The next issue I have encountered is Windows XP’s requirement for an IDE floppy disk drive during the text mode install stage.  As the laptop has a SATA controller Windows XP does not have the driver support built in, normally you would just download the drivers and during the text mode install press F6 to add additional drivers, not a chance!  Without getting too descriptive about the problem the easiest solution was to build a new Windows XP installation CD with the drivers integrated into the CD.  The easiest way to achieve this is to use nLite.

nLite is a tool for permanent Windows components removal and pre-installation Windows configuration. After removal there is an option to make bootable image ready for burning on cd or testing in virtual machines.
With nLite you will be able to have Windows installation which on install does not include, or even contain on cd, the unwanted components.

Features

• Service Pack Integration
• Component Removal
• Unattended Setup
• Driver Integration *
• Hotfixes Integration **
• Tweaks
• Services Configuration
• Patches ***
• Bootable ISO creation

* - Textmode (CD Boot) and normal PnP
** - hotfixes with white icons, *KB*.exe, including update packs
and Internet Explorer 7
***- supports generic SFC, Uxtheme, TcpIp and Usb Polling patching.

Well my new work laptop has arrived but being able to use it with our standard corporate build does not appear so straightforward.  Firstly the workstation management software we use, Novell Zenworks, does not support the hardware ‘out-of-the-box’ so after a short while I found the following solution:

• Download the latest Zenworks for Desktops 7.1 Hot Patch 5 boot cd from Novell
• Boot the laptop using this an d at the imaging menu select ‘Manual mode’
• An error will occur saying that it was unable to load the network module
• Type the following commands at the bash prompt
  • modprobe tg3
  • ifconfig eth0 up
  • dhcpcd
  • img
• This will initialise the network card to allow you to image the laptop.