Clean Install of XP Home

[Jerry]

I have an ancient computer, brand name Pionex. Yes it is old but has the
hardware capable of running Win XP Home. A local church wanted a pc to
watch movies such as bible story and others they have on disks and I figured
this pc would be perfect for their needs. They don't need an internet
connection or anything. XP does not even have to be updated. The only
thing it will need is AC97 audio drivers.

The problem is that in the bios, there is no way to change the boot sequence
that I can see (cdrom is NOT one of the listed sequence). I did some
research and found that it is possible to install XP using a set of floppies
that can be generated by downloading WinXP_EN_HOM_BF.EXE from Microsoft.
All seemed to go well. I download the file and made the floppies. I
started the pc with disc 1 in the drive and it proceeded nicely up thru disc
6 and looked just like a normal xp install. It saw the XP install disc and
started the install. Now the glitch.

Shortly after the install started, I get this error:

..SIF is corrupt or missing
Value 0 on this line in Section [Source Disk Files] with key "SP1.cab."
Can not continue install, Press F3 to Quit.

I tried the install several times with different XP Home Install Disks (I
have several of them) each time formatting the hard drive first to make sure
it was clean from previous tries. I think the error is coming from the
floppy disks that were generated, but can not be positive. I don't think
all the install CDs would have the same missing/corrupt file.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[VanguardLH]

I have an ancient computer, brand name Pionex. Yes it is old but has
the hardware capable of running Win XP Home. A local church wanted a
pc to watch movies such as bible story and others they have on disks
and I figured this pc would be perfect for their needs. They don't
need an internet connection or anything. XP does not even have to be
updated. The only thing it will need is AC97 audio drivers.

The problem is that in the bios, there is no way to change the boot
sequence that I can see (cdrom is NOT one of the listed sequence).
I did some research and found that it is possible to install XP
using a set of floppies that can be generated by downloading
WinXP_EN_HOM_BF.EXE from Microsoft. All seemed to go well. I
download the file and made the floppies. I started the pc with disc
1 in the drive and it proceeded nicely up thru disc 6 and looked
just like a normal xp install. It saw the XP install disc and
started the install. Now the glitch.

Shortly after the install started, I get this error:

.SIF is corrupt or missing
Value 0 on this line in Section [Source Disk Files] with key
"SP1.cab."
Can not continue install, Press F3 to Quit.

I tried the install several times with different XP Home Install
Disks (I have several of them) each time formatting the hard drive
first to make sure it was clean from previous tries. I think the
error is coming from the floppy disks that were generated, but can
not be positive. I don't think all the install CDs would have the
same missing/corrupt file.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Just a guess but maybe the service pack level of the floppies and CD
do not match up. Just get a bootable floppy that include IDE CD-ROM
support (I'm assuming you are using IDE optical drives). Go to
www.bootdisk.com to get one. Then use it to boot into DOS whereupon
the CD driver should've been installed which means you can navigate to
the CD and run the setup.exe from there.

 

[philo]

Just a guess but maybe the service pack level of the floppies and CD do
not match up. Just get a bootable floppy that include IDE CD-ROM support
(I'm assuming you are using IDE optical drives). Go to www.bootdisk.com
to get one. Then use it to boot into DOS whereupon the CD driver
should've been installed which means you can navigate to the CD and run
the setup.exe from there.

Close, but no cigar

That advice is NOT quite correct.

To install XP by using a win9x boot floppy...
you need to load smartdrv

(if you don't, then the installation will take 'forever' if it completes at
all)

also...the command to start the install from dos is : winnt

("setup" would be used *only* from a gui based install)

 

[Nepatsfan]

I have an ancient computer, brand name Pionex. Yes it is old but has the
hardware capable of running Win XP Home. A local church wanted a pc to watch
movies such as bible story and others they have on disks and I figured this pc
would be perfect for their needs. They don't need an internet connection or
anything. XP does not even have to be updated. The only thing it will need is
AC97 audio drivers.

