In my original attempts, I added the DriverPacks first, then tried to install updates.  I did get one disk working because I installed Mass Storage DriverPack and quit.  That disk worked.  There are some days when the obvious is not obvious. 

I will dump some of my futile attempts and do it the way that I think you just told me to do it.
If I am still lost, reply before I waste more hours trying to get this one system working.  I have been in this field since General Motors was a Lieutenant, and not had issues like I have had with this one machine, including when I built it.   If I had the original motherboard disk, I probably would have not had this issue.  It is here somewhere, and one day I will find it.

To make Unattended install CD:
1 RVMI update XP source to SP3  (unless it's media center then SP2 - {don't use MCE})
   there are some really good addons for RVMI
   - post Servce Pack update packs; All in Ones, AIO; Critical only, whatever
   - other addons can install software like adobe reader or ...
   - some addons tweak registry values.
It's very powerful, and not to complicated - RVMI will even copy your source for you. (never work on original files)
2 if you want to automate a CD based install you can use nLite for only automated install ... nothing else. period.
3 once you are all done, make a copy.
   Add DriverPacks to the copy.
   NO MORE changes are allowed to the copy at this point, your source is complete once you add DriverPacks. ( you made a copy right?)
   If you do make changes after this point I will know, and will ridicule you publicly.
4 MAKE ISO you may use nLite to make the ISO, and nothing else. period. (no more changes remember)

a fully updates source is the best place to start as a possible solution.

HINT: use RVMI to add only SP3 first. use the output as your new source for future updates.
         A clean SP3 source is perfect for UBCD4Win .

boot disk:
grub4dos will let you do that easily... boot disk images, linux, dos, NT, whatever you like. I used it to put bartPE on a second partion.  If you need a working example then please check out Easy2Boot, (the developer is a member here too .)  It demonstrates the power of grub quite well. it's real cool on a thumb drive...

Adding Ryan's Integrator would be great, too.  I think I saw a place and got most of the updates except for those that MS had recently added.  I will have to go look over all of that stuff I gathered and loaded up this array with.  My last tape backup took a second tape.  I need to houseclean some of this stuff that did not work. 

I think the problem that I described in my last post has to do with the wrong drivers, so the fully updated source disk is a possible solution.  If you have any ideas, let me know. Thanks.

I think I remember having a boot disk that would let me boot a dead machine and then turn the system over to the hard disk that had the hosed boot tracks.  Cannot remember what it was called.  It has been a long while since I had any system troubles that I could not easily fix, so like they say, use it or lose it.  I lost it. 

Ben Burrows sold UBCD4Win, they are all but dead now, the forum is still readable. 
My good friend Hilander999 Wrote (or fixed) most all of the plugins for BartPE, he provided the framework and insight so i could write the DriverPacks BartPE plugins and he is still on my speed dial.
I was talking to him the other day on the phone, I have had zero luck trying to talk him into doing a project based on a newer version of PE... It sucks because nobody has a decent project like UBCD4Win with a newer  version of PE.

if i were you i would get RVMI and nLite and DriverPacks and make an updated install.
Ryan's Integrator will add servicepacks and updates (and addons if you like)
nLite will automate the install. (and create an ISO when you are all done)
DriverPacks added to your install will complete your disc.

I would try installing from a fully updated source like the one i just described. At the very least i would install from a SP3 source disc.

OK, does anyone have a clue what I did wrong here?  It becomes pitiful when I cannot even reload a machine.  *sigh*  Is it possible that the Nvidia drivers are wrong?  I think not because the system boots with SP2 and has a lot of fun until I put on SP3.  I have used several different SP3 disks downloaded from MS on different dates.   No diffference.  I wish I could download the original ASUS A8N-32SLI motherboard disk because I cannot find mine.  Thanks, Bob

          Quote:  "There's no reason to have a plan B because it distracts from plan A." - Will Smith     

For load-testing a CR2032, I use a WiFi finder that uses one such cell.  There are some LED flashlights that use such batteries, too.
  Note that some laptop BIOS batteries use a different prefix such as VR that indicates a rechargable lithium cell.

