subassy

Possibly you can't find it in the guide because that text-mode of the setup is not DOS or in any way shape or from related to DOS. It more referred to as the "text mode" or "text setup". Not sure you can do anything to make it go faster. Get a faster CD drive maybe? All the files that are copied over are listed in the txtsetup.sif file so you could do a search on this file and see if there are any adjustments you could make that way (but I've never tried adjusting this file so don't quote me).

I can't seem to get the link to work. I tried the page in both IE and FF. Is the file hosted anywhere else?

Hey everybody I'm some-what new to unattended installations. I followed your excellent guide and I think I now I have a pretty good grip on unattended installs from a CD. I have done several searches on this issue in this and other forums through google etc. If the answer is obvious maybe you can point me in the right direction. Here's what I have done/found out so far: I have just started working with running WINNT32.EXE from a PE CD. I wanted to start playing with setting up windows from a hard drive. I though all I would have to do is point WINNT32.EXE to my answer file that works with the CD. The answer file on the CD copies over everything in the $OEM$ folder just fine and runs the my batch file from cmdlines.txt no problem. However the same answer file doesn't seem capable of compelling the same behavior during the HDD-based install. A little background: I have been running WINNT32.EXE from the PE CD with the following. D: is a second HDD, C: launches the install process. The current directory when running this command is d:\xp\i386 WINNT32.EXE /s:d:\xp\i386 /syspart:C: /tempdrive:C: /makelocalsource /unattend:.\unattend.txt Eventually I found out the setup program is taking my unattend.txt and generating a winnt.sif file in the c:\$WIN_NT$.~BT folder. So I experimented by over-writing this file with my own file (and found out MsDosInitiated must be =1 to install from HDD, thus the edit below). Here's an excerpt from my unattend.txt: [Data] AutoPartition=0 MsDosInitiated=1 UnattendedInstall=Yes AutomaticUpdates=Yes [unattended] UnattendMode=FullUnattended UnattendSwitch=Yes OemSkipEula=Yes OemPreinstall=Yes OemPnPDriversPath="Drivers\000_pro100nic_INF" OemFilesPath=d:\xp\i386\$OEM$ TargetPath=\WINDOWS WaitForReboot=No CrashDumpSetting=0 DUDisable=Yes DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore KeepPageFile=0 Repartition=No It seems like all I need is the OemPreinstall=Yes and the $OEM$, which is also now in the i386 folder, should be enough. Am I missing something here? Isn't there a way to make $OEM$ copy over and run cmdlines.txt? I even added OemFilesPath=d:\xp\i386\$OEM$ (also tried just pointing it to OemFilesPath=d:\xp\i386 and OemFilesPath=c:\$OEM$ with no luck. I'm about to just pass WINNT32.EXE a batch file to do all the file copying and kick off what the cmdlines.txt file was supposed to. Edit/Update 7-28-08: I guess I didn't ask my question good enough as to warrant an answer. Which is just as well because I figured it out on my own. I thought I would share my solution with everybody in case it comes up again: Apparently WINNT32.EXE auto-creates a WINNT.SIF for you whether you specify a answer file or not. If you don't point it to one it just creates a very basic answer file but it is still there in the create c:\$WIN_NT$.~BT folder. So I copied the generated WINNT.SIF file out of the c:\$WIN_NT$.~BT folder to a separate location. I then opened it and added in all the extra settings I wanted like the components I wanted to skip, all unattended type information with the OEMPreinstall etc. I then formatted the target drive and ran WINN32.EXE again this time using my new WINNT.SIF and it started to work. I think my provided answer file simply confused the WINNT32.EXE's answer-file-derivative-maker so it was causing errors. Perhaps this is covered else where?

I wanted to thank you for the well-written guide on a technique I didn't even know about. As soon as I find the time I will definitely try it. Wanted to point out a couple glitches in the document. First one is the following in the Table of contents: Installing drivers to Windows PE: .............................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. But then I'm using FoxIt PDF reader (2.3) so maybe it's just me? One other detail you may want to change (though it's debatable if changing is necessary) is changing the double quotes in lines like these: imagex /apply d:\C_Image.wim “Drive C” C: To the ASCII version (") of double quotes. If someone were to copy/paste directly from the PDF the italicized quotes would show up as a black block or other garbage character. I noticed other places in the document, like the xcopy commands on page 6, you actually do use the ASCII formatted quotes. The only other subjective suggestion I would make is that of something like an "executive summary". A short paragraph to kind of summarize what you are in essence doing when you create an image this way. In other words when I use the mount command am essentially mounting a volume? Or is that and specific to this one program and has nothing to do with the file system? I mean I write guides and summaries about this stuff anyway because it's just the way I learn new information. And I guess it depends on your target audience. If you wanted to start from perspective of someone who is familiar with concepts but unfamiliar with this new imagex method (like me) it would be better to have a summary like this. The summary wouldn't be for me, I like following guides anyway. I also noticed one typo but lost track of it some how. If I find it again I'll post it. Again thanks for the great guide!

Hey I'm a little new hear, this is a great board by the way. Firs thing I thought I'd mention is that the attached PDF above downloads as ~44KB and when I try it to open it in FoxIt PDF reader I am told it is not a PDF or that the PDF is corrupt. edit: Ok maybe that only happens if you're not logged in. I just tried downloading again (I'm logged in now) and it worked. Never mind then. One thing I'll point out about C: drives, make sure they are big enough to store your page file in case something happens. For instance recently I ghosted my whole C:/S: partitions (the one HDD) so I could go to a LAN party and be only a little paranoid. When I restored this image my S: drive had reverted to D: for some reason. And since the system couldn't find S: it defaulted it to C:. I have two gigs of memory which works out to... (1.5 x 2048 = 3072) a 3,072 megabyte page file which would hardly fit on a more ~4 gig C: drive. Of course if you have 256MBs of memory you don't really have to worry about it. In conclusion I recommend making your C: partition a little larger than four gigs or taking other precautions. As far as installing applications to a drive other than C: I did find the extra utility SETX that will permanently change the value of the %ProgramFiles% environment variable to another value. You can get here, there's probably another link some where: MS's download page) As for my own set up I am think of implementing something like setting up my first hard drive as C: and Page partitions and then mounting a 400 gig drive to C:\Program Files so that I don't have to worry about resetting the path of everything I install (which will help with silent installs). I'll have to SUBST to create some drives or something. That would take some getting used to.

Hello everyone. I've been reading your "Unattended Windows Guide" for more than a month now and finally decided I should join your forum. By the way love the guide, I've learned a lot, so thanks for the guide...