p388l3s

Hi, Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner on this, been busy, but yes as you have found out yourself, cdimage basically optimizes the output iso so that duplicate files are only written to the disc once but the TOC for the disc image shows the file in multiple locations, which makes for a fun size check when you select all the files on a CD and do properties and then sit and wonder how a 700mb CD has got nearly 2Gig's of data! Have a good one.

You could achieve this just as easily by copying your source folder into the $OEM$ directories EG: $OEM$\$$\Source Then use CDImage to create your disc and it will only save the files once in the ISO but during textmode setup it will copy the files to the Hard drive Then post install have a script write: REG ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup" /F /T REG_SZ /V SourcePath /D "C:\Windows\Source" REG ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup" /F /T REG_SZ /V ServicePackSourcePath /D "C:\Windows\Source" You will have to doublecheck the reg add commands as I use AutoIT Scripts to do that stuff. I use this method myself, makes for a more streamlined install in my opinion.

I'm working on the same type of disc, I had this same issue, but found I had forgotten to HEXEDIT the setupldr.bin and replace the I386 entries with the new folder name. double check your setupldr.bin in the 4 letter directory. hope this helps

I know this isn't going to help, but what your asking is very possible and has already been implemented in software by a company well over a year ago, the only problem is, i can't remember who or what it was called, i know that it required windows server 2000 or higher and basically implemented exactly what your looking for, it was originally envisioned as a redundancy to a server failure, ( i think ), the idea being you distribute the data across your network of drives and if the server is unavailable then it would go to the distributed network for a copy, i remember thinking at the time it was a great idea but impractical for my previous companies needs as network latancy was an issue. Keep looking i know there is a vendor product that does what you want but my memory fails me ATM. Pebbles

for an explanation of those directories look at the guide: Unattended CD/DVD Guide, on this very forum it'll give you a complete overview and tell you where those directories go. as for what you need to do i think the answer is nothing, because your not customizing the CD with extra software you just want to slip the Raid drivers into your CD right? if yes then try reading this link http://greenmachine.msfnhosting.com/READING/addraid.htm After reading Greenmachine XPCreate SATA/RAID section i gather that your RAID is supported by XPCreate so what you need to do is as follows: You need to Copy your XP CD to the XPCreate folder ( call it MYXP ) ie create a dir called MYXP, just copy everything from the CD to the MYXP directory. Create This Directory Structure in the XPCreate Directory FilesCD FilesCD\$OEM$ FilesCD\$OEM$\$1 FilesCD\$OEM$\$1\DRIVERS FilesCD\$OEM$\$1\DRIVERS\RAID Edit XPCreate.ini : XPSOURCE=MYXP Edit XPCreate.ini : USERFILESCD=FilesCD Copy your RAID drivers from the floppy to the FilesCD\$OEM$\$1\DRIVERS\RAID directory, edit the WINNT.SIF in the MYXP\i386 dir and add this to the [unattended] section : OEMPnPDriversPath="Drivers\RAID" This should get you going in the right direction i would write more but i gotta run, i'll check back later. Pebbles

http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/6...5a/dotnetfx.exe This links to the Redist dot net FX 2.0, i'm currently re-building my pc so i'll not have a chance to test this fully yet.

been having this problem for years, for me i install fresh and for the first few months alls fine then one day bang i get the image icon and name for whatever disk i last had inserted in the drive showing up all the time, unless i do a restart with no disk in the drive then it's blank until i put another disk in, Haven't worried about it too much to look for a fix but if someone had the answer i'd be happy none the less! ;-) Pebbles

I just scanned my version with the latest ESet definitions and i doesn't report anything, what AV scanner are you using? from what you describe in your post i'd say your AV settings have changed to something more agressive and it's now detecting the Audio.exe as a potential virus, check your AV heuristics settings and such. Pebbles

I did understand your reasoning, which is why i said check for network connectivity if none then wait for drivers to be installed, my reasoning was if you get a system setup that doesn't require a lot of maintenance, you can focus on adding the necessary drivers to the admin share over time and once the admin share is caught up with all the old hardware any new hardware that comes in you can just add the correct drivers to the admin share before deployment, it's relatively easy to add nic drivers to an admin share so building up the library in the admin share will benefit you in the long run. ( sorry i kinda think long term with this stuff, especially in large networks where techs are usually outnumbered by user's without an understanding of why it's not a good idea to install AOL on your computer! ) your solution also works ( obviuosly! ;-) ) you may want to think about the DOS ntfs drivers for your boot disk, that way you can beat the 8.3 namimg prob. My thinking with this stuff is eliminate as much extras as possible ( ie apache server ) the less links in the chain the easier it is to troubleshoot when things don't play nicely, i've been in far too many XP deployments in the last 3+ yrs and have become a little jaded because of it, you'd be very amazed at how badly XP can be pushed to a pc, i've actually seen people still using ghost to install a full XP image with no sysprep of the image, i still shudder to think how much that deployment is screwed! Sounds like you got a lot of toys you've created for deployment needs, goodluck an all. P388l3s

