RudeMood12

is it possible to slipstream SP2 into an existing windows XP SP1 distribution point? or do you have to completely recreate the distribution point using an SP2 winxp cd? thanks!

i had the same problem as you. setup refused to run referencing the winnt32.exe file. try running the unattend.bat file that was created after running setup manager. if you are running in a DOS mode, make sure that you change it to winnt.exe instead of winnt32.exe. try it and see if that works. for some reason the command line never worked, but the unattend.bat always did. go figure.

here is the unattend.txt -- ;SetupMgrTag [Data] AutoPartition=1 MsDosInitiated="0" UnattendedInstall="Yes" [unattended] UnattendMode=FullUnattended OemSkipEula=Yes NTUpgrade=Yes DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore TargetPath=\WINDOWS [GuiUnattended] AdminPassword=blahblahblah EncryptedAdminPassword=Yes OEMSkipRegional=1 TimeZone=35 OemSkipWelcome=1 [userData] ProductKey="XXX" FullName="DECCO" OrgName="DENS" ComputerName=* [TapiLocation] CountryCode=1 [setupMgr] DistFolder=C:\windist DistShare=windist [branding] BrandIEUsingUnattended=Yes Home_Page= Search_Page=www.google.com [Proxy] Proxy_Enable=1 Use_Same_Proxy=1 HTTP_Proxy_Server= Proxy_Override=<local> [identification] JoinWorkgroup=WORKGROUP [Networking] InstallDefaultComponents=Yes [Components] msmsgs=Off msnexplr=Off zonegames=Off And unattend.bat (this is unmodified) -- @rem SetupMgrTag @echo off rem rem This is a SAMPLE batch script generated by Setup Manager. rem If this script is moved from the location where it was generated, it may have to be modified. rem set AnswerFile=.\unattend.txt set SetupFiles=\\DISTRIBUTION\windist\I386 \\DISTRIBUTION\windist\I386\winnt32 /s:%SetupFiles% /unattend:%AnswerFile% it has had no trouble running the upgrades, but this is the first time i have done a fresh install. but we have no other programs installing at that time except windows.

ok, the install finally went through after like 30 mins, and then the copying of files took like another hour. thats what i get for being connected to the 10MBit hub here However, when it did its thing and finally started installing windows, it asked for all the information it wouldve gotten from the answer file! So why didnt it properly read the answer file? I started the install using unattend.bat, so why wouldnt it use the unattend.txt?

I'm finally working on actually rolling out my Windows XP distro, after wading through all the NTUpgrade/OEMPreInstall crap, but I believe I am running into a different problem now. We are using a boot disk (I believe its called 'Bart's Boot disk) for new computers that do not have an OS yet that allows us to map a network drive from the server that is hosting the distribution folder. It is basically the same thing as Norton Ghost network boot disks. We ran into some data sharing issues initially (the info we were trying to access was on a domain controller, so we had to change the way the DC communicates with client computers in order for us to gain access to the folder). This way we can simply run unattend.bat via the command line. However, I believe there is some error while it says 'Please wait while setup copies files to your hard disk.' w/ the blue screen I was running this yesterday, and it would proceed to install files (it listed them in the bottom right hand corner of the screen) but eventually that would stop, and the above message would be by itself. The HD activity light would go solid green, and then stay that way for long periods of time. How long should this process take, what exactly is it doing at this point? I am currently trying it at a different location w/ a different laptop, and this one shows constant activity, but it is not a solid green light. Any ideas on thing I can check?

well, to update this issue, ive done several things... first, i created a batch file that will copy the necessary PnP drivers as well as a registry entry that defaults the windows search to that location to the target computer. this is run before install. second, install is run as normal. i discovered through a test yesterday that if that DevicePath reg entry is changed, and new hardware is installed, it will look in that directory before prompting the user for drivers. i did this by uninstalling a modem on this computer that wasnt properly installed (i was missing a file somewhere) upon reboot, windows detected the modem and installed the correct drivers, grabbing them from my specified directory. previously, it had just prompted me to go through the 'add new hardware wizard' so i guess i kind of met halfway. i guess when we finally migrate we will see exactly how this will pan out.

right, that i think is my problem the OEMPreInstall cancels out my upgrade switch, which is where the trouble begins ill have to hack at this some more and see what i can come up with.

i believe that the files in my $OEM$ folder are copied over via the OEMPreInstall switch. the only thing that i am copying over (which i didnt even know happened initially) is all of the drivers contained in my PnPDrvrs folder, all of which is referenced in the OEMPnPDrivers switch. The problem with the OEMPreInstall switch, which triggers the install of the files in the PnPDrvrs folder is that you cannot use the WinNTUpgrade switch as well. Its either OEMPI or WINNTU. not both. i wish to upgrade, but by using the winntupgrade switch, it does not reference the PnPDrvrs directory. that is pretty much what it boils down to. its not that the files arent copied over, its that they arent installed when windows is installed. i believe they are still copied over, but are not referenced as a place windows should look when installing drivers. i am still hashing this out physically, so this will be an ongoing debate. we are rolling out xp/office 2k3 to about 100-120 users, so this has to be a stable process.

