Why does "unattend.txt" disappear from I386 folder?

[magnotrans]

Hi!

Whenever I generate my final Windows XP Unattended CD using nLite, the "unattend.txt" file dissappears from the "I386" folder on the harddisk when I extracted the original CD, and it doesn't appear at the compiled disk generated by nLite.

I wanted to use nLite ONLY to integrate SATA drivers into Windows XP SP2 Corporate CD, but since the program has a lot of interesting options, finally I decided to use them all; so my nLite project has all possible options except for "Insert Service Pack"... I thought the "unattend.txt" file dissappeared because of the "unattend installation" option in nLite, but I tried by changing it to different values, but nothing changed.

Any idea of why this file dissappears? Maybe is it renamed? Or not used in an unattend installation? Or maybe its contents are copied to some other file and read by the setup from this new file?

Thanks!

[nuhi]

Because of the enabled Unattended Installation page.

Do you want it to be kept? What would be the reason to have winnt.sif and unattended.txt?

[mikesw]

I've noticed this for Windows 2000 Pro too. Nlite will not remove it if only a service pack is integrated i.e. SP4 for

Win2K. Thus when tweaking the release to add the MYDocuments, Recycle Bin icons to the desktop as the

default (or anything else), it seems to delete this file. Thus, I had to manually copy the unattend.txt file from the

integrated SP4 to the tweaked SP4 folder \I386.

Why do I want to keep the unattend.txt around? Because in the \SETUPTXT directory there are two

files called PRO1.txt and PRO2.txt. During the course of reading these files, they mention the \I386\Unattend.txt

file as an example to use if one wants to have an answer file. If this file gets deleted, then one wonders

where is my example file to use and hence the documentation is incomplete on the CD. This may not

be important to the experts, but if I give this CD to a person who is learning about Win2K or XP etc they may be lost

without it - especially if they don't know about msfn, the Nlite tool and that is was removed due to the CD being

a slipped copy of the MSoft OS.

Hence, please modify NLite so that it doesn't remove the unattend.txt file since it is used as an example and

completeness of the documentation on the MSoft OS CD.

NOTE: The only issue with adding the unattend.txt file is is that if one really wants to modify the unattend data

via the Nlite menu, it says one already exists and will overwrite the unattend.txt file with new info.

Hmmmm, I guess if this is the first time for a slip or modification of the unattend.txt file, NLITE could

rename it to unattend-example.txt and then do whatever to the unattend.txt file. I presume if NLITE

is used again to modify the unattend file, it doesn't overwrite an earlier version but reads in the old setups

and allows one to edit them instead of starting over again?

Edited July 9, 2007 by mikesw

[AgiHammerklau]

@magnotrans

You have it in the support folder nevertheless, if you didn´t nlite them.

Am just curious to know, how to obtain and use a corporate edition privately...

@mikesw

For an unattended install it´s either "MS onboard unattended.txt" or winnt.sif.

Nlite is changing the text as it´s done during clean install, as windows does, to enable the repair function or to do an RIS installation.

It´s the same file.

Agi

[nuhi]

mikesw, sorry but that's not a good reason. Proper unattended file when booting from the CD is Winnt.sif, no need to confuse and keep the other one, people might edit that one and wonder why their manual changes are not applied.

[mikesw]

@agi,nuhi,

Ok, so I guess Winnt.sif overrides the unattend.txt file that I copied. What about the

TXTSETUP.SIF in \I386 that is still there? I see the info in the winnt and txtsetup sif files

are different. If a winnt.sif file is present, is the txtsetup.sif ignored?