NorthWood

Yes, I definitvely agree, I've got the same problem using IBM hardware (M50 -8187 machyne type) , to me the only solution was to install the INF and the Sound using an unattanded method, none of the standard drivers installation method has worked.

Thanks, here it is my unattend.txt: ;SetupMgrTag [Data] AutoPartition = 1 MsDosInitiated = 1 UnattendedInstall = Yes AutomaticUpdates = Yes [unattended] UnattendMode = FullUnattended OemSkipEula = Yes OemPreinstall = Yes UnattendSwitch= Yes TargetPath=\WINDOWS FileSystem = ConvertNTFS OemPnPDriversPath="...omissis..." DriverSigningPolicy = Ignore NonDriverSigningPolicy = Ignore KeyboardLayout="United Kingdom" AutoActivate = Yes [GuiUnattended] AdminPassword = "...omissis..." EncryptedAdminPassword = NO OEMSkipRegional = 1 TimeZone = 110 OemSkipWelcome = 1 [Display] BitsPerPel = 32 Xresolution = 1024 Yresolution = 768 Vrefresh = 60 [userData] ProductKey=...omissis... FullName="...omissis..." OrgName="...omissis..." ComputerName=* [RegionalSettings] LanguageGroup=1 SystemLocale=00000809 UserLocale=00000809 InputLocale=0809:00000809 [branding] BrandIEUsingUnattended=Yes Home_Page=...omissis... [Proxy] Proxy_Enable=1 Use_Same_Proxy=1 HTTP_Proxy_Server=...omissis... Proxy_Override=...omissis... [identification] JoinWorkgroup=WORKGROUP [Networking] InstallDefaultComponents=Yes [Components] msmsgs=on msnexplr=off zonegames=off [shell] CustomDefaultThemeFile = "%WinDir%\Resources\Themes\Windows Classic.theme" DefaultStartPanelOff = Yes DefaultThemesOff = Yes [WindowsFirewall] Profiles = WindowsFirewall.TurnOffFirewall [WindowsFirewall.TurnOffFirewall] Mode = 0

I made my attempts using network boot disk and changing winnt string including also the drive letter, but all that I was able to obtain is a never ending loop in which files are being copied on my hard drive. At this point I guess that I'll read carefully MS documentation and I'll move to a different solution CD or PXE based, to be honest I would prefeer a PXE solution (more elegant and comfortable) but I have issues in implementing in my environment since a DHCP is already in place and it's "untouchable", so any advice both for CD or PXE solution will be welcome.

Happy (???) to know, telenut, that I'm not the only one that obtain this unexpected behaviour...but someone has an idea on how to solve this problem? Why my setup ignore the unattend.txt that is in the i386 folder ? By the way the $oem$ folder has been placed inside the i386 folder...network unattended installers guy please advice P.S. to chiners_68, this behaviour of the networkbootdisk is strange, for me has worked at forst attempt, try to build again your network boot diskette without any modifications and see if it works

A silly question: I'm not able to figure out the reason why now my setup jumps all the $oem$ contents and the whole unattend.txt section...it install's just the operating system without any customization....surely I'm making some silly mistake...but where?

Dear Mjm1231 as I wrote before once connected to the network share I launched a first batch file in my DOS context: lh smartdrv gdisk 1 /y /del /all gdisk 1 /y /cre /pri /for /q Then, using gdisk I obtained a C: drive with a FAT32 partition After that step I launched a second batch: \i386\winnt.exe /s:\i386 /u:\i386\unattend.txt Now I guess that I can merge together the two batch (leaved alone only for testing purposes) and put everything in the autoexec.bat so that this operations goes straight-forward without any user intervention. I finally discovered the reason for the strange behaviour (files not found) due to the Nlite "hidden to me modifications", now, to obtain a fully working unattended installation I just need to use a clean copy of Win XP SP2 and to pay attention in writing my unattend.txt since it'e easy to make mistakes. Anyway I'll let you all know, thanks to jmedwid for giving me the Microsoft link, I just downloaded and I'll read it later. P.S. I guess baliktad it's right, once I'll have some free time I'll start to check winnt32/winpe or BartPe alternatives...I'm also thinking about putting a complete BartPE or WinPE on a USB stick, even if I should find out how to boot from a USB disk

Yes, it is, although it has perfectly worked with my DVD, now I guess that I should correct some mistake or something else, anyway I'll let you know P.S. I also have an horrible suspect, since I made in my original unattended some add-on using Nlite I guess that the program has changed something since during the graphical part of the setup I'm prompted for a couple of files missing...any advice?

Now it's a sort of diary...anyway I've found my mistake (it was just a blank space) and I corrected so it seems that the installation has been launched but I have a couple of errors during the setup, it seems that it soesn't read my unattend.txt, I will continue tomorrow, now I' m tired.

