IcemanND

At home I have 5 monitors not including laptop screens, 7 desktops, 4 laptops. Though the desktops are slowly being retired and eventually I will have just one. and a couple of laptops.

Though that will tell you if the power supply will turn on it will not tell you if the power supply is good. As most if not every atx power supply has multiple power rails a PSU can turn on but have a bad power rail and prevent a machine from fully powering on.

do you have the system overclocked? Try reducing the system to a minimum state and installing windows, just have the minimum components needed to have a basic system running installed/enabled and see if you can get farther. Also reset the BIOS to defaults.

Ripken is referring to the L.E.D.s (light emitting diodes) the diagnostic lights on the motherboard, power on lights, etc.

run dial-a-fix and choose to repair the windows installer.

start with a known good power supply.

I haven't bought from newegg but most times when selling open box they will list anything missing or broken in the description. once that is known I have no problem most times buying open box product s longs as it still caries a warranty.

http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/view/web/6/#manual

oformat is part of the deployment tools for windows xp. you can use the version on your xp cd if you still have it but there is a newer version available from microsoft. explanation of its use is in the included help files in the deployment kit.

I propably just too tired and have been looking too long, or it just doesn't exist. I need to restrict 30 domain machines to be able to only access *.mydomain.com websites. I found about every other setting out there for IE to prevent changes in the Internet control panel but not something to do this. Any ideas?

build your base system on a machine with the ACPI Multiprocessor HAL, then add UpdateUPHAL to the Unattended section of your Sysprep.inf file. See the deploy.chm help file from the deployment tools for the full syntax. To take care of the drives I place them all in a folder at the root and add the appropriate paths to the DevicePath key in the registry then clear the key if I delete the driver files.

Make an autoit script for the first two and then have autoit compile the script to an EXE then you won't need to install any additioal software to you UACD just on the machine you create the script on. Autoit does not need to be installed if the script is compiled. You may be able to do the same thing for VNC, not sure.

I personally would have done that before going to Vista. Just because Microsoft says it will run on 512mb doesn't mean you should. Or that you will get everything you want.

define "died". Does the BIOS see the hard drive? Is the drive SATA? Did you add SATA controller drivers to BartPE? If you are just trying to Ghost the image back what imaging tool are you using? Why not use that tools own boot cd/floppy? Need more info.

Actually there are a number of ways to do it. the biggest hang up is the HAL type. The second is the Hard drive controller. After that you just need to intall the other drivers that don't exist.

through gpedit.msc for local machine maximum is 14 characters for minimum length. If you don't believe me try it. when you scroll up through the number after 14 it returns to 0 and won't take typed input over 14 either. if you want to enforce very long passwords using group policy or security templates, don't bother - neither will allow you to set a minimum password length greater than 14 characters. Probably has to do with the fact that many dialogs and functions in windows don't properly handle passwords over 14 characters. And older operating systems also have problems with long passwords.

Can you post the script, or the link to it so that the next person to find this can find it easier.

without either a third party program like the Universal Imaging utility from Binary Research, or scripting to detect and replace the HAL you will only be able to cover two of the HAL's. You can build the image on a ACPI Multiprocessor HAL and use the sysprep answer file and the UpdateUPHAL to detect if the destination machine is a uniprocessor HAL and install the appropriate HAL or leave it alone. If you need to deplaoy across more HAL types than this you need additional solutions. Or go to vista which has eliminated this problem. For reference there are 7 default HAl types. ACPI ACPI Uniprocessor ACPI Multiprocessor Standard HAL MCP Uniprocessor MCP Multiprocessor Compaq

What kind of installer is it?

just put all of the drives you want in it, and use either OemPnPDriversPath in the Unatteneded section of the sysprep.inf file to indicate the paths to the additional drives or populate the DriversPath Registry key with the same information. The registry key can take a longer string than the INF file can. I would run the script at the first logon from Runonce or Runonceex, see unattended.msfn.org for more on these methods.

Is he after backing up files which are in use? I personally just use Robocopy for my backups but I don't have to worry about files that are in use.

you didn't mention that your drive was partitioned. But yes repartition=yes will delete all parttitions on the first drive and create a single install partition. for systems that i have set up like that i have it stop and ask me where i want the install and then reformat the first partition.

if you don't mind recreating the cd each month that Microsoft releases new updates, you can use the integrate switch that is part of the update switches, or you could use nLite. see http://unattended.msfn.org for more info

if you do a clean install of windows from cd to the machine what HAL and mass storage controller is installed?

do you get BSOD or does it just hang at first/second boot?