Rambler

Yzöwl: I see - the confusion probably comes from my (wrong) understanding that distribution folder structure would be the same for "media" and "network" installation, because I can't see any reason why it shouldn't be so - apparently I was wrong. SiMoNsAyS: I'm not doubting your results or the guide, but I'm doing network installations, not ones from CD.

Hi - after many hours of trial and error and searching these forums etc, i've encountered inconsistency in the distribution share structure description in the Unattended guide here at MSFN and Microsoft's documentation. Where MSFN guide states: Microsoft says: From what i learned, $OEM$ contents only get automatically copied over to the hdd if it resides in the I386 folder. If you want to use it outside the I386 folder, you have to include the path in OemFilesPath variable in the Unattended section of the answer file. As this might sound clear and trivial it is not, because the MSFN guide doesn't mention this anywhere (at least i couldn't find it anywhere in the guide) and it may cause confusion - like it did for me. This is not meant as rant against the MSFN guide, rather as reminder which might help some people (noobs such as me) save hours trying to figure out why the content is not copied over.

Just if anyone bumps into this problem - i resolved it by adding the /syspart:c: switch to winnt32 parameters. Anyways the OPK PE kit manual isn't really well written IMO - i was under the impression that /syspart switch is used for installing windows onto another computer.

Hi there, i hope this is not another foolish mistake i'm doing, but i've been trying for many hours now to no avail. When i boot WinPE in VMWare, i repartition the virtual disk with diskpart using this script: sel disk 0 clean cre par pri sel par 1 assign letter=c exit then format the volume with format c: /fs:ntfs /x /q (tried even w/o /x and/or /q). The C: drive is accessible, i can create directories and files, works just fine. But then when i run my setup command (even plain winnt32 command), setup starts, but immediatelly complains with this error message and then quits: "No valid system partitions were found. Setup is unable to continue." Any ideas what's wrong?

Oh well, i better test some more next time before posting. The problem was i enabled my firewall again before trying to mount the network drive and the firewall was blocking it. Sorry for the wasted topic.

Hi, i'm trying to test my unattended winxp install, but i'm having some troubles with VMWare. I've created new virtual machine (using host-only networking), set the cdrom to WinPE iso on my hdd. Machine boots fine from the iso image, it gets an IP address (192.168.119.128). But there is the problem - i can't connect (ping or map network drive) to my host machine. VMWare is working fine - i checked the IP addresses of my machine and there's also a 192.168.119.1 listed under VMnet1. And as for why i want to connect to my host pc - that's because i'm testing installations from distribution share. MS file and printer sharing is installed and enabled on my pc. I even tried disabling my firewall, that didn't help either. Any suggestions?

Thanks, didn't know about that No, i don't get $OEM$ folder on c:, but it's created in the temporary LS,BT folders after the file copy phase (and it's empty). Well i thought so too before. Maybe it's just this OEM version i'm using, but what it does after running the setup from WinPE is copy the files from the dist. share over to c: (has to exist otherwise setup won't continue) and does no partitioning/formating at this stage. Then setup exits, i have to exit WinPE, after reboot the setup continues the text-mode portion, but apparently at this point it can't partition/format the drive because the file are already copied on the drive and setup doesn't have access to distribution share anymore. Anyways thanks for the help so far, i'll try what you suggested.

Well, seems like i am talking to myself only, but anyways... I've done some more testing - apparently repartitioning the driver from the setup won't work for me, because this would be done after the initial file copy phase *shrug*, so i've solved this using diskpart before starting the setup. But it seems the setup is ignoring PARTS of my unattend.txt, because some settings are applied, while others not. Especially nothing from the $OEM$ folder is copied over, then AutoLogon=Yes doesn't work for me (after installation i have to log in manually), furthermore Background from [OEM_Ads] is not used either. And then there's still the issue with the UDF file. Here's my unattend.txt if anyone could take a look at it and tell me if there's anything wrong with it. Btw currently the network-related settings are useless as my NIC doesn't get installed apparently, because the $OEM$ folder with the correct drivers is not copied over. ;SetupMgrTag [Data] AutomaticUpdates = 0 AutoPartition = 0 MsDosInitiated = 0 UnattendedInstall = Yes [Unattended] ActivateProxy = Proxy UnattendMode = ProvideDefault Repartition = No OemSkipEula = Yes OemPreinstall = Yes TargetPath = \WINDOWS AutoActivate = Yes OEMPnPDriversPath = "000_chipset;001_lan;002_gfx;003_audio" DriverSigningPolicy = Ignore NonDriverSigningPolicy = Ignore DUDisable = Yes Hibernation = No WaitForReboot = No [GuiUnattended] AdminPassword = fc5bc10636ea6c231aa818381e4e281b5ad371740741022c8633fb5cb92a0960 EncryptedAdminPassword = Yes AutoLogon = Yes AutoLogonCount = 1 TimeZone = 95 OemSkipWelcome = 1 OEMSkipRegional = 1 [UserData] FullName = "company_name" OrgName = "company_name" [Display] BitsPerPel = 16 Xresolution = 800 YResolution = 600 [Shell] DefaultStartPanelOff = Yes DefaultThemesOff = Yes [Branding] BrandIEUsingUnattended = Yes [URL] Home_Page = about:blank [Proxy] Proxy_Enable = 1 Use_Same_Proxy = 1 HTTP_Proxy_Server = proxy_server:3128 [Identification] JoinWorkgroup = WORKGROUP [Networking] InstallDefaultComponents = No [NetAdapters] Adapter1 = params.Adapter1 [params.Adapter1] INFID = * [NetClients] MS_MSClient = params.MS_MSClient [NetProtocols] MS_TCPIP = params.MS_TCPIP [params.MS_TCPIP] DNS = Yes UseDomainNameDevolution = No EnableLMHosts = Yes AdapterSections = params.MS_TCPIP.Adapter1 [params.MS_TCPIP.Adapter1] SpecificTo = Adapter1 DHCP = Yes WINS = No NetBIOSOptions = 0 [WindowsFirewall] Profiles = WindowsFirewall.TurnOffFirewall [WindowsFirewall.TurnOffFirewall] Mode = 0 [OEM_Ads] background = bckgrnd.bmp

