How to avoid slipstreaming perils?

[mm]

Despite some good advice here on this topic, from Paul and John John,
Shenan, Pegasus, Twayne, and Buffalo, whether I use -e (for extract)
and update.exe, or /integrate, or Autostreamer, I've been having mucho
trouble slipstreaming XPSP2 and SP3 onto XP, and now I need to
slipstream 2000SP1, 2, 3, and 4 onto pre-SP Win2000, and from what I
read, other people sometimes have the same problem doing that that I'm
having now. It balks at the update.exe step. For the people with
problems, the threads I've found never report success.


So instead:

How about if I just xcopy /e /s /v /h one root directory along
with its subdirectories to another root and subs?

Isn't the goal of slipstreaming merely to add new files and replace
older files in original operating systems or earlier SPs with newer
files of the same name from later SPs and KB-updates? And won't
XCopy, or XXCopy, or even drag and drop on Windows Explorer do that?

Or is there more to it than that? What? :=)

Thanks a lot


Background:
Neither the update.exe found in XPSP2 or the one found in 2000SP4 work
for me when running win2000 SP4. This program seems to be called
whether one slipstreams with -x, or with /Integrate, or using
Autostreamer.

Whichever method I use, I get the same error. Update.exe is deep in
the directory structure of each SP and is eventually used by all
methods recommended: Autostreamer, /integrate, and -e (for extract)
and update.exe. But running win2000 sp4, if I used update.exe from
winXP SP2, I get "Update.exe has generated errors and wil be closed by
Windows. You will need to restart the program."

And if I use update.exe from win2000 SP4, I get "The procedure entry
point CreateActCtxW could not be located in the dynamic link library
Kernel32.dll" Other people also get this error when trying to make
a slipstream CD.

 

[BillW50]

In mm typed on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:03:33 -0400:

Despite some good advice here on this topic, from Paul and John John,
Shenan, Pegasus, Twayne, and Buffalo, whether I use -e (for extract)
and update.exe, or /integrate, or Autostreamer, I've been having mucho
trouble slipstreaming XPSP2 and SP3 onto XP, and now I need to
slipstream 2000SP1, 2, 3, and 4 onto pre-SP Win2000, and from what I
read, other people sometimes have the same problem doing that that I'm
having now. It balks at the update.exe step. For the people with
problems, the threads I've found never report success.


So instead:

How about if I just xcopy /e /s /v /h one root directory along
with its subdirectories to another root and subs?

Isn't the goal of slipstreaming merely to add new files and replace
older files in original operating systems or earlier SPs with newer
files of the same name from later SPs and KB-updates? And won't
XCopy, or XXCopy, or even drag and drop on Windows Explorer do that?

Or is there more to it than that? What? :=)

Thanks a lot


Background:
Neither the update.exe found in XPSP2 or the one found in 2000SP4 work
for me when running win2000 SP4. This program seems to be called
whether one slipstreams with -x, or with /Integrate, or using
Autostreamer.

Whichever method I use, I get the same error. Update.exe is deep in
the directory structure of each SP and is eventually used by all
methods recommended: Autostreamer, /integrate, and -e (for extract)
and update.exe. But running win2000 sp4, if I used update.exe from
winXP SP2, I get "Update.exe has generated errors and wil be closed by
Windows. You will need to restart the program."

And if I use update.exe from win2000 SP4, I get "The procedure entry
point CreateActCtxW could not be located in the dynamic link library
Kernel32.dll" Other people also get this error when trying to make
a slipstream CD.

Why are you doing it that way? I just use nLite to slipstream everything
together. nLite requires .NET 2.0 though. So I used a XP machine to make
a Windows 2000 SP4 install disc. I needed Windows 2000 SP4 slipstreamed
because I needed SP4 because it allows to be installed from USB devices.
On netbooks, that is very important.

 

[mm]

In mm typed on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:03:33 -0400:

Why are you doing it that way? I just use nLite to slipstream everything
together. nLite requires .NET 2.0 though. So I used a XP machine to make
a Windows 2000 SP4 install disc.

Some one suggested that, and I appreciate his suggestion and yours,
and I will be able to take advantage of it when I'm fixed up. But
that's one reason I am doing it the other way. My own XP is broken,
which is why I want the slipstream disk, for a repair reinstall, I
think someone called it.

And I guess I don't have enough friends. One who has XP would never
let me install .NET on her computer, and others have older OSes or his
six computers are at his business, and I don't want to mess with his
business computer. And a guy with 2000 gets error messages all the
time. I don't want to add complexity to his problems.

