(Answer) Sysprep - Msoobe.exe - Application Error The exception unknown software exception

Found the answer at Microsoft's Site, not really a fix and I lost my only good image. but it at least explains the reason.

Operating Systems:
Windows XP Professional

Symptoms:
After running sysprep, upon reboot the operating system reports that there
is an application error with msoobe.exe and another message comes up after
that saying that the system is not fully installed, please run setup again.
The system then reboots after clicking on OK for these messages. Clicking
on Cancel does not change anything.

Other Identifying Issues:
Msoobe.exe - Application Error "The exception unknown software exception
(0xc06d007e) occured in the application at location 0x7c812a5b."
Windows Message - "The system is not fully installed. Please run setup
again"

Cause(s):
WMP 11 (Windows Media Player 11) has issues with sysprep.
Fix / Workaround:
- Windows Media Player 11 has an issue which causes the installation to
completely fail and crash if 'sysprep' is used after your installation.
Completely uninstall Windows Media Player 11 before using sysprep.

Additional Information:
The latest version of sysprep was tried when troubleshooting this error and
the incident still occured. The only thing that worked was to uninstall
Windows Media Player 11 before using sysprep.

(Fixed) Microsoft Windows XP machine missing NTLDR file on startup.

Below are the full error messages that may be seen when the computer is booting.

NTLDR is Missing
Press any key to restart

Boot: Couldn't find NTLDR
Please insert another disk

NTLDR is missing
Press Ctrl Alt Del to Restart
Cause:

1. Computer is booting from a non-bootable source.
2. Computer hard disk drive is not properly setup in BIOS.
3. Corrupt NTLDR and/or NTDETECT.COM file.
4. Misconfiguration with the boot.ini file.
5. Attempting to upgrade from a Windows 95, 98, or ME computer that is using FAT32.
6. New hard disk drive being added.
7. Corrupt boot sector / master boot record.
8. Seriously corrupted version of Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
9. Loose or Faulty IDE/EIDE hard disk drive cable.



On a Microsoft Windows XP machine do the following to restore it back to working order.

1. Insert the Windows XP bootable CD into the computer.
2. When prompted to press any key to boot from the CD, press any key.
3. Once in the Windows XP setup menu press the "R" key to repair Windows.
4. Log into your Windows installation by pressing the "1" key and pressing enter.
5. You will then be prompted for your administrator password, enter that password.
6. Copy the below two files to the root directory of the primary hard disk. In the below example we are copying these files from the CD-ROM drive letter "E". This letter may be different on your computer.

copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\
copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\

7. Once both of these files have been successfully copied, remove the CD from the computer and reboot.

Additional info can be found on Computer Hope's site.

Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD on USB stick

Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD is great for deploying and troubleshooting Windows based boxes. To learn how to create your own BartPE disc, see Bart's PE Builder site.

Additional BartPE Plugins can found here.

WindowsITPro has a nice little article/review on this application.

I've used this a few time and think its great! Lately I've been trying to get it working from a USB flash drive as the performance would be much faster loading to the PE off of a UFD vs. a CDROM. Bart has a discussion on this but my problem seems to be getting the UFD to be formatted and partitioned correctly.

From the link above, Bart provides the following instructions. and you would download the PE2USB101 from here. I had to download the trial Windows 2003 Server installer from Mircrosoft's site.

Installation of PE2USB:
You should copy the files pe2usb.cmd and pe2usb.bin to your
directory.

For successful installing BartPE to a USB flash disk you need:

1) A USB flash disk with a capacity of 256MB or more
2) Server 2003 SP1 (or a release candidate). You can download this from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=02734CEA-7A4B-4D95-B220-8E1708C3ED46
This file is large, about 350MB!!!
Unpack the files from the service pack (this is not installing) with:
sr1sp.exe -x, lets assume you extract it to c:\server2003sp1
Create the folder \srsp1
Copy the file c:\server2003sp1\i386\setupldr.bin to the \srsp1 folder
Expand the file c:\server2003sp1\i386\ramdisk.sy_ to the \srsp1 folder
expand -r c:\server2003sp1\i386\ramdisk.sy_ \srsp1
You can now remove the c:\server2003sp1 folder, not needed anymore...
3) Build BartPE using pebuilder as normal, you must set the output folder to
"BartPE", you do not need to generate an ISO image for now.
4) Run "pe2usb -f " to format and install the files to your UFD.
Formatting is only needed the first time, so next time you can run
"pe2usb " (without -f) to update the BartPE files.

For successful booting BartPE from a USB flash disk you need:
1) A PC that is capable of booting from a USB flash disk with 256MB memory
or more.

I was finally able to get the UFD BART PE bootable through the following step:

1. Created the BART PE disc/directory with a iso ready (test on a CDR that it works properly)
2. Using the "HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, V2.1.8, format the USB drive to FAT partition. It must be a FAT partition to be able to boot, this will limit the drive size to 2GB due to it being FAT.
3. I then downloaded FlashBoot and used its wizard to convert my BART PE iso into a bootable UFD. They have a free trial you can test out first before you buy it for $35, so you know it will work for you and your flash drive. The trial software allows the created UFD to only run once and then erases its own boot records so its not bootable anymore.
   
   I've read on other forums of reports that the flashboot created device can be restored to be bootable again by booting to a Windows XP SP2 disc and going into the Recovery Console while the UFD is plugged in. And running the FIXBOOT {UFD drive letter}: command to repair the boot record of the UFD. I haven't tried this yet, but others reported success with it.
   
   More information about FIXBOOT and FIXMBR can be found here.

Just received an Tech Republic article on this very topic, I haven't read it but I think its a lot of the same stuff I filtered through up above.

Recover lost data with Disk Commander

Recover lost data with Disk Commander

Disk Commander from Winternals Software is one of the most comprehensive data recovery products available today. Read more about from TechRepublic.

Great resource site with information about installation, deployment and systems management automation.

AppDeploy is a great resource site with information about installation, deployment and systems management automation.


AppDeploy is the industry's trusted resource for products and information on installation, deployment and systems management automation. By putting all of the information surrounding this subject in one place, AppDeploySM eliminates the frustrating search for answers through vendor sites, discussion boards, Google, and technical publications. AppDeploySM offers computer administrators a free and easy way to search for answers and best practices to a range of complex issues. As a result, the AppDeploySM community has grown, and continues to grow. AppDeploySM features articles, reviews, product summaries, message boards, downloads and more.

Skype users can use an application called Call Graph to record their phone calls to mp3 now

If you are a Skype user, there is now an application called Call Graph that can record your phone calls to mp3 for you. It records SkypeIn and SkypeOut calls.

Features

• Call Recording: record your calls in an mp3 file, automatically.
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