Adventureman

Sorry, didn't mean to be vague. Yes, I need to learn batches, and understand how the procedure works. I'd like to get formal education in computer science, but no, I don't expect a course here. For me, trying to understand most of this is like trying to learn basic mathmatics and starting in calculus, but I find all this very fascinating. So, I will continue reading, searching, reading, searching again and reading again. You have done a fantastic job in providing help here for those who are new to this. I welcome your advise and thank you for your help jaclaz.

Greetings, I am interested in installing XP from UFD or USB drive, and have spent many hours reading forum replies. Most all of the help given is for people who are already knowledgeable in the intricacies of how this works. I'm familiar with most of the words and terms used, but beyond that I'm lost. Where does one go to learn the basics about what goes on behind the step by step procedure? Any advise will be greatly appreciated.

Nugzo, I posted the same question on Nov 17 and again in a later post. I didn't get any kind of workable answer. I would really like to know if this is possible. There has got to be a way to do this. But based upon the lack of responses, it appears that no one knows???

I tried that. Had more than one vs ready that was xp compatible. Generated an error message every time and setup would not continue. I never tried and let xp just install its own, but since i posted last, I've read more than one place that xp has the controller drivers that I need in textsetup.sif. I'm not on that pc right now, so can't check. Thanks for the suggestion

urie, If i understand correctly, you mean just install xp using the standard method, create the winnt.sif, then wipe out xp with format and do the unattend install, right? I like the idea. If I knew that xp had native support for my raid controller, I'd try it. I know it does have support for some, but will have to try and find out. Thank you

Thanks gunsmokingman, at least I'm not dead in the water. I downloaded WSDV2 and the install message was, "Cannot find the file %systemdrive%\WSDV2.cmd. Make sure path and filename are correct and all libraries are available" Also tried running it from the link with the same response. Any suggestions?

Just getting started setting up my files for unattended XP install. I'm running win98 and am going to dual boot xp. Click on setup manager to create my answer files and get this: "Setup Manager needs Windows NT 4.0 with sp 6 or higher and IE 5 or higher to run" WHAT??? I've spent days researching the unattended procedure, and have yet to see anything concerning using setup manager in NT or above. I realize I'm way behind everyone in upgrading to XP, but how is one to upgrade from an older OS using the unattended procedure if you can't use setup manager. I've got msd's to install and so far haven't seen any other way to integrate the controller. I've searched msfn and all I've come up with is Winnt.sif Creator, but it says this is an outdated tool and may contain several bugs. Someone please tell me I've overlooked something. How do you work around this?? Thanks, Adventureman

gmx, Yes, this is it! I also read this in the reference section, but the * after Filesystem= through me. Someone familiar with this would have known right away, but still learning. Thank you. erik_demon, that is the best answer I've seen so far. The one I'm looking for is there, just gonna take me a bit of time to get it straight. Thanks you.

Yes and no. I am dual booting 98/xp and want to stay with FAT32 on both OS. Since you can remark out FAT, I assume you can also do the same with NTFS? If so, that answers my question on file systems. Thank you

Greetings All, I posted yesterday and got one reply from a06lp directing me to http://unattended.msfn.org/. Thank you for the re-direct. Has a lot of great info that I will need. Since I only got one response, I guess my questions were interpretted as someone just looking for a quick answer. If so, this is not the case. I welcome any info I can get, since this procedure is new to me. I had already read the info from that site, and will need to re-read again before I'm ready to do the install. But...I did not find any topics that directly address how to specify which file system (FAT/NTFS) you want when doing an unattended install. Nor did I find anything about installing the slipstream version from the hard drive, instead of burning to cd and installing. Based upon what I already know, this should be possible, but I can't find any info verifying this. Can anyone help me out on this? Thanks, Adventureman

Greetings, I am a nOOB to this topic, so please forgive my ignorant comments. I am running win98 in raid 0. Going to dual boot 98/xp. I discovered the f6 mass storage controller problem when attempting to install xp. From what I've read so far, seems the only way to integrate oem drivers for my mass storage device is to slipstream them into windows distribution. Part of the slipstream procedure involves copying the xp cd to the HD, and adding the necessary files, then burning the new config to a cd, creating a new install cd. I understand that much. I always do my installs from the hard drive, ie, copy windows cd to hard drive and start install in dos. It's faster and I have a copy of the cd already on the HD. Doesn't anyone do this anymore? This is where my question comes in. Once the new drivers have been added to the copy of xp on the HD, as described in the slipstream procedure, why can't one just start the install from the HD and not bother with burning it to cd? I do understand the practicality of having the "new version" on cd, but since I have the edited version already on the HD, I could do this anytime. Am I missing something here? I also read that in an unattended install, you don't have a choice between FAT or NTFS, that it must be NTFS. I want to use FAT so both OS are visable and can share data. Can anyone comment on this? Lastly, I was so grateful to find the site that really has the answers I need, but most of the info I read on this site assumes that you are familar with Windows Distribution CD Creation, and certain key files involved in the setup process, to quote from Greenmachine's Space. I am not new to using a pc, but after reading all I can find concering the slipstream process, I'm still lost. Can someone advise me where one can find out the basics, so I can learn how to implement this? Thanks, Adventureman