[ngelsa]

Hello Everyone,

I searched the forum but couldn't seem to find what I need, so I decided to start a new post (I apologize if this same problem has already been posted previously).
I am using HP Media Center m7160n that didn't came with any OS Disc; moreover, I was asked to create a set of 2 Recovery DVD Discs. On the other hand, I have recently been hacked, so I have re-formatted my computer a couple of days ago; however, I hates it when HP installs all those other craps that sometimes I couldn't get rid off, so I turned to nLite. In the past I had successfully created two versions of Win XP Home SP2 disc by using nLite, so I thought slipstreaming MCE would just be the same, but turned out it was not.

Everything was going fine until the second disc was prompted to be inserted so nLite can copy the CMPNENTS folder over in order for MCE to work, so I inserted the second disc of my recovery disc; however, nLite didn't detect it, so I manually searched for the folder in disc 2 with no luck. I then searched disc 1, didn't find CMPNENTS but found the followings:
\I386\SONIC.CA_
\I386\MEDIACTR.CA_
\I386\PLUS.CA_

The above three files I explicitly searched for because I read from post #7 on this thread and it talked about manually creating the folder: http://www.msfn.org/..._1

Interestingly, all the file names I have seen on this forum ends with CAB_ not CA_, so I have a few questions:
1. I am wondering if I need to change the extension to CAB_?
2. Does this means that my recovery discs cannot be used for slipstreaming MCE SP2?
3. Is there any way to work around this problem?
4. If I decided to give up the MCE edition (ie. not copying over the CMPNENTS folder), will I　still be able to install XP Pro and slipstream XP2 into it to create a bootable CD / DVD?


Thanks a lot!
Elsa.

This post has been edited by ngelsa: 16 May 2010 - 11:14 PM

[ricktendo]

Those are not CAB's they are CAT's

[allen2]

The .CA_ files you found might be the right ones (most likely):
To be sure you'll need to use expand from command line to uncompress them to .cab and then check with 7zip (for example) if you can open them and see files inside (that's the best way).
If they are .cat files (text files), you should be able to open them with notepad.
As for your second question, some recovery discs are repacked completly, so it's hard to slipstream.
For the fourth, it is yes and it is easy.

[Kelsenellenelvian]

What are the file size of those ca_ files?

[ngelsa]

ricktendo64, on 17 May 2010 - 02:07 AM, said:

Those are not CAB's the are CAT's

Thanks! I learned something new =D

[ngelsa]

allen2, on 17 May 2010 - 02:55 AM, said:

The .CA_ files you found might be the right ones (most likely):
To be sure you'll need to use expand from command line to uncompress them to .cab and then check with 7zip (for example) if you can open them and see files inside (that's the best way).
If they are .cat files (text files), you should be able to open them with notepad.
As for your second question, some recovery discs are repacked completly, so it's hard to slipstream.
For the fourth, it is yes and it is easy.

I think I will go with the 4th one for now to get my system up and running, but I will definitely look into using the expand from command method.
On a side note, when I clicked on SONIC.CA_ it tells me to select a program to open the file, so I selected Notepad. After a few moments notepad was then loaded with weird characters =/

Thanks,
Elsa.

[ngelsa]

Kelsenellenelvian, on 17 May 2010 - 03:47 AM, said:

What are the file size of those ca_ files?

SONIC.CA_ is 6.79KB
PLUS.CA_ is 17.7KB
MEDIACTR.CA_ is 26.9KB

[allen2]

You need to expand the files before opening it with notepad or it will display binary content as ascii.
That's pretty small for cab files but the only way to be sure is to expand them.

[ngelsa]

I will try the expand file method if I have a chance this weekend =D
If they cannot be expanded or cannot be opened after the expand method then that pretty means the 2DVDs I have cannot be slipstream-ed right?

Thanks!

[adulti]

any news?