Ponch

No it doesn't. So your "original" source must have it. So What's your source ? If you don't have the tools to edit the iso directly, edit the file on your hdd and remake the iso with nLite, see below ... but what Submix8c meant was change the file then rerun using nothing but "Make iso" option (do not "import Last Session", previous Last Session file will be kept in the set of files and no file will be modified by the program itself).

How old is your PC ? Does it boot normally without the key inserted ? Have you checked Bios settings ?

What vb script ? Just right-click the drive in Explorer and click "Eject". Some drives will not open if vertical but I guess 'bottom tray" means they are horizontal. The paper clip trick described in the previous post should work even if the drive is not powered (any indication it is ?).

You use nLite and driverpacks both to integrate drivers (not sure you can). +You are changing more parameters at a time; -boot from virtual cd to a system that uses virtual drivers -launch setup.exe on a real machine (booting what ???) +have you tried that method with your original cd ?.

Boot from your XP cd, choose Repair, when at the prompt, type "chkdsk c: /f /p" and let it run till finish. Then retry booting normally.

I guess the best person to answer that is the Network Administrator if any. I mean the question is so basic, I guess it's not "her" network. Is it home, at work, at school ? There are more info she needs. The files to be copied need to be in a "share", this means the directory's properties (or a parent directory) has to be modified such that it can be seen from an other computer on the network. She also needs shares on all target computers. She needs to know the names of the computers. The firewalls on each computers need to allow traffic. She needs an account(&password) that is recognized on each computer and which has sufficient rights to read the source share and files and to write to the target shares. I believe the command line is then the standard; "copy \\server_name\share_name\sub_dirs_names\file_name \\target_name\share_name\subdir\". Using a browser as graphic user interface could do it as well. +What you call "the server" is either running Windows Server 2003 or XP, not both.

Sorry my 1st statement may be false (and all you conclusions from it unfounded). I haven't performed a standard installation of XP Pro since a long time . I can't remember whether it was possible to skip the Out of the Box Experience (OOBE) wizard or not. Still I remember there was that difference with XPHome which is relevant but now you say you have "Pro" should not affect you: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=290109 +To give acces to a program to all users, it's the same as for Win2k, you put a shortcut in the "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs" folder or in "All Users\Desktop".

The obligation to create an administrator account at 1st logon is a limitation of WinXP Home. You can still disable any of those with the "net user" command, or rename the built-in "Administrator". Still having 2 administrative accounts comes handy when one of them gets unusable, it makes sense. Is this your 1st upgrade since Win 3.11 ?

Kel, don't stop trying. Sometimes it is possible.

Can you choose to delete that partition instead, then recreate one (then possibly format and install XP) ? Best would be to recreate one of about 40 gig then leave the rest for a 2nd extended partition.

Can you list the partitions you see with relevant details (order, Active/not, Primary/Extended). Also the exact version of your XP source (SP level).

Are those 195GB the actual size of your C: drive before you "tried" whatever you tried (by the way, "after trying to move, merge, delete, etc some partitions" is quite a poor description of what happened or did not happen).

To sum it up, it's all resulting in a cosmetic problem that is triggered by a deliberate unneeded change and that has no consequence at all since the resulting install is for personal use only. Well, not a big deal I would say.

Chill, Submix ! Read forum rule 11 and 7b.

Also check Ebay for any Dell XP Pro recovery disk, I see one here (in Belgium..) for 1cent, you might get lucky as well.

Yes. Dell usually provides updates that run (or at least are launched from) in Windows. You would of course need a running Windows system for that. A WinPE might do but it is possible that it complains the battery service is not installed. The file description on the Dell website says it (also ?) runs from a DOS bootable floppy. If as I suspect you don't have a floppy drive to boot from, you could still create a dos booting usb drive, there are various tutorials and it seems fairly simple. Then add the Dell file on your bootable stick, boot to DOS (using F12 at boot and choose "USB Sorage Device") and run the update. I'm also confused by you first saying you placed a brand new HDD and are "now faced" with an error, when after that you say the error occures with the old HDD. I understand your XP is "a" download... this might also be a cause of problem.

Be sure to begin with or integrate Service Pack 3. That might possibly be the only problem.

I don't say this is the cause of your specific error message, but you can't integrate different drivers with the same name and you can't integrate drivers for "VistaWin7_64" and other in your XP. Also why integrate more than 500 drivers ? Remember nLite is for personal use only.

Or dual boot ? One XP for the work day , one for the evening/weekends ? Does deactivating antivirus make any difference ?

It shows unrecognized by your system because you did not associate .gz files with whatever your archive extractor is (Winzip, 7zip, Winrar, Winace, Izarc,... whatever yours is). .gz stands for "gzip comressed archives". The .lst file needs to stay a .lst file indeed. Both those files are used by Grub4dos, and are not Dos/Windows/Microsoft usual types of files.

Does that mean that most partitions, or the biggest partition of that precise HDD are NTFS or that it happens with all or almost all HDDs, but more often with NTFS formatted HDDs ???

So you will buy a 300$ video card instead ?

I vote bad mobo. You could probably get a replacement for less money than you spent on the capacitors (did you replace them all ?).

Noticeably, maybe, but not sure it'll make up for lost capacity and the fact you might have to store your photoshop work on an other drive, the benefit might be lost. You could check the "hybrid" drives of Seagate.

-it does (try to) remove XP's integrated themes (that maybe already removed from your source), then if you suppress your added themes from the loaded settings, it does "not add them again". But It won't remove your themes indeed. You need to restart from fresh as just suggested.