Are broken processes typical from Microsoft?

[janas19]

I'm wondering about this question. It has to do with the Windows XP OS. Out of the box XP did not come with support for SATA controllers. But there was an option to load drivers off a floppy for SCSI/RAID devices.

Now I didn't have a floppy drive, so I spent alot of time researching how to install the SATA drivers for XP without a floppy. I finally figured out that MS has a Deploy help file in the Deploy.cab in the "Support Tools" for people in corporate/IT who are using Windows. There is a section in there called "MassStorageDrivers" which details the process. So I follow the instructions to a T. It fails in setup. I double and triple check everything, copying and pasting all the appropriate entries so there's no chance of a typo, download the updated drivers from Intel, and it STILL fails.

I end up using nLite, a third party tool, and it works like a charm. What is this mess? Is this typical of Microsoft that their own processes are flawed? I can understand glitches in foss software like Linux, but we pay for this stuff. It just seems unacceptable.

 

[theevilsharpie]

Microsoft's processes generally work, but they are very complex and leave a lot of room for user error.

In your case, nLite still uses Microsoft's driver injection process for Windows XP, but presents an easy-to-use GUI that makes it difficult to screw it up.

 

[janas19]

Microsoft's processes generally work, but they are very complex and leave a lot of room for user error.

In your case, nLite still uses Microsoft's driver injection process for Windows XP, but presents an easy-to-use GUI that makes it difficult to screw it up.

Ok, but my point is that I followed the exact instructions. Thoroughly read them through, and painstakingly implemented them.

I must be missing something here. It has to be. But I just can't figure out what it is.


Ex:
Burned the ISO using both ISO9660 and Joliet naming system. A user on the MSFN forums said the $OEM$ directory would be changed to _OEM_ using only ISO9660 and the installer would not recognize.

Used the SetupMgr tool to create the proper answer file. Used all the proper syntax and entries as outlayed in the reference.html file of Deploy.cab. Since I was installing from a CD, I ensured that the unattend.txt (the answer file) was changed to winnt.sif in order to be recognized by the winnt.exe installer.

Verified that the winnt.bat file had the proper switches and filepaths and no errors.

Created the proper directories, filled them with the exact files specified in deploy.html, followed the instructions of Intel's readme for driver insertion, etc, etc, ETC.

I basically triple checked and troubleshooted for every error and it still messed up? I mean the nLite tool worked so it's just water under thr bridge at this point, but I'm really sad that following a help file is so troublesome, I guess

 

[corkyg]

XP with all service packs is fully capable of handling SATA drives. The SPs can be downloaded and installed. No floppy needed.

 

[janas19]

XP with all service packs is fully capable of handling SATA drives. The SPs can be downloaded and installed. No floppy needed.

That's what I've heard. My personal experience is at variance with that.

 

[Nothinman]

It depends on the controller and the mode it's in. No single driver can handle them all, or they'd be the same hardware.

 

[VirtualLarry]

XP with all service packs is fully capable of handling SATA drives. The SPs can be downloaded and installed. No floppy needed.

Nope, only if your BIOS/chipset is set to "IDE" or "Legacy IDE", and NOT "Native SATA" or "AHCI".

Some modern chipsets (especially laptops, and OEM motherboards) are hard-set in BIOS to AHCI mode, which serves the purpose of effectively locking out XP on those systems.

Edit: MS will serve the same purpose with the UEFI Cryptographic "secure" bootloader in the BIOS in Windows 8 OEM machines, which will lock out Windows 7 and Linux OSes from ever being used on those machines.

It's one more way that they force people to upgrade, and ensure continued sales of their software.

 

[Binky]

Broken? Really?

XP was released in August 2001. You are calling something "broken" when there was no SATA in 2001. But...there were a lot of floppy drives in use. We can't expect software makers to have a crystal ball telling them how to bake in drivers for future standards.

The only thing broken here is trying to install a 10+ year old OS!

 

[janas19]

Broken? Really?

XP was released in August 2001. You are calling something "broken" when there was no SATA in 2001. But...there were a lot of floppy drives in use. We can't expect software makers to have a crystal ball telling them how to bake in drivers for future standards.

The only thing broken here is trying to install a 10+ year old OS!

Sure the OS is old and shows it's age. But the technical documentation and support files should not show their age. If If they're properly documented and factual, which should be the case, then the processes detailed in them should work. That's all I'm trying to say.

 

[imagoon]

I have manually injected drivers before [ie typed them in to the text installer and then the gui installer]. It was annoying and I made mistakes while doing it but I got it to work per the instructions they have on technet. nlite made it really simple so I used that from then on. Not much longer after that, I learned how to use WDS and the Windows 7 installer to build both network and DVD installers for XP that was prepatched to SP3 / had AHCI / and typically were only 2-4 months in security patches behind.

Their process isn't broken. They just don't make it easy for the laymen.

As a side note I can contrast this with Ubuntu on a Dell D530... "some magic" to make the wireless work. That then seems to have broken the keystore [no idea why] so now it asks me to unlock the keystore to connect to my wireless. That and the sound system fails to do simple things like play MP3s. D530 isn't exactly a rare laptop either and it is pretty typical in that it is all Intel and Broadcom.

Not bashing Linux but it seems a lot of the people complaining about MS forget what it used to be.

 

[SimMike2]

Shocking someone complaining about an OS that is ten years old. In dog years, this is seventy years old. In my opinion, you have absolutely zero right to complain.

 

[VirtualLarry]

That then seems to have broken the keystore [no idea why] so now it asks me to unlock the keystore to connect to my wireless.

I believe that is normal. It stores your WPA/WPA2 key in your keyring, so you have to unlock it with a password for the system to be able to access your wireless password and log in.

At least that's the way it appeared to me, when I used Ubuntu.