• danboid
  • DriverPacks newbie
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  • Registered: 2008-06-28
  • Posts: 13

Topic: 1st DP experience

I've just had my whole world as a maintainer of windows machines revolutionised thanks to driverpacks (BASE), setupmgr, nlite and createcd so first a big

THANKYOU

for all those responsible for these tools of mass time saving richness- you've made my life with XP MUCH better! This is my first experiment into customising windows installs so I thought I'd share my experience so you guys can tell me how it might be improved.

First I used nlite to integrate SP2 into my SP1 corporate (I've heard scary stuff on SP3 what with incompatibilities, probs with AMDs so I'm sticking with SP2- or should I?), then I ran DP BASE and integrated all the official driver packs. Note that I had difficulties downloading the DriverPacks from the official site site so I ended up using a mirror which had DP 7.5.x so I don't think I've got the very latest (do I need the latest as most of the machines are 3yr old desktop machines?) and I chose KTD mode for all drivers as I hope to use this for imaging. I noticed that after running DPbase it chucks out its own little winnt.sif so I copied the [GUI first run] bit out of that and tacked it onto the end of my own winnt.sif that I made with setupmgr. Replaced winnt.sif in the disc image with my own before making my XPSP2+DP DVD iso with the cdimage GUI.

It works great apart from 2 things:

I'm cool with windows setup still leaving you to do the partitioning, but could I automate this so that it just makes the primary disk one big NTFS partition and quick formats it (if I did want this- just interested)

What I'm not cool with is that I still have to click through the final few screens of the XP install ie say no to setting up a network, registering windows and setting up a user. Did I miss these in setupmgr or does sertupmgr enforce these screens? I'm sure I chose 'auto-everything'?

I've tried my new XP install DVD on a few machines now and on all I had to go to Device Manager and tell XP to 'Update Driver' for the soundcard and on a couple of machines the graphics card too. After doing that and choosing 'Install the software automatically' it would find them, which is great but I was wondering if theres a reason why XP doesn't auto-detect them earlier in the install?  Is this because I'm using a '07 DP base version or is this just normal XP+DP KTD behaviour?

Anyone got any good tips on slimming down XP so a fresh install consumes minimum RAM? I'm sure MSFN will have a killer guide to this too eh?

Big thanks!

dan

Last edited by danboid (2008-07-11 04:58:15)

  • Helmi
  • Moderator & Translator (German)
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  • Registered: 2006-05-27
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Re: 1st DP experience

http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp is the better place to go for your Unattended questions.
We really are just a part of an unattended disc, namely the driver support.
Not saying that we won't try to help you, but eac hpage specializes on one aspect so to speak so you best always ask the respective experts for best results! smile

danboid wrote:

I'm cool with windows setup still leaving you to do the partitioning, but could I automate this so that it just makes the primary disk one big NTFS partition and quick formats it (if I did want this- just interested)

Yes, this can be done (for instructions see above guide/forum), however, I would not recommend it unless you are 100% sure.
Also, DO MAKE SURE that you need the user input to kick off setup ("please press any key to run setup"') as you may otherwise havok a system when you forget the disc in the drive...

What I'm not cool with is that I still have to click through the final few screens of the XP install ie say no to setting up a network, registering windows and setting up a user. Did I miss these in setupmgr or does sertupmgr enforce these screens? I'm sure I chose 'auto-everything'?

That's OOBE (Out of the box experience).
Switch it off (i.e. using nLite) and you're done!
Also, you can preconfigure extended network settings with nLite.

I've tried my new XP install DVD on a few machines now and on all I had to go to Device Manager and tell XP to 'Update Driver' for the soundcard and on a couple of machines the graphics card too. After doing that and choosing 'Install the software automatically' it would find them, which is great but I was wondering if theres a reason why XP doesn't auto-detect them earlier in the install?  Is this because I'm using a '07 DP base version or is this just normal XP+DP KTD behaviour?

Probabaly missing the HDA hotfix (KB888111).
Slipstream SP3 into your source and it should work.
The "scary stuff" as you call it only affected some hp (I think) systems that got SP3 installed (not slipstreamed) because the manufacturer (not MS, this time at least) messed up and included(installed drivers for devices that were not present (Intel CPU in an AMD system...), which would then mess up the SP3 installation (not integration), resulting in a BSOD.
Really nothing to fear about slipstreaming, plus it's better than installing anyway you look at it smile
And no, this is not normal KTD behaviour.

Anyone got any good tips on slimming down XP so a fresh install consumes minimum RAM? I'm sure MSFN will have a killer guide to this too eh?

