p4ntb0y

Please see first post for edits

Has anyone done a unattend.xml for winpe 2.0? I would like to automactically format, partition my drive, make active then load my wim image. I reading thru the chm's at the moment :-) Also how much faster is winpe 2005 with winbom.ini formating a drive V's scripting it with diskpart?

@foxbymariuss I take it d: is your external drive? I would do a chkdsk on your vol first before you do a capture I have had this happen to me once before. I think the cmd line is chkdsk /r Correct me if am wrong. @reddog64 You can so many things with this... SMS OSD FP Deploy by SMS. you can have a lite touch deployment based on serial number or mac address subnet anything really. or maybe a fully zero touch deployment will be better but your need a "Provisiong Server" You can have just a straight F12 Ris to boot your winpe or os or use WDS. This is all extra stuff thats not covered in the guide. The BDD2007 Workbench is very good as well as the BDD2.5 wait till you read thru the whitepapers took me ages to read. This is a guide to produce a reference image and guide you thru the steps required so that you can understand and not just follow the steps without understanding. Iceman please dont get put off posting further guides :-)

Some new features to come with Windows Server 2008 I have to check out the Beta 3 or go next door and ask M$ for it :-) Happy times ahead this is going to make my life easier. New MGMT tasks in the WDS MMC and WDSUTIL New WDS Client UI page indicating multicast transmission Real-time multicast client view + ability to remove clients from a transmission via WDS MGMT tools Real-time transmission progress / monitoring via WDS MGMT tools Installation logging and reporting via Crimson to the application logs (read: this is how you can get installation metrics / tracking!) Ability to install a “stand-alone” WDS multicast server complete with MGMT tools (command-line via WDSUTIL) and CMD-line client Imagine “always on” multicast where clients can request an image at any point in time and trigger a new multicast deployment or join mid-transmission to an existing deployment and still receive all the data. The WDS Team built a brand-new multicast protocol to handle both scenarios that has congestion control and flow control, making it more “TCP-like” and able to play well on production networks without saturating links and interfering with existing traffic. Extensibility points were strongly considered in the architectural solution and were built into the client, server, and MGMT toolset's. Also, the ability to perform ImageX multicast deployments without requiring full-blown WDS or Active Directory are enabled. Complete with a CMD-line multicast client app that can run within Longhorn Server Windows PE, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, and Windows Server 2003 SP2 and easy set-up or configuration on the WDS Server.

look I am not flaming you and iceman can indeed do what he wants to I just telling you what it can be like. I can't be selfish can I if I am trying to help you? PS don't make this into a flaming session there is no need beleive me @Joe Blog What hardware you booting on?

Iceman has done a very nice guide very precise and complete It is unfair to bombard this thread with issues that are semi connected. I would start a new thread if you have a problem so the maxium people will see it. USB keyboards have never been a problem with winpe 2.0 with the caldera dr-dos where is this in the guide? I think maybe your trying to load a 16bit app? I don't know On the uploading of boot cd's Your not allowed to distro winpe sources. To be honest iceman is a brave man posting his guide as a you get a flood of mails on how do you do this etc and it puts people off posting guides. He has a job to do not be the support point for everything that is related to this guide. This guide has everything you reguire. A good start would be to RTFM winpe.chm @A1Dan the speed of the switch will help but the data only gets sent once so that all clients respond so Multicast will help on whatever speed the hardware is it will just take a bit longer

Thanks for taking the time to test!

Yep but... both models dc7600 are the same hard ware but the sticker on the front is different one is vista compat the other xp Devcon outputs seem the same. Its the diskpart one thats the most annoying one

