AFAIK you can sysprep XP Home but the mini setup will not run after the image is applied so you will have to go through the regular Windows Welcome Setup stuff. The only way to do a fully silent install is to use XP Professional.
Well, that makes better sense. I just restored from the sysprepped image and I got the Welcome screens again. I was starting to figure either something was broken or it had to do with something between Home vs. Pro.
The Restore still took only about 5 minutes which is a loooot less than the usual 35+ with questions in the middle. I'd rather deal with a Welcome screen at the end. Granted, I still have to walk away while it does the CommandLine stuff but it's already a vast improvement.
I'm going to take the same HD and pop it in another system I have here and try the same image on it to see how it does for devices, etc. (Again, it's for repetition and confidence)
On this last one, I forgot to beef up the i386 folder with the missing .FONs and such (thought I'd done that but it comes up with the Welcome screen so it's not wasting much time. Will doublecheck that this time, though)