Well, if you already know MSFN, why do I still have to link you up to it, eh? big_smile
Anyway, all I ever do is using nLite to remove the really unnecessary things, reduce graphical effects to a minimum (classic theme, no fancy menu animations etc) while not touching the services (very sensitive area, can do way more harm than good, plus, services only run when needed and when not running do not consume RAM).
This results in about 70-80MB RAM usage on a fresh system.
Adding a couple of necessary (for me, lol) stuff including a virus scanner, it nets at about 130MB after the first reboot.
Fair enough for me, plus, you wouldn't want to run XP on a system with less than 128Mb of RAM anyway (because the rest of the components must be very old then) wink

http://d1syubgj0w3cyv.cloudfront.net/cdn/farfuture/AeXmpESLemRyQ4RE-dgdjRhN_hKaXMe7woWjOK2wsnk/perpetual:forever/userbar/moderator-3.png

Coming up next - useful links:
• If you like this project, please support it with your donation!      • Grab your HW info (HWIDs) here!     
• If you are a newbie, be sure to check out the DriverPacks tutorial!     • Here's how to create your own DP!
  • danboid
  • DriverPacks newbie
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  • Registered: 2008-06-28
  • Posts: 13

Re: 1st DP experience

Hi Helmi!

I tried downloading the latest DP archives from the official site again and it worked this time so I was going to re-create my iso anyway but now you've responded and kindly pointed a few things out (such as turning off 'OOTB' ) I'm definitely making a mark II tomorrow. So when I turn off OOTB, should I do it before or at same time as slipstreaming SP3- if it matters? Same time I'd presume.

You're very right about auto-format/partition being a hazard- as you say best leave that one!

Thanks for your help!

dan

  • OverFlow
  • DriverPacks Administrator & BASE Developer
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  • Registered: 2006-12-02
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Re: 1st DP experience

i would recomend setupmgr not be used in favor of nlite... that will help you get the last few hiccups out of your unattended.

Welcome to DriverPacks Dan

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  • Helmi
  • Moderator & Translator (German)
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  • Registered: 2006-05-27
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Re: 1st DP experience

danboid wrote:

So when I turn off OOTB, should I do it before or at same time as slipstreaming SP3- if it matters? Same time I'd presume.

Just for the record, the official abbreviation is indeed OOBE, as I wrote.
OotBE would be more correctly, though, but that's MS.
Just saying because you may have a hard time finding further results if you google for "OOBT" instead...
Personally, I am doing my unattended settings via nLite - so, if you want to follow my path, I invite you do do the same (it's probably more "newbie friendly" than editing the files by hand using an editor).
Anyway, I slipstream SP3 first (or rather: use an already slipstreamed source as a basis for my U³WXPCD so I can skip that task - just be sure to have done nothing else to this backup source than slipstreaming SP3).
Any further setting are hence being applied after SP3 has been slipstreamed.
Dunno if this matters, but let's presume the Sp changes this or that, I can be sure all my editings are not being revised/overwritten/changed.

Also, always remember, DriverPacks come last, right before ISO creation smile

You're very right about auto-format/partition being a hazard- as you say best leave that one!

Well, I presume if you really know what you are doing (ie. it's a virgin system so no risk of losing data) and you got a lot of systems to setup but sysprep is not your thing somehow, then it can be extremely useful because it's about the last step to make setup completely unattendedly.
But you should really mark that disc (using a hazard symbol maybe wink) so you don't put it into the wrong system!

http://d1syubgj0w3cyv.cloudfront.net/cdn/farfuture/AeXmpESLemRyQ4RE-dgdjRhN_hKaXMe7woWjOK2wsnk/perpetual:forever/userbar/moderator-3.png

Coming up next - useful links:
• If you like this project, please support it with your donation!      • Grab your HW info (HWIDs) here!     
• If you are a newbie, be sure to check out the DriverPacks tutorial!     • Here's how to create your own DP!
  • OverFlow
  • DriverPacks Administrator & BASE Developer
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  • From: Cincinnati
  • Registered: 2006-12-02
  • Posts: 6,730

Re: 1st DP experience

I put a big scull and cross bones on my full unattended LOL wink
Really... i do this in big fat red felt tip!

and a note like "This disk will automaticaly WIPE CLEAN the primary HDD"

DP BartPE Tutorial   DP_BASE Tutorial   HWID's Tool     Read BEFORE you post    UserBars!
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The DriverPacks, the DP_Base program, and Support Forum are FREE!.

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