Can't format drives during install?

[Cheetah]

I'm starting with a full Pro SP3 build and trying to slim it down as much as possible, but with no prior experience with nLite. I used to know XP inside out, but have adopted a Mac and been loving it for years. I'm trying to reduce the footprint as much as possible on XP and remove pretty much everything I can. The only functionality I need to retain are USB drives, sound, and video with DirectX and OpenGL. I'm going to use it to play the game America's Army online, and quite possibly nothing else. Since it will be online I need to retain network abilities, but I've stripped out IE and the IE core, as I'll be using Opera.

My problem is that when I'm doing the install, it doesn't give me an option to format the partition on my drive. When I choose a drive, where it usually affords the option to format NTFS or FAT, or retain the format that's already there - it skips that entirely and just goes directly to scanning the drive and installing on the format that's in place. Since I'm installing dual boot on my Mac laptop (MacBook Pro) I need to reformat that partition in order to make it work. Without reformatting at that point it will go through the install process up until the first reboot, it reboots and says "Press any key to boot from CD..." then reads "Disk Error\Press any key to restart" and doesn't respond to any inputs.

I've successfully installed other builds of XP Pro without trouble, and I've narrowed the issue down to the inability to format. Like I said, I'm cutting out everything I possibly can, so is there a setting or combination of settings I need to leave alone in order to retain the ability to format the drive during install?

Also, the SP3 build I'm basing off of has prior unattended install settings in place, so I chose not to mess with them, could it be something in those settings taking away my ability to format?

I've got my Last Session.ini attached, is there any need for the Last Session_U.ini to be attached as well?

Any help is GREATLY appreciated, so thank you in advance.

LAST SESSION.INI

[johnhc]

I'm starting with a full Pro SP3 build and trying to slim it down as much as possible, but with no prior experience with nLite. I used to know XP inside out, but have adopted a Mac and been loving it for years. I'm trying to reduce the footprint as much as possible on XP and remove pretty much everything I can. The only functionality I need to retain are USB drives, sound, and video with DirectX and OpenGL. I'm going to use it to play the game America's Army online, and quite possibly nothing else. Since it will be online I need to retain network abilities, but I've stripped out IE and the IE core, as I'll be using Opera.

My problem is that when I'm doing the install, it doesn't give me an option to format the partition on my drive. When I choose a drive, where it usually affords the option to format NTFS or FAT, or retain the format that's already there - it skips that entirely and just goes directly to scanning the drive and installing on the format that's in place. Since I'm installing dual boot on my Mac laptop (MacBook Pro) I need to reformat that partition in order to make it work. Without reformatting at that point it will go through the install process up until the first reboot, it reboots and says "Press any key to boot from CD..." then reads "Disk Error\Press any key to restart" and doesn't respond to any inputs.

I've successfully installed other builds of XP Pro without trouble, and I've narrowed the issue down to the inability to format. Like I said, I'm cutting out everything I possibly can, so is there a setting or combination of settings I need to leave alone in order to retain the ability to format the drive during install?

Also, the SP3 build I'm basing off of has prior unattended install settings in place, so I chose not to mess with them, could it be something in those settings taking away my ability to format?

I've got my Last Session.ini attached, is there any need for the Last Session_U.ini to be attached as well?

Any help is GREATLY appreciated, so thank you in advance.

Cheetah, if the starting copy of XP had been processed before by nLite, then all bets are off. You should always start with a fresh copy of your CD files/folders and do all your work in one nLite session. Removing IE core is problematical, but not your no-format problem. Lots of XP is dependent on XP core, including Windows Activation. For each of the Components that you remove you should look at the text on the right when you mouse over it. Any Components in red especially. Enjoy, John.

[Cheetah]

Cheetah, if the starting copy of XP had been processed before by nLite, then all bets are off. You should always start with a fresh copy of your CD files/folders and do all your work in one nLite session. Removing IE core is problematical, but not your no-format problem. Lots of XP is dependent on XP core, including Windows Activation. For each of the Components that you remove you should look at the text on the right when you mouse over it. Any Components in red especially. Enjoy, John.

Thanks for the info, John. I did mouse over everything before selecting it for removal, and if I wasn't 100% sure about anything I wouldn't take it out. I haven't used Windows extensively in over 4 years, so I don't really remember exactly how it works, but I don't need to activate Windows if I'm not doing updates and such, do I? I'd like to strip the IE core because I certainly see no use for having it, but if it's something that I can't just get rid of I'll have to rethink that option..