here is the vb script to set a driver letter to a disk/UFD based on the label of that device... Const ForReading = 1, ForWriting = 2, ForAppending = 8 Dim WshShell, wshFSO Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") Set wshFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") ' change these to customize the script... const msVolumeName = "kingston" ' i.e. Dan const msNewDriveLetter = "Q" ' i.e. Q ' don't change these constants! const msDiskPartbatch = "runDP.bat" ' i.e. runDP.bat const msDiskPartLVScript = "dp_listv.txt" const msDPVolumesTemp = "diskvolumes.txt" ' create scripts - nice and clean this way call createDPScript(msDiskPartBatch) call createDP_LVscript(msDiskPartLVScript) ' get the volumes call GetDiskVolumes(msDiskPartbatch, msDPVolumesTemp) ' get the volume ID from the output miDiskID = getVolumeLetterAndIDfromFile(msDPVolumesTemp, msVolumeName) ' change the letter.... call GhangeDiskVolumes("changescript.txt", miDiskID, msNewDriveLetter) ' clean up output files..... call deleteifexists(msDiskPartbatch) call deleteifexists(msDiskPartLVScript) call deleteifexists("diskvolumes.txt") call deleteifexists("changelog.txt") call deleteifexists("changescript.txt") ' done. call msgbox("Done!") wscript.quit private sub DeleteIfExists(rsFileName) on error resume next if wshfso.fileexists(rsFileName) = true then wshfso.deletefile(rsFilename) end if end sub private sub createDP_LVScript(rsFileName) dim DPLVScriptFile ' write the file Set DPLVScriptFile = wshfso.OpenTextFile(rsFileName, ForWriting, true) DPLVScriptFile.writeline "list volume" DPLVScriptFile.close end sub private sub createDPScript(rsFileName) dim DPScriptFile ' write the file Set DPScriptFile = wshfso.OpenTextFile(rsFileName, ForWriting, true) DPScriptFile.writeline "@echo off" DPScriptFile.writeline "diskpart /s %1 > %2" DPScriptFile.close end sub private function getVolumeLetterAndIDfromFile(rsFileName, rsVolumeName) dim diskPartVolumes dim miDiskID, maLine dim mbFound Set diskPartVolumes = wshfso.OpenTextFile(rsFileName, ForReading, false) mbFound = false while diskPartVolumes.atendofstream = false maLine = split(diskPartVolumes.readline," ") 'msOut = "" 'for mi=1 to ubound(maline) ' msOut = msOut & mi & " - " & maline(mi) & vbcrlf 'next if ubound(maLine) > 11 then if ucase(maline(11)) = ucase(rsVolumeName) then 'msgbox "Volume " & rsVolumeName & " is on letter " & maline(8) & " thats volume no " & maline(3) miDiskID = maline(3) mbFound = true end if end if 'msgbox msOut wend if mbFound = true then getVolumeLetterAndIDfromFile = miDiskID else call msgbox("Unable to find volume " & rsVolumeName & " in " & rsFilename) end if diskPartVolumes.close end function private sub GetDiskVolumes(rsBatchfile, rsFileName) dim oExec Set oExec = WshShell.Exec(rsBatchfile & " " & msDiskPartLVScript & " " & rsFileName) Do While oExec.Status = 0 WScript.Sleep 500 Loop end sub private sub GhangeDiskVolumes(rsFileName, riVolumeID, rsNewLetter) dim diskPartVolumes ' write the file Set diskPartVolumes = wshfso.OpenTextFile(rsFileName, ForWriting, true) diskPartVolumes.writeline "select volume " & riVolumeID diskpartvolumes.writeline "assign letter=" & left(rsNewLetter,1) diskpartvolumes.close ' execute dim oExec Set oExec = WshShell.Exec(msDiskPartbatch & " " & rsFileName & " changelog.txt") Do While oExec.Status = 0 WScript.Sleep 500 Loop end sub just change it to the letter and label you require.

It all depends on your bandwidth and your hardware 1000mb switches are obviously good and then you could tftp a sdi image of winpe down and then pull a image to your client. There are so many ways of doing this. If you had multi cast then all your clients would respond at the same time thus saving you time Not know what level you are at and what you have makes it a bit hard to answer your question. Every company has its restrictions so it depends.

