I actually spent a/b 2 days searching/reading the forum and ended up more confused.

I have no real intent to NOT follow recommendations and you've helped me a great deal with my initial confusion (the tutorial could use a few additional notes :-)

Thanks again, I think I have a little playing around to do.

While it is true you can use base to add mass storage successfully,
and KTD will do at least chipset successfully,
the rest of the drivers are/can be problematic.

OLSP is designed for SysPrep and address's certain issues that only arise in SysPrep,
DriverPacks BASE is designed to slipstream for disc installs.
DriverPacks BASE can also make a proper plugin to use with BartPE. (because a DriverPacks slipstreamed source doesn't work for PE either)
Use the correct tool for the job
(It is being suggested that you don't use pliers to replace a light bulb.
We can't / won't stop you, and you may even succeed... eventually )

RIS, Disk, and SysPrep are much more different than MS will readily admit .

the threads in this forum are the cumulative knowledge of five years of experience...
Just about anything you can think of to ask us... has already been answered, multiple times.
Read the stickies and recently updated threads, as per our rules and posting guidelines failure to search will earn you a demerit .

read then ask. (Yes you are missing a lot)
- You're not wrong, it's just that "Theory is different than application" .

We are offering you the opportunity to not repeat the mistakes already made by many others !

PS No you dont have to bsmd with a DriverPacks slipstreamed source... but... were you listening? Clean source + OLSP
PSS OLSP uses our DriverPack MassStorage, more specifically it uses the output of my DriverPack MassStorage BartPE plugin.
- Dont fix your watch with a hammer.

It seems to me that if I build XP up using a source that has had DriverPacks slipstreamed into it and with the KTD option, there is no use for the UpdateInstalledDrivers option in sysprep, regardless of whether it's run online or offline. Windows should pull drivers from the DriverPacks folders anyway, right?

Am I missing something?

Try it, you'll be glad you did.

Anyway, I'm hoping to build a near-universal XP image with DriverPacks and sysprep. I've been through the tutorial and searched/read through the forums (including this post: http://forum.driverpacks.net/viewtopic.php?id=1682) but there are a few things I still don't quite understand...

Would it be best to slipstream DriverPacks into an installation CD/DVD using the KTD option, then sysprep?

Or, is it better to go through the process of unpacking the DriverPacks and running sysprep with a batch file that calls DevPath.exe?

I guess what I'm asking is whether or not it is necessary to slipstream if you plan on using sysprep with UpdateInstalledDrivers and the DriverPacks'?

Also, for the SysprepMassStorage section in sysprep.inf, if I plan to manually add drivers from the MassStorage DP, do I still need to use -bmsd? If I do both, will there be duplicate entries or will it cause any problems?