I'll try to dig out a fresh XP disk from the depths of my storage and try another go. Is there anything I should specifically avoid to retain the ability to format during install?

[Guest]

Under operating system options, format drive support.

[Cheetah]

Under operating system options, format drive support.

Format drive support was left alone, so that's not the issue. The mouse-over text on that one says it'll remove the option to right click and format drives like floppy disks or USB drives, so that shouldn't be the issue with hard drive formatting during the install anyway.

[Ponch]

I've had that problem already but I can't remember where it came from . It would take you 2 minutes to check wether the original disk shows the same behaviour. Are you not using an upgrade disk ?

[johnhc]

Cheetah, if the starting copy of XP had been processed before by nLite, then all bets are off. You should always start with a fresh copy of your CD files/folders and do all your work in one nLite session. Removing IE core is problematical, but not your no-format problem. Lots of XP is dependent on XP core, including Windows Activation. For each of the Components that you remove you should look at the text on the right when you mouse over it. Any Components in red especially. Enjoy, John.

Thanks for the info, John. I did mouse over everything before selecting it for removal, and if I wasn't 100% sure about anything I wouldn't take it out. I haven't used Windows extensively in over 4 years, so I don't really remember exactly how it works, but I don't need to activate Windows if I'm not doing updates and such, do I? I'd like to strip the IE core because I certainly see no use for having it, but if it's something that I can't just get rid of I'll have to rethink that option..

I'll try to dig out a fresh XP disk from the depths of my storage and try another go. Is there anything I should specifically avoid to retain the ability to format during install?

Cheetah, you will not be able to use XP 30 days after you install it if you do not activate it. If you are willing to re-install it then, then I guess you will be OK. You can update a non activated system, but you will most likely need IE. I suggest you use a virtual system for your testing - no more burning CDs/DVDs. VMware Player, VirtualPC and VirtualBox are all free. Enjoy, John.

[Cheetah]

Thanks for the help folks. I started with a fresh disk and defeated my issues, now I can't get my LAN to work. haha

Also, thanks for the heads up on activation, left the IE core intact just to save the headache. Maybe I'll try to crack it and rip the core out anyway...Is it illegal to crack software you legally own? haha

Ponch, not sure what you mean by the upgrade disk..

John, thanks for the virtual system advice, I'll have to throw one on the windows side of my install and work from there until I get things right.

[johnhc]

Thanks for the help folks. I started with a fresh disk and defeated my issues, now I can't get my LAN to work. haha

Also, thanks for the heads up on activation, left the IE core intact just to save the headache. Maybe I'll try to crack it and rip the core out anyway...Is it illegal to crack software you legally own? haha

Ponch, not sure what you mean by the upgrade disk..

John, thanks for the virtual system advice, I'll have to throw one on the windows side of my install and work from there until I get things right.

Cheetah, cracking is not a subject we talk about here, but whether what you are asking is illegal or not, I am not the one to give advice. Your Last Session says you have removed DHCP Client and DNS Client as well as a ton of other network components. I would guess it is no wonder the LAN does not work. Ponch means a CD from MS that allows you to upgrade from, say, W2000 to XP. I don't think you have one. Enjoy, John.

[Cheetah]

Cheetah, cracking is not a subject we talk about here, but whether what you are asking is illegal or not, I am not the one to give advice. Your Last Session says you have removed DHCP Client and DNS Client as well as a ton of other network components. I would guess it is no wonder the LAN does not work. Ponch means a CD from MS that allows you to upgrade from, say, W2000 to XP. I don't think you have one. Enjoy, John.

Dang John, you really know your way around this stuff haha. I got it working yesterday, my issue was DHCP Client for the network. I got confused and was setting it up for my old ISP that didn't use DHCP.

I'm not using an upgrade disk, you're correct. Using an old SP3 disk I bought when my other laptop fried while I was overseas a couple Christmas's ago. Good money spent there, never successfully used it until now haha

Thanks again for all of your help, everyone. I'm on XP right now and everything seems to be working, hopefully I don't turn up any glitches in the next few days putting it through the ringer.

[johnhc]

Cheetah, you are welcome. Glad you are running and hope no problems arise. Enjoy, John.