Hm is there noone using UDF files who could help me out?? Anyways i've encountered more problems - after the initial file copy phase, i looked into the temporary folders on my C: drive and they both contain $OEM$ folders, but these are empty. None of my $OEM$ folder contents was copied over. What is wrong with that? It apparently can't be copied over once i quit WinPE and restart the pc, because then it's no longer connected to the distribution share. Any suggestions?

I can recommend one book i know of - Mastering Windows 2003 Server from Mark Minasi - he covers unattended installs and RIS quite thoroughly. Great book overall. Mastering Windows 2003 Server

Firstly thanks for reply Dahi. Now on to my comments Yes, we have OEM Windows, so i need to use product key for each of the machines - hence i want to simplify that by using the UDF file, but i have no idea why it shouldn't work. AutoPartition description from WinPE documentation - "Installs Windows to the first available partition that has adequate space for a Windows installation and does not already contain an installed version of Windows." I left it at 0, because on some other forums people advised that it won't automatically wipe the partitions via Repartition=Yes when AutoPartition=1. Anyways thanks for tip, i'll try it. Sorry, i wasnt' too clear in my initial post - i'm doing exactly this - using these settings in unattend section (except for NonDriverSigningPolicy - what is that - i haven't found any description of this) and using similar directory structure (actually i put my drivers in $OEM$\$1\001_lan and added that path to OemPnPDriversPath). Thanks, i'll search more.

No suggestions? At least about the productkey? That really bugs me, why it shouldn't work.

Hi guys, i'm playing around with WinPE and unattended installs, but i'm having some troubles and would appreciate some help if possible. Firstly i should say i boot to WinPE from a cd, then connect to a network share. I also need to install win to multiple computers, so i created a UDF file. 1)Problem is with the UDF - for some reason, when i run winnt32 /unattend:unattend.txt /udf:PC01,unattend.udf the setup starts, but says my product id supplied is invalid and i have to enter it manually again. Related sections in my unattend.txt file: [UserData] FullName="Company_name" OrgName="Company_name" and unattend.udf (for simplicity sake i've deleted all the other ids and left only one): ;SetupMgrTag [UniqueIds] PC01=UserData [PC01:UserData] ComputerName=PC01 ProductKey=XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX The product key is valid (ofcourse not this X-stuff ), because when i enter it manually it works just fine. 2)I'm reinstalling these machines, so they already have a partition with OS on them. So i'm using AutoPartition=0 and Repartition=Yes, but during the setup it still asks me if i wish to delete the partition etc etc. I simply want to delete all partitions and create new one. 3)After the initial copy stage i still have to quit WinPE - is there any possibility for this to happen automatically? 4)I've included some drivers in the $OEM$ section - specifically NIC drivers - it's Intel onboard NIC and i even followed their readme for slipstreaming them into the dist. share. But the problem is that they're included in the installation, but not actually installed for some reason. This is probably the most serious seatback atm, because i can't test further without working networking. 5)I know there's ton of stuff on these forums, but are there any general guides for automating software installations/including them in the distribution share? Same applies for customizing the windows - we have somewhat different settings compared to default WinXP installation - we have it configured for speed/simplicity, so it's closer to W2k appeareance-wise - i'm aware of some registry tweaks for this, but i couldn't find all the tweaks i'd need. Thanks in advance, any input is appreciated.