But why is it necessary to use more than XCopy, XXCopy, or Drag and
Drop in Windows Explorer? After extracting the files from the XP or
2000 installation disk and doing the same from the SP. (Plus adding
the bootimage that is described in
http://www.derangedcoder.net/programming/windows/slipstreamingWindowsXP.html
step 5 and apparently needed for this sort of thing.)

I needed Windows 2000 SP4 slipstreamed
because I needed SP4 because it allows to be installed from USB devices.
On netbooks, that is very important.

Absolutely.

 

[BillW50]

In mm typed on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:19:17 -0400:

Some one suggested that, and I appreciate his suggestion and yours,
and I will be able to take advantage of it when I'm fixed up. But
that's one reason I am doing it the other way. My own XP is broken,
which is why I want the slipstream disk, for a repair reinstall, I
think someone called it.

And I guess I don't have enough friends. One who has XP would never
let me install .NET on her computer, and others have older OSes or his
six computers are at his business, and I don't want to mess with his
business computer. And a guy with 2000 gets error messages all the
time. I don't want to add complexity to his problems.

But why is it necessary to use more than XCopy, XXCopy, or Drag and
Drop in Windows Explorer? After extracting the files from the XP or
2000 installation disk and doing the same from the SP. (Plus adding
the bootimage that is described in
http://www.derangedcoder.net/programming/windows/slipstreamingWindowsXP.html
step 5 and apparently needed for this sort of thing.)


Absolutely.

Okay what about this idea then? I personally believe you should have a
spare hard drive anyway. I don't know what kind of machine you are
trying to fix, so whether this would be easy to swap out or not depends
on the machine. Once you have a spare drive in there, you can install
2000 or XP or whatever. Create a nLite of Windows 2000 SP4 and you are
all done.

That spare drive will come in handy for backups, data, experimenting,
etc. I use my spares for these and to make sure my backups will restore
correctly without overwriting the original. So how does that plan sound?

 

[Jose]

Some one suggested that, and I appreciate his suggestion and yours,
and I will be able to take advantage of it when I'm fixed up.   But
that's one reason I am doing it the other way.  My own XP is broken,
which is why I want the slipstream disk, for a repair reinstall, I
think someone called it.

And I guess I don't have enough friends.  One who has XP would never
let me install .NET on her computer, and others have older OSes or his
six computers are at his business, and I don't want to mess with his
business computer.  And a guy with 2000 gets error messages all the
time. I don't want to add complexity to his problems.

But why is it necessary to use more than XCopy, XXCopy, or Drag and
Drop in Windows Explorer?   After extracting the files from the XP or
2000 installation disk and doing the same from  the SP. (Plus adding
the bootimage that is described inhttp://www.derangedcoder.net/programming/windows/slipstreamingWindows...
step 5 and apparently needed for this sort of thing.)


Absolutely.

If your XP is broken, why don't you fix XP?

It is not hard to slipsteam SP3 into XP to create an new installation
CD - you have to have good directions to follow and there are plenty
of directions to follow.

Windows 2000 questions do not belong here.

I would not use anything that says "Windows 2000" on it to fix XP.

If your XP is broken and you want to fix it, describe how it is
broken.

Make a bootable XP Recovery Console CD. Cost = the price of a
burnable CD. Working other machine required.

 

[Paul Randall]

It is not hard to slipsteam SP3 into XP to create an new installation
CD - you have to have good directions to follow and there are plenty
of directions to follow.

----------------------------------------

Slipsteaming XP is now as easy as falling off a log:
http://ubcd4win.com/slipstream.htm

-Paul Randall

 

[mm]

It is not hard to slipsteam SP3 into XP to create an new installation
CD - you have to have good directions to follow and there are plenty
of directions to follow.

I've tried Autostreamer already, on two different machines, and it
won't do it for me. It extracts the files from the original install
program and the Service Pack, but when it comes time for the update
step, it takes only about 5 seconds, and after it made the .iso file,
and I burned it, I saw that all the files were from the first year
that XP was out. It hand't actually merged the SP with the original.
I believe it used update.exe from the Service Pack for this step, and
wasn't able to actually execute it.

I've also used
http://www.derangedcoder.net/programming/windows/slipstreamingWindowsXP.html
which depends on the /integrate parameter of the Service Pack. That
two extracted all the files into a temp directory, and then stopped
with a message that update.exe reported an error. I have the exact
message if you want.

I've also, before the previous try and after Autostreamer, used
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp
which explicitly uses the update.exe program from the service pack,
and I got the same message as above. I changed to using update.exe
from win2000SP4, since I was using a 2000 computer, but that just gave
a different error message.

