Ponch

HDD corruption? (but that would not explain your problem booting from CD/DVD) Overheating? (but that would not explain still being able to reinstall Win7).

Is it free ? If not, do they not offer any download solution ? If free... is it legal ?

Like this ?

TedJbrown hasn't posted since 8 months.

-ensure the key you are using is working with the original SP1 install cd you are starting with. -ensure it is not blacklisted by SP2/SP3 ( .... in other words, it is a legit key). -try building you disc under XP instead of Win7 or Vista. -if still no luck, try integrating first SP2 then SP3 (test your iso's and the keywith Virtual box)

Just look what's in your folder and subfolders (\i386 and others), 15Gig of unwanted data should not be hard to spot. Someone else reported having unsuspectedly integrated much more drivers that he thought because selecting a folder that contained them all.

OOBE stands for Out of the Box Experience, it is the succession of screens where XP setup asks you for a user name (up to five I believe) and suggest you to setup your Internet connection and register your Windows at Microsoft (with in the background). It can be skipped with various side effects (aside the administrator, XP Home needs at least one other to start). OOBE can also be removed if you have an XP version that does not need activation, but that is in components removal screens.

That is likely to be the problem.Other solutions involve plugging an IDE cdrom or finding SATA cdrom drivers for your floppy (unless you do boot from an ME bootable CDrom?).

I'd make a second step, skip CD and go to USB booting. Then 1step back if you want and boot from floppy images. Check this tool and its ability to boot from IMA/IMG files listed in the file Menu.lst. I think you can skip all the "installing XP" part so you can use an old USB drive (in your case, even 256Meg will do). PCs boot from USB since 2004, you might stilll need other tools for earlier machines.

Now for being clear -any reason the system (Win98) was installed on the 2nd partition ? -there is reasonable suspicion on your license rights to install "that" XP on your laptop -XP won't get you far on that system from 1998, that is probably in the range of PII 300MHz, 64Mb RAM, 4Gig HDD (at best?) so you're up for a lot of frustration. Can you boot from a floppy ? if yes, can you make a floppy (on an other computer if needed) ? -get a Win9x boot floppy creator (.exe) from Bootdisk.com, -launch that exe and create your bootable floppy (it is not clear wether you were successful at that yet, possibly you copied the exe file onto the floppy instead of launching the exe???) -get part.exe from this link (Ranish Partition Manager), copy it on your floppy -boot your floppy in your portable and launch part.exe -you should see the partitions on your on the HDD -on the 1st line, that says "Master Boot Record", press Enter -press the space bar until it says Standard IPL, then press Enter -get down to your 2nd partition, press "B" (for boot), you get a "*" in front of it -press F2 to save -reboot to the 2nd partition's system, hopefully your working Win98.

Ok, folks,...sorry for - being confused with different tags use (it looked ok on my preview and I did not check on the normal page) - writing something that looks prehistoric to Jaclaz. In fact this is the first time I ever write something with the FOR command and I just googled for its use, wrote a few lines batch and tested it. And Charlotte described it as excellent, but I'm not ruling out sarcasm here. Still, Charlotte there is nothing even in further posts, that suggests a "more up to date file" in B is OK to overwrite older file in A. ... Looking at it again I see it can be done this way as well ... Copy folder B to new folder C Copy A into C (and click YES to all) Delete Folder A Rename Folder C to A This time it's me that can't see the difference, except of course folder C doesn't exist at first and is new. But lets consider my remark as pedantic. Hoping the OP can get something out of this thread.

First, let me point out a possible flaw in that algorithm. If you make any edits to B they will get lost with this strategy. In other words, you better be sure that there are no files in B that are newer/better than identically named files in A. I can't see how files in B would be overwritten here. + What's the difference with this Copy B into C Copy A into C (and click YES to all) Delete Folder A Rename Folder C to A ? @Horus, are there files at higher level as well ? (like C:\A\whatever.dat) if not, something as simple as this does it, but you have to answer N for each potential overwriting FOR %%A in (1,2) DO FOR %%B in (1,2) DO FOR %%C in (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35, 36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,6 9 ,70,71,72,73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87,88,89,90,91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98,99,100) DO move /-y C:\B\%%A\%%B\%%C\*.* C:\A\%%A\%%B\%%C\ edit: this will only work if the full structure already exists in A (it does not create folders)

How about actually using nLite instead? This is what this forum is about. nLite being for personal use only , we assume you have the starting files and maybe even the presets that you used to make that installation disc. Just run nLite again and there you are. We could help you remember where you changed the administrator name.

...probably "Battery" in Hardware support ?

oops, Download 47577 - Upload 28457.

Hello, I'm trying to add a 500Meg folder to a DL DVD. For a stupid reason (hurry, urgent), I previously burned a 721Meg iso (from a cd) to that DVD but I'm pretty sure I checked the ability to have multi-sessions. Now when I try to add data, it begins the operation but Nero shuts down after 5 seconds. Pouf ! I do choose "continue Multi-session disc" and tried "Refresh compilation when importing session", same result. No error message, no warning, and I can't find a log. If anybody could tell me that "it's just not possible after burning an iso", or give me obvious the little trick I missed, I'd be delighted.

I fully agree with that. Risk is high gain is almost non existant. @TranceEnergy, technically, you make sense, but problem is, people (1st poster in this case) come for a clear answer, so "if you know what you're doing..." is not really what they are looking for and might even prove counterproductive.

Roaming profiles ?

Probably yes, but I think if you don't start from a known good set of files ( read "original MS XP disc"), you're in for a lot of bad surprises in the long run.

Are you sure your Blus Screen is not hardware induced ? Keeping it preactivated is more simple, as that is what the disc is made for. Changing the nature of the disc is a bit of an other subject and involves editig files as well.

Yes it is possible (done it). The tricky part is the fact your original cd is probably "preactivated" for Dell computers, if you want to keep that feature you need to replace the oem files (google for oembios to get the list, there are 7 of them I think,) by those from HP (you can pick them up from your running system and repack them) and use the product key from the Dell cd, not from your sticker. The key you need to use is in an answer file somewhere on the cd. Good luck.

Don't search for a file named OEMSETUP.TXT. Ponch meant a file named TXTSETUP.OEM. Exactly. I had a feeling something was wrong with that. Thanks anyway.

The computer is still under waranty, it is less than 4 years old and probably has no floppy drive as most computers today. Or Alienware's helpdesk are noobs as well. True, you can try an USB floppy drive but I read not all of them can be used for this. @ PvtMatter, there is an nLite section in these forums (in fact, it is directly linked from nlite's official site). If not already done, you will need to -download the last version of nLite -have a running windows XP with .net to run nLite (your Windows seven won't do, unless you're confident with virtual machines). -an original set of MS-WinXP install files (original install CD, your MCE will do, I hope, because originaly nLite was not made for MCE) So start nLite, check what it asks for and come back with your success or your questions. Basically, you will have to -indicate where your install files are -indicate where you want to copy them on your HDD (for processing) -choose what you want to do (integrate drivers, maybe SP3, and "make iso") -indicate where your drivers are located (the .inf or oemsetup.txt file) -start the process -when process is finish, click "make iso" -give a name and path to the .iso file -burn your iso file. Good luck.

I read his question as 4.How to reinstall XP (clean install including disk format) without (booting from) CD. --> See "Install XP from USB" sub forum and its (at least 3) different methods.

I'd think that with 12 replies already, someone would have thought about it.