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XP asks for wrong Installation CD

I have an XP Home machine I got from Dell. Dell provides a decent XP Installation disk (unlike most others who bury the installation on a generic disk Windows cant see). The disk came with XP SP1 already combined and I have applied all Windows updates available. My problem has to do with a corrupted MSOE.dll file in Outlook Express. No problem, I thought, just change the registry key for OE installed (from Q318378) and then reinstall IE6 with the sfc /scannow command.

here is my real problem (at least for this thread). Windows wants to copy files from the Installation CD to the windows\Dllcache directory and prompts for "please insert your Windows XP Professional" disk into the CD Drive. I don't have XP Pro - never have had it. I would guess that there is a registry key that says what version of XP the sfc command looks for - but I can't find it. If I go to the Windows info tools it says Windows Home (like using MSCONFIG and looking in Boot.ini file). All Dell's support tools also say Windows Home. Most of windows knows that this a Home installation - only SFC seems confused.

I ran across this problem about a year ago when I first got the machine and Dell's help desk at that time had me do the install from the Boot Disk outside of Windows. They did not help me with this SFC problem then. I would like to get the SFC version to work - simpler and I believe does less damage to settings, etc.

Anybody know where to tell SFC/WPF subroutines that I have XP Home?

Thanks

Dave

LeeTutor

What happens if you put your XP Home CD in when it asks for the Pro CD?

Do you have, or can you make, a copy of the I386 folder on the CD to your hard drive? If so, then you can re-direct SFC to this folder by making some registry entries/changes, as explained in this answer I copied from one of our top experts, dew_associates:

To enable SFC /SCANNOW on XP based machines (especially Pro) make the following registry changes or entries, whichever applies.

Change #1:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\SourcePath:REG_SZ:<driveletter>:

Note: You only need the actual drive letter and a colon here. As an example, if the flat file i386 folder is on the "D" partition in a folder named WinXP, then the registry entry would be:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\SourcePath:REG_SZ:D:\WinXP

If the flat folder is on a server share that has been mapped (and it must be mapped for SFC to work), and is on mapped drive "k" within a set of installer folders such as "winxp", (as in k:\winxp\i386) the entry would be:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\SourcePath:REG_SZ:k:\winxp

If the i386 folder is at the root of the share or hard drive, then you only need to add the drive letter, as in k:\

Change #2:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\SourcePath:REG_SZ:<drive letter>:

In Windows 2000, you only need to add the drive letter where the i386 folder is located. In Windows XP, you need to create the "actual files within the i386 folder".

As an example, let's presume that you installed XP from a i386 folder on the "D" partition or drive. The registry change appears as follows:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\SourcePath:REG_SZ:d:\i386

Obviously, if the i386 folder is buried within other folders, then registry entry must be changed accordingly.

dbish

ASKER

Thanks for the reply. When it asks me for the XP Pro disk (and XP Home disk is in drive) it bombs out and gives me three choices Retry/More info (which says perhaps not in Drive or drive not working)/or Cancel which just skips that file being copied to windows\dll cache. I have to cancel out of about 70 file copy actions to allow sfc to finish.

I tried your approach - copied whole I386 directory from CD to a new subdirectory on C: drive (I called it I386_orig) and set pointer to that for both install source, and update source. No change - it still prompts me for XP Pro. I then tried changing one more registry key in that section which says CD_Install from yes to no (thinking that it might not look in the drive in this case). Still no change - the stupid "I want your XP Pro disk" message comes back.

Any other thoughts? I had actually thought this would work since maybe there was some id field on the CD that was wrong. No such luck.

Thanks again.

Dave

LeeTutor

Did you reboot after changing the Registry? I believe it remains in memory as it was loaded up at boot...

dbish

ASKER

I can't remember if I did or not but, after trying it now with a reboot, it still has the same problem (both registry keys for source are changed to the copied CD files, the CD_Install key is changed to no, then a reboot, and SFC still asks for XP Pro.

I am assuming that Dell screwed us something on the harddrive image copy. I did run across a key in the same section (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup) called PrivateHash with a binary value. I am wondering if the Windows Pro designation is hidden in there? I don't read binary but I could email a screen shot of the section if you think it would help. (I don't know how to add a screenshot to this thread - if it is possible I could paste it here).

Thanks again for your help.

Dave

dbish

ASKER

Dear LeeTutor:

Still have the same problem. Overnight I went ahead and tried a big fix. I did a Windows Repair/IE6 and OE6 install via booting off the installation disk, Pressing Enter to setup, selecting my current installation, and then Pressing R for Repair.

Fortunately, very few settings seem to have been changed. I reapplied all the Windows Update files. Just for grins, I tried the SFC /scannow program - still have the same problem!

I don't know whether to chalk this up to one of those strange Windows things or whether it is fixable. If have any other ideas let me know.

Thanks for all your help.

Dave

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LeeTutor

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dbish

ASKER

Bingo! The last article nailed it.

The first fix (Q263499) might have helped on XP Pro but the modules named doen't even show up in XP Home.

The last article had, among others, the comment that the source path in the registry should end one level above the actual I386 subdirecory. I moved all the source files to a new I386 directory under C:\windows\I386_orig and changed the pointer in the registry to C:\windows\I386_orig. I also changed the Source Directory in the HKLM\Software\..\WindowsNT\Setup at the same time. Then rebooted and ran - IT WORKS! ! !

Thansk so much for your help.

Dave