No C: drive during GUI setup

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brandon
  • Start date Start date
B

Brandon

INTRO:
I am trying to do a repair installation of XP Pro from CD. I have a single
SATA drive with a single NFTS partition on it and floppy and sinlge CD drive
(no card readers or other drives what-so-ever). Text mode setup completes
fine. Once GUI mode setup begins, it detects hardware, prompts me for
Product Key, etc. Then it starts its "Copy ing Files" phase.

PROBLEM:
Right off the bat, it says that it couldn't copy infocomm.dl_. It does this
for every file that it tried to copy. Once it finished (not) Copying Files,
it begins Registering Components. It says that it couldn't find file
c:\windows\whatever.

I restarted the computer and tried the repair again. Text mode setup
completed fine. GUI mode started, asked me for a few things, then started
the file copy phase. Again, it couldn't copy any of the files. When I
clicked on Browse, I noticed that my drive had been assigned the letter D:
instead of C:. I actually didn't even have a C: drive (CD-ROM is letter
E:). The odd part about this is that when setup was trying to register the
dlls that it couldn't copy, it referenced that file as "c:\windows\..."

QUESTION:
So my question is: Why is setup trying to copy and register files to drive
C: when it assigned the drive as D:? Is there a way to correct this? How
does setup determine drive letter assignments?

OTHER FACTS:
Recovery console sees the HDD as drive C: (but it determines this from
setupact.log, right?)
WinPE (based on XPSP1) sees the drive as drive c:
Installation to be repaired is XPSP2. CD used to repair is XPSP1.

Thanks,

Brandon
 
As far as drive letters, there is a temporary ram disk getting into the
picture. What I did not see you do was to press F6 to provide the SATA
controller driver from a floppy in the initial stages of the setup. It
looks very much like that is the problem.

The message to "Press F6 to provide a third party driver" appears at the
bottom of the screen while the installer is reading files. You do not have
very long to respond before the message disappears. Press F6 and then wait
for the installer to request the floppy. Then insert the driver floppy that
came with your motherboard into A:.
 
I did specify a SATA driver at the beginning of setup using F6. Otherwise
setup would not even know that I had a HDD in my machine. It does see the
drive, it is just assigning it the wrong drive letter. Is there someway for
me to tell it what letter to assign?

-Brandon


Colin Barnhorst said:
As far as drive letters, there is a temporary ram disk getting into the
picture. What I did not see you do was to press F6 to provide the SATA
controller driver from a floppy in the initial stages of the setup. It
looks very much like that is the problem.

The message to "Press F6 to provide a third party driver" appears at the
bottom of the screen while the installer is reading files. You do not
have very long to respond before the message disappears. Press F6 and
then wait for the installer to request the floppy. Then insert the driver
floppy that came with your motherboard into A:.

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)
Brandon said:
INTRO:
I am trying to do a repair installation of XP Pro from CD. I have a
single SATA drive with a single NFTS partition on it and floppy and
sinlge CD drive (no card readers or other drives what-so-ever). Text
mode setup completes fine. Once GUI mode setup begins, it detects
hardware, prompts me for Product Key, etc. Then it starts its "Copy ing
Files" phase.

PROBLEM:
Right off the bat, it says that it couldn't copy infocomm.dl_. It does
this for every file that it tried to copy. Once it finished (not)
Copying Files, it begins Registering Components. It says that it
couldn't find file c:\windows\whatever.

I restarted the computer and tried the repair again. Text mode setup
completed fine. GUI mode started, asked me for a few things, then
started the file copy phase. Again, it couldn't copy any of the files.
When I clicked on Browse, I noticed that my drive had been assigned the
letter D: instead of C:. I actually didn't even have a C: drive (CD-ROM
is letter E:). The odd part about this is that when setup was trying to
register the dlls that it couldn't copy, it referenced that file as
"c:\windows\..."

QUESTION:
So my question is: Why is setup trying to copy and register files to
drive C: when it assigned the drive as D:? Is there a way to correct
this? How does setup determine drive letter assignments?

OTHER FACTS:
Recovery console sees the HDD as drive C: (but it determines this from
setupact.log, right?)
WinPE (based on XPSP1) sees the drive as drive c:
Installation to be repaired is XPSP2. CD used to repair is XPSP1.

Thanks,

Brandon
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
You cannot repair XP SP2 with an XP SP1 cd. You need to make a slipstreamed
XP + SP2 cd first. I suggest that you use AutoStreamer
http://www.autopatcher.com/autostreamer.html. The instructions are
straightforward. You will need a third party program like Roxio or Nero to
burn the resulting cd. Another source for making a slipstreamed cd is
http://www.windows-help.net/WindowsXP/winxp-sp2-bootcd.html. It is
instructive for the process, but I recommend AutoStreamer for its ease of
use. It does not matter what XP computer is used to make the cd since you
will use your original XP cd and a special SP2 download file as sources
anyway.

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)
Brandon said:
I did specify a SATA driver at the beginning of setup using F6. Otherwise
setup would not even know that I had a HDD in my machine. It does see the
drive, it is just assigning it the wrong drive letter. Is there someway
for me to tell it what letter to assign?

-Brandon


Colin Barnhorst said:
As far as drive letters, there is a temporary ram disk getting into the
picture. What I did not see you do was to press F6 to provide the SATA
controller driver from a floppy in the initial stages of the setup. It
looks very much like that is the problem.

