything I read said that it is only for professional). And once I have the dynamic update - how do I integrate it into my setup? Thanks -

I just finished constructing my first slipstream disk XP-OEM-Home and SP-1, No apparent problems with the extraction or integration process. No apparent problems making the CD bootable. No apparent problems burning the CD. Basic slipstream at this point - nothing applied for unattended applications. Boot up with the cd in the drive - it loads and begins the various processes. Watch the stage display: 1) collecting info 2) dynamic update 3) preparing installation 4) installing windows 5) finishing installation System Reboot When the process picks up following the reboot - it appears that everything has come to a halt. No hard disk activity. No video - blank screen on monitor. Waited 10 minutes to see if there was a processing delay of some sort - and then bailed... Tried it 3 times - same results each time. Any suggestions as to why the hang up? Appreciate any thoughts or suggestions -

" Q327696 and Q811114 are updates for IIS which is only available in Professional version of Windows XP. So if you have Home Edition you don't need to install these updates. " ************* Is there any problem if I include HotFixes in my procedures that are only for professional (so I don't have to account for the application suitability) when I create my procedures? That way I could use the same hotfix directory and bat file for both home and professional installs. Is there any harm if I were to include these on the Home version - based upon the earlier posts - I would expect that the system would hopefully ignore those that are obsolete or unnecessary....

One clarification... So in my case, I have: d:\documents and settings\administrator d:\documents and settings\all users d:\documents and settings\default user d:\documents and settings\spinman When the new install is executed - I would now have a fifth directory: d:\documents and settings\spinman1 I could then transfer all the various folders and files from spinman to spinman1 and manually delete spinman. What happens to administrator, all users, and default user - do they also get renamed to administrator1, all users1 and default user1? or do they keep the original names? [i have 40g of data files in the shared documents subfolders under all users - and want to ensure that they would also remain safe and intact...] (yes I do have a backup for emergencies)