And I've used two versions of XPSP2, one I downloaded and one I bought
from someone else. (Yes, I knew I could download it for free, but my
burner was broken at the time.)

It seems they all use update.exe, and that's the problem.

So that's why I'm asking if a fourth method might work. Isn't the
esssential element of slipstreaming just taking the files from the
original install CD, adding any new files that are in the Service
Pack, and replacing any files that are already there with the new
version of them? If that is the point of that step, wouldn't XCopy
*.* /s /e /v work fine, or Drag and Drop on the Windows Explorer**
screen?

Or is there more to slipstreaming than that? I can't imagine what
there could be. I'm not ocunting what has to be done
afterwards, in order to make a bootable CD. Derangedcoder in my first
link explains how to take the bootimage from the original CD and apply
that to the slipstreamed CD.


**They both copy all the sub-folders too, but only if the file is
there, of course. If there is no reason to update a file, it's
probably not in the service pack. Conversely, if it's in the service
pack, Autostreamer's not going to know it doesn't have to be updated,
so it will be, with autostreamer or with Xcopy.

 

[mm]

If your XP is broken, why don't you fix XP?

That's what I'm working on. That's why I want to make the
slipstreamed CD.

It is not hard to slipsteam SP3 into XP to create an new installation
CD - you have to have good directions to follow and there are plenty
of directions to follow.

I've tried three different methods and none have worked. They all
depend on running update.com, which is included in in every Service
Pack I have looked at for win2000 and winXP. When I try to execute
the step that runs update.exe, I get an error message and the program
stops.

When I skip all that comes before and comes after, and just find
update.exe and double click on it, I get the same error message as it
gives as part of slipstreaming.

I'm not the only one who has this problem making a slipstream CD.
I've read threads on the web about the same problem, and I've never
seen a report of success after any of the suggestions that helpful
people have offered.

That's why I'd like to try a fourth method to make the CD, just using
XCopy or XXCopy. At least those commands will complete without an
error message.

Windows 2000 questions do not belong here.

This was a question about slipstreaming and making a slipstream CD,
which applies as much to winxp as it does to win2000. More, you might
say, since there are probably more XP users now.

I would not use anything that says "Windows 2000" on it to fix XP.

I've read that it works. But when update.exe abended for me, I dl'd
win2000 SP4, extracted the files from it, and used the update.exe
intended for win2000. It also failed to execute, with a different
error message.

If your XP is broken and you want to fix it, describe how it is
broken.

When I try to start XP, it only gets as far as the blank (blue in my
case) screen after the Welcome to XP screen.

The screen that would have icons and a task bar in a few seconds if it
were working.

Trying to Start with last Working Configuration gives the same
results.

Trying to Start in Safe Mode yielded the question, roughtly: Do you
want to Restore? When I said No, I got a blank black screeen with
"Safe Mode in all four corners and a file name along with some text on
the top line.
When I said Yes, I got a mesage that: Restore cannot
protect my computer.

Trying to start with the Directory Service Restore Mode gave the same
result as a nomral start iirc. I don't know if I have Windows-based
domain controllers or not.

With one method of starting, it displays a list of files started and
the last one shown relates to "Loaded driver amdagp.sys", which is
also in the boot log and is the last succesful load before all the
"Did not load driver" lines.

 

[mm]

In mm typed on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:19:17 -0400:

Okay what about this idea then? I personally believe you should have a
spare hard drive anyway. I don't know what kind of machine you are
trying to fix, so whether this would be easy to swap out or not depends
on the machine. Once you have a spare drive in there, you can install
2000 or XP or whatever. Create a nLite of Windows 2000 SP4 and you are
all done.

I'll work on this idea. I have a win2000 computer, to borrow or
maybe to keep, with 2 hard and 100 empty gigs on one of them. I have
software now, and when I have time and have learned how to make the
partion active, I will make another partition on that drive.

So how does that plan sound?

Pretty good.

But of course, I also want to pursue my plan. Your suggestion
about why Xcopy wouldn't work had me up against the wall for a while.

I had to think about it and I had to go to the other computer to
investigate more closely what files were in the set of extracted files
from the Installation Disk and the SP CDs.

You cautioned about CAB files and registry entries.

So I looked at the extracted files for XP, SP2, and SP3. (SP2 includes
SP1, but SP3 doesn't include SP2.) (I'm sure I would see the same
sort of thing for win2000 and its SPs.)

