You know... I think I know what the problem is...

I have switched from repartitioning the HD to using a 8 gb partition (sysprep will extendoempartition for me later on) and Setup is apparently deleting the XP files but isn't removing the pre-existing $Docs folders, and since they exist when XP attempts to create the folders later on, it creates a new profile folder, leaving the old ones there...

I am trying it again after removing the partition completely and recreating it... Dammit, I spent 3 days on this issue

yep, that is what the problem was... 3 days blown on this.

Oh well, I did write a batch to take a plain xp CD, ISO it to the HD, extract the files, apply sp2 (if necessary), integrate the type 3 hotfixes, del the unnecessary folders, copy in the $oem$ and hotfix folders, copy in the sif file, ISO it, and burn it to CD.

I still need to see about using svcpack.inf, whether it makes a difference doing it through svcpack.inf, or just individually through runonceex, (I'm leaning toward runonceex...)

yep, that is what the problem was... 3 days blown on this.

At least you got it solved. Thanks for posting the solution that finally worked for you. Hopefully this will let some future person with a similar problem blow only 3 hours on it.

Good luck with the rest of your project, and don't hesitate to start a new thread if you have any further issues.