GTOOOOOH

I do this now with AutoIT. Does the drive have a specific file/folder structure on it? If so, this is REALLY easy, and I can write you the code (as I've already written it for my own USB key(s)).

Thanks jaclaz. So, have you pieced together what I've been able to accomplish with relative ease?

Turns out Ghost32 works perfectly!

Is there a way to backup/restore a boot sector within Windows XP? I tried WinImage, but it's not working for some reason.

I've seen lot's of theories on how to get a USB stick to still be bootable when formatted in FAT32 or NTFS, and came up with a super simple method that works like a charm and doesn't require any 3rd party tools/apps/other/etc... Assuming you've already got WAIK Vista installed, and a basic ISO built, all you have to do is this: 1. Burn your PE2 ISO to a CD/DVD. 2. Boot up with it. 3. Plug in your USB stick. 4. Go into DISKPART and figure out which drive it is (usually E, volume 2). This can be done by using the LIST VOLUME command. 5. Now that you're in DISKPART run the following commands (assuming your USB stick is the E drive and volume 2, otherwise substitute your drive letter for E and your volume number for 2) Select Volume 2 Format fs=fat32 override quick Select Volume 2 Select Disk 0 Select Partition 1 Active Exit BootSect /NT60 E: You can now copy your PE files to the root of your USB drive, what I copy is the following: Boot dir & all files EFI dir & all files Sources dir & all files BootMGR file That's it... works like a charm. Now, if there was a way to mark the partition active within WinXP technically speaking you shouldn't have to do ANY of the above coded steps inside a VistaPE environment, but I don't know how to set an active partition in XP without potentially screwing up my machine.

Or just use driverpacks for drivers, and use nlite for patches/settings.

Ok, so we're all set I copied the expanded nhelper.exe into the following locations in my ISO: .\I386 .\I386\SYSTEM32 .\I386\$OEM$\$$\System32 And I no longer get an error during the XP setup. So, if you get nhelper errors, expand the nhelper.ex_ file and copy it to those locations within your media, re-save your ISO and you're all set. To expand the .ex_ file go to a command prompt in your I386 directory and type: expand nhelper.ex_ nhelper.exe

Ok, so I expanded the nlite.in_ both good and bad, and the difference is this: HKLM,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce","nlite_post_s05",0x00020000,"nhelper moveex ""%17%\syssbck.dll"" ""%11%\syssetup.dll""" HKLM,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce","nlite_post_s07",0x00020000,"nhelper delete ""%11%\nhelper.exe""" So, I expanded the nhelper.ex_ and placed in multiple locations within my install media. I'll report back if it works or not. If not... I don't know why nlite is suddenly doing this with my installation when it wasn't doing it originally. Nothing significant has been added to warrant this. Moreover, I don't know what that renamed/moved .DLL is doing or not doing in the first place.

Nothing?

Ok well I replaced the newer NLITE.IN_ file with the older one pre-error, and the install went through without any hang-ups on the nhelper file. Can someone please tell me how to read the NLITE.IN_ file as it's not legible?

Looking thru my changes I'd like to know what this file is? In Root\I386\NLITE.IN_ This file is what seems to be different since the error, the file size in my latest one is doubled, but older versions the file is smaller. I cannot read the files contents and would like to... NUHI, any help please?

Also, what is this : http://www.german-nlite.de/index.php?showtopic=8263 : The germans have a fix?

Ok, so I've been re-nliting the same directory for quite some time now, and suddenly I'm getting this error. What is the fix? The error is occuring during the component registration portion of XP's setup. I hit ok, it comes back, I hit ok again, and it's solved but it's causing a hiccup in my process and I can't have that.

May you live for a thousand years.

How come when I mount/unmount my boot.wim even if I take things OUT... the file size keeps increasing. I've probably mounted/unmounted about 30 times, and each time it goes up about 1mb??? I started around 160mb, I'm now at 200mb? I've tried making a copy of the boot.wim and prep'ing it... it does nothing, and I thought that was supposed to clean stuff up... so not only is prep'ing locking me down, but it's not cleaning... and the file size STILL goes up a bit each time.

My solution was adding drivers via: peimg.exe /inf drivername.inf builddirectory\Windows

I got all my stuff working, but thanks.

Yeah I don't know how this will work because to boot into PE, I thought you had to boot using a specific boot sector that then points to the bootmgr file...

Man, I'm lost with syslinux... I made a dos boot floppy as instructed, added the syslinux.com to the root of a: and ran syslinux a: it added LDLINUX.sys to the root of A:... but when I try to boot from a: it says could not find kernel image : linux... and I end up at a boot: prompt. This doesn't really seem as easy as I had hoped... I would LOVE for it to work as you suggested, but I'm a total noob with linux. I'm also not sure if I should be using the win32 version or not?

Zorph, I'll give it a try.

What I've got so far is just setting the USB to boot after the hard drive, and selecting the usb out of boot menu from the bios before the hard drive loads. After it does PE, it loads off the hard drive. I'd still like to try a more elegant solution.

Much like a JO.SYS for CD/DVD... how would I have my USB stick offer a choice when booting?

Holy hell pants I finally got it... Ok... so for those like me that have read 100 guides with zero results, here is the super easy way that finally worked for me. Install the WAIK that has PE 2.0 Format your UFD as FAT32 Copy the SETUPLDR.BIN and NTDETECT.COM from an XP CD's \i386 directory to your UFD root. Rename SETUPLDR.BIN to NTLDR without any extension. From the Windows PE Tools Command Prompt shortcut, change directory to x86, so cd x86 then run bootsect /nt60 x: where x: is the drive letter of your ufd. Then run the following xcopy c:\winpe\iso\*.* /s /e /f x:\ where the c:\directory and x:\ are the locations of your pe install, and x: is your ufd. That should make WinPE 2, work on your UFD.

I have read topics for DAYS on this, and can't find one that works? I have a WinPE image I wish to use already, not BartPE. I tried the PE2USB.EXE, but it failed asking for a biosinfo file in a temporary Windows location... I couldn't find a solution to this. So, I tried the WAIK guide... my WinPE doesn't even show my USB stick installed, so I can't format it within PE... so I formatted it in WinXP, and tried the bootsect /nt60 command... it said it worked, but the UFD just says Disk Error when I try and boot it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the info TAP, I was also reading about DRVLOAD while inside of a PE session, that seems like a valid option as well.