mbouchard

It has been a while, but we have had similar issues with using scripted diskpart on some systems, mostly older systems, where diskpart would hang when trying to clean the drive. Basically if we ran diskpart manually this problem would not occur and the setup would go on with no issues. Luckly we did away with the older systems and other than virtualPC I have not had this issue again. Never did find out what was wrong. While the above is not really helpful, it does lead into my questions, have you tried running DiskPart Manually? Is there a hidden partition on the HD? What Brand HD are installed in the Gateways? What controller is used?

Now if I can just get my wife to think this...

When I first started working with WinPE I tried to do away with the "press any key..." prompt and also fell into the never ending loop. What I found to be happening is that unless you remove the disk after setup has completed it's initial GUI setup and before it has rebooted back to the disk you will get into this loop. I decided that I would rather take a little time upfront then require a tech to be present to remove the disk in the middle of the setup.

One thing to keep in mind when running setup from a CD is the SFC (system File Checker) and being prompted for the CD in some cases where the source files are needed. If this info in the registry is pointed to a cd even if the i386 folder is local it will still look at the CD. In my Launch.vbs script I include some code to set this reg key to point to the HD local. Glad I can help. Mike

Nelix, I use a variation of what you are talking about doing. Basically, after booting PE, I prompt the technician for some information, then run diskpart automatically using a script. I then format the HD and copy the i386 folder to the HD, specifically to C:\NT\I386. I then launch winnt32.exe from the local drive and off we go. I have attached an example of what I am doing. Included you will find both a CD method and a network method. I have also included the folder structure of each but have removed any server info and inhouse developed apps. Mike PE.zip

How about WMI? If I am not mistaken, BartsPE supports it.

Try setting that to no. If I remember correctly, and it has been while, you can't use autologon if you encrypt the admin password.

I use Win PE 2004 with the Gx280's with no problems, had to add drivers to get it working with the Dell Precision 370 though.

The link that I provided in my first post explains how to do this, look under Setting local installation source options

What happens when a new user launches Office for the first time it is not installing office but setting up the users office profile. Now, as to your problem with being prompted for the CD when a new user logs in. How are you installing Office? Are you creating an Admin install then including it on the CD? If so, you may want to look at using the Compressed CD install method, you can find info Here.

I put any files I run into the StartNet.cmd file and have not had any problems with running anything.

Yes, that will be all you need to "pause" the script. You would just add it after you run the program.

I do not believe that WinPE is what you are looking for. Some can better explain this, but WinPE is essentially a command-line interface that allows admins access to the system. Many here use it to setup a computer. What I think would be better for you would be to use VirtualPC or VMware. VirtualPC is a microsoft product and can be downloaded from their site for a 45 day eval. This will allow you to install windows 2000 guest OS on your Windows XP Host PC without disrupting your host PC. Mike

Are you adding anything to the XP i386 that makes it too large to fit on the PE cd? One possible way to get 2 CD's working is, with CD1, setup your clean HD and copy a script to the drive. Run that but have a pause, msgbox or a loop that waits until a particular file/folder is seen in the system drive (CDrom). Then you could switch the CD's and either click OK on the msgbox or the script could just pick up when it finds the file/folder. This might work but I have not checked it. Also, one reason we copy down the i386 folder to the HD is that the files will be present if there is ever a need for the setup CD, which helps with system file checker and add/remove windows components.

One way to check and see if it took the info you entered is to add a pause (msgbox "pause") to the launch.vbs file around line 199, this will allow you time to view the scripts and the unattend.txt file. As to the loop do this, add a Msgbox "pause" just below this line WshShell.Run "cmd /c rename c:\nt\custom\instos.vbs instos1.vbs",1,TRUE then look in the folder. Tell me what you have in this folder and post the instos1.vbs file. Mike

Take a look at the clientOS and server folders. I have placed the folders for each OS/Server there, you would just need to copy in the appropriate i386 folder in. You can only have 1 OS/Server per PE disk unless you are using a bootable DVD which I have not tried to do. Remove lines 418 and 420 from the launch VBS file I just uploaded. No, just add what you want to the unattend section. you can, I think that I originally set this up using Frontpage but then started to use EditPlus, my vbs editior. Hope this answers your questions, let me know if you have any more. Mike

It has been a long time since I have edited this script, will need to make some changes to my zip files to reflect my current production scripts. But here is an updated launch.vbs that should work for you. On the first issue, was the reboot happening after some command windows flashed on the screen and if so, did you launch PE after the reboot? Where were you getting the file not found error? launch.zip

Here is the file. This includes files and folder structure for both a network and a CD based install. PE.zip

If you take a look at some of my first posts I have files that are configured for installing the OS from a CD. I would need to look around here for it but the post is there. Mike

This would all depend on how in depth you want to get and your programing knowledge as you could great a GUI interface in VB, C++, HTA (HTML Application), or others whose Run times you can get working. I have gone the HTA route as I am not that familiar with any sort of programing. I might be mistaken, but I think that booting PE in RIS is slower than booting to the PC. But I have not used RIS and PE so am not sure on this.

What is wrong with the reboot into text mode? It is just part of the process and is where, if I am not mistaken, the HAL is configured.

What do you mean by "how does microsoft do it with their installation"?

Installing from the network does work, it is how we do it where I work. The link posted helps greatly. One thing to consider when deciding on how to deploy Office, check out Taking Advantage of a Local Installation Source in the Preparing to deploy section. As long as you have space on the local HD, installing using the above method makes it a little easier to patch the local installs and to update the installation source without breaking the healing point.

Yes this is normal, all you would need to do after running winnt32 would be to exit the CMD window, I think it is titled Starnet.cmd, but if you use vbscript you could exit all open existing cmd windows to make sure you reboot. For instance I use this to exit up to 6 open cmd windows. Do'Reboot PC. Close Up to 5 open CMD windows Do While Counter < 5 Counter = Counter + 1 If Counter = 6 Then Check = False Exit Do End If WshShell.AppActivate "cmd" WshShell.sendkeys "exit" WshShell.sendkeys "~" Loop Loop Until Check = False You are able to fully script the install in that after 5 min of a techs time, Windows will install with no further input. You are able to put a graphical interface (some use C++, VB, or HTA) on the setup to aliviate technician errors in selecting setup options. Unfortunately our helpdesk is not the greatest and they keep bringing in temps, so the method we use for setting up the systems is faily id*** proof. As long as they can read they can get the system setup. I have not used Ris so can not answer this. I would be happy to share what I have with you if you would like. Mike

This is the command line that I use with my 2K install via PE. Note the bolded text, this is what you need to continue without a reboot after diskpart. winnt32.exe /Noreboot [B]/Syspart:C /TempDrive:C[/B] /unattend:c:\nt\custom\unattend.txt When you call the setup (Winnt32.exe) make sure that you use wait on return WshShell.Run "winnt32.exe unattend:filename.txt /s:z:\i386 /copyfile:LANG",1,TRUE and the use sendkeys to send exit to the cmd window. I have been using this code since verion 1.0 and have never had a failure. Do'Reboot PC. Close Up to 5 open CMD windows Do While Counter < 5 Counter = Counter + 1 If Counter = 6 Then Check = False Exit Do End If WshShell.AppActivate "cmd" WshShell.sendkeys "exit" WshShell.sendkeys "~" Loop Loop Until Check = False