For some reason nLite 1.4.5 Beta2 broke my WinXP installation. I'm currently doing data recovery using my Ubuntu LiveCD but I really shouldn't be doing that in the first place!

Why on earth is nLite capable of destroying a Windows installation period? I have no idea how my installation was broke but I do know it couldn't find hal.dll. I tried the recovery console and ended up borking GRUB so my Ubuntu installation is gone too. Bah.

Should'nt it just create a virtual drive or folder to work in, copy the needed files/info from your CDs/system to that area and remaster an ISO once it's done?

It does. o_O

Few thoughts to this:

First of all, this is the wrong forum. *

Second, this is probably a problem that could have been caused by _ANY_ program. Chances are, for hal.dll to go missing, your hard drive probably became corrupt. Look into figuring out what hardware problem caused your hard drive to get scrambled s*** data. If you're using an 80-conductor ATA133 cable, take a look into tracking down an old 40-conductor cable and try using that instead.

But it's going to be a unanimous conclusion that nLite is not at fault here... unless of course, you did something stupid like selecting your Windows folder for where to place the temporary files! Even then, it would have copied an i386 folder and so-on... totally independent of your Windows install. *meh*

edit: * - this topic was originally in the WinXP forum.

Ummm I have done HUNDREDS of nLite installations and haven't yet found that.

XPize caused it for me a couple of times on the newer sp3's.

nLite WILL NOT bork a already installed windows it just modifies the installation files.

yup,

sounds like unlucky timing, or another modification you may have done

what else did you use? (addons?)

Something like this is the culprit. My hardware is fine and it wasn't a settings modification or another conflicting program. Don't ask me how it nuked Windows, all I know is that it did.

That being said, I can't start nLite and give a proper autopsy of what went wrong until I have a working Windows installation, so can someone tell me how to fix it? I think my OEM disks wipe the entire drive when installing WinXP anew which is just out of the question!

I have a working Ubuntu install now which should be of some use.

I copied hal.dll from my OEM disk (actually the ISOs I made of the disks as a backup) so that's taken care of. However, now it's asking for ntoskrnl.exe which I was only able to find as NTOSKRNL.EX_ and I have no idea how to turn that into the file I need.

Removed some flaming that occurred in here. Keep this topic clean of flames and try to help the user figure out what happened. Remember that there is not one single piece of software in existence that is perfect with no flaws, bugs, exploits, etc.

Forum Rules
7.b This community is built upon mutual respect. You are not allowed to flame other members. People who do not respect personal opinions and/or personal work will be warned in first instance. If you ignore the warning and keep on flaming, you will be banned without notice.

--

forkprong,
you will need to navigate to the directory of your NTOSKRNL.EX_ and do the expand command along with the path to where the file(s) should be expanded to.

Did that, and now I get the message "load needed DLLs for kernel"

How delightfully VAGUE!

Any further advice will be quite welcome.

You're probably further destroying your computer the more you keep trying to solve surface problems like this... I can guarantee you that those files were NOT deleted or modified by nLite or any other program for that matter. I've never seen a program do that, ever. nLite certainly wouldn't, unless its supporting runtime, the bastardic .NET Framework, itself caused problems.

Stop trying to solve the immediately visible problems... for example, Windows will tell you it can't find hal.dll if the entire partition or Windows folder is corrupt. Creating a Windows folder and putting hal.dll in there won't fix anything. Running chkdsk on the drive probably will.

So with that, have you run chkdsk on the drive yet? The Windows install CD based chkdsk is really crappy, and doesn't usually even fix any problems. You'll have to slave the drive to another computer, or use another installation, to check it...

(edit: I'm dying to know what flaming went on in here... haha. Funny that people are so passionate about nLite, but those same people would turn around and trash vLite. Hmm...)

I did not read this thread in detail because nLite does not touch the Windows on which it runs.
Only occasion where it uses the registry is during SATA driver integration, but it is just a temporary entry created and removed. So if you experience something like that again and you isolate it down to nLite let me know, but I highly doubt it.
Could be that your machine overheated or hdd got corrupted.

C:\WINDOWS was selected by nLite as my windows installation by default so I just let that be being the n00b that I was. If this was the root of my problems (further research points out that it might be the case) then I suggest nLite be made so it will ignore C:\WINDOWS.

