Quazl

Thanks for the reply. My problem is that I thought you created a a specialized SIF file. I neglected to really look at what was going on. Thanks, that pretty much summed everything up.

Thanks for the reply. It amamzes me that you can take the time to do this. I really appreciate it. I guess what I meant to say is the SIF file that is created during the RISult process. I am pretty sure that your script creates one. I have my files so unorganized that if I am wrong then I apologize. I use your script instead of AutoRIS because AutoRIS does alot of things that I don't need. While it is an amazing script, I just haven't had the time to customize it to my needs. I have created a new flate image and I am going to test it out. I have some MSI installations that that get in the way of Autologon so i am restructuring my GPO's to better incorporate RIS. I am going to test this new Flat Image today, but between caps locks being turned on, end of a new grading period, and Superintendents that need help on a powerpoint presentation I am a little ragged on my testing enviroment. Again, I appreciate your time and effort. I will let you know

I am having some trouble making the computer log in on its own. I am aware a couple options. The first one is using the Autologon entry in my Sif file. I have tried this and it doesn't work for me. I am a little confused on this because both AutoRis and RISult's included Sif files do not include this entry. The other option is to do it in the registry. I really don't know how to get this to work during a RIS installation. Does the Autologon entry actaully work? And if it doesn't how do I make the computer autologon? Thanks,

Thanks fellahs. I knew it wasn't a RISult problem, I was trying to give as much info as possible. Thanks for writing it, it makes my job much easier. I am going to just delete the folder during my other processes.

First of all thanks for all the help with getting my RIS setup. I have loaded a few machines and everything is starting to go really smooth. I am using RISult to prepare my flat-iamge of WIndows XP. It is working like a charm. I have a machine that has the Creative Sound Blaster AudioPCI 128D installed in it. It boots up the first time with a warining on the device. Also, in the root of C there is folder called SBPC with a .inf, dll and a .exe. I have a couple of things running on the first login, but this is definitely not one of the procedures that I have running. The .exe is a Sound Blaster tool to remove the drivers. The installer by Creative thinks that the drivers are installed, but Windows thinks that it is wrong. Here is the strange part: If I disconnect from the network (just to make sure that it isn't getting it from Windows Update) and update the driver inside Device Manager with the recommended setting it finds the driver on the machine. What could cause this? Is it a bad driver or does the BTSDriver pack not support this Device? I have loaded this machine 3 times and it does the same thing everytime. It almost seems that it isn't grabbing the right driver durint the installation process. I am using Method 2 in the BTS_BASE recommended by RISult. I am pretty sure that this doesn't use the entry in the .SIF file under the [unattended] section called OemPnPDriversPath and OemFilesPath. I am correct to assume that Method 2 of BTS_Base doesn't use these two entries? Didn't know if anyone ran into this behavior? Didn't know if it was a 'known problem' or if I screwed up my image? Thanks for the help and the tools.

Becuase both AutoRis and RISult don't work for me. AutoRIs craps out and doesn't finish and Risult gets to the BTS part and it gets into a loop and never quits. I would like to use one of them but I find it harder to troubleshoot the scripts then to do this manually. I do like risult more because I don't do anything else other than BTS and Ryan's update, but I worked on it for about 8 hours and could never get it to stop doing that loop. If you could help me, i would love to use it.

Thanks fellahs. It took me a few tries to get it right. I am testing a machine right now. The funny thing is that I had a harder time using AutoRis. I do better doing it manually. I don't know why because I follow the AutoRIS VBS to the 'T', it just seem to work very well for me. I think it has to do with running it on the actual RIS server. I did it this way because the BTS packs didn't do right from a client machine. I think that I got the driverpacks correctly because the machine that I am testing on is taking along time after the first reboot (The beginning of the GUI part) and the hard drive is really working hard. If it says that my watchfordriversigningpolicy.exe cannot be found in C:\ then I must have put it in the wrong place. Again, thanks fellahs.

Real good stuff. I have a question about step number 7: It states that I need to 'get' a line of code from the winnt.sif file. What do I do with this line of code. Also in step 9 where you say to edit the presetup.cmd with some code. Does this bit of code replace the entire contents of the file? Thanks for the hard work.

Should I leave out that driver pack?

I have aquick question: What is the difference between the NIC drivers that come with AutoRis and the NIC drivers that are with BTS?

Thanks fellahs. It is amazing something as seemingly simple as Network Installations can end up sucking away almost all free time.

What is a good, solid, but cheap PXE PCI NIC Car I haven't decided whether or not to buy a card that is supported by the RIS floppy or to buy NIC cards that are PXE enabled? I was wondering on what your opinion is on a good PXE PCI NIC card.

