Ponch

Let me remind you that when you installed nLite, you accepted the fact it was for strictly personal use only.

Whant makes you think that ? In other words, what are the actual screens you're shown before it boots the OS on the HDD ? I think you should be able to format your partition or even delete/recreate it with your XP Home cd.

I assumed "working XP" was meant as "a running XP"... which involve your ability to reactivate the OS put in other hardware to keep it running.

You have to understand that a there is no such thing as a legit working XP on a hard drive, it will be legit or not depending on the computer in which the drive is installed. It's a bit like I was selling you the legit key of my car. I can swear it's legit, it won't help you. Now for your problem, it should not be that difficult to reinstall XP from your copy over the system that's got halted by MS's checks. You just need to get your technical description clearer, I got lost somewhere.

As well as set the CD first in boot order (or use "F12 boot order" at boot if the option is available), you will probably need to "Press any key" to actually boot from CD.

There is an advantage if for any reason, you're planning to reinstall 4-5 times in a months. I guess this option came handy when 1st nLite versions were full of bugs and as its first purpose was to reduce the OS's footprint, people had to go through a lot of trial and error process and thus reinstall few times in a row. In which case, having all drivers and most updates/hotfixes included was very interresting.

Beside the obvious problems; -licensing -activation -hardware discrepencies there is a sticky thread about this in the Software forum.

Double check both connectors on your HDD (and at both ends for the IDE), double check your jumper settings (some are different for Single and Master). If your cable has 80wires, your HDD should be on last connector. I meant original as in "Microsoft MS XP" and not "Piratebay-supertinyH4x0r-XP".

Does the HDD appear in Bios screens ? Is your XP disc an original ? @Sp0iLedBrAt, the install stops, far before PnP drivers are involved.

There are tons of threads on this subject. This is a good one.

Yes it does. When you don't select "unattended", nLite leaves that part untouched. If the original cd is unattended, the result is unattended as well. And the key comes from the CD. For your info, stardotstar, that key will only work on a Dell motherboard as it is checked versus some files (oem files) on the CD and the Bios.

I don't understand why you register here to talk about that tutorial when it states there is a dedicated forum. Your problem is probably that your USB shifts to 2nd hard drive somewhere in the process when the drivers are loaded, then Windows gets lost. There might be different scenari, this word alone will attract some knowledgeable members to this thread. You might also be interrested running this project named VistaPE from USB instead of a standard Windows.

elcome to the forums, -there are a lot of threads about making recovery partitions, don't be sowwy, search. -there is an nLite forum. -if you know what nLite is about, you know it transform a XP INSTALL cd or set of files in an other "more to your taste/needs" INSTALL cd, I don't see how this program can be used to make a recovery partition. Sure, it can be very remotely involved but your question is quite vague.

What happens when you boot that cd ? Do yuou have the usual blue screens to select partitions and other options or do you have an exotic menu that tells you that your GAteway notebook will get back to factory settings" or something like that ? NLite is not made to work with such CDs (that just contain an image of your system partition), only MS XP install Cd.

First thought is that it's damaged on an other place further down the line. But then you'd have a shortcircuit and probably more to tell than a led that stays off, like a bit of smoke or a little "pffff" un less ther's a protection against shortcircuit.

it was all there.

I just tried and it does work. You need to name the 1st one "John(1).jpg" and the rest will follow.

Feel how inconvenient this is... trapped in a loop ? gonxyz, Hard to say what your problem might be, with so little information. Please attach (not paste) your LastSession.ini. Did you run nLite under your Vista OS? Did you use XP SP2 Compatibility mode? If not, you might try rebuilding your disk under XP. It should work in Safe Mode. You could also rebuild under XP leaving out some or all the drivers and see if it works, to narrow the problem down some. Good luck, Ponch.

I also think that it is your problem. Also your driver files are in "My Documents". Are they alone in there , I doubt it. Make a NEW folder for your working files and a NEW folder for your drivers (not in the 1st one). See this thread for same sort of problem/solution.

I can't see anything wrong with your process at first (though a bit complicated, I'm not sure driverpacks are to be included after or before nLiting, surely someone will correct f needed). Maybe you removed languages in the same way you attached your ini file: you just think you have.

Probably the colors set on 16bits instead of 32.

I don't think you can change the complete path independantly from other profiles. The name is in this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\ I suppose you're talking "before install" ?

Safe side? Is it possibly the one which description says "Don't select this for removal or you won't be able to activate Windows."; Out of the Box Experience? I'm afraid if you missed that, you missed lot more.

I don't remember being prompted for product key during repair.

So by repair, you mean total reinstallation, right? But can you please elaborate on that keyboard problem? Do you use a standard XP install disk? Is the keyboard not wortking at that stage ? Is it working before (text part, partition choices)? Is the mouuse working? nLite doesn't add much as such so I'm curious how you think it would transform a cd that doesn't work in one that works unless you are aware drivers are missing and you plan to add them.