I recently did a reinstall from my OEM CDs and luckily there was an option to reinstall windows without reformatting the entire disk and now everything works fine. However, I get an error when I run nLite that says it "detected an unfinished nlite operation" and insists on a pristine installation. I think my disks reformat my entire drive when it does a pristine install so that's not an option. Is there a way to eliminate this error manually?

BTW, hal.dll was totally MISSING so nLite did something. chkdsk did nothing. A bunch of files were missing and I have no idea where they went.

My Ubuntu installation (after restoring GRUB) works fine and it's on the same disk and a recovery installation of WinXP went without incident and also works. No corruption here and there was certainly no overheating.

However, after restoring windows nLite is now giving me a "detected unfinished nlite operation" error and a pristine install is out of the question. How do I remedy this?

Even though such a check would be fairly simple to implement, it is not fair to suggest that checking to make sure that the system folder is not selected due to user error. Additionally, nLite does not select a folder by default, the folder path dropbox is blank.

Furthermore, I just selected my C:\windows and I received this message:

---------------------------
Warning!
---------------------------
CD Ident file not detected! Make sure you copied it from the original CD (and all root files).

You can copy it now without restarting nLite.


Copy win51ip to c:\windows\
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

This is an error message that basically says, "the currently selected folder does not have the files that a normal installation cd have."

A form of check was implemented after all.

Will add this check, this is a serious problem. But not everyone has i386 folder in their Windows folder, I think manual SP install leaves that.

I get the distinct, and very unfortunate, feeling that this particular user has absolutely no idea how nLite works or what it is designed to do, by the following points:

1) Selected C:\WINDOWS as the folder to operate on. No excuses. You selected it. nLite would never do such a thing.
2) Spoke about an unfinished nLite error - even though that error is brought up by selecting a folder that's unfinished - that is, your WINDOWS FOLDER AGAIN!
3) Thinks that nLite has anything to do with a clean install or upgrade/repair...

I think someone needs to take the fork out of forkprong's hands before he shoves it in the outlet again... Can someone help point him in the direction of detailing exactly what nLite does? Like, that it creates an installation DISC, not modifies an existing installation...?

Actually, when I reinstall my OS I automatically have an i386 folder there filled with a backup of all the major files just as you'd expect. I let Windows Update do all my updates because doing it manually means nabbing and installing 90+ updates and that's just insane.

As mentioned by tap52384 there is a short check of sorts, but the check suggests that you solve the error by copying the win51ip file to C:\WINDOWS which is what I did. Big and lethal mistake to this new nLite user. I hope that gets fixed.

BTW is there a script available that will allow me to nab all of these updates at once instead of manually nabbing them one at a time? Am I correct in believing they'll be required so they can be 'slipstreamed' when I remaster?



And I get the distinct feeling I shouldn't be answering a post belonging to someone with such poor social skills and a great love of the sound of their own 'voice' but I have a minute to set you straight...



WRONG. It did select C:\WINDOWS and suggested that I copy win51ip to there. I did as suggested, hence the problem.

1. It gives me this error whether I select C:\WINDOWS or a new folder that houses a copy of the win51ip file and i386 folder.
2. The problem is that it's detecting that I did work on that system and that the remaster was interrupted before it could finish (because it broke WinXP). it's a nice trait for a program to have (to start where you left off) but if that means working in a directory that will only break the system again then what's the freaking point! nLite should be able to ignore C:\WINDOWS at all costs and the fact it was even able to look there is a major problem.
3. What I need fixed is the ability to use nLite again on my system again but on my CDs. If I could convince nLite that I canceled my last remaster attempt that should be enough to start from square one again.
4. The condition of the current WinXP installation shouldn't even be a factor. It should run as long as the .NET 2.0 is installed, can write to a user-defined working directory and has CDs/DVD to work on.

This error is an odd one that shouldn't really be there. Period.



After reinstalling my OS via a recovery option nLite said that it needs a pristine install of WinXP in order to work. That's a direct quote. It's silly because as I just mentioned it shouldn't even be looking at C:\WINDOWS and nLite should work as long as the dependencies are there.



