Case closed : it was all the fault of WMP11 (and/or some of its updates). Uninstalling it, then syspreping / cloning / booting the clone, everything was just fine and smooth.

Now that this works, i may have some more time to explore the bright side of the Force, ie. the OverFlow way of doing all of this.

But i think the fact that RVM doesn't seem to apply to me (french-localized guy) will be quite painful to bypass...

Thanks everyone, you're just wonderful wink

--
A happy guy

Yes indeed, it may help me a lot !
Thanks johnk963, i'll give a try to the "don't install nor WMP11 neither .NET frameworks" hypothesis.

Some news about the "The system is not fully installed. Please run setup again" error message during reboot of the newly cloned hard drive...

Another (completely different) hardware, another hard drive, the same error shows up. Still no Mini-setup showing, only what seems the "drivers install" phase (since all drivers are installed upon next reboot, after setting the "SystemSetupInProgress" registry value).

Since the error doesn't indicate anything useful, i don't know whether it may be caused by the fact that "Documents and settings" are put onto another partition (D:\) during the "before-sysprep" phase (it's done by modifying some registry keys, right after the first complete boot following a fresh Windows XP install) ?
Still investigating...

Hey OverFlow, thanks a lot for both explanation and links !

Maybe i'm wrong on this, but i feel like customizing the installed applications parameters (you know, those boxes to tick and those texts to type into the "Options" of the applications) is not very easy with this method, as far as you don't know what is modified by a specific optoin (a config file ? the registry ?)
In other words : if you wan't the vanilla install of each software, then you're OK with WPI. Otherwise, well,... uh... doh ! Maybe with AutoIt ? But even if it is possible that way, what a job to script everything !

Back to Ryan VM : since i don't know wether a french team (or just a tough guy) succesfully achieved something similar (i recall of something called "CreateurXP", but i never felt it was fully functional), i'm stuck to searching what patches to slipstream, downloading each of them, then slipstreaming them "by hand" (thanks to nLite more probably). No luck, but i don't have that time.

Thanks again for the discussion, OverFlow. Although i'm stuck on the same problem, i see there are other ways i will probably further look at.
But for now, i really have to make the sysprep way to work. Because i don't have the time to do it an other way. Sad, but true (yay, Metallica within ;o)

Well, thanks for your input, OverFlow... Though it doesn't help me with the issue i have, it's interesting.

I think i get it : "you hate sysprep". Ok. But how to achieve the same without it ?
Lookint at your post (#51 of the present thread), i see you recommend to make an Unattended Windows XP CD, with slipstreamed patches and drivers (nLite / RVM).
My matter is, i'm using localized (french) version of Windows XP, so i can't use RVM (please correct me if i'm wrong on this). Finding out what patches i need to make a clean and fully updated UWXP CD is a task i don't have the time for (maybe i'm wrong on this point and it would be far easier than i think)

I also didn't catch the point : how and when do you install/configure all the software you want to be on your duplicated computers ? I think it's during the WPI phase, but can you confirm me that EVERY software will make it ? To be more precise, here are the softwares i usually install : 7-zip, Adobe Reader, Audacity, CDBurnerXP, CDEx, Mozilla Firefox / Thunderbird / Sunbird, Adobe Flash & Shockwave plug-ins, QT Lie, Real Alternative Lite, Media Filters Pack, PhotoFiltre, Gilp, Google Earth, Stelarium, Java, JkDefrag, OpenOffice and its (french) dictionnaries, , MS PowerPoint Viewer, Scribus, UndeletePlus, Skype, Windows Live Messenger, SuperCopier, The KMPlayer, utorrent, WinAmp & XnView.

About the time costs : if i can make the sysprep way to operate, i think i can have a ready-to-operate new unit in less than an hour, all included - duplicate partitions with ntfsclone, chkdsk 'em, put the HDD in the case, switch on the device and making all the not automated things manually (for an example, i set a toolbar in the system Windows bar, which is a "link" to a folder on the user's desktop : for now, i didn't find the way to automate the creation of this toolbar... ?).
It may be twice (or more) the time you need, but it already vould be far better than the present situation (installing everything from sractch takes me something like 5 to 6 hours per unit). OK, that's no good reason to keep using sysprep.

Please forgive my logorrhea, i may be a little over-exhausted... Thanks for your attention, though !

