mbouchard

Thanks, just wanted a confirmation on this before I spend too much time looking at switching to robocopy. Thanks again, Mike

I was wondering if anyone has used RoboCopy with WinPE, and if so, have seen any issues doing so. I have run some tests and it seems to be faster than xcopy so I am thinking of using it inplace of xcopy to hopefully speed up my installs. But would like to know of any issues before I spend too much time on this. Thanks Mike

If I am not mistaken, the ProductID line only worked with WinXP Gold and SP1 changed this to ProductKey, have not tested Sp2 yet but would hope that they didn't change it again.

It does work, a while ago I set PE to act as my recovery console. That said, one thing you would need to take into consideration is that, the recovery console would require an admin password while WinPE does not.

I have been trying to get ahold of a newer copy of Longhorn as there are rumors that it can burn WIM files. But will need to check that out. Mike

Normally, I don't need to use Mkimg. I have a couple PE builds (Test, Production) that I use, essentially copied from WinPE 1.0 (If I remember correctly) that I just update as needed. Which has basically been adding Nic drivers. This has been the first time that I have needed a PE disk to work with some servers. I do hate having DOH moments though<G> But it happens. Thanks for the help, now I am just waiting for 1.5 to arrive. Mike

I hate when I do "stupid" things. It seems that when I was running the command MKIMG I was running it in a cmd window. The current dir was C: while the mkimg was in C:\winPE2003\WinPE and that was causing the problem. AS soon as I made the current dir in the cmd window C:\winpe2003\winpe mkimg ran with no problems. Live and learn. Thanks for your help Dan. Mike

Thanks Dan, will keep an eye out there.

As long as I have been using WinPE I have never had to use the mkimg tool to create a image. Well, I am currently trying to setup a PE disk to install on servers and am trying to build my image using Win2003 and am running into an error when I run the mkimg command. I know it is something that I am doing wrong but am just not sure what that is. Here is what I have: Folder structure for Destination: c:\WinPE2003 with WinPE folder underneath (Contains netcfg and factory) Source: have tried network location, original CD, and local HD (c:\nt\2003 which contains the i386 folder) Command used : c:\WinPE2003\WinPE\mkimg.cmd c:\nt\2003 c:\winPE2003 The error I receive: Cannot find C:\\extra.inf file Not running from a writable directory. Please copy the WinPE directory from CD to a hard disk and execute mkimg.cmd from that directory I threw in an echo of the %WINPEOPTDIR% which is where the extra.inf file is supposed to be found and that returns C:\ and I am not sure why that is happening. Thanks, Mike

Had 1.5 been released yet? Have not seen it in Licensing downloads yet. Thanks Mike

No, you will not need to edit Winbom.ini.

Check out AutoIT www.hiddensoft.com, if I am not mistaken, it has the ability of blocking keyboard and mouse input but can cause a problem if the script fails. Would need to take that into consideration. Mike

Where I work, we decided to move away from Admin installs and use the compressed CD install. Check out http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/2003/t...epC06.htm#sub_1 for more informaiton. One reason we went this route is updates. We can apply updates to the install without having to worry about the admin install and breaking any installs.

What files other than the i386 folder are you including from Win2003 server? I have a disk that includes 2003 standard and it is 648 mb, enterprise should only be 1 mb more.

I would not recommend installing XP to a 3 gig drive. Not only is the drive slow, but it will fill up quickly. I would recommend setting up autoupdates to download and prompt when ever updates are available.

I think that he might be talking about an "on the fly" type thing. This is usefull in a WinPE/BartsPE environment. Also could be useful in a DOS unattended setup as AutoIT can be compiled into an exe, but have not tried this.

I gather from what you are saying, that the setup crashes as soon as it launches. If that is correct you might want to look at a couple things. 1) Hardware. While it may seem strange, try a different PC (unless you have already done this). 2) Replace the Win2000 OS files. There is a chance that the Winnt32 file is corrupt. 3) Try and place a pause before the EXIT command. Just on the chance that Winnt32 is stopping and releaseing to the exit command. 4) Try the setup without the CACLS command. It is possible that this is causing it. 5) Try formating to FAT32. Doubt it will work but worth the try. I do not believe that the cause of all this is the unattend.txt. As to the question you asked MastaVR6 - I am doing essentially the same thing that you are and have been for quite sometime. Almost everything is automated, except fot the initial boot and info collection phase, which only takes at most 5 min. Once the tech answers some questions they leave and about 2 hours later, the PC is fully setup, including standard apps. Good luck, Mike

Where does this happen? How are you calling Winnt32? Do you have a reboot command right after you call the setup? If you can, post the script that you are using to call Win2K setup. Mike

Yes it is possible. It has been a while but I believe that MS had something to assist you in building an answer file (Don't think it was called unattend.txt possibly MSbatch.inf?) but it was on the CD. WinME did not have this, as MS did not offically support ME in a corporate environment but I believe you could use the 98 answer file for ME. Mike

What version of PE are you running? I experienced this with Version 1.2 and unfortunately have not found a way around this. Supposedly you can load a hive and make an edit there but I have not been succesful. Mike

I use HTA's for essentially the same thing. I prompt the tech for some information, which I then pass to a VBscript which then Diskparts/formats the HD and then writes the unattend.txt and other files to the HD. I have not had any issues with this procedure running under PE. Mike

Where are you setting this on the disk? Is it a tag file, environment variable or the like? Mike

I am in the same boat here. I found it much easier to update things on the network then update the discs. Also, you run into the problem of the helpdesk techs not replacing the old discs when a new one comes out, even after being told to dispose of the old ones.

How did you extract the MSI from the installshield package?

I agree with Chris, I only have 1 extra file outside of PE required and added drivers, that allow me to connect to our network where everything else resides. This makes it easier to update our OS load while I only need to update the PE disks when ever there is a new driver required. Mike