Dmike92

You don't need to remove the cd just don't press any keys when it says Press any key to boot from CD and setup will continue. Thanks for your reply urie, you are completely right; In fact I mixed up two threads in this forum : http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=147460&view=getnewpost where I explained I had no keyboard anymore and created a fully unatended CD WITHOUT the "press any key to boot from CD" message. I was just trying to help this old topic sharing my experience on boot partitions. Thanks again :-) Michel

It looks a bit old now but I think I managed to do this with the following : [Data] Autopartition=1 MsDosInitiated=0 UnattendedInstall="Yes" [unattended] UnattendMode=FullUnattended UnattendSwitch="Yes" FileSystem="ConvertNTFS" OemPreinstall="Yes" Other options ... [Other sections...] I had 2 partitions on my HD and this configuration just formated into NTFS the first one leaving the second on untouched. I will check this when finished and come back if not true. I dont know what to say: It worked fine the first time (cold start after inserting the fresh CD) ; then I forgot to take it off for the next reboot and I thought that it would redo the format again but NO: The screen was asking wich partition I would like to use :-( I tried another cold start : nada. Finally I took off the CD and the install continued with the pre-installed files from the first part !

I'm replying to myself rather than continuing editing my first post because the subject has slightly changed. I have discovered that the option "Autopartition=1" in the winnt.sif (Data section) has to to be done AFTER the final nLite process. Otherwise nLite turns it back to 0. Maybe nLite would provide an option to ask for autopartitionning ? Next thing is now Autopartition=1, Install process ask me what type of filesystem I want (not fully unattended yet). I'll search the forum again, I might have missed something... :-) I used the winnt.sif this way : [Data] Autopartition=1 MsDosInitiated=0 UnattendedInstall="Yes" [unattended] UnattendMode=FullUnattended UnattendSwitch="Yes" FileSystem="ConvertNTFS" OemPreinstall="Yes" Other options ... [Other sections...] It worked the first time (cold start after inserting the fresh CD) ; then I forgot to take it off for the next reboot and I thought that it would redo the format again but NO: The screen was asking wich partition I would like to use :-( I tried another cold start : nada. Finally I took off the CD and the install continued with the pre-installed files from the first part ! Unfortunately I was stopped on the date and time screen (definively not unattended !) I might again have missed something... (to be continued) Despite I have the following: [GuiUnattended] AdminPassword=* TimeZone=105 OEMSkipRegional=1 OemSkipWelcome=1 The date and time screen is still present. Stuck now ! Any help welcome :-)

Hi, First of all, thank you for this wonderful product and all the support you are making about it. Really. I have read all FAQ and searched the forum for about 2 hours (~100 topics out of more than 600). Sorry if I missed it. (by the way "CD" is not allowed in searches and should be - as an exception ?) To make it short : My Hard disk is good but empty and probably unformated (or badly formated) My keyboard is curently not usable. This means: - No acces to BIOS setup to change this (because it requires to press a key) - Unable to press a key to start installing Windows (Official or nLite'd) (The keyboard work fine under some Linux graphic OS - Kaella) Fortunately Boot sequence is CD before HDD. Now the question: Is there a way (option, boot file) to create an ISO file that will not require to press a key to allow boot ing from CD ? Did I missed the option ? I know I will have to be carefull with second reboot. If it is a matter of just getting a bootfile My hope is that: - the mouse will be working - I will find utilities to acces BIOS setup and enable USB at boot and some other nice feature (touchpad sensivity wich has probably gone far beyond limits). - If none of above, I hope I will be able to use external USB keyboard and mouse. Please ignore about clearing CMOS (ACER 5100 laptop) Many thanks ! WAIT : I JUST FOUND THE OPTION ... French translation is a bit confusing : "Enlever le message 'Appuyer sur une touche pour démarrer du CDROM' " Wich mens (short) "Supress the message 'Press a key..' " The answer has to be "Désactivé" (Disabled) if we do not want to have to press a key. I tried and this is as I said. I therefore changed the lang file to have "Afficher le message ..." ("Display the message...")

Hi, Im new here but not in Windows installation. I had the same problem once for 3 weeks with a stantard Windows CD until I changed the CMOS battery which completely solved the problem. Could this be a possibility ? Hope that help !