Ponch

If using that method you should NOT have removed "Manual install & upgrades" with nLite. I think that is the only limitation. Installing to other than the 1st partition on your HDD needs changing some settings as well (not in nLite but in the USB_multiboot config files).

Could you use that same key the 1st time you used that same CD ???

Techy or not, the question is now more subtle. "When SP3 first came out I slipstreamed my XP cd so that it would install automatically"... did you mean "so SP3 would be installed from the start" or do you mean "so my cd would install automatically (= unattended)". If 2nd case, the question becomes -does changing (if he did) a CD to unattended disqualify it as "clean source". I take it g-force is a rather experienced user. If adding/removing/renaming users surely does, but apart from that I'm not sure.

Running VirtualBox (69MB download) would show you if you problem comes from the media or from the (missing?) files on it.

For your first problem, I recomment applying SP3 to your original source (with nLite or MS's /integrate method) with no other modification and use it as a starting source. The problem I think is that the ini file is written based on the OS's content after SP integration, but is (at next session) loaded versus an OS before SP integration. Discrepencies (items that appeared with the SP) make some settings disappear from things "to be done". For IE8, check this thread though you are more clear about what you do. +You'll have to find a spanish version.

I'm reinstalling my machine and that (good and) free firewall doesn't allow me to export/import any config. (Tall Emu Online Armor). Now, I'm behind an adsl-modem router which I wasn't before. It has "standard settings" firewall built in and the ISP crippled the config. Is there any need then to reinstall a software firewall or will it just consume resources ? Thanks for some (not too hign level) inputs. Note: I'm not the paranoïd type.

if it means as much as buying a new drive, then your best bet is to do it (same model exactly) and swap the circuit board. You might first try to get the drive out of the enclosure and test it directly in a pc as an internal drive. That will work if only something from the enclosure got damaged.

Netbooks ...have no optical drives by definition. Which brings the next questions; are you booting from an USB CD/DVD drive ? have you tried booting an other computer with that CD ? Can other (known bootable) CDs boot that Netbook ?

He didn't ask for anything, it looked more like a rant. -Has he got an nLited install and can't get IE8 installed ? -Did he try integrating ani MS IE8 exe in the hotfixes? -Has he tried integrating an addon ? ... who knows what "IE8 doesn't work in nLite" means ?

It's just that every now and then, someone comes up with a mission of creating the ultimate "light and unusable" or "only usable for me" XP and no one feels the urge to help him creating such a broken OS because that usually comes with the duty of helping in the long and painfull repair process.

From my experience, you can integrate SP3 to an untouched source and consider the result as an "untouched" SP3 source. This will avoid small quirks with the ini file and make you gain few minutes each next times.

Problem is that when you installed it, you agreed that nLite is for personal use only.

Any reason to not install XP from booting CD and let it detect the 2nd install and create the boot.ini accordingly (and automatically)? I can't see the flaw in the above but I'm surprised Jaclaz supports the "boot to D: and format C:" path and too often, he's right.

No, you'll have to decide yourself which components you will never need and which ones you want to keep. Also relevant is if you are limited by the size of the disk or by the power of the machine (how old is your "old computer"). As often disputed, nLite wil not make your XP much faster but make it smaller and faster to install. Only if you play with services will it make a difference.

-check your vga cable is fastened. -get the power plug off for 10 seconds then retry. -get the (if not integrated) graphic card off , the memory modules off, wipe contacts with a cloth, put them back in and retry. If still nothing, I vote for dying Power Supply.

What are we supposed to add ? "Yes/No" ?

RAID, that is, but if 8 HDDs is best practice, that is an unrealistic hardware upgrade for the common user's machine.

They go with the users (not the username but a whole code created by the OS). You deleted the users, you killed/locked the permissions. This is perfectly normal.

Do you have the feeling of being misunderstood ?

No you can't. Your type of licence does not support "pre activation". Only big OEM give preactivated discs.

Are those two views from the same running OS ? How ? Does it say "D:" ?Maybe, ...hopefully, you just need to retake ownership of all those files as you badly fiddled with rights before reinstalling. Is there a partition over 137GB involved and is your running XP up to date (SP1, 2 or 3 included in your cd)?

I'd use Partiton Magic to make that 100Gig partition on the 2nd drive then use any imaging tool to (ghost...) copy the 50 on the 100. Then swap the drives boot order. Then reuse PM to reclaim the 50 on the 1st drive. I've been very impressed by PM8 that I used lately at work. It is 10 TIMES faster than GPartEd, I kid you not. Plus, it makes most operation from within the running OS, no reboot, no media needed. Only advantage of GPartEd is that it is free. If he can't explain why, sorry but I take that as a pointless statement.

At least we know it is not an nLite problem. This looks more like "installing XP to USB" problem. I won't read all 100 pages here, but you might have to do some research before you reach your goal. It's certainly not as easy as "just choose the USB disk for install". Maybe this could help as well. Good luck. Multibooting from internal HDD might prove easier.

Can you please give the exact message ? +Did you read anything prior to this in order to install XP to an external USB drive (I've never done it but your problem could as well come from that) ?

Only the inf file, as it refers to the other files.