Or you could of made a winpe cd then booted the cd and do your format in winpe 2.0. So many ways

I have had so many issues with Winpe 2.0..... Hates.. boots machines with 256mb of ram but cant create primary partition's unless at least 348mb of ram. Has anyone gotten around this issue? I have tried all versions of diskpart for this but still no go. On vista compatible machines USB boots really quick, But the CD install is very slow. on XP compatible machines the USB is slow and the CD is fast. I still can't get my head around this one. Multi function Nic Drivers I know you can use the Ris one but I would of thought by now there would be driver support for these devices. I use alot of HP kit, The HP scripting toolkit tools do not work within WINPE 2.0 (Sets raids configs, hardware, bios etc) Love... Well its bloody useful and works great! just wish there was a bit more support. I have not found alot on the Net about Plugins for WINPE 2.0 or customizations or tweaks. Hopefully when Windows 2008 Server hits the shops in Nov all my problems will fade away. If anyone knows about how to add better USB support for the XP compatiable machines and get round the Diskpart issue's let me know.

well the new SMS 2005 I think will include the abilty to send out just delta changes to a wim and not send the whole wim out. Ris is being phased out with WDS but you can still have Legacy support with Ris. The BDD 2007 has taken over BDD2.5 and comes in time for Vista and the WAIK. Oh and why do you have images restricted to HAL?

What version of winpe are you using? I could send you a vb script that assigns a drive letter via diskpart based on the label of the UFD so that you can script a automactic load of your wim works for me in winpe 2005 and winpe 2. In fact I dig it out from work tomorrow and post it here

I would go right back. Test that the drive works on your host machine. If it does.... Try it on a vmware machine thats allready built. if that works... within bartpe do a diskpart list disk or list vol do you get anything? you could even put devcon on bartpe and do a devcon output. try that and get back to us.

I just like to say that winpe 2 works on the following hardware for NIC's and Mass Storage Device's.. D500 D510 D530 D230 DX5150 DC7100 DC7600 DC7700 600C 620C NC6000 NC6220 NC6400 I had to go back to Winpe 2005 as networking and diskpart would not work propaly with some of the older models. My winpe 2 image was around 120mb Which I beleive is fine for booting systems with 256mb of ram some work great others struggle. Its a shame I had to go back to 2005 has anyone got their winpe 2 imagex smaller than 120mb This has scripting support and HTA packages. Maybe reducing the winpe image further will help.

@Geezery Why add the sel partiton 1 then do the assign? sel disk 0 (sets focus to disk 0) clean create part pri (This is part 1) active assign letter = blah format fs=ntfs label="System" quick or do the format out of diskpart I know there are allways more than one way to do things.

Sorry for the late reply.. Add the following files... tabctl32.ocx mscomctl.ocx I will update soon with source files I am not a coder you see so I am on a rapid learning curve. chiners 68 if you pm me I give you my mail address seen your in the UK same as me.

Yep that is the correct way but way should be the question your asking so you can understand it. I beleive that it has everything to do with the meta data held within the wim unless you do an export you will not be able to reclaim the addtitonal space.

Would be nice to see a screenshot?

And your solution was?.... So that the people following the thread or searching the internet don't get "Oh I have a problem But I fixed it thanks!" Theres nothing more anoying

Well your network card could well be a BCM5708S NetXtreme II, But does it show up as a multi function device when you have windows Installed? I would first boot your box with winpe 2005 and do a devcon output. Then boot it into winpe 2.0 and again do a devcon output I bet you they will report back different. The winpe 2.0 wim file is based on 2008 Server so the drivers for Servers are a bit limited at the moment until the release in November. I have had the same problem with some HP Kit. If your using the dell I would go to the broadcom site and download the monliath Driver for RIS this will hopefully help you. @GTOOOOOH What Hardware do you have?

Intresting... I way out of my depth here with the coding but I am trying to learn as I go. Basically what be nice is a standard gui with all the options that has a progress bar and will work in winpe 2005 and winpe 2. Maybe I should bin the vb stuff and just code in c++ I have seen smartwim.dll but it costs $299!

Iceman very nice would you mind if I used parts of your doc for my documentation? I don't beleive in recreating the wheel :-) By the way do you have any info on the Multicast option in Windows 2008? I heard that the new version of SMS will do wim deltas which also ties into 2008 intresting times ahead. Regards

Nice one I try this tomorrows yes I should of been a bit more clear on the 2003 front many thanks! Beleive me you have saved me alot of time, so again thanks at least I have a starting point.