CA_ files CAB files Date of most files
XP 15 10 8/23/2001
SP2 10 3 7/17 to 8/4 2004
SP3 9 3 4/14/2008

Further examination showed that some of the CA_ files in SPs had the
same name as in previous CDs, and some were new. Since there were 15
CA_ files to begin with, plainly some of them never get updated by
SP2, and examination showed that some of that subset didn't get
updated by SP3 either. However, two new files in SP2, MSN7.CA_ and
MSN8.CA_ did get replacement files in SP3

Further examination of the CAB files showed that there was no update
for Drivers.cab, the biggest of them all at 77 Megs.

However the same two cab files were updated in SP2 and SP3,
mmsetup.cab and fp40ext.cab. I don't know what these files do, but I
don't think I have too. Microsoft set it up so that they are replaced
by the service pack. Some other part of the service pack is
responsible for expanding them and installing them, isn't that
true????

Most ca_ and cab files got bigger in later SPs. That's not surprising
to me. But one file stayed the same length, and one file got shorter.
Just because it's the same length, that doesn't mean nothing inside
changed. I'm sure it did. But the others where nothing changed
weren't included in the SP. That's one practical reason one can't
just get a free service pack and run windows from it.

The third CAB files were sp2.cab and sp3.cab respectively. They were
the biggest after drivers.cab, at 19 and 20 megs respectively. I
suspect they contain a little of everything, including probably more
drivers, since surely there are more drivers created in the 80 months
from XP to XPSP3

So the question remains, is the update.exe program, which is used in 3
or likely all 4** currrent methods, clever enough to open a cab file
and go about modifying what's inside, with what's inside a cab file in
a later SP. I think MS has set this up so it's not necessary. That
seems like the simple way to do it.

**On the web I came across a 4th routine, but at its heart was
update.exe.

What about the fact that there is both an SP2.cab and SP3.cab. If I
properly slipstreamed SP3 into the XP-SP2 slipsteam output, would
that get rid of SP2.cab? Why would it? Slipstreaming surely doesn't
get rid of drivers.cab, which is 77 megs, bigger than anything that
could supplant it. I think it keeps all the cab files, modifying some
with later versions, and somewhere in the list of things to install
(also a file) is both sp2.cab and sp3.cab.

As to registry updates, they aren't done by slipstreaming, are they?
Slipstreaming only provides a list of which parts of the registry
shoudl be changed and what changes should be applied, and something at
the time of executing the SP CD or the slipstreamed CD causes these
changes to be applied.

Now maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there is something we haven't thought of,
or you did think of it and my argument that you are wrong is faulty. I
wish I could ask the guy who wrote Autostreamer. It just occurred to
me: Maybe I can, or maybe I can ask some of the three other guys who
have webpages about this, like derangedcoder. Maybe I can ask them
all. I should go to guys most likely to know little details about
this stuff. Unless someone here knows the answers.

And I could also just try it my way. It shouldn't take more than 10
minutes (not counting thinking time, and the bootimage step, and the
create .iso step and the burn CD step.) And when I'm done, even if
it seems to install, I might not know if it works completely or not.

Maybe I'll both try it and also write those guys. I intend to report
back to you, even to the XP group if that's okay, what they say and
what my own results are.

BTW, XXCopy is a much more powerful version of XCOPY, written by one
man and given away as freeware. It has just about every parameter you
could imagine***, and if you imagine one it hasn't got, you can tell
the author and he really might put it in. It has a /clone parameter,
but he explains what individual-function parameters that is equivalent
to, so you can if you want, make a modification to /clone. You can
turn off any parameter that's on, or turn on any parameter that's off.
There is extensive online and downloadable text help

Try www.xcopy.com and there is also a mailing list on Yahoo lists
called XXCOPY, which provides very good advice on uses of the program.
The author participates a lot, last time I was there.

***I'm not sure if it can copy the directory creation date, but no
other file-by-file copier does that either afaik. I asked about it
once. Maybe he's done it by now.


Other than Autostreamer, every slipstreamer method I have seen uses
XCopy. That's what I've used too, but XXCopy was designed to be fully
compatible and congruent with all XCopy switches and parameters, etc.


P&M

 

[Ardent]

Why are you doing it that way? I just use nLite to slipstream everything
together. nLite requires .NET 2.0 though. So I used a XP machine to make
a Windows 2000 SP4 install disc. I needed Windows 2000 SP4 slipstreamed
because I needed SP4 because it allows to be installed from USB devices.
On netbooks, that is very important.

ook for this file, nLruntimeR3.exe, it is somewhere availale in the
web, maybe Google can tell (229 hits). It is just 6.73 mb.

It installs into the default nLite folder and you can run nLite.