March 29, 2008 Booting XP image on Acer T-136 Problems: Error1: "No bootable drives found" and Error2: "missing or corrupt hal file" Causes: Error1: Bios automatically makes first partition on HD 0 invisible to Windows Error2: 5-User XP image originally created on different PC hardware Solution: Remove Customers HD and attach Technician's HD on primary IDE Use Bootit to make Technician's HD all free space Restore small dummy partition. I used the 1 GB XP Data image Install XP from CD onto the free space below the dummy data partition. Boot into windows and set folder options to show all known file types and show all hidden system files. Use command prompt: start >all programs >accessories >command prompt Insert flash drive. Where drive e:\ is a flash drive: C:\windows>dir *.* >e:\win1.txt C:\windows\system32>dir *.* >e:\sys1.txt Attach Customer's original HD as slave on IDE 2 Remember you will need to boot Bootit from floppy drive or CDROM If necessary, save customers important files onto the technician's HD first Use Bootit to Make Customer's Original HD all free space Restore Dummy data partition on customers original HD Restore 5-user XP image onto the free space below the dummy data partition. Check that this partition is bootable: In Bootit >view MBR >set active >apply Restore 5-user Data image onto the free space below the windows partition Resize the 5-user Data partition to max capacity Boot into Windows normally Where f:\ is customers original drive containing XP image of Windows Where h:\ is a flash drive. Use command prompt: start >all programs >accessories >command prompt f\:\windows>dir *.* >h:\win2.txt f:\windows\system32>dir *.* >h:\sys2.txt Install FreeDiff from: http://saltybrine.com Use the flash drive containing win1.txt, win2.txt, sys1.txt and sys2.txt Compare file1, win1.txt, with file2, win2.txt Differences in folders or directories can be ignored If 2 files of same name have same size but different creation date, they are the same Only Note files on the technician HD but not on XP image Only Note files that differ in size Compare file1, sys1.txt, with file2, sys2.txt Differences in folders or directories can be ignored If 2 files of same name have same size but different creation date, they are the same Only Note files on the technician HD but not on XP image Only Note files that differ in size Use your notes and copy from the technicians HD all noted files from: C:\windows to a folder called win, and Use your notes and copy from the technicians HD all noted files from: C:\windows\system32 to folder called sys. Copy all files in the win folder to the windows folder on customer's HD. Copy all files in the sys folder to the windows\system32 folder on customer's HD. Also, you may need to copy the boot.ini file from C:\ on technician’s HD to equivalent Windows root partition of customer's HD. Some editing of boot.ini may be necessary. Copy saved customer's data from the technician's HD to the data partition of the Customer's HD Remove Technician HD. Attach customer's HD as master to primary IDE and boot 5-User XP Image from Customer's original HD. The dummy partition became drive letter "D" and this could NOT be changed. Therefore, for each of the 5 users I had to do the following: Move my documents to drive E:\. Delete existing my documents shortcut on Windows taskbar and create new shortcut to my documents on windows taskbar. Delete the old favorites folder from my documents. Set the download folder of U-Torrent, Ares, and LimeWire to My Shared folder in my documents on drive E:\. Save the test file of Essential PIM to Address + Calendar folder in MY Documents on Drive E:\ ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you ignore error1 and the use of a dummy partition then this basic procedure can be employed to get the XP image to boot on any PC or laptop capable of running Windows XP (800+ MHZ, 20+ GB HD and 256+ MB RAM). A laptop HD may be attached to the IDE of a PC by employing an adapter. A SATA laptop HD needs NO adapter if the desktop PC has SATA on the motherboard. Also, this basic procedure may be used to deploy an image of Windows Vista onto different PC hardware. May the force be with you, my disciples!