That is very quotable too!     

Noting what i hope is the manual for that A8N32-SLI Deluxe board (that was a Deluxe, was it not?).
     http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/soc … LI_Dlx.pdf
  If it was the Deluxe as i suspect, then you likely had not done any pencil mod to it since that would have been unnecessary.

For the nVidia RAID, (quote from manual) "during POST, press <F10> to display the main menu of the utility."  Odd, i would have thought that would be <Ctrl+N>.
  For the Silicon Image 3132 controller, (quote) "during POST, press <Ctrl+S> or <F4>".
    It would seem that one should ensure the configuration is recognized on the controller it was originally installed upon.

  Noting that whatever packs you used for your original installation are the revisions you should probably use for data recovery. 

Be data safe!

It may have been some time, yet try to remember what you did then.  Did you "Load the Optimized Defaults" then?

Also noting that a linux-Live disc might assist in data recovery.
  Note that some RAID arrays may not be recognized or display properly by linux, so if so that is no indication that your array is pooched.  It might be an alternate way to access the data though.  Probably not good to write anything to the array, as it could conceivably corrupt it.

When you have finally solved this puzzle, you might be amazed to note (as i was) that Fernando uncovered that it is possible to use a much later nVidia RAID BIOS v10.0.0.35.

  Of course, this entails modifying the BIOS and flashing the mod.  Not for the faint of heart, or those not prepared to recover from a bad flash or bad mod.  Socketed flash chips can be backed up with a "hot flash".

I only mention these things to expand upon possibilities, not as suggested courses of action.

I look forward to learning from you, as it sounds like you have much to teach.

[Off-Topic]
Oh, the Rock Opera; that was "Tommy".  OK, perhaps this should never be mentioned in any, even abject, comparison with Guilbert & Sullivan.  Live and learn.

    Sadly, my only exposure to Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore was in Star Trek: Insurrection (so far).   If you like that science fiction genre too, the following may interest you.  http://www.stanford.edu/group/savoyards … n/node/115
    The opening plot of H.M.S. Pinafore vaguely sounds like the love story from "Titanic".  Was that one source of David Cameron's inspiration (i wonder aloud)?
[/Off-Topic]

Eight inch floppies (the original frisbee) and high contrast black and white screens.  The good old days.     If you had the 8 bit Zilog Z-80 based unit with the connector cable from the keyboard to the "expansion unit" with the delightful tin plating, you had a Model 1, if you had a single cased business 16 bit unit, you had a Model 2, and if you had a single unit 8 bit Zilog Z-80 based unit you had a Model 3.  The tin whiskers were the cause of the disdain for the "Trash 80" and exactly how the unit earned (deservedly so) its name of Trash versus TRS.  Had Tandy used gold instead of Tin, they would not still be a retail store they would be the Apple of today, not facing bankruptcy.  The Model 1 was an upper case only machine, we added a TTL chip in piggyback to another to make the system have a full 8 bit character set (about 40 cents), add a bit of gold plate (maybe a dollar in those days) and the computer world would be very different today.   So saving $1.40 kept Tandy nailed down, and earned it an unfashionable nickname.    Note that IBM imitated Apple's expansion card idea (same card-to-card spacing) and Tandy's use of Intel based (Zilog is a knockoff of the 8080 with division added).  Tandy had the expansion unit idea with no expansion cards.  IBM fixed that.  Chips & Technology enabled clones along with Phoenix Technology "cleanroom" BIOS made everything else history.  Not much in copyrights in those days.  When the PS-2 came out, IBM copyrighted everything, including the daylight that shone on the PS-2.     I got permission from them to make plug in cards to go into them.   IBM is very nice with its patent portfolios, not all companies are.

Jumping back off topic as you did to the same area, note that whiskers are the reason that Ni-Cd batteries die permanently when they are allowed sit while discharged.  A whisker grows between the anode and cathode and the battery can no longer be charged.  A single cell recovery device is a battery that can deliver a high discharge current across the cell.  I have used a fresh alkaline battery connected across the terminals (proper polarity) with bars, not wires.  The surge current clears the whisker and you simply recharge it.   If the battery is very low in voltage across its terminals, it is whiskered.  We knew about whiskers in the late 70s and early 80s, which I think is when TRS hit the scene, but nobody asked us. 

