pmshah

I believe this is a built in feature of windows installation since initial release of XP. If at the time of installation the internet was available it would behave like this. If it was not connected it would retrieve the help files from the hdd. I found out the hard way when I had to reinstall afresh on several occasions. I guess the trend continues.

ME was just a "make ME money" release. Upgrade version was being sold for $ 50/= everywhere so everyone fell for it to the extent of queuing up overnight to be first one on the block. 98 in a newer avatar. Dos removed & drivers added.

I disagree. I have an Emachines 600 MHz with (I think) 256 MB RAM, and it runs XP a lot better than 98. And, can anyone again remind me of how Vista has RAM management? I guess SuperFetch is a form of "management", but certainly doesn't help most applications with 512 MB RAM. To give you my experience. on a 1 gb machine using EZMEM from "e-sysmem.ro" the usage dropped from 390 mb to 130 mb. Some management!

Use a third party boot manager.

Your best bet is third party boot manager like BootItNG from terabyteunlimited. Your problems will be solved for ever.

In this case once he formats the hdd he is s**t out of luck!

Yes it is, but i dont know if i can move this to another drive (partition) No you can't. Each volume has its own restore data. What you can do though is go into system restore & delete old restore points or do it from a file manager like TotalCommander. It will free up a whole lot of space. By default I keep My documents folder on d drive. I regfularly backup OE & Outlook data to d:\backup. I have no worries. & don't need/use "system restore" at all.

I would suggest you use a very reliable and free intenet time synchroniser utility from e-systems.ro. I used to have the same problem. The location of time server screwed it up royally during the DST change. I have hunted like crazy for a gmt time server and have not found it yet. This utility picks it up from I don't know where & adjusts the time difference as per your location setting. Works like a charm.

That is one main reason why a lot of people replace the win98 defragger with one from WinME.

Try an application named KillBox.exe It will allow you to delete any file whatsoever at the next boot. BTW I have checked the file name on my PC. I don't have any such beast anywhere. Certainly not an M$ file.

It will depend to a certain degree on the size of your hard disk drive. Your best bet is to use a boot manager like BootItNG. It will help you create 2 separate C drives. You can configure them individually to your heart's content without disturbing the other AT ALL. Its a try before you buy. For me it was the best investment I made in software.

I really find it amazing. If you qwant a certain number of applications to be installed after Windows installation why go the WPI route at all? WPI in my opinion is for the end user to make a choice from the presented list.

If you need any files copies over to the hard disk you need to create an $OEM$ folder on your own. You don't have to download it from anywhere. You can extract the boot image from your original cd by a software named bbie.exe. Look for "Bart's PE". You will get all the info you need to make a bootable CD/DVD. Just use it in your software like Nero or whatever.

In stead of editing the config file every time there is a change in the installation file I simply run a cmd file. I include the following lines to start in the background & determine the cdrom drive letter. cmdow @ /hid for %%i in (Z Y X W V U T S R Q P O N M L K J I H G F E D C) do if exist %%i:\XXXX_YYYY set CDROM=%%i: You can replace the XXXX_YYYY with any valid file name. No need for any fancy scripting. If any changes are required I simply edit the cmd file. That includes all the reg entries etc that may be required.

You could simply make 7z sfx installer which will save you a whole lot of trouble. I have seen references to Fully silent installers for a wide array of software.

From 7.zip site I presume. If you open the help file under 7zip it is very clearly explained how to create auto installation sfx files. Also provides links for downloads.

I don't know whose leg you are pulling. If you boot to dos from c: it will not allow you to format your boot drive - c:. Unless you boot with a special spftware that boots entirely from ramdisk there is no way.

When the pc is checking your ram you can hit the pause button. You will see the bios information at the bottom of the screen. From this number you can trace the manufacturer & model number of the motherboard. You should then be able to get the owner's manual / specifications.

Why go through all the rigmarole? In the floppy boot autoexec you can assign the letter you want to the CD rom drive. All you need is a simple menu in config.sys & you can select the folder from which to start your installation.

I have my doubts. Whatever hard disk partition you boot from will be assigned c: drive letter. I doiubt whether you would be able to install xp on d: - which would be the primary partition on the internal drive. Even if you do manage it it will still write the ntldr, ntdetect & boot.ini on your USB drive.

Use BCDW 2.01. Rename I386 folder from Bart PE to WNPE. Point to this folder in bcdw.ini like \wnpe\setupldr.bin. Erd can go on as it is. \i386\setupldr.bin in bcdw.ini No hex editing required whatsoever. Works like a charm.

Keep in mind that a number of Combo drives & dvd drives will not be able to read dvd(+)r media & require dvd(-)r or dvd(-)rw media. Asus is bery definitely one of them. BTW yopu should not have any problems with dvd-rw drives.

I have not tried out version 8.0 but from version 7.0 you can create a floppy boot image. The actual file size is only about 1.2 meg. Very efficiently done.

The files you want are on the install drive aftrer the first boot. You have to start a fresh install. When the system reboots you have to prevent it from booting from c: drive. Boot from a cd & the files you are looking for will be there. If the c: drive is ntfs formatted you would have to boot BartPE to be able to read them. Fat32 are visible from even win98 floppy disk. Tinyxp is for fresh install only. I don't think winnt.exe or winnt32.exe would work as files & folders required for upgrading your win98, ME or 2K are missing.

There is a freeware application similar to nLite which can also create full installation cd from OEM restore disc. I can't remember the name. Please PM me ( to remind me) & I can send you the information tomorrow when I get back to work. I just remembered. Its called WinFuture-XP-ISO-Builder 3.0 http://www.winfuture-forum.de/index.php?showforum=71