Ok guys, I've made a couple of attempts, now, still using gdisk , I'm able to launch setup but I'm still obtaining the same **** error, that's what I'm doing: I have a first bat lh smartdrv gdisk 1 /y /del /all gdisk 1 /y /cre /pri /for /q Then I have a C: drive with a FAT32 partition (not too bad, isn't? especially if I will convert later on an NTFS partition) After that step I launch a second batch on my mapped network drive: \i386\winnt.exe /s:\i386 /u:\i386\unattend.txt But all that I can obtain is an annoying error which tells me that I don't have enough space...the important thing is that if I launch from i386 winnt.exe WITHOUT any parameter it works and it starts the installation!!! Obviously is not my preferred behaviuor since I want an unattended setup ...ideas??? Suggestions? Now I'm at a no-return point....

I forgot to mention that I also tried formatting a 4096 mbytes partition with FAT32 filesystem without any success, windows setup still prompt me that there's not enough space on the hard drive the following is the syntax used: gdisk 1 /y /cre /pri /x /sz:4096 /for /q

Ok, thanks, so what should I do exactly intead of using a gdisk command? Furthermore my $oem$ is 1,50 gb size, the whole installation is 2,3 gb size and (to be honest) I didn't care about the 8.3 DOS files rule, but my setup doesn't start it stops once it performs the first check on the c: drive. With gdisk I used the following syntax: gdisk 1 /y /del /all it deletes on the 1 drive all partitions gdisk 1 /y /cre /pri /-32 /sz:2047 /for /q it create one primary partition and then format it as fat16

Hi guys, I read the post and I did all following your instructions but I'm prompted by the following error after the setup has been launched: Windows XP requires a hard drive volume with at least 2046 megabytes of free disk space. [...omissis...]Setup cannot continue. Press Enter to exit. Ok, but I've created and formatted using gdisk a 4 giga fat 16 partition labelled C:, so there's plenty of space...where could be my mistake?

Ok, I've copied files form BartPe installation on my HDD removable, the whole folder i386 and I renamed as minint, i renamed setupldr.bin in ntldr and copied on the root together with ntdetect.com, now after some seconds I'm prompted by the following error: "INF file txtsetup.sif is corrupt or missing, status 14". As you have already understood what I'm trying to achieve is to have a fully unattended setup starting from the USB HDD and (sigh!) this is not what I was expecting...surely I'm missing something and I'm wondering what, could advice? Thanks for your patience, in the meantime I will search again on the forum.

Thanks Jaclaz, reading the post is everything clear, at the end I guess that mbouchard is right.

As the topic says someone knows or have an idea on how to do so that it is possible to boot from an external USB hard drive and then start an unattended installation? It could be useful for many reasons but it seems (to me) hard to do, I already tried but without any success...Any idea? Comments?

Are your sure that this trick works? I made as you suggested on my installation and I tried in a VMware virtual machine: all that I've obtained was that the virtual machine starts, copies the files and then restart in a never ending-loop without installing the system...could you advice? Is that the same behaviour also for real machines?

Every time I made an unattended installation using runonce method I'm always succesful but I noticed that it appears an ie4uinit error at the very end of the cycle, the error seems to be without any consequence but I'm wondering why this happens and if there is somewhere a log.

No suggestions?

up

Sorry but what'Ive done since now doesn't work, I'm receiving an 'NTLDR is missing' error but I've already copied that file...could someone help me?

Anyway the steps are referred to a FAT installation, how do I extract the boot bin for an NTFS installation?

Searching on the forum I found this: http://www.weethet.nl/english/hardware_bootfromusbstick.php I will try it, in the meantime there are other suggestion? Thanks

Dear all, after finally having obtained a working self installing CD now I'm wondering if is possible to do the same with an external usb HDD, I mean: it's easy to put all the contents of a working unattended installation on an USB hard drive and then instruct the BIOS to boot from the HDD but which steps I have to follow so that everything works ? I guess it's not the same steps that we have to follow for an unattended CD...could someone advice? It could be useful so that I can save a lot of CDs/DVDs and maybe obtain a faster installation... Thanks

up

Thanks to all for your help and patience I briefly explain my steps referred to the Bo Branten method (for what about VCdControlTool.exe I was immediately able to use the tool but, since it's not possible to use it with line command I was interested in Bo Branten/Bilou_Gateux method: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=38118&st=0 ) I'm pretty sure that I was able to perform the most part of the steps described by Bilou (I'm referring to the FileDisk.dll and inf part so that once I right click on my iso the shell extension shows me that is possible to mount the iso on a given drive), the problem rise up once I try to mount the ISO on a network share. I use as a client a BartPe CD ran in a VMware machine, I map the network share as a drive using net use command but then once a launch !mount.cmd I'm not able to mount remotely the ISO, here following is my path organization: D:\xpcd\wxp.iso (with all the required files included) I can see it as a network share as \\ntinstall\xpcd\wxp.iso. I map that network share using net use z: \\ntinstall\xpcd command and authenticating as administrator. Unfortunately once I run !mount \\ntinstall\xpcd wxp.iso it prompt me with a syntax message error. Where is my mistake? What is your path organization and !mount syntax?