I have used the same install key on totally different computers and not had any problems with activation. I had it installed on my SB51G then replaced that with a ST20G5 and used the same key.

Thus far, all attempts still end with either a BSOD, or a "Setup cannot access this disk" complaint.

The destination mobo's manual suggests WinXP-SP2 as a minimum for installation. So.. the question:

If I go to the expense (time) and effort of slipstreaming SP3 onto my RTM installer, will that include modern (circa 2005) device drivers as well? Or do I still need to find a way to get those in place?

Thanks

I usually get installation CDs from Microsoft via my Technet account, and Windows XP SP3 does include updated drivers.
I see that Windows XP Home SP3 ISO is dated 2009.

I would assume that a SP3-slipstreamed install CD will have updated drivers as well, but I can't guarantee.

BSOD is an indicator or "wrong" drivers, be it not for xp, not for your hardware, damaged, or whatever. Have you tried to download latest drivers from the MB producer?

Also, you've got mail.

No problems in that it didn't need you to call or no problems that they allowed you to reactivate? You have to really go crazy with reactivations for Microsoft to not allow it. If its a short period of time between activations then you'll need to call the telephone number but if its a long period then it should let you activate over the internet.

No. But the drivers are good (they've been used before), just too complex for pre-SP2, I suspect.

I'm now trying the SATA-to-ancient-IDE adapter gizmos on old mobos, but no joy so far there either.

I think this may come down to "install on a really ancient IDE hard drive", then bit-copy to a modern SATA drive (after updating drivers etc..).

Ugly, but it will work.

I didn't have to call. I just remember hearing when XP came out that they would not let you activate it on a different machine but I have not ever had to call them.

If I have a legit XP license, it's one of the few times I have no moral issues with downloading WinXP SP3 via bitorrent. As far as I'm concerned it's the same thing as getting a replacement installation media, which Microsoft themselves will supply.

But that's just me. Seems easier than all this craziness.

It is legitimate, as far as I know MS license agreement. As long as you have a legitimate licese and SN - which I understand Mark has -, then you can get the media wherever you want, including downloading from wherever. Of course, it is in your own interest to get it from some safe source to be sure it has not been tampered with. So, I think you're right in not having any moral issue there.

Okay, I just discovered that.. at some point during the various configurations attempted.. the hard drive effectively "died". Which means I'm now repeating some of the attempts with a different, good, hard drive..

Joy.

Okay, trying this now on a different system.

It keeps giving file-copy errors of various kinds when performing the first step pre-nLite: copy everything from the original install disc to a directory. I suppose I can probably get around that by using Linux to do the copy..

EDIT: Yup, that worked (using Linux to do the copy).

Mmm.. nLite thinks my WinXP-Pro disc is XP-Home-sp2.
This doesn't look like any good will come of it.

Heh.. got the CDs mixed up. Recopying now.

Unless nLite is buggy, it shouldn't do that. The XP install disc isn't special and it doesn't have any braindead copy "protection" mechanisms. I've dragged and dropped the contents of an XP CD many times.

If you're transferring from a PATA to SATA drive then be aware that some SATA controller drivers will appear as a SCSI controller instead of a regular ATA controller. This will cause any existing activation to fail and require reactivation so remember to do all of the driver updates first.

If you try to activate again soon after a previous activation then it will make you call their activation call center otherwise it will just do it over the internet. For legitimate users then at most you just say you're reinstalling your PC and they'll give you the activation code. They do allow you to do multiple activations though. Not sure where you heard that they didn't.

If you're calling up every day then they're going to ask what you're doing and refuse to give you the activation code. It just weeds out the really blatant violations like somebody using a single key for an entire office or somebody posting the key online somewhere.

It thinks it is now installing, to the SATA disk, on the modern hardware, from the slipstreamed SP3 CD I just made.

I wonder if this is actually going to work? Should know soon-ish.. unless XP is one of the reboot-hell versions (I don't think so, but my memory isn't reliable on such things).

EDIT: One reboot so far, from the initial installer to the main installer. I've only had to hit the enter key once, to select the installation target drive, at the beginning.

