Hello All?

For the past week, I've been constructing an xp custom cd with nLite. The ISO burned fine and I installed it in VM it worked fine. When I tested it out on my system it hung at the xp start screen. It just sat there with the blue boxes stuck on the right side. I was able to get into safe mode, but I couldn't find the root of the problem. Sent many hours working on the ISO making sure I got everything. Even the SATA drivers installed correctly in the TXTsetup mode.

Why am I doing all of this? First off you get a machine from an OEM, it comes preloaded with factory BLOATWARE! I HATE the factory cd that I have. So, I wanted to create a nice sleek unattended xp sp2 9/06 updated security patched + tweaked cd. All that unnessary bs just eats precious resources and hard drive space that you desprately need. My system, I even have all of the themes and eye candy turned off. Classic explorer, searches.

Cheers,

Ah another one of those things I've really wanted to try but never seem to actually do.

If it helps I believe the official forum for nlite is part of MSFN.
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showforum=89
Try there if no one here can help you.

If you haven't formatted as yet you could try to boot from a Win98 boot floppy.

At the A:/ prompt type "fdisk /mbr" - enter, then see if it will boot from C.

Space between fdisk and /mbr

thanks, It wasn't having a problem booting. It would stuck at the xp boot screen. It was trying to make a transition from xp boot screen to the desktop. It was in the process of starting the os.

Cheers,

Try the re-install again, it "may" have been a hiccup during the installation. Or you've got hardware installed/plugged into the back of the PC causing problems.

Ah, nLite I have heard about it but never tried it.

Yes, if you buy an OEM PC then you often get it preinstalled with junk. The computer manufacturer have some deals with software companies to ship computers with their software. I hate that.

I think that from some manufacturers you get a real Windows CD, other times you just get an recovery CD which installs Windows along with the bundled junk or something like that.

Best I guess is to avoid OEM PC's.

With some OEM's you buy a computer without operating system though, I think it is possible with Dell. Unfortunately in many cases you have to pay the unfair "Windows Tax" though.

Having a streamlined CD with all the service packs and patched and SATA device drivers are nice though.

Windows Tax, are you freaking kidding me!?!?! Man, another way M$ to make money. What I did was took XP from my Dell and let nLite rip it apart. I don't like XP MCE, I don't use it. Anyways, I took all of the patches and security fixes off of Autopater XP and dropped them right into the integration panel. Next I found all of the drivers my system uses and dropped them into the drivers portion. Later, I removed hardware I wasn't going to use like laptops, or ISDN. Then it was off to removing programs, like MSN Explorer and WMP. Afterward, I removed some services. This is where I think it killed me! I was very care to turn off what I didn't need and make sure there were no dependencies associated with the service. The last part is making the ISO.

What I'm planning on doing is purchasing a new fresh copy of xp pro sp2, and work nLite from there. Something in that Dell factory build it didn't like.

Hi again Admiral Ross,

Bold Fortune's guide? for slimming XP is what I am using.

Have implemented around 50% of the guide so far with mainly the larger unneeded parts of XP pro being deleted.

I wouldn't attempt slimming XP without a decent backup system such as Norton ghost.

My 120 g drive has 3 partitions,C - 5.5 gig, F - 96 gig and G - 10 gig.

XP pro SP 2 on C has 872 meg of data including Ghost,partition magic,security apps and maintenance apps.This is about as far as I want to go as ghost backup images are around the 500 meg mark and will fit on a single cd.

I think Bold Fortune runs XP at under 200 meg but that's a bit too slim for myself but you never know I might just get bored one day and start deleting again.

Clips,pics,exes and some other apps including Sandboxies top level storage folder are on the F partition @ 96 gig.

Ghost images are stored on the last partition G @ 10 gig.Each image being around the half gig mark means I can store quite a few there.

Also have a partitioned 40 gig slave which is usually unplugged where I keep a clone of C and the other data of my main drive.That's to keep my paranoia sated.

The thing I like about a slim XP is speed.

30 sec smart placement defrags and security scans under 2 mins are good as well.

Well anyway that's my setup and I wish you all the best in your quest for a slim XP.