clean install XP

A friend of mine has a DV6000t with windows XP home, he really wants to instal a clean version of XP but when i told him how to do it he had second thoughts cause of the whole re-installing the drivers part (esp. the audio & modem), he isn't too tech savvy and wants something he can do himself if needed so i am trying to give the poor fella a break and make a CD (or DVD for that matter) with all the drivers pre-installed using nlite, i haven't done it before but with all the guides available (links at the end of the post) i have a pretty good idea, i mean...how hard can it be right? So now it's down to 2 questions......

1- Can i use the i386 file in swsetup or the one on the recovery DVD to create a bootable version of XP or should i use a bootable XP home OEM CD? (haven't tried the ones in swsetup or the DVD yet, just thought i'de ask first)

2- Is it possible to use a program like windriver ghost to get all the drivers off of the laptop, slipstream them onto the previously mentioned CD and avoid the hassle of going through all the "add new hardware" issues with a clean install?

guide links:

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=532561

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=59471

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=62357

 

1- In theory. I haven't tried it yet.

2- I recommend integrating drivers downloaded from hp.com using the method described here:
http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/view/web/35/
Use the "spXXXXX -pdf -fc:\\output_directory -s -e" pattern to break apart HP service packs.

Get a copy of his wpa.dbl and use the backup activation method so he doesn't have to deal with that nonsense again:
http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/view/web/29/

Get RyanVM's post-SP2 update pack here:
http://www.ryanvm.net/msfn/

I've made some very slick integrated WinXP install DVDs this way.

 

Thanks alot brainstrech, sounds good, just had one quick question, at the end of the guide, the part that mentions the changes to "presetup.cmd" shouldn't all the paths be %CDROM% since i'm putting the drivers file on the bootable CD?

Now if i didn't use this method to start with, is the "integrate drivers" option in nlite the same thing, if not what are the differences?? Don't get me wrong, im not complaining here, it's just the fact that i'll be using nlite anyways so if they are both the same thing might as well just do it on there.

Thanks again

 

The thing with nlite is that you can potentially run into problems once you start to add more and more drivers to the slipstream. I think the manual way of doing it like in the msfn guide is sound proof (but it can be more difficult).

You can however also use a shareware tool like driver genius http://www.driver-soft.com/ Which will backup all the drivers on the system and allow you to restore to them with just one click.

 

I haven't used nLite in a while. I've found RyanVM's Integrator and the Unattended guides to be the most reliable way to go. It's also very useful to test your DVD images in a virtual machine (VMWare, etc) if you can. I've attached a virtual machine I found in the MSFN forums (I think) that I use with the free VMWare Player, edit winxppro.vmx to point to your DVD image.

In my presetup.cmd I have:
%CDDRIVE%\$OEM$\$1\Drivers\SetDevicePath.exe %CDDRIVE%\$OEM$\$1\Drivers
start %CDDRIVE%\$OEM$\$1\Drivers\WatchDriverSigningPolicy.exe

I also attached my applications installation script, if you want to have some of the more useful apps install on first login. See this page for how that works:
http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/view/web/31/