Say.. I should have stuck in my Z-Drive (multi-100's of GB of SSD goodness) as the install target, just for fun.. oh well.

Cheers

It finished installing, and gave a functional desktop at the end. With no network card (despite the installer using it earlier..).

So now I'm installing the mobo drivers.

EDIT: that worked, seems to have gotten the machine online. Now Windows Update beckons, with hundreds of patches since 2008.

But first, I'm going to redo the base install on the real (new) target drive: a "WD Black 1TB", in place of the scrap drive I used for testing the install.

Later.. much.

Thanks again, guys!

Ok. As expected. That explains the registry corruption issue, to begin with.

Yup. That was drive number two, of a set of four Hitachi drives I got for testing / implementing certain features with.

One of the 750GB units died a couple of years ago, and this 500GB unit, with only 32 hours uptime, died just these past few days.

So, despite new owners, the DeathStar lives on!

FWIW, other than creating a boot CD, the SP3 executable provides slipstream support itself.

Just copy the original CD to a hard drive, then run "SP3.EXE /integrate:C:\path_to_cd_copy"

I kinda distrust nLite after that weird slipstream experience I had.

At one point there used to be an issue if you used Vista to slipstream an XP CD because the installer would pick up something from Vista instead of the XP media. nLite and the others worked around it or you could try getting the SP3 executable to run in XP compatibility mode.

So.. now that I have a shiny old fresh install of WinXP + SP3 + 96 updates + drivers.. is there an easy way to use that system to create a new install_cd with all of the updates and drivers on it?

Thanks

Mmm.. rebooting now after Windows Update:

ie4uinit.exe - Entry Point Not Found
The procedure entry point RunSetupCommandW could not be located in the dynamic link library ADVPACK.dll.

(twice)

???

Clicked on Windows Update again, and it popped up this:

The requested lookup key was not found in any active activation context.

Useful, that. ???
Just as useful as this one:

This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.

Nuke and repave (again) time..

Or maybe not? I removed IE8 and rebooted the machine.
It's functional again, but with IE6.

Windows Update is now installing the next batch of 49 updates. Hopefully IE7 is in there somewhere.

Yup. Third time around the update treadmill, and it offered IE7 after I declined IE8. Two more rounds after that, and the system is up-to-date.

Now installing Firefox, so I can securely hunt for the rest of the apps.

Never a dull moment!

In theory, nLite can do this, or you can walk through manually downloading and integrating every hotfix via slipstreaming. In practice though, not every hotfix is properly set up to slipstream, and odds are it will be more effort then it's worth.

The alternative is to use sysprep (MS link, and another tutorial) to prepare the install to be cloned. Once done, you should just be able to use your favorite linux tool of choice to dump the hard drive to an image file for later restore.

I personally wish Microsoft would move to a much more rapid pace of service pack releases, since they do present a solid point in time where a machine can be patched to near modern levels. Every 12 months would be the maximum time I'd want to see between service packs, which would put XP at least at SP9 level today.

I realised last night that, in different tabs in the same browser, I was on the one hand spawn-camping ftp.gnome.org waiting for Gnome 2.32 to come out, and on the other hand scouring the internet for a laptop that still comes with Windows XP (to be used with its Windows 2000 theme). I suppose the difference between those two rather distinct attitudes to software novelty is about whom I expect to make things better in each release, and whom I expect to make things worse in each release.

Peter

Sounds like cat to me, right?
But it also sounds like the hard drives have to match in size, and the image file is probably the entire (1TB here) drive?

Not necessarily. We use Ghost to clone system partitions with proper opions set. The image will be usable in hdd of different sizes. So, that really depends on what cloning tool you use, and how you tell it to clone what. I am sure there's something in Linux that can do exactly the same.

I was informed by Dell recently that Microsoft has stopped shipping Windows XP. I assume that this is across the board and not just to Dell. However, some licenses of Windows 7 allow downgrades to Windows XP. (Why that information had to be inside a Word doc, I don't know.)