I know exactly when nLite does. I intend to use it to remaster a single, up-to-date WinXP installation disk out of my current out-of-date 8 CD set filled with programs I never used.

I assume the admin will now take a second to delete your post. Seriously, are you fifteen?

It would be helpful if you would post your lastsession.ini file as well as the directory structure of your hard drive.

Also helpful would be the COMPLETE history of the 'original' XP cd-rom/iso you've been trying to mod.

You do know that you simply MUST start with a 'virgin' XP iso image as distributed directly by MSFT. No mods, no addons, no hacks.

Your 1st and fatal error is here. nLite does not work with a "temporary" folder, everything is done in the same folder. Also it doesn't copy the files anywhere if the files are already present on the HDD.
Ignore flames from people with less than 1000 posts . Everybody does stupid things at some point, mocking people always comes back in your face when it's your turn.
Now, have you already tried to uninstall and reinstall nLite so it starts without trying to catch up with the previous crash ?

Just did a search for lastsession.ini and and found nothing. I uninstalled nLite and deleted its folder so if it was in there it's long gone. Sorry.



I wasn't trying to mod a cd/iso at the time. I started this thread more or less as a bug report but I'm also using it to help me remaster.

I am now trying to remaster using my disks which are virgin quality. I might be able to remaster but found a few bugs and curiosities that should be dealt with before I continue:

1. It couldn't find the following files even though they were present on my CD (I put copies in the i386 directory):
- layout.inf (found in i386/inf)
- netrass.inf (found in i386/inf)
- nettcpip.inf (found in i386/inf)
- netmscli.inf (found in i386/inf)
- netserv.inf (found in i386/inf)
- intl.inf (found in i386/inf)
- usbport.sys (found in i386/system32/drivers)

2. nLite also needed syssetup.inf but it wasn't on my CD so I used a version I found in C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 but I doubt its usefulness since it seems to be related to SP2 and my disks are SP1.

3. nLite only checked one CD. I checked my second disk (out of 8) and found a i386 directory so some files may have been overlooked.



Look closer and you'll see I make no mention of a temporary folder and NLite DOES ask the user to define a working folder to store the files it nabs from your disks.



Yes I have. I tried remastering C:\WINDOWS again just to get more info on the bug but now I'm trying my installation disks. I encountered some oddities as mentioned above.

Just so everyone knows I'm using a HP Pavilion a420n and I had to burn my own recovery CDs.

There's your danm problem you are using recovery disks from HP that are already full bloated!!! You need to do a little research to properly clean your setup disks.

An ORIGINAL XP disk is less than 500 megs. NOT 9 frakkin CD's!

**exactly** what do you mean by 'remastering c:\windows'??

From what you say and believing you know what nLite is about, I could only see two possibilities.
Either
-you considered C:\Windows as your source and were expecting nLite to copy the files to a temporary or "virtual drive or folder to work in" (what ever you may now call it, it's the same concept) where they would be processed. But you pointed to C:\Windows when nLite asked for "Windows installation files to be customized" (and not just "Windows installation" like you write). Here you'd just have been mistaken, but you say I should look closer and that "NLite DID ask the user to define a working folder" (not temporary! ) so I must conclude you were in the second scenario:

-you had a CD as source and choosed C:\Windows as directory for your files to be copied on it, which I won't comment.
I wish you good luck.

yup, you'll need a clean xp disc (not a manufacturer one)

nlite runs like a dream then, you get zero error messages or missing files


as for the hotfixes, you can download ryanvm (google him) 's hotfix pack, it's a .7z file, you just select that as a hotfix in nlite and it'll be up to date then

-bare in mind, xp sp3 is out very shortly, so i'd just use that


there's no file copying needed by nlite, only the whole xpcd to a suitable folder, such as C:\XPCD


as said above, we all start out somewhere , it's like driving a car, if you do it the wrong way you're heading for trouble

I intend to debloat the CD set that I have so I only end up with one CD, I can only assume nLite was made with OEM disks in mind in addition to retail WinXP CDs.

