Ponch

Sure. Of the scale like if today they'd stop the ability to install the DOS 6.0 that came out in 93. Are you trying to resurect a closed thread ?

Surely you meant inkjet. Impact is a bit ...80's. See this or this as starters.

"Using this great batch script" usually means you're thankfull to the one who wrote it.

You miss the fact that the vast majority of XPs do not need activation and still won't need it in 10 years time on the machine they were sold. Pop in the OEM cd, and voilà. That's the economic model of today, people don't buy OSs anymore, only companies still do. And VLK won't need activation in 10 years either. And this thread (a waste of time aniway, let's face it) is not called "Windows XP won't be dead or outdated in 10 years time and WinME is not dead today". People will have moved on anyway (some people actually do buy computers, loads of them, new, up to date hardware and software). Reality check. Your friend has a problem with his computer and you're the supposed computer expert. -oh, Windows Seven ? Hum, sorry mate, I'm only a WinME expert, come back in 10 years.

doesn't seem to be a problem for those using a legal version.

I don't know where you found that but it's almost funny. Back to your real problem. At first, a file is missing or corrupt means that; it is missing or corrupt. Either it's been badly copied (like when you pull the plug when writing something) or corrupted by malware or mistakenly erased. This can -sometimes- be solved by chckdsk or an XP repair. Other reason could be unreadable sectors (bad HDD). You went for reinstall, but still got problems. Now... you've checked with different CDs and with different HDD, so I'm lost as well. Are you 100% sure the other HDD was OK ? Do you have any mean to perform hardware tests on an other machine ?

I think you're mistaken about what nLite is. nLite is a program that modifies an XP (/or Windows2000) installation CD. You don't make a disc "for" nLite, nLite makes a disc for you, if you have an original to start with.

I mean have you done ONLY integrate SP2 & drivers in ne go (thus in that order). You get missing files when you remove components before adding a SP (or when you start with "an" ISO that you found on the Internet).

At what point does it stop ? Do you get the text part (choice of partitions on which to install ) ? Or does it not start at all ?

-How original is your "original" ? -Have you done everything in 1 go ?

and not real time (reads it at logon).

Can you just delete the (all) partition(s) on 2nd drive from within Windows 7 and create a new one (from there or from your XP disc) ? Anyway you have to make that CD again as you can't skip the unattended key step.

Concerning your key problem, we know of ~3 causes for rejected keys; -SP3 integrated with nLite under Vista or 7even (do not). -that "working" key was actually never tried with original CD (maybe because original was automated) and poster admits it later. -key was blacklisted by Service Pack. Did you format the partition or wipe the disk ? (Are we talking more physical disks?)

Not much info here....Add to what ? What tool did you use to make that USB stick ? How is this automated ? What OS is booted ? What program starts? Is it not easier (and more secure) to set Boot from USB last in Bios and use F12 for boot menu when needed ?

Not sure you're taking it the right way putting your boot files on the non active partition. What's the OS on C: ? (backup is less than 3 Gig?). Maybe read the first pages of this tutorial?

You only need quotes when there is a space in a file name or path name so the command knows it is not an other argument or switch. And if you use them, they should englobe the total name and path. So in your 2 first examples, 2nd part is correct. In the 3rd line, 1st part is best, 2nd is ok, 3rd is not (not sure it could work). But quotes are not needed in any as you don't have any spaces in names.

I never tried Join.me, but I'll second Felipe with TeamViewer. Free for non professional use.

That is the file reported in an other thread. I tried the script yesterday and it clearly says it missed the file (-X- says he will update the script, I don't know if it's been done yet, that's why I did not report that error). "Failed to download WindowsXP-en-US-KB2564958.exe" , should download WindowsXP-KB2564958-x86-ENU.exe instead.

Sorry if this is a dumb remark.....but in the 2nd swap, there is 1 character difference between the KB numbers. Is this still correct ?

Yes it can. Select only "Drivers" in the main menu. As a rule, it is not advised to reprocess, but in this case it is likely to work OK. The disadvantage of loading the last session.ini is that -you'd need the original XP files to be reloaded (and maybe spend time integrating SP3 again) -you'd need all the drivers and hotfixes that you integrated at first to be available at exact the same place.

Your error (if any) is probably reflected in the "Last session.ini", not the "_u" that only contains some unattended parameters.

I guess -X- has made a mistake (it seems to be a recent update) and copied the file for Win7. The XP update is named WindowsXP-KB2564958-x86-ENU.exe. For KB951978, ... I don't know.

You can check some on Betanews, they seem to have fairly good ratings. PDF Creator is on the "Open Source" side (filter).

You can create a spare 2Gig partition on your drive, set it as active and install to it. Be sure you have the tools to revert back to normal operation, this involve the ability to still boot from a 3rd OS (bootable cd or other) to reset your original partition to active and repair your boot options. Needless to say I'm not responsible for loss of data if wrong partition is formatted. For eventual further help with your drivers, attach (not paste) your "last session.ini".

The OS you are modifying and the OS you are running have theoretically no relation at all. You could create an afghan XP64bit sp2 install disc running a danish Windows 2000 sp4.