mjones

Greetings again... THanks to your superb website I seem to be 99.9% of the way along with completing my unattended XP Build. I had posted on the XP forum about getting my OEM files to copy... and thanks to Ctrl-X I found that the problem was since my $OEM$ directory was in the default location ..\i386\$OEM$ that in fact to make the files copy I needed to remove the OEMFILEPATH entry from the answer file. However... During the first step of the install, when the files are being copied.. I get the following error: SETUP WAS UNABLE TO COPY THE FOLLOWING FILE: and this is followed by the filename... I can use ESC to get out of this and end up holding it down for most... but a few times files to get copied! There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason as to what is chosen and what is not, but it is the same result on each test install.. the sames files not copied and same files copied! My DRIVERS folder and all it's contents copy fine and in fact the video and audio get setup just perfect! I have a folder with all of the MS Updates... from which I use the CMDLINES.txt file to install during the build... this works and all it's contents make it to the C drive... However I cannot get a single file copied to the SYSTEM32 directory... I need to copy a NOVELL client folder.. Every folder is copied just fine, the only problem is that there are no files... Any know what might cause this? Permissions are set... the user I have logged on during the install has full admin, not to mention that the share has EVERYONE set to full rights... Looking for any info anyone might have on something to try! Thanks! MJ

Ok... now.. it is certainly the OEMFILESPATH that messes it up.. without it I can get the files to copy! However... now it seems to be randomly copying some files and folders but not all... I did find something online indicating that you have to have a textmode folder inside $oem$, so I am going to try that this go around. In my 2000 unattended install I did have this folder even though there was nothing in it.. we will see... 99.4% now... :-) Thanks for your input Ctrl-X it has been inching me forward!! MJ

Here is the info you were asking about... [setupMgr] DistFolder="\\sdcmexpmj3\xp100" DistShare=xp100 The dist folder is just the UNC to the folder that contains i386 right? Or should this path be to the i386 directory and not one level above it? MJ PS As for the $oem$ contents.. this is right.. the usual fair... $1, $$, C, etc...

It is unable to copy ANY files from $oem$ ... I have checked and rechecked permissions on the directory on the host XP Pro machine.. no problems there, besides the install copies everything from i386 so am pretty sure permissions are correct... I had this problem on my attempt at a 2000 Pro unattended and thought that I solved it by adding the OEMFILESPATH entry to the answer file... Here is my current answer file... (abbreviated for space) ;SetupMgrTag [Data] AutomaticUpdates=1 AutoPartition=1 MsDosInitiated="0" UnattendedInstall="Yes" [unattended] UnattendMode=FullUnattended DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore ExtendOemPartition=1 FileSystem=ConvertNTFS NTUpgrade=No OemSkipEula=Yes OemPreinstall=Yes OemPnPDriversPath="drivers\video;drivers\audio" TargetPath=\WINDOWS [GuiUnattended] AdminPassword=*********************** EncryptedAdminPassword=Yes OEMSkipRegional=1 TimeZone=35 OemSkipWelcome=1 DetachedProgram=%SystemRoot%\System32\REGINI.EXE Arguments=%SystemRoot%\System32\RUN1.INI So there it is... Thanks for keeping tabs on this Ctrl-X... I appreciate it! It would seem I am 99% there! Just need the darn files to copy now that at least the install is attempting it and has located them! THanks, MJ

HELP! The $OEM$ folders are being copied... however, during the initial copy.. I am getting a setup was unable to copy the files error!! Must be something simple I am missing...?? I both recreated the answer file and also removed the OEM file path entry as well.. Is this a permissions issue? Thanks, MJ

Thanks CTRL-X... In fact on my next go around I have already removed the entry for the path, as yes.. I am using the default path for network install.... ...\i386\$oem$ I am also going to recreate my answer file just for good measure.. I hope to update my post in a few hours and will let you know what I find... Thanks, Matt

Well it seems, that despite the fact that my answer file works for everything but the $oem$ directories... I did see one blurb on the forum about re-creating the answer file... well when I ran setup manager.. and requested to modify.... it came back that my file had not been created by setup manager.. so I am wondering if this might have something to do with it... so I will create a new one and go from there.... BTW... I also saw an entry about saving the file as unicode.. however when I tried this, the install fails with an error on line 1, so I a not sure that this is legit... Thanks, MJ

Greetings... I am very sorry for having to post this as I would think that with all the info in your forums and the unattended website.. my install would just crank right along.. but this is just not the case. I am using a netboot disk to boot to floppy to kick off my unattended install... this works great, the install works great... hands off.. all the way, thanks to your guide! However.. my $oem$ folders are not being copied and I cannot for the life of me figure out why. I have played around with using drive mappings, UNC, etc... but no matter what I do... nothing! Here is my setup... XP Pro SP2 PC has a network share with the i386 directory and $oem$ stuff... the answer file is in the i386 directory... and like I said, the install does everything I tell it, except copy the folders! Here is my answer file.... ;SetupMgrTag [Data] AutomaticUpdates=1 AutoPartition=1 MsDosInitiated=0 UnattendedInstall=Yes [unattended] UnattendMode=FullUnattended DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore ExtendOemPartition=1 FileSystem=ConvertNTFS NTUpgrade=No OemSkipEula=Yes OemPreinstall=Yes TargetPath=\WINDOWS OemPnPDriversPath="drivers\video;drivers\audio" OemFilesPath="\\sdcmexpmj3\xp\xp100\i386\$oem$" [GuiUnattended] AdminPassword=***************** EncryptedAdminPassword=Yes AutoLogon=No OEMSkipRegional=1 TimeZone=35 OemSkipWelcome=1 DetachedProgram="%SystemRoot%\System32\REGINI.EXE" Arguments="%SystemRoot%\System32\RUN1.INI" [userData] ProductKey=***************** FullName="***********' OrgName="*****************" ComputerName="" [Display] BitsPerPel=32 Xresolution=1280 YResolution=1024 Vrefresh=75 [TapiLocation] CountryCode=1 AreaCode=207 [setupMgr] DistFolder="\\sdcmexpmj3\xp\xp100" DistShare=xp100 [GuiRunOnce] Command0="rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /in /n \\sdcme-24\canonme1" Command1="rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /in /n \\sdcme-24\canonme2" [identification] JoinDomain=SDCNTPDC DomainAdmin=administrator DomainAdminPassword=********** [Networking] InstallDefaultComponents=Yes [TerminalServices] AllowConnections = 1 As you can see... oempreinstall is set to Yes.. NTUPgrade set to No... I am formatting the PC prior to the install, so that is as fresh as you can get.. What am I missing? Just in case... here is my kick off batch: @rem SetupMgrTag @echo off echo LOADING SMARTDRIVE!!! n:\smartdrv.exe echo STARTING XP INSTALLATION!!! net use x: \\sdcmexpmj3\xp100 set AnswerFile=x:\I386\xp100.txt set SetupFiles=x:\I386 x:\I386\winnt.exe /S:%SetupFiles% /U:%AnswerFile% /e:cmdlines.txt PLEASE HELP!! Thank you! MJ