As for the 500MB, the first CD did end up producing about that many files, but as I mentioned there's a i386 folder on the second CD and I'm worried that I could end up with missing files when I remaster because nLite didn't check for additional CDs.


nLite used C:\WINDOWS instead of an installation CD/DVD as it's remastering source and it ended up destroying my XP installation. Don't ask me what exactly went wrong but nuhi is aware of this now and will likely prevent nLite from using C:WINDOWS in the future.



nLite was able to choose C:\WINDOWS as the file source with little or no input from me. That's the heart of the bug. If nLite was going to do anything (and it ended up doing *something*) it should have known better than to fool around with C:\WINDOWS. Seeing as I was new to nLite I expected it to know what it was doing (who am I to question it!) but that ended up in disaster. nuhi will fix that no doubt now that he knows.



Bah, I was hoping for OEM support. I hope there's a way to work around this (and possibly support in the future).



Found it, thanks. I may as well practice remastering with nLite just the same. I need it.



Obviously there is SOME file copying if its moving files from the CD to an empty folder on your HDD. What's odd is that I can't find to location of the DLL files that went missing when nLite used C:WINDOWS as the source.

nuhi will fix. nuhi will fix

please explain exactly what you mean by remastering.....

Taking media and remaking/re-recording it (usually to improve quality). Mostly used for the music/movie business but it also applies to remaking install disks of OS CDs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remaster
http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Knoppix_Remastering_Howto

wrong concept, it's the beginning of your problem here methinks.

do you have your .ini files to post yet?

Your lack of knowledge busted your install, not nlite.

I'm still trying to figure out how nlite automatically chose a folder. When I run it, I get this...

Nothing chosen in the address field.



Nothing in the drop down.



Hit Browse and Desktop is highlighted.



If you hit OK here, you get a nice message telling you what you've done wrong, and what to do to make it right.



If Nuhi makes any changes to the program, it's not to fix a bug, but to make it more NOOB proof.
Have a nice day.

you need to step back and re-read all the post in this thread mate

nothing is broken for nuhi to 'fix', you've just tackled it from completly the wrong angle (i'm not trying to be mean to you here by the way)

'remastering' your windows cd as you put, sounds like you're trying to botch a hp disc into a windows one, you will fail at this

everyone in this thread is trying to help

you just quoted what i wrote, then reworded it! (the only file copying you need to do is the xpdisc to a suitable folder, like C:\XPCD )

your install is probably screwed if you've messed with C:\Windows

reinstall with your hp disc, and either get a clean xp disc, or just forget about nlite..

I don't have the lastsession.ini file to post (http://www.msfn.org/board/145-Beta2-Broke-...323#entry751323 at the very top).

What do you mean by wrong concept?

The problem is that nLite was able to work on C:\WINDOWS at all. It really is a major potential bug be it NOOB or otherwise. It should really only prompt for the CD/DVD (or ISO image(s) if that is supported).

As for the selection of C:\WINDOWS it was probably a fluke but it's been so long I can't remember.

That's how it should work but that's not what happened in my case.

I was talking about how the DLL files were moved from C:\WINDOWS (the source) to nowhere which made recovering my OS even more difficult. Since I did a recovery install of WinXP I've been unable to repeat what I've done because I keep getting this error:



and it prevents further progress so I can't repeat the bug.

An easy way to prevent new users from accidently using C:\WINDOWS is to remove the current "locating the windows installation" dialog and replace it with an interface similar to that found in burning programs by having 2 options:

1) the ability to search CD/DVDROM drives only
2) the ability to search your filesystem for ISO files only

I just hope that the mysteries of where the files went when I attempted to use C:\WINDOWS as my source or why I can no longer repeat the process, aren't indicative of deeper flaws in an otherwise well-designed program, but they should be investigated nonetheless.

The ability to put your cat in your microwave is also a major potential bug. Do you have an idea how much time, money and energy is wasted in the world to protect people from themself ?
The restrictions you expect from Nuhi are not even matching how nLite works now. Please just admit it, you were mistaken and still are. You still don't know what your source is, still think dlls have ben "copied to nowhere" and lost.


Some programs are for advanced users.

most of us have a copy of the xp disc on our hard drives (way faster to copy from a hard drive than a cd), manually creating C:\XPCD is the easiest way


-agreed though, you shouldn't be able to select x:\Windows as the source.. i've not seen anyone else on this forum do that though, and this program is used by a lot of people

I think it's time to stop feeding this troll.

