Ponch

That's exactly the reason why nLite is for private use only.

At what point do you see them deleted ? Have you copied them in your target directory at the start ? When you write "the files needed for the install", do you mean all files excepted the I386 directory ?

You need to find exactly the same drive. That might prove the hardest part of your recovery (swapping boards is very easy, at least those I've done) .

I guess you know that "cold boot" does not refer to temperature but to the fact it i not software initiated so the state of the machine is totally previsible,... temperature aside. So what you describe is two cold boots, only difference being temperature. Have you updated your Bios to 2.20 already?

His problem is solved and we are only adding extra info. Nothing's wrong with that. It's not like we are telling him to re do it all an other way.

The OEM files are only used to validate an autoactivated XP. From xwhat you say, it is not your case. For the wpa.dbl file method, I'm not sure it works. I think this was pre SP2. Plus you had to havr the same Volume identifier for your system drive (so deleteing previous Windows was ok but no format, unless you had a tool to change that identifier). Is not having go online or having to activate worth the hassle...?

A minimum of info would be welcome... -was it recognised before or is it a new setup (or a second hand HDD) ? -have you checked anything before posting ? -any other device on the IDE cable ? -checked jumper settings? -re-fastened both cables at both ends ? -can you feel the drive spinning ? -capacity of the drive vs. age of the motherboard/bios ?

Did the cd come with the PC ? What brand is the PC ? What flavor of XP is it ? Preactivation responds to some conditions. If you know of any condition that is not fulfilled, that would help answering your question. If your media correspond to the hardware and does preactivation, your new install will be pre activated.

Yes, working on the one hard drive increases the odds of overwriting the data you want to recover with -any programs you install for that purpose -any file your OS is creating/moving in the mean time (temp files and others) -already recovered data (though here that would be by a very badly designed recovery program) In which case this could help you a next time. Boot a (heavily modded) VistaPE that contains free recovery softwares, from CD and save your data to a USB drive. You could also go one step further and run the PE from USB but that's an other story.

Tweaks / Performance. Last option.

I have THREE of them salvaged from a company gone default. I've also kept one to for my desktop. Does that make us old ? I'm very bad at typing and the clicking is a continuous acknowledgement.

Maybe you can try typing CMD instead of Explorer then at the command line type "chkdsk c: /f" and see if anything gets fixed.

If it doesn't do WOL (and clearly it doesn't)... you need an other card. A 2nd hand card will cost you less than 5 euro.

Looks like a corrupted file problem. If the diskcheck did not solve the problem, it might be hardware (HDD dying). Try running chekdisk again if you have any way to do it (in safe mode).

SATA drivers are for disk controlers, not for the disk itself. +You've searched for two years and you expect us to find something without even telling what motherboard you're using ?

I'd say this but I'm not 100% sure: ;# Operating System Options # "File System Filter Manager"

Jaclaz you naughty boy,... we shouldn't laugh that much at the OP's answer, look at ours ain't it clear that's what he's starting from here?

There is no "standard way" to readd removed components. nLite shoots them by design. There are threads about readding languages and keyboards but most components cannot be readded. At least not easily.

+Read... read... read rule 12 of the forum please.

Good point. Have you wiped all partitions or worked with existing partitions ?

Did you burn the IMAGE (good) or did you just put the file on the DVD (bad) ? In other words, do you see the install files on your DVD or do you just see a big iso file ?

This is not the place for requesting "magic" solutions and not everyone is getting random problems. Though it is true that there are so many different configurations and variables involved, that is why we need, as for most posts you see on this board, the basic info under the now famous "attached, not pasted" format, your last session.ini file. Also make sure you always start from a fresh MS cd as source, because this is the most frequent cause of what people then call "random problems".

You're probably not running nLite on a standard "Microsoft Windows XP SP2" installation disk. And if you do, you probably do it more than once which often is not a good idea, depending on the used options. For in depth analysis, please attach (not paste) your Last session.ini file so we have something to chew on. Cheers.

I still have the problem that no "Internet Explorer" folder is created in ...profiles\Application Data\microsoft\ and so also the "ShowDeskFix" that runs from RunOnce has no effect because the folder is missing. I can't have QuickLaunch unless I manually create the \Internet Explorer\QuickLaunch folder myself. I even tried an addon to add QuickLaunch. Am I the only one in this case ? Last_Session.ini Last_Session_u.ini

Yes, charging circuit malfunction does happen, some were even solved by Bios upgrades. We can't really be sure if this is your problem here. If you still had the original battery in a PIII 1.2GHz, it must have been at least 6 years old ? It is normal that it doesn't charge anymore. Most laptop batteries die very quickly after 2 to 5 years. The big question is.... was there a manufacturing date on the new battery ?