The tin whisker in TRS 80 machines was from pure tin plating.  Obviously Toyota used the environmentally safe, lead-free tin plating and killed a few people.   Well, at least they were environmentally friendly in spite of it costing them something like 1.5 billion in cash.

I deal with dust bunnies often.  As you know, men cannot see dirt until there is enough to raise crops.   Techno-guys see dust bunnies in computer cases, power supplies and case fans.   We buy air compressors to deal with these issues outside.  I always clean my systems in the fall and spring.   I have quite a few systems probably around 15 not counting laptops.

I tested the UBCDforwin disk, but it did not have the tools that I needed.  It did, however, boot and identify things and offer some useful tools.   My disk issue was not one of them.    I will help you testing the MassStorage packs in any way that I can.  Perhaps I can find something to help diagnose issues like I had.  This has to be a common problem.  I have been reading where CR2032 (and CR2025 used in one laptop) have been installed new and only lasted a week.  I may have that problem now.  I fixed a system for a friend a week or so ago, and he says it is now booting into Bios Setup.  (Big Red Flag)  I told him to quit using it and bring it back over soon.

Your use of a hash is brilliant to verify that nothing has changed.  I noticed that the UBCD download had that feature, which was good because one place I went to get it my antivirus growled at it.  Another site was happy and friendly with my antivirus.  I do remember the old days when destruction was not even thought of.  I had logins on DEC, IBM, other big companies, many universities, an some government sites.  We would never even THINK of doing something bad, much less do it.

You got me on the opera, I know The Who from their music but not their opera. In fact, I had no idea that they did any opera.   I was mostly geeky in those early days and after I acquired a taste for opera it was in the style of HMS Pinafore.  A Google check revealed that Wikipedia had an article on it.   I am learning much on this forum. 

I will try to get time to visit the UBCD4Win soon

"I have worked on it trying to set the bios the way that it was, but something is amiss."

Hopefully it was a simple configuration switch in either BIOS or the RAID BIOS config.  Failing that, perhaps the following proggie will enable data recovery.  http://www.diskinternals.com/raid-to-raid/

8" floppies, mmm.
I miss white on black high-contrast screens.  A friend had a Model I, II or III (cannot remember) when i was a teen.

Pure Tin platings for electronic connectors are to be shunned!
  I hesitate to think of how classes of Electronics students were incorrectly taught to plate their newly etched circuit boards with it!
  You might enjoy the following (off-topic) site.   http://nepp.nasa.gov/whisker/
     Note fusing currents of up to 200 Amperes!
Note the top article of the "What's New" page, and think "vehicular sudden acceleration".

Have long wrestled dust bunny herds, uneven heat sink surfaces, dud batteries, bad capacitors and the like - and regularly won.
  Rat poop in a computer caused me to say "yup, it's toast" though.     

Back on-topic:
  I had planned to double-check that all relevant files were properly integrated for BartPE/UBCD4Win with just the MassStorage pack at some time in the near future for xp & 2k3.

  If there is anything you can do to further that end, i will credit you in the MassStorage changelog.

    It may not be very efficient, yet i use Mitja Perko's (shareware/freeware for personal use) CDCheck to generate a sha1 hash file just before integration for a regular integrated install disc.  With that hash file, i can tell what files are changed after integration is complete.  For PE, it can help discern changes say from using MassStorage 12.09 to something newer (or what files are integrated if comparing a folder with MassStorage integrated, and one without).

PS:  Welcome aboard, Broadbandwizard! 
            "He's a pinball wizard, there has to be a twist."  I miss that old opera by The Who.

