IcemanND

actually the CAT files should go to: WINDOWS\system32\CatRoot\{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE} let me know how it works. I haven't looked at msdinst.exe to see what it will do. Wouldn't you actually run it against the INF of the driver not eh sysprep.inf file?

no that is blocking those site by uses the host file to redirect those sites if entered or accessed to 127.0.0.1

or TCPView - formerly from Sysinternals, now M$ has their paws on it.

I've been there and tried that. I gave up and justs added them to the sysprep.inf it was easier and took me less time. But if you come up with something else that works consistently with multiple controllers I would be interested.

I have seen people who have successfully done it with one or two different drivers but nothing that says how to do it for any driver. If you want to research more look into info on transferring the OS from virtual machine to physical machines (V2P) and vice versa (P2V). As I recall there are a coupe of plugins for BartPe that can do this for VM IDE and SCSI controllers. You can use bashrat's mass storage driver pack to populate the mass storage section in the sysprep.inf. I helped write a script sometime back to do it and it is around here somewhere but I have not been able to find them. I have them on another machine at work and can post them here. Part of the problem with using his pack though is that some of the drivers don't like to be added with others so you have to play with it sometimes to get it to work. But I have it on another machine at work. When I find them I'll post them for you, if you want, saves lots of time building it from scratch.

The problem with that is when you run sysprep and the Sysprepmassstorage section is populated that is when the critical devices are added, not after the fact. If you use the buildmassstorage=yes setting then sysprep will add all of the mass storage drivers that are part of the basic windows installation. So the only ones you need to add are the ones that you have to press F6 and provide a floppy to install windows, so SATA controllers not run in compatibility mode and scsi controllers.

Works fine for me both ways without a reboot.

If you are looking to change the HAL install the lowest common denominator then upgrade it to the correct HAL after deployment. Or get a commercial product like the Universal imaging utility from binary research.

not sure how you are creating your image but if you are using sysprep in it now add the SATA drivers to the SysprepMassStorage section in the sysprep.inf file check the deploy.chm help file for more.. Or dig around here for info on universal images.

Try the repair first. not the repair from the first screen when you boot from the XP CD which only takes you to the repair console. You wan to select to do an install and let it detect if an os is already installed and then prompt if you wish to repair that installation. Select repair and it should replace the HAL with the correct one and install the correct device drivers for your hard disk controller. You will need to reinstall updates and possibly other hardware drivers but should be good to go. If this doen't work either install to another hard drive and install this one as a secondary drive so he can access the data, or back up the data and install fresh. Though with an upgrade cd you will need qualifying previous version windows media to do a full reinstall.

DEVCON doesn't return Network printers and ports, at least I've never had it do it, and the scripts on Robs page don't either. the PrintUI.DLL works sometimes for installing printers, but I have had it be hit and miss. Youcan get info on the printer but then you have to parse a text file to see if the port is installed.