The message to "Press F6 to provide a third party driver" appears at the
bottom of the screen while the installer is reading files. You do not
have very long to respond before the message disappears. Press F6 and
then wait for the installer to request the floppy. Then insert the
driver floppy that came with your motherboard into A:.

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)
Brandon said:
INTRO:
I am trying to do a repair installation of XP Pro from CD. I have a
single SATA drive with a single NFTS partition on it and floppy and
sinlge CD drive (no card readers or other drives what-so-ever). Text
mode setup completes fine. Once GUI mode setup begins, it detects
hardware, prompts me for Product Key, etc. Then it starts its "Copy ing
Files" phase.

PROBLEM:
Right off the bat, it says that it couldn't copy infocomm.dl_. It does
this for every file that it tried to copy. Once it finished (not)
Copying Files, it begins Registering Components. It says that it
couldn't find file c:\windows\whatever.

I restarted the computer and tried the repair again. Text mode setup
completed fine. GUI mode started, asked me for a few things, then
started the file copy phase. Again, it couldn't copy any of the files.
When I clicked on Browse, I noticed that my drive had been assigned the
letter D: instead of C:. I actually didn't even have a C: drive (CD-ROM
is letter E:). The odd part about this is that when setup was trying to
register the dlls that it couldn't copy, it referenced that file as
"c:\windows\..."

QUESTION:
So my question is: Why is setup trying to copy and register files to
drive C: when it assigned the drive as D:? Is there a way to correct
this? How does setup determine drive letter assignments?

OTHER FACTS:
Recovery console sees the HDD as drive C: (but it determines this from
setupact.log, right?)
WinPE (based on XPSP1) sees the drive as drive c:
Installation to be repaired is XPSP2. CD used to repair is XPSP1.

Thanks,

Brandon
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
That is incorrect. You CAN repair an SP2 installation using a SP1
slipstream CD. You cannot use an RTM CD, but SP1 is a supported option.
You will just have to reinstall SP2 once the repair is completed.

Also, I just verified that during text mode setup, the drive was indeed seen
as drive C:, not D:. Any idea why it would switch to D: during GUI mode?
Any idea on how to change this back to C:?

Thanks,

Brandon


Colin Barnhorst said:
You cannot repair XP SP2 with an XP SP1 cd. You need to make a slipstreamed
XP + SP2 cd first. I suggest that you use AutoStreamer
http://www.autopatcher.com/autostreamer.html. The instructions are
straightforward. You will need a third party program like Roxio or Nero to
burn the resulting cd. Another source for making a slipstreamed cd is
http://www.windows-help.net/WindowsXP/winxp-sp2-bootcd.html. It is
instructive for the process, but I recommend AutoStreamer for its ease of
use. It does not matter what XP computer is used to make the cd since you
will use your original XP cd and a special SP2 download file as sources
anyway.

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)
Brandon said:
I did specify a SATA driver at the beginning of setup using F6. Otherwise
setup would not even know that I had a HDD in my machine. It does see the
drive, it is just assigning it the wrong drive letter. Is there someway
for me to tell it what letter to assign?

-Brandon


Colin Barnhorst said:
As far as drive letters, there is a temporary ram disk getting into the
picture. What I did not see you do was to press F6 to provide the SATA
controller driver from a floppy in the initial stages of the setup. It
looks very much like that is the problem.

The message to "Press F6 to provide a third party driver" appears at the
bottom of the screen while the installer is reading files. You do not
have very long to respond before the message disappears. Press F6 and
then wait for the installer to request the floppy. Then insert the
driver floppy that came with your motherboard into A:.

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)
INTRO:
I am trying to do a repair installation of XP Pro from CD. I have a
single SATA drive with a single NFTS partition on it and floppy and
sinlge CD drive (no card readers or other drives what-so-ever). Text
mode setup completes fine. Once GUI mode setup begins, it detects
hardware, prompts me for Product Key, etc. Then it starts its "Copy ing
Files" phase.

PROBLEM:
Right off the bat, it says that it couldn't copy infocomm.dl_. It does
this for every file that it tried to copy. Once it finished (not)
Copying Files, it begins Registering Components. It says that it
couldn't find file c:\windows\whatever.

I restarted the computer and tried the repair again. Text mode setup
completed fine. GUI mode started, asked me for a few things, then
started the file copy phase. Again, it couldn't copy any of the files.
When I clicked on Browse, I noticed that my drive had been assigned the
letter D: instead of C:. I actually didn't even have a C: drive (CD-ROM
is letter E:). The odd part about this is that when setup was trying to
register the dlls that it couldn't copy, it referenced that file as
"c:\windows\..."

QUESTION:
So my question is: Why is setup trying to copy and register files to
drive C: when it assigned the drive as D:? Is there a way to correct
this? How does setup determine drive letter assignments?

OTHER FACTS:
Recovery console sees the HDD as drive C: (but it determines this from
setupact.log, right?)
WinPE (based on XPSP1) sees the drive as drive c:
Installation to be repaired is XPSP2. CD used to repair is XPSP1.

Thanks,

Brandon
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I think I may have found a fix for my problem.

I was finally able to find a KB article that shows where Windows stores
drive letter assignments and how to change them (not using the MMC snap-in).
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=223188 - How To Restore the System/Boot
Drive Letter in Windows

I am going to try this tonight when I get home. I'll update this thread
with the results in case anyone else has this same issue.

-Brandon
 
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