This thread is amusing to say the least. Here we have one poster claiming one thing and everyone else claiming another. Statistically speaking, who do you think is correct?

I think we can all agree that nLite is for advanced users. Nuhi should spend his time adding features/eradicating bugs and not id1ot-proofing (not pointed to anyone in particular) the software so my mother can use it. I (along with a lot of people on this board) have made 100’s of nLite installations (virtual or not); it’s a science to make a reliable nLite’d installation disc. I save 2 or 3 presets that I use on every installation of Windows (saves time, makes installations universal) along with an ISO of a virgin copy of XP (extract, dump it into its own folder on the desktop, point nLite to that folder and let it do its magic).

This isn’t the first time someone new to nLite posts something along the lines of “help me restore XXXXX” or “omg, it destroyed my installation”. I remember when I first started tinkering with nLite, those were some rough, frustrating days/weeks. I promise, you WILL fail at least one installation of Windows after it was nLite’d. The entire process is entirely too complex to remember all the intricate details involved with making it not completely worthless. There’s a fine line between removing too much and removing too little. Use virtualization software (VMWare, VirtualBox, etc).

Above all, have patience. Rome wasn’t built over night, nor will your“perfect” Windows installation.

Its amazing that after a moderator says that flames had to be removed that people keep flaming and accuse me of being a troll.

nLite should not be able to break an XP install no matter how it is used, PERIOD, because that is not it's purpose. Saying "LOL U USED IT WRONG U SUK" is not only useless in reviving my XP but is a detriment to the community surrounding nLite. What everyone fails to notice it that nLite shouldn't allow you to use it wrong.

Also, saying it is for 'advanced users' is no excuse. I am an advanced user but I had no idea how nLite itself worked. Having to gain experience in a program by experiencing tragedies like this is no way to learn about a program.

In the second panel nLite says "Locating the Windows Installation" and C:\WINDOWS is the obvious choice for that to anyone new to the program. It should be more descriptive on what you need to start the process. Other than not being able to use C:\WINDOWS, it needs a prompt to appear if you try to choose C:\WINDOWS saying:

"Sorry, but choosing C:\WINDOWS as a source directory can break your Windows installation. Please use your WinXP CD or copy the files on that CD to it's own directory on your hard drive."

After reading about C:\XPCD I can see the reason to have the browser it does, so that's fine.

Since C:\WINDOWS could be selected by the program I didn't expect it to cause a program. The program should know what to do, who am I to argue with it? No warnings, no problem. I assumed it would copy the up-to-date files in C:\WINDOWS to a separate working directory and do its thing, but it broke XP instead. I wanted to warn the developer of the flaw and get help restoring Windows but I found jerks too busy enjoying the sound of their own eliteness to help.

"I am an advanced user"
If so, then you should read manuals, forums, etc before trusting a new program to perform work on the Windows directory.

"What everyone fails to notice it that nLite shouldn't allow you to use it wrong."
That's about the same as a razor blade manufacturer trying to ensure you can't cut someone's throat with it. nLite is a tool, much like a gun. Both very dangerous if used improperly.

"I wanted to warn the developer of the flaw..."
What flaw? nLite is programmed to look for an i386 folder, you just happened to point it to c:\windows which happend to have an i386 folder (blame your OEM, not nLite). I think part of the problem is your slight misunderstanding of the phrase "Windows installation files" and the "Windows folder". All in all, this entire thread is much ado about nothing.

I know nuhi is a nice guy who wants to appease the situation but please do more research before making threads demanding someone's head on a pike. All of us on this board respect nuhi and his efforts he has put into the program so we get very defensive when someone claiming our beloved nLite broke someone's XP only to find out it was more of a misunderstanding with a new user. Good luck.

Oook people.

I said I will adjust, it is really not a problem.

I don't feel 100% responsible because the user did not know what the nLite is before using it. But still many newcomers select Windows folder and they get the popup telling them that they need installation files.
In this case it passed that check, first time ever.

Gonna lock this now, thank you for defending me but it was kinda an overkill.