Anyone make a slipstream of win7 with all your drivers ready?

[ejohnson]

I redo my OS usually pretty often due either hdd swaps, upgrades, or just to get a fresh install.
My biggest issue has always been final setup, I hate setting everything up how I want it, installing drivers, updating drivers, removing stuff I dont want.

So anyways, have any of you guys tried to make a slipstream version of windows that already has things removed, drivers installed, system updates done and steam and other needed programs installed?

 

[MattyB]

I would be interested in hearing about this. I reinstall Windows pretty often too and it's a pain in the backside. The updates are the killer for me.

 

[ejohnson]

I will make a image soon for my m17xr4 and let you know how it goes. Planning to do it tomorrow during work.

If it runs great then I will link you to all the software I used so you can run one of your own.

 

[MattyB]

Excellent! Thanks buddy

 

[DDuB420]

I use Clonezilla to image my AW to bootable USB. Very handy once you understand the settings.

 

[ejohnson]

Alright so I have hit my first road block.... driver integration. The system is asking for .inf files for the drivers... dell uses .exe files for its driver installations, so I think im going to have to manually pick and pull drivers out of the files.

Might have to wait till lunch time to get some of the drivers working.

EDIT.
Looks like I can get my infs by using 7zip or possibly by running the installer, then hitting cancel after the files have been unpacked. Then they should be sitting in my appdata folder.

- - - - - Updated; Consecutive Post Auto Merged - - - - -

OK, so I pulled a few driver packages and tried finding the files I needed.
Some of them were right there and easy to find, others were hidden among 30+ inf files
Some didnt even have the inf files needed.... sooo the hunt continues to get all the files I need.

I think a fair amount of these slipstream files I will be making are going to be universal among m14xr2, m17xr4, and m18xr2... so once I find the right files, I can share them.

I will be making one for my m17xr4, m14r2 and m11xr1s along with my x51

 

[DDuB420]

What program are you using?

 

[ejohnson]

RT Seven lite

Using this guide
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/so...ld-a-slipstream-windows-7-install-disc-715117

 

[shankc]

That will be excellent m8 will save me a load of time. Will you just be able to burn an iso to DVD or memory stick of a certain size and just be able to boot from device and everything will load as that would be great at the minute I have to use AW disc then I have the drivers on my storage drive in the right order. While this helps a single bootable device would be even better. Thanks for your hard work look forward to the finished product

 

[ejohnson]

Yes it would be bootable. Pop the cd in, click yes, then walk away... when you get back the computer will be running with updated drivers and all the system updates.

I am taking a break right now from figuring out the drivers so I can finally try to recover 9tb of data from my server that crashed.

 

[shankc]

That's sounds great their will be a lot of grateful people. I know I will but people who haven't reinstalled their OS on a alienware system will love it as I know when I got my ssd I cloned my hardrive at first as it was a bit worrying in case I never got my alienware theme or command centre installed properly and I had done plenty of fresh installs but not on an expensive alienware but I ended up biting the bullet but if I new of something like you are doing I wouldn't of been as worried and it will be so convenient when you just want a fresh install so I thank you again and look forward to trying the finished product

 

[ejohnson]

One of the nice things, once I get the process down and figured out, I can make tailor made system installs with custom backgrounds, drivers set up for each computer along with programs that you want on the computer when your done.

 

[shankc]

Sounds really good I look forward to it

 

[ejohnson]

6tb into my recovery and I have found about 1.2 million files.... about 160k that I can recover.
Hoping drive 3 has better luck, drive 3 only has a few hundred files, but they are giant files.