unfortunately i dont think i can use messaging here at work, but i understand what you are saying. sorry if im keeping you guessing ;0 my install is INDEED a network install. its going to be upgrading PCs here in the office by creating a mapped drive to the share and then running the unattend.bat to start the upgrade process. ill check out ryanvm's post and see how that affects what i am trying to do. my main problem is that there only seem to be two options, and we want some of both - clean install, start from scratch, essentially wipe everything out, use our updated drivers and passwords. which is half of what im trying to do. upgrade - which doesnt allow me to change some things we want changed (drivers, update admin password, etc) which is proving to be a b$tch as we are sort of trying to have our cake and eat it too. which doesnt seem to be working

i understand what you are saying now, and youre right, sometimes it never bugs you again. i have a feeling that it will in fact not bug you by installing this way. oh well. i am installing using unattend.bat, which is essentially just a startup for the unattend.txt file (using winnt32 via cmd prompt just never worked... .bat works fine) that is created when creating the unattend.txt file. my PnP drivers were initially copied over using OEMPreInstall, but i have since that found out that I need to include the WinNTUpgrade switch in order to upgrade my machines, and if you are using the Upgrade switch, you are not able to use OEMPreInstall, and vice versa. So that was the kibosh on that, and i need to find another way to copy the files over the each computers HD during install. so, youre saying that i can point the install to the .sif file instead of the unattend.txt file? are the switches all the same? any mods i would have to make in order for my .sif file to work? my whole point is that i want the devices that windows does not have drivers for to be installed correctly and be working with as little cleanup to do after the install as possible. otherwise it defeats the purpose of having an 'unattended' setup. we set up our install via the distirbution point as this was the best way to do so.

i do not think this is true. ever have a piece of hardware that you dont have the drivers for, cancel out of the hardware wizard the first time it pops up, and still get bugged by windows each time you reboot to install the drivers for the new hardware? you could bypass this by disabling the hardware, but i wouldnt be doing that. i will check out the winnt.sif file tho. however, i didnt think that the winnt.sif file is used during a distribution point install? i thought that was only for cd based installs? i am wrong?

the reason i am doing it this way is to make sure that our pcs that are being upgraded from win2k to winxp have all of their devices spoken for, driver wise. MCT, i could just change the path on THIS machine, but i want to have a .reg file to import it so that when the machines are upgraded, they are all patched to look in a specific local directory. i could sit at each machine change it manually, but this would defeat the purpose of 'unattended' alanoll, my guess is that when you install new hardware to a machine (like a regular upgrade) that when you boot into windows with this new hardware, it first looks for its appropriate drivers in the default path. when it cant find an appropriate driver, it prompts the user to start the 'add new hardware wizard'. this is what i want. when the unattended install is completed, and it boots into windows, if it finds a piece of hardware it doesnt have drivers for via the regular windows install, i want it to look in the other directory i have created in order to find the correct drivers. then the user will not be prompted to start the 'add new hardware wizard'. what is this detached program key that you are talking about? this seems like it would work, pretty much doing the same thing i am attempting to do. however, at this point, whenever it runs, has windows setup already copied the files i specified in the appropriate $OEM$ file? if not, when it looks for my directory for drivers, it wont find anything. but it seems that if the directory is there by the time it looks, that it would be the same thing i am trying to do.

i know exactly which key it is, but i was curious if this would be the proper way (or at least it would work) this way or not, thats all. i am having trouble trying to export the exact key so that i can get the syntax, (any ideas?) but other than that i know the key that i need to change.

yeah, i want to change the default directory in which windows looks for drivers, so that way, when it attempts to enumerate devices it doesnt have drivers for, it looks in 'my directory' rather than 'microsoft's driver directory' does unattended setup via distrbution point use winnt.sif? it was my understanding that it didnt. also, it is my understanding that you cannot use the PnPDrivers switch unless you are using the OEMPreInstall switch, which you cannot use if you are using the WinNTUpgrade switch, which I am using, as i want to do upgrades, not clean installs. did i lose you?

ok, so i've finally determined that to install newer drivers while upgrading to winxp from win2k (using an unattended install, mind you) we're going to use cmdlines.txt. what we want to do, is insert a registry (via comdlines.txt) key to tell windows to look for its drivers in a different folder, so that upon starting up for the first time, it will try to enumerate the devices installed while looking for drivers in our specified directory (we have the necessary key that we need to change) so, im assuming all we need to do is insert our drivers folder into the appropriate $OEM$ folder so that the directory will be copied over during the install, and then create a registry key entry to run (via cmdlines.txt) before setup is over, so that when windows restarts, and tries to load drivers for its devices, will look in our specified folder. does this sound like a logical plan of attack?