• Registered: 2011-03-16
  • Posts: 1

Topic: Win2k USB-HDD driver question.

I've been working on a liveHDD version of Windows 2000 to get around deactivation issues under Windows XP in the event of drastic hardware change. I specifically want to avoid a PE-base so I can install software on-the-fly while diagnosing and repairing client PCs.

Unfortunately, that means the OS is machine-dependent and I'll need to scan and apply necessary drivers each time I boot from a new PC. Since I may be booting off something as limited as a USB 1.0 port, I'd suspect driver installation time could double, and that's not really acceptable when time is money.

I noticed the site hosts driverpacks for Windows XP which also support Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000. I've downloaded the ones I need, question is; is there any way I could strip the driverpacks of XP and 2003 dependent drivers in hopes I could shave a little time off of extraction? Furthermore, does anyone know of a way just extract ALL of the Windows 2000 drivers into a directory post-install and just allow Windows to "Find New Hardware" at the beginning of each boot? That way I'm not running BASE every time I work on a new machine.

I'd really rather not muck around with an incredibly limited script application library with Bart's PE, WinBuilder, or any other type of preinstallation environment format. Most of the software I've purchased and been using for years don't have available scripts.

I know Linux install would be a breeze and could run universally, but I run a business and I can't concern myself with two months of downtime to learn Linux. I'm interested; I just don't have the time.

  • OverFlow
  • DriverPacks Administrator & BASE Developer
  • Offline
  • From: Cincinnati
  • Registered: 2006-12-02
  • Posts: 6,730

Re: Win2k USB-HDD driver question.

can you strip XP and 2K3 drivers out... Perhaps. But it certainly would not be worth the effort. Almost all of the drivers are universal. IE they support the entire NT5 platform (2k xp and 2k3 Are all NT5 based OS's [same kernal] and therefore usually have a single driver for all three) with a single driver / inf. It would be a very small gain for a LOT of effort.

Yes you can extract all the drivers and have them available... this is discussed extensively in our universal imaging forum. That is proper term (searchable) for what you intend to do. Making the drivers available is not as big a deal as setting the proper mass storage controler for each platform you connect to. You will likely have to read in depth, understand, and refer to, the sysprep / universal imaging forum. It will not be as signifigent for you since you are booting from USB, but will be a factor. You may have to reboot (more than once) to get everything happy in Device Manager, It also will depend how well you really want your OS to perform. (IE will you be testing sound or video cards... perhaps sometimes but not all...) If all you are doing is virus scans, defrag ect... then you won't have to worry about LAN, Sound,  Graphics and other advanced PnP support...

Making the extracted drivers available is quite easy... In fact it is a FAQ http://forum.driverpacks.net/viewtopic.php?id=4844

Read Before you Post
2. Check the FAQ forum
3. Use the search function
--> demerit awarded  big_smile wink tongue

Now since you want to 'keep the drivers' you could run "DevPath" on your OS... however many drivers will not install correctly if thier corresponding installers (setup.exe) are not run. We use the DriverPacks Finisher for this purpose. So even if you were to run DevPath to add the driver folders to the search path for PnP, you would still need to run the finisher in most cases to "finish" installing all the drivers properly. That being the case you are probably better off just running SAD (DP_Install_Tool.cmd) against an extracted DriverPacks folder each time you connect to a new machine. You may find that you have to either sysprep or restore a clean image of your 2k OS frequently.

It may be enought just to "keep" Chipset, Mass and LAN with devpath... and use SAD only if you really need graphics, WLAN and / or sound.

I belive you can get this to work... not sure it's the best way to go... but it should be win-able. Keep us 'posted' big_smile.


Welcome to DriverPacks.net

Jeff

PS It would more than double USB1.1 = 12Mbs vs USB2 = 480Mbs
That is 40 times slower big_smile....
I'd keep a USB2 PCI card on hand if i were you LOL!
I doubt you will find many USB1.1 systems that support boot from USB HDD.
Not sure it would actually slow down the driver installs though... Since the writes would be local they should occur at the internal speed of the drive you use big_smile! Now searching the driver folders you might take a hit, fortunately inf files tend to be very small.

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