systemsmb

I am still finding the whole thing extremely unclear. I am trying to use WDS to deploy Vista to new computers we build here in our workshop. Does anybody have a guide which they could send me? I would be most grateful. Thanks Systemsmb

I don't know about you guys but I am really struggling to get my head round Vista deployment. I used RIS at work for ages and was able to pretty much do what I wanted but WDS seems a lot harder. I think my major problem is understanding the basic way in which it works. I have been trying to complete the following steps without any joy. I have WIM images on my WDS server (grabbed from a Vista CD using the WDS console on our Windows Server 2003 WDS box but can get no further. 1. Configure boot.wim image to be automated with language options. 2. Configure a simple unattended install.wim with a simple XML answer file. 3. Create images and answer files for all motherboard we currently sell. It is early days so there isnt much info around at the moment and the microsoft guide seems incomplete to me. Are there any sites anyone knows of that I should be looking at? Are we going to have a WDS section on this forum like the old RIS one?

Hi thanks for your reply and help. I do not fully understand what you said here.... Does the answer file need a section where it links it to a particular image? Also which boot loader do you use for booting from PXE boot rom? Thanks Systemsmb

I have built up a brand new system. All the components are brand new but I cannot get the patitioning section of the install to go through automatically using answer files with WDS. I have browsed through a number of posts in this forum and copied various parts of other peoples answer files without any joy. I hate to have to do it but here is my answer file is below. I hope somebody can help me... <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend"> <settings pass="windowsPE"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <DiskConfiguration> <Disk wcm:action="modify"> <CreatePartitions> <CreatePartition wcm:action="add"> <Order>1</Order> <Extend>true</Extend> <Type>Primary</Type> </CreatePartition> </CreatePartitions> <ModifyPartitions> <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add"> <Format>NTFS</Format> <Label>SYSTEM</Label> <Letter>C</Letter> <Order>1</Order> <PartitionID>1</PartitionID> <Active>true</Active> </ModifyPartition> </ModifyPartitions> <DiskID>0</DiskID> <WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk> </Disk> <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI> </DiskConfiguration> <EnableNetwork>true</EnableNetwork> <UserData> <ProductKey> <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI> <Key>XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX</Key> </ProductKey> <AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula> <FullName>Owner</FullName> <Organization>Owner</Organization> </UserData> <ComplianceCheck> <DisplayReport>Never</DisplayReport> </ComplianceCheck> <ImageInstall> <OSImage> <InstallTo> <DiskID>0</DiskID> <PartitionID>1</PartitionID> </InstallTo> <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI> </OSImage> </ImageInstall> <Display> <ColorDepth>32</ColorDepth> <HorizontalResolution>1024</HorizontalResolution> <VerticalResolution>768</VerticalResolution> </Display> </component> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <SetupUILanguage> <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage> </SetupUILanguage> <InputLocale>0409:00000409</InputLocale> <SystemLocale>en-us</SystemLocale> <UILanguage>en-us</UILanguage> <UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale> <UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback> </component> </settings> <settings pass="specialize"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <InputLocale>0409:00000409</InputLocale> <SystemLocale>en-us</SystemLocale> <UILanguage>en-us</UILanguage> <UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback> <UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale> </component> </settings> <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:c:/vista%20unattend/install.wim#Windows Vista BUSINESS" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" /> </unattend> Thanks in advance. Systemsmb

pmol100 - you were correct. All works ok now.

Thanks for your reply pmol100. I managed to get it to work by setting pxeboot.com as the default boot program instead of Wdsnbp.com. Does Wdsnbp.com work with old RIS images? That is all I currently have on the server. Thanks

I just upgraded from RIS to WDM on our Windows 2003 server. When booting a client machine from PXE it cannot find the PXEBOOT.COM. I really cannot get my head around this. I'm probably doing something stupid but no matter how much stuff I have read online I just cannot seem to gain even an understanding to whats happening. If anyone can point me in the right direction I would appreciate it. Thanks and sorry in advance. Systemsmb

bump

Thanks. Once I get chance I will have a look.

Hi Madboy. I have never used AutoIt V3 before. Sorry to bother you but would you mind giving me some pointers? Thanks and sorry Systemsmb

Hi guys, I have this motherboard ASRock K8NF6G-VSTA I cannot figure out which chipset this has and therefore which LAN driver to use with RIS. Can anyone help? Thanks Systemsmb

Sounds interesting. I'm being a little stupid. My mind is completely blank on how to go about doing this. Some sort of small script required? Systemsmb

Hi guys and gals, Does anyone know of a script that will periodically check and download the latest Forceware driver from the nvidia website? If its possible I would also be looking to do the same with the ATI driver. Thanks in advance Systemsmb

Hi thanks guys, I will give it a go as soon as I get a free hour or so at work. Busy busy busy at the moment. I only want to integrate post SP2 Windows updates. Is it possible to only integrate these leaving the drivers alone? No hurry on a reply, just curious before I start looking into this a little further. Systemsmb

Hey thanks for the reply. Am very interested but unable to find a how to to help start. Could you point me in the right direction? I only need to integrate hot fixes as SP2 is already in my image. Thanks in advance Systemsmb