Sounds like a slick system, but if you go to the trouble of selecting for each install, why not use something like W.A.I.T or XPlode or WPI but have it run from the server instead of the local workstation, IE (1) Dosboot to server - get XP install started on pc (2) once installed - auto admin login and script checks for network share if available it kicks off WPI/WAIT/XPlode frontend for selection of apps to install, or it pops a window on screen saying please install network drivers. (you can evan have base apps install first time and then extra apps after a reboot) it "sounds" like you've re-invented the wheel so to speak, a **** fine way to get things going but some guys on this board alread have some great lookin and very useful tools to do exactly this stuff, paired with an Administrative share and you've got what you want without the apache server and all the scripts. I'd evan suggest looking at AutoIT v3 for automatinmg your installations, with a little bit of work you'd practically have a full CCM setup (FYI CCM became PowerQuest DeployCenter). Kudos non the less, getting your work as a community project on here might be a good way to improve on things! P388l3s

OK Look so far i've been willing to provide information within the bounds of this boards rules, so slam away if you like but i'm trying to keep a clean nose here get it? as far as keys go it's like this, yes you can change an oem to a VLK by editing a file to make it recognize a VLK key ( although i'm not sure if you have to delete some extra stuff too or not ), but even if you do this your still foobar'd by the WGA - windows genuine advantage, by making a copy of XP accept a VLK you effectively sidestep the Windows activation portion of windows setup, hence the reason for WGA, now all of this i know is correct for XP Pro but i'm pretty sure that XP Home is a different kettle of fish. As for how to do this well google is your best friend isn't it. armed with the knowledge you gotten from this thread a search term shouldn't be hard to work out. you are right information in and of itself isn't breaking the law, but i wish not to get my IP and username banned for discussing piracy issues against board rules, as it is i find this website to be very helpful for Windows hacking and automation info. as always just my $0.02

@Wolf Demon VLK = Volume License Key = Single Windows XP key used to activate X amount of Windows XP Install's AKA "Corporate Key", OEM's use them to install their standard build on each PC and corporations use them to manage their windows Licensing easier. @Superlevel I'm not totally sure about this as i've never worked in an academic IT dept, but for educational institutes they can get their licenses cheaper anyhow and i'm not sure if MS provide a VLK for academic institutes although it'd certainly make life easier for them. as for your school situation the IT dept might not be in the know about the full licensing options, or just might not care too much about it, there are a lot of contributing factors involved both pro's and con's to VLK and multiple Key's, to be honest you'd be real surprised by how many IT dept's that don't know about VLK's or evan that asking a tech to install a piece of "known" illegal software on a PC ( in the US at least ) is criminal for both the tech and the person asking and does have harsh repurcusions (SP?). As for piracy yes it happens but that's no reason to fluant it on this board and attract unwanted attention from the powers that be. (as it were!) P388l3s Edit: and just to add to this the keys that you find on OEM equipment (IE Dell, Hp, Gateway etc ) are now subject to telephone validation only thanks to piracy and MS big crackdown on the whole thing, which is just another reason why it's better for businesses to buy VLK's for their IT Dept ( if they take their IT seriously that is )

#1 it depends on what type of contract they have for the hardware usually, in the case of the school, i'd expect it'd be different machine each time they buy, sometimes dell, sometimes another manufacturer, and because they are a school, they get the XP license for an educational price so it would probably be cheaper the way they do it now, different license for each machine, the only downside is that keeping control of the licenses could be a nightmare, considering kids could get the sticker from the machine and just use it at home, VLK are for corporations with thousands of machines and so they get a VLK and declare to MS how many machines they are using it for and then get billed accordingly, VLK usually go hand in hand with a CHP (Common Hardware Profile) but not always, it's all designed to make life easier for the corporate tech's, one type of computer one type of OS, one problem one fix for all, If only it really worked that way huh guys!!! ;-) #2 asking questions like this won't win you many friends around here, piracy is not something MSFN is about, it's more a community about squeezing XP for every last ounce of CPU cycle. Hope this $0.02 helped.