The problem is that in the bios, there is no way to change the boot sequence
that I can see (cdrom is NOT one of the listed sequence). I did some research
and found that it is possible to install XP using a set of floppies that can
be generated by downloading WinXP_EN_HOM_BF.EXE from Microsoft. All seemed to
go well. I download the file and made the floppies. I started the pc with
disc 1 in the drive and it proceeded nicely up thru disc 6 and looked just
like a normal xp install. It saw the XP install disc and started the install.
Now the glitch.

Shortly after the install started, I get this error:

.SIF is corrupt or missing
Value 0 on this line in Section [Source Disk Files] with key "SP1.cab."
Can not continue install, Press F3 to Quit.

I tried the install several times with different XP Home Install Disks (I have
several of them) each time formatting the hard drive first to make sure it was
clean from previous tries. I think the error is coming from the floppy disks
that were generated, but can not be positive. I don't think all the install
CDs would have the same missing/corrupt file.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

As has been pointed out, the file you use to create the floppy disks has to be
the correct version for your copy of XP. Download the file for the service pack
level of your installation CD from this web site.

How to obtain Windows XP Setup boot disks
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310994

Good luck

Nepatsfan

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I have an ancient computer, brand name Pionex. Yes it is old but has the
hardware capable of running Win XP Home. A local church wanted a pc to
watch movies such as bible story and others they have on disks and I figured
this pc would be perfect for their needs. They don't need an internet
connection or anything. XP does not even have to be updated. The only
thing it will need is AC97 audio drivers.

The problem is that in the bios, there is no way to change the boot sequence
that I can see (cdrom is NOT one of the listed sequence).

If the computer is so old (pre-1996-ish?) that it cannot boot from
the CD, it's most likely far too old to adequately support WinXP. It
certainly wouldn't serve for the sort of memory- and processor-intensive
multimedia use that you're considering.



--

Bruce Chambers

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[VanguardLH]

in message news:[email protected]...
I found the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994/

It lists 3 different downloads depending on which service pack level
you have for the Windows XP installation CD. That is why I figured
the OP downloaded the wrong version of these setup floppies.

Close, but no cigar
That advice is NOT quite correct.

To install XP by using a win9x boot floppy...
you need to load smartdrv

I didn't run the downloads to see what got put in the config.sys and
autoexec.bat files on the first bootup floppy. I did test the
boot98.exe (Windows 98 OEM bootable floppy image) from
www.bootdisk.com to see what it did. It creates a ramdrive (since
there is no guarantee that a hard drive is yet availble) because the
tools extracted from ebd.cab will exceed the capacity of a 1.4MB 3.5"
floppy. So I suppose that it figures that it has already taxed the
memory of which there might not be a lot and smartdrv is not critical
to a Windows install.

The part that is slowed down by not using smartdrv is the initial file
copy process that gets the system files and drivers in the partition
which gets used after the required reboot.

(if you don't, then the installation will take 'forever' if it
completes at all)

Yeah, might go slower but that doesn't prevent the install from
proceeding. From what I've heard, the initial file copy process might
take 3 times longer without smartdrv. That's not forever. Besides,
when the file copy process starts, why would I sit around twiddling my
thumbs waiting rather than go do something else? When I start the
coffee maker, I don't stand around waiting until it finishes it cycle.
I'll come back sometime later when I'm no longer busy with whatever I
went off to do during the big file copy.

also...the command to start the install from dos is : winnt
("setup" would be used *only* from a gui based install)

Which program file do the setup floppies executed to start the Windows
XP install? I did find mention that 16-bit DOS requires running
winnt.exe to start the setup. I don't have the wallet anymore that
the install CDs came in or any other install instructions. From what
you mention, running setup.exe probably would immediately bitch that
it is a Win32 app and won't run in DOS. I'll have to remember that
winnt.exe gets used from a DOS shell. Thanks.

 

[Jerry]

Vanguard, the setup disk is supposed to be for SP1 and the install disk has
SP1, so no reason to think they are NOT compatible.

I had also followed the instructions at :
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994/

There is from what I read, a way to do this using a single floppy disk, but
I could find the file I needed to do that. If anyone knows where I might
get this I would appreciate it.

Thank You