Drivers integration & related drivers/hardware support removal

[dpluigi]

Hi there.

I am new to nLite and to unattended CD install, so bare with me. Please point me to related posts if my general questions have been already answered clearly elsewhere (I have been looking).

I am currently producing a Windows XP Home edition sp3 starting from the I386 folder generated by an OEM install of XP Home sp2 on my Toshiba Satellite L25-S1216 laptop. The unattended install cd will allow me to carry out a fresh install of Home XP Sp2 OEM. It would also allow me to reorganize it for easier maintenance (image back up, defrag, ...).

Very steep learning curve. nLite is very exciting and full of potentials.

If it fails I modified the install.ini file in the image of my Toshiba Recovery CD but I would loose a lot of specific configurations and time to get my system the way I want (multiple partitions for C:\XP, E:\Programs, D:\PageFile and F\:users; no bloat ware and minimal XP system size; etc...).

I just slipstreamed sp2->sp3 and integrated into the custom Windows XP install CD. All the drivers were extracted from my current system and saved/backup using DriverMax application.

I am getting closer to testing on a virtual machine my first CD install using the answer file generated with nLite. I would appreciate if you could clarify the procedure in integrating drivers and removing the related hardware components.

Thanks in advance also for any suggestions.

*** Questions ****

In nlite's Integrate/ Driver what does "Delete after install" means?

In nlite's Component/ Driver

"If you install drivers for this component after installing Windows, (or you integrate newer driver version,) it's recommended to select this for removal"

- and similarily -

In nlite's Component/ Hardware Support

Since I extracted drivers from my current system (i.e with correct oem drivers for chipset, bios, integrated graphic card and display, ..., manufacturer patch (QFE)), do I need to selects the 'related' drivers and hardware support? (It is strongly recommended for drivers, isn't it?)

How can I track them down?

Windows is the provider for a bunch of then. Are they duplicates of the default install ones and would be safe to select for removal?

What if I don't?

The selected drivers/components will be removed from the CD install image or will they be there but not installed?

(if removed from install cd then I'd to work on copies of the source xp cd folder to try different selection/installs, isn't it?)

I am new to virtual machine applications and I can't purchase one so I'd like a solid and free application for my preliminary tests. I am not sure which is best to start using WMware Player (free) or try out WMware workstations just for this project ?

Anyhow, my mind is on overdrive and my learning curve really steep. I apologize about this lengthy post. Thank you in advance for clarifying these points and for your suggestions.

Cheers!

Donat

Edited November 16, 2008 by dpluigi