@PeterGau @DSchwenk Yes you are right in that you can't slip an oem disk that has hotfixes included, *UNLESS* you first go to the directory i386\svcpack and delete it and also the i386\svcpack.ini, then slip your spack into the edited source and then your good to go, i've done this several times at various businesses that i've worked at, works like a charm and always makes me look good to the permies! @Greenmachine Yep your right it does help if i put everything in the right place, just the WGA stff left to get working but i'll have to wait until i need to rebuild a box here, to test that out. Thanks for the replies guys! P388l3s

Ok an Update, After putting the correct files in the right places no windows updates were found after install from the CD, the only thing that happens now is the Windows Genuine Advantage junk comes up first time, i can live with that, thanks GreenMachine for a most excellent tool, you may want to go over the code on your webpage for the patches ( i read somewhere while searching for this problem that you auto generate that page ) it seem's that a few of the links point to the wrong places. Anyhow, looks like i'm good for now unless you know how to slip the WGA stuff into your installs too! Thanks P388l3s

Hi, Welcome back GreenMachine, Have tried an install of the new XPCreate ( i think it was the version before 20 aug ) and the Highmat CD Wizard wasn't installed nor the .NET SP1, this was using a Gateway OEM XP Home SP1 cd, after the build completed i ran windows update and these 2 items required installing. (EDIT: Ignore the Highmat one, i didn't have the Highmat fix i had Windows-KB890830-V1.7A-ENU.exe, you might want to check your autogenerate script for the webpage cos the highmat points to this instead ) Is this a known issue or just a quirk with my particular CD? on a lighter note, i'm glad you haven't abandoned the XPCreate tool, of all the hotfix slipstreaming tools i feel that this one produces cleaner installs, although i have gotten addicted to running XPCreate ISO's thru Nuhi's nLite to clean out all the wasted junk that i don't require. Keep up the great work! Cheers Mate! PS i am trying a new build using the latest XPCreate from your site as i type this. i'll post back my findings

Ultramon will do it for you, i know i have it running right now, plus it has a lot of other options to boot, but be prepared to pay for the software. $40.00 US

@Alanoll I have been watching this forum with interest for some-time, i use XPcreate from back when Green Machine had it out there for free, i have been hesitant to send my details to him due to all the negative feedback on this forum, your actions if they prove successful, would be very much appreciated by a lot of people i feel.

Try reading the guide here on MSFN for setting up an Unattended install, i'll give you a hint though: Read the section titled: Drivers via WINNT.SIF especially this line: OemPnPDriversPath= It's all there you just gotta read thru it, trust me your better off reading it all to make sure you understand rather than just getting a little snippet. Good Luck hope this helps.

Welcome. I wonder though if you couldn't just run a Registry file to accomplish the same thing, find out which key is being hit to make the association, and just use that instead. Would do away with having to run the program once. Ahh well something to look into. Enjoy

in AUTOIT you can't use the system variables like that it needs to process them differently, try : Run( @ProgramFilesDir & "\sysreset\mirc.exe") sleep(5000) winclose("mIRC") EXIT That should help the context for you

Is your diskkeeper installing properly? have you looked? the last version of Diskkeeper i saw used InstallSheild, maybe this is part of the issue? just an idea. Also just as a test i'd try putting your TB at the beggining of the RunonceEx just to see if it executes. P388l3s

I posted something about this on the forums yesterday, but i'm doing things differently than you, I was using cmdlines.txt and installing everything that way, i created my own WinRAR sfx FF and TB with the correct comments to silently install, but what i was having problems with was TB was supposed to execute right after FF well because of the way i packaged the 2 files TB never installed unless i put a sleep.exe 10 between the two. (This is because the SFX signals the Start /Wait command that it's done it's bit without waiting for the child process, TB or FF in this case, to complete) I had a PM Discussion with another member who said this shouldn't be happening once i explained that i was using cmdlines.txt they pointed this out as the probable cause, so i switched to RunOnceEx today as a test, apart from my winzip install not happening (missing file not sure why yet) TB didn't install again, so i'm back to square one unless there is something i need to put into the comment section of my SFX files for each, my TB SFX is: ;The comment below contains SFX script commands Setup=setup.exe -ira TempMode Silent=1 As for wasting CD's get yourself rewritables dude, they may be slower to burn but dang they save you in the long run. A pack of 5 is only like $10 or about 15 UK pounds. I'll post back if i come up with anything to help you.

OK i'm making my own UnAttended disk ATM, what i have found thru using WinRar to make SFX files is that you need to pause the install using sleep.exe after making a Winrar SFX file otherwise whatever comes after that SFX file may not install as desired or at all, i Currently install as follows FireFox (SFX) Sleep 10 Thunderbird (SFX) Sleep 10 Java RE WinRar Without the Sleep between FF and TB i never had TB installed until i used the sleep. just a little note, sorry if this has already been mentioned P388l3s

Been using Nod32 for a couple of months now, i have to say it's much more useful than norton/symantec ever was, updates pretty much every day, doesn't hog resources and it will kill a page download while it's downloading if there is an exploit in that page, including in archives. It gets my vote and my cash, it's worth the cash in my book, i recommend this to everyone whenever they ask.