I know that the answer that I am about to give is not the answer that you want, but I am in the process of doing the same thing that you are. Check out this site. It is a little expensive but they can give you the solution that you want. Argon Technology I have opted to buying the realtek 8139 card. It is 17 dollars and it workds great with the RIS floppy.

I think that the registry allows for unlimited characters to describe the driver path. It think if you use the sif file it will only allow 4096 characters.

Excellent Info. Thanks for that. I found this really great site that talks about what you are saying. www.vernalex.com If you goto the link that says: Step-by-Step Video Tutorial , it shows some good advice for what you are talking about. I have a multicore at the house and I was able to change it to ACPI PC and also the ACPI Uniprocessor just fine. But I am inclined to agree with you. Logically, it seems better to have a flat install that you can always customize easily. Thanks for the time and effort that you have put into this community.

Fencer, It seems that creating images is not as good as just creating an installation directory? Riprep is better for machines that are exactly the same? Am i barking up the right tree?

Yes, we are on a tight budget. I am all over the PXE boot, but I am unsure of what Virtual Floppies are. What are they? The only experience with Wake On Lan is with a program called Vision6 by Genevalogic. It allows you to 'wake' up the computer with a really neat gui. The software is designed for Lab Adminstrators to control and watch computers in their respective lab. They have added this to the new release of Vision the ability to turn on the computer. I am pretty sure that Synchronize is their direct competitor. What other apps can I use to initiate a Wake on Lan type event? I am also struggling with one bit of information. Lets say that one of the client machines on the network has a newer NIC card and has no PXE capabilities. This same card is not supported in the RIS created floppy for NIC that aren't PXE enabled. I see that there is no way in adding more drivers to this card. Is it possible to create a custom PXE boot floppy to incorporate NIC that 'fall througth the cracks' ? Thanks for all the help figuring out the variables of my equation Hats off to MSFN and its members!

I am looking into using BartPE with BDE scripts. I doubt it would be legal to use a release candidate client in a production or corporate enviroment. I envision my solution as I walk into a classroom or office and either pop in a floppy or CD that would initiate the whole process. I would come back in a few hours and join the machine to the domain and then let GPO's do the software. Is this a possible vision?

I got that a few weeks ago. It really is good information, but I am not able to get WinPE. Most schools we deal with aren't on Software Assurance. Not being able to use WinPE is the reason why I am trying a new route. I am going to sift through BDE again. thanks,

Thanks for the response. I am moving more to the RIS method the more that I look into all of this stuff. It is good to know that RIS can also 'push' complete images out to the client. I am little confused about one thing that you posted: Does a free version of a ghost-like imager exist that can be used with mapped drives? - not sure, imaging is ok, but depends upon how you wish to do, either a hdd copy image or lan copy, then use RIS You say to do a hdd copy or lan copy then use RIS. Doesn't RIS do this for you?

Long time lurker, First Time to register and post. Before I proceed, I just want to say thanks to all of those geniuses that have created tools, guides, or just helping everyone in this subsection of MSFN. You all know who you are. I don't have a question of how, but what is better? I understand the process of creating PE's, RIS setups with extra text setup drivers and gui setup drivers, and unnattended CD's. I have successfully done unnattedned CD's and a very simple RIS setup. When I first started studying this was years ago, and I found the solution that I like, which was an answer file on a floppy and a vanilla Win2000 CD. I then moved to BartPE just because it was cool and I used Ghost to image a drive from a USB drive. This was more modular and quicker. For the past week I have been working towards a solution that would allow me to have a bunch of BartPE CD's that would give me access to a share on a server where I could just image the drive from a prepared ghost image. But I have now learned the limitations in the Ghost 2003 version without a GhostCast server. I see from these posts that it is better to get the machine to see the RIS server and load the machines in this way. I need to reload about 100 to 500 machines. I need a away that is quick and efficient. My Quesitons: What is the best way? (RIS or the BartPE method with a ghost image) Does a free version of a ghost-like imager exist that can be used with mapped drives? I have been looking at all the Driver packs from BTS and Universal Boot CD. Do all these extra drivers affect the performance of the RIS server and the installation time of the client? About how many installs can be done from a RIS server at once? (I know this has to do with the server hardware, but maybe a general idea owould be cool) Can RIS push Images and not just installs? I ask these question becuase I co-own a business that does some constulting for education. We are getting into also doing client installs along with what we already do which is server installations and configuration. We don't do much client installations. Any help would be greatly appreciated.