I'm moving this over there too

It was indeed the CR2032 battery, and I had stored the machine and it had died.  When I booted it came up with a litany errors, and I promptly replaced the battery and reset the bios configuration to what I thought would be correct. "Missing NTLDR", but of course it was there.  I have worked on it trying to set the bios the way that it was, but something is amiss.  I need a tool better than Win Recovery, something that tells me more about the Boot records, etc.  I thought I had discovered something a few nights ago but it was too sleepy that night, and I cannot remember where I found it.  When you jump off a page to another page, Chrome does not know that address.  *sigh*

I would be very happy to work with you on Driver Packs and UBCD.  I read the first instructions and it said something about "older versions of UBCD" and I thought that this was an obsolete program and went with Bart, which I had heard of and used on occasion.  When you referred to it in your note, I Googled it and found that it may be what I am looking for, rather than Bart.  I will start making a UBCD, and I probably could use some help getting a jump on it.  If we do that, I wonder if we should send private mail rather than through here, because I think I might be on the wrong thread, although it is all about Mass Storage.

I have used Linux to install stuff that did not want to install, and I do fondly remember the pencil-mark chipset mods.

Even though I was a hardware and device driver designer in a previous lifetime, I have not used the HWID for the systems that I play with.  (I just noticed the HWID getter listed in your posting and snagged it.)  I work with hardware like mountain climbers climb mountains: because its there.    If you tell me where to get whatever information or ids that you want, I will be very happy to work with you on whatever I can.   I have many very nice computers and a few clunkers that like to fight back.   It is very satisfying to figure these out.    My daughter, who is also a computer junkie like her father, calls my machines "FrankenPCs".   They have varying hardware, most were the best price point for performance, and I tend to stick with Nvidia and one standard Antec tower case (no longer available, but they are great), other stuff varies like mileage.  Many are RAID.

Now I will run along and get UBCD and start running with it. 

" but if you let the machines sit until their batteries die, for some reason I could no longer boot the mirrored drives."

Surmising that would be because of the CR2032 BIOS battery.  That would nuke any BIOS settings, yet the drives should still contain the config data needed for the array.

If you do use any of the DriverPacks [Nightlies] for BartPE/UBCD4Win or to reinstall 2000/XP/2003 (NT5) on any systems with RAID or AHCI, please please post the basic HWID's (ie:  PCI/VEN_8086&DEV_24DF&CC_0106) whether it worked successfully or not.  I'd give my left nut (from car) for BartPE/UBCD4Win feedback!

It seems we both missed "Windows 0.1", which was available "preinstalled" on Radio Shack's old CoCo3.

The craziest 7 install i did on a nForce4 mod was where i needed a GRUB4Dos boot disc in order to install 7 on the nForce SATA RAID.  I miss those old "pencil-mark" chipset mods.  Sigh.

By the way, speaking of "warm and fuzzy"; did they manage to sequester that "nukular" waste from that insane waste pile fire near St. Louis?

I had hoped that it would be as you said that they would keep things online but just not add anything new.    I was planning for the worst, but I found driver packs by having troubles with newer raid drives, which should be OK, but if you let the machines sit until their batteries die, for some reason I could no longer boot the mirrored drives.  I had to always install the Nvidea drivers when I re-installed, so I found DriverPacks.  A very happy day.   Then I saw a way to get a homemade service pack 4, but like you, I hope that MS does it for us.  ( I dream in color, too)  However, as you said, it is indeed MS and they really want us all to buy Win 8.X and 9.X and... 

I have recently came into possession of a Win 7 unit, and it is awkward but also obsolete.  I have seen 8 running in stores, and it is pretty scary to an XP and Linux user. 

I also still have my old DOS disks and Windows 1.0, 2.0, 3.1, 5, 6 and 6.22.    They are for old programs that I wrote and I wanted to keep the capability of running and editing them. 

I see that you are in Cincinnati.  I lived in Kettering (south of Dayton) and was an embedded system designer, so I wrote a lot of machine language code and needed the emulators, etc to keep them up to date.   I called my old company to get  papers to retrieve my 401K and introduced myself, figuring that they would not know me.  The person that I talked to told me that he knew my name because they still use my drawings and code.  (warm fuzzy feeling)

Now I need to get XP saved so I can run everything else that I have that likes XP on my hardware that I have to fix from time to time.  Yet another warm and fuzzy feeling.