If possible use the Postscript drivers, I find I have had more problems installing PCL drivers then PS drivers. strComputer = "." Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2") set objNewPort = objWMIService.get("Win32_TCPIPPrinterPort").SpawnInstance_ Set objPrinter = objWMIService.Get("Win32_Printer").SpawnInstance_ objWMIService.Security_.Privileges.AddAsString "SeLoadDriverPrivilege", True Set objDriver = objWMIService.Get("Win32_PrinterDriver") set objDictionary = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary") 'Installs Printer Port, who cares if it already exists, 'it will overwrite the existing one with this information 'Repeat as necessary for each additional port objNewPort.Name = "ip_192.168.100.101" ' IP address or FQDN objNewPort.Protocol = 1 objNewPort.HostAddress = "ip_192.168.100.101" ' IP address or FQDN objNewPort.PortNumber = 9100 objNewPort.SNMPEnabled = True 'or False your choice objNewPort.Put_ 'Get the printer port for all installed printers, skip duplicates if the port is installed to more than one printer set colInstalledPrinters = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("Select * from Win32_Printer") For Each instPrinter in colInstalledPrinters if not objDictionary.exists(instPrinter.PortName) then objDictionary.Add instPrinter.PortName, instPrinter.PortName end if Next 'get all installed printer ports and compare to installed printers Set colPorts = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("Select * from Win32_TCPIPPrinterPort") For Each objPort in colPorts If not objDictionary.Exists(objPort.Name) Then 'If port is installed but printer is not associated with that port do this msgbox "not found: " & objPort.Name Select case ucase(objport.name) case "IP_192.168.100.101" 'Example of a printer that the drivers exist by default in WIndows XP in windows\inf\ntprint.inf 'Laserjet 4000 'Installs Printer Driver 'Name of printer as displayed in the INF file for printer objDriver.Name = "HP LaserJet 4000 Series PS" objDriver.SupportedPlatform = "Windows NT x86" objDriver.Version = "3" intResult = objDriver.AddPrinterDriver(objDriver) 'Install Printer 'Name of printer as displayed in the INF file for printer 'This should match the objDriver string above objPrinter.DriverName = "HP LaserJet 4000 Series PS" objPrinter.PortName = "IP_192.168.100.101" 'Friendly display name objPrinter.DeviceID = "Main Office LJ4000" objPrinter.Location = "" objPrinter.Network = True objPrinter.Put_ case "IP_192.168.100.102" 'Laserjet 4200 'Installs Printer Driver 'Name of printer as displayed in the INF file for printer objDriver.Name = "HP LaserJet 4200 PS" objDriver.SupportedPlatform = "Windows NT x86" objDriver.Version = "3" 'Path to the driver files objDriver.FilePath = "c:\\DRIVERS\\lj4200ps\\" 'Path and Filename of the drive INF file objDriver.Infname = "c:\\DRIVERS\\lj4200ps\\hpc4200d.inf" intResult = objDriver.AddPrinterDriver(objDriver) 'Install Printer 'Name of printer as displayed in the INF file for printer 'This should match the objDriver string above objPrinter.DriverName = "HP LaserJet 4200 PS" objPrinter.PortName = "IP_192.168.100.102" 'friendly display name objPrinter.DeviceID = "Back Office LJ4200" objPrinter.Location = "" objPrinter.Network = True objPrinter.Put_ end select Else 'If port is found and associated with a printer do this msgbox "found: " & objPort.Name End If Next 'Set Front Office LJ4000 as default Set colInstalledPrinters = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("Select * from Win32_Printer Where Name = 'Front Office LJ4000'") For Each objPrinter in colInstalledPrinters objPrinter.SetDefaultPrinter() Next

It is all personal preference. I use both. For my machines that are general use machines I use UACD to do the install, then if I need it updated it can be updated before the install. For machines that are dedicated to a specific use and have specialized HW or SW I create images of them when I have them they way I wan them.

It all depends upon your case. and the design of your processor support brackets. Use what works best for you.

How about DBAN - Dariks Boot and Nuke - http://dban.sourceforge.net/

the fin direction will be different depending upon the vendors design of the case. The fins should go in the same direction as the air flow for best cooling.

My vote is PDF Creator

Don't know of a way to do it with a batch script you could do it with a vbscript easily enough though.

From Deploy.chm: [unattended] section:

If you have XP Pro: f you haven't already done it turn off "Use Simple file sharing" To do this open my computer, select tools menu, folder options. All the way at the bottom of the list on the Views tab under advanced settings is a check box to "Use simple file sharing (Recommended)" remove the check mark and click OK to close the Folder Options window. Now right click on the drive/folder with the problem. (If you select the drive you can reset permissions for all files/folders contain on it and start over.) Select Properties and then select the Security Tab. Click the Advanced button. Select the Owner tab. Select your preferred user name or group, and place a check in the box for "Replace owner on sub-containers and objects" Click OK and wait it takes about 5-10 minutes depending upon the size of your drive and how much stuff you have on it. If it comes up with a security warning click yes to replace permissions.

net stop "Service Name" net start "Service Name" String as many together as needed in a CMD file

not sure on your hotfix problems but that registry key would only import on the machine and install it was created on. This guid "S-1-5-21-1935655697-2111687655-725345543-500" will be unique to every install of XP. And on my machine I have no key that ends in -500, typically the administrator user.

I have used Ontrack datarecovery with great success of the dozen plus drives I have sent in they have only not been able to recover a dozen files on one drive. It is not cheap to have this done though.

still worth a shot to pull it out and see it's an easy thing to try

get Dial-a-fix, http://wiki.djlizard.net/Dial-a-fix and see if that will fix windows updates for you. It can reregister the associated dll and restart services clean the caches etc.