6

(1 replies, posted in DriverPack WLAN)

Hi there,

I just used DriverPacks with SysPrep, and saw that this WLAN PCI card was not installed...
It may be a good idea to add its driver into WLAN DP, isn't it ?

HWID : PCI\VEN_1814&DEV_0201&SUBSYS_00501681&REV_01\4&2C03473B&0&4040

The driver may be found there : ftp://ftp.hercules.com/wifi/drivers/HWG … 4-V3.1.exeThat's a 10.3 MB download - Yup, it's included in a BIG (almost useless) bundle : WiFi Station v.3.1.0.0

See you !

Oops, I did it again...
Some news, so.

I just rebuilt the before-sysprep-state (thanks to Linux ntfsclone).
Then I modified sysprep.inf, adding a [Display] section so the vertical refresh is no more a problem.
Next, ROE'd then resealed the install, and "ntfscloned" it to a partition onto another hard drive.
Since the partition sizes are not the same (the original one is smaller than the destination one), i had to run a chkdsk onto that partition (from another XP install, through an USB HD case), before setting up the HD into its final case.
chkdsk was fine (recovered some space marked as used into the MFT, which seems pretty OK to me).
The computer booted, ran into Mini-Setup, and soon gave me the "The system is not fully installed. Please run setup again" error message (the kb is right there).

I'm completely stuck at this point : fixing the "SystemSetupInProgress" registry DWORD will probably lead to the same behaviour : slooooow startup, then the "almost-no-started-services" syndrom.

I'll go through it, and report in there.

Thanks for attention and any suggestion (besides "You should work on your written english", thanks) !


EDIT. I checked the "SystemSetupInProgress" registry value on the "before-sysprep" state : it is set to 0, and then set to 1 (which causes a problem) during the Mini-setup. I really don't know why such a thing happens, though.

EDIT #2 :
- Don't know why, but the ROE before reseal adds "D:\DPsFnshr.exe" into RunOnceEx... I saw it during after the ROE during first attempt, and corrected it into the registry before resealing. Maybe that's because "Documents and settings" are on drive "D" in the install i made ?
- Except for the vertical refresh part, I get exactly the same behaviour with the modified sysprep : no Mini-Setup, and then the "almost-no-started-services" syndrom.

EDIT #3. By the way, it is strange to me, but i do have a vertical refresh problem into safe mode ("Video mode not supported" displayed by the LCD). How is it possible, since the sysprep.inf [Display] section seems to work, and i encounter nothing similar onto the "before-sysprep" state ?!

Hi there !

Thanks a lot for this how-to : it seems pretty close to be my personal Holy Grail !

"Pretty close", indeed : i (think i) followed the how-to, understanding almost every step (same for the "Vernalex SysPrep" source of knowledge wink...
- Installed a clean OEM Win XP Home
- Created an account (with administrator rights), used it for the next steps
- Fully patched it (mandatory and optional patches)
- Installed all the applications needed on the master
- Configured Windows / the applications
- Restarted in Safe Mode, opened the Administrator account, renamed "Default User" directory to "Default User.BAK"made a full copy of the acount i previously used, renamed it "Default User"
- Restarted again. Not having the KB887816, i renamed "Administrator" to "Administrator.BAK", then "Default User" to "Administrator", and then "Default User.BAK" to "Default User"
- Finished the how-to (ROE, the reseal)
- Cloned the partition to another drive, then set up this clone onto another hardware
- Started the hardware. Everything seemed to work fine, except the video driver worked at too high vertical frequency.

That's where it became weird. I asked for a non -full-auto install (i need to specify some specific info at mini-setup), but the computer eventually restarted. I finally had some feedback : "the system isn't fully installed" (translating it from french, my bad if these aren't the exact words). The only option is to click "OK", then the computer restarts. And displays the same error message. Gosh.

I found some info on this from the Microsoft website (kb320279), and then modified the "HKLM/SYSTEM/Setup/SystemSetupInProgress". This did the trick : the computer booted, but it took forever to see the Welcome screen.

Then i opened a session, and there was the BIG surprise : almost all automated services didn't started !
So i see there is a problem, but i googled a lot, and can't find a solution on this one.

Any input (even a simple link !) would be greatly appreciated !!

Thanks in advance,

--
essaion