Windows Home Server (WHS) - slipsteaming works but nLite removes half

[farrina]

Have recently taken delivery of an OEM copy of Windows Home Server (WHS). Unfortunately it does not contain built in the necessary drivers for my HP Proliant ML110 G4 "baby" server meaning that I am unable to utilise the built in SATA/RAID functionality as the installation DVD does not identify any hard disks during the setup process and this motherboard does not have a floppy connector, nor do I wish to spend £60 on a HP USB floppy drive.

Previously I have used nLite to overcome this type of issue and slipstreamed the necessary drivers (Adaptec SATA driver for Windows XP/2003) into the installation. No problem I thought just do the same again ... however it did not work out as I had anticipated.

Whilst I have successfully created a new installation disk containing the necessary drivers, nLite has only created a base Windows 2003 Small Business Server (upon which WHS is based) installation of approx 500mb and does not include the additional files utilised by the WHS environment (OEM installation DVD is approx 1.1Gb in size).

Additionally the installation it runs is the traditional blue coloured dos based installation of the normal 2003 rather than the GUI based (presumably running on top) WHS.

The end result is that it does allow me to install the OS on the hardware having recognised my SATA drives but I only have a bare Small Business Server installation ie it is not the intended WHS server installation.

I am investigating using txtsetup.sif and winnt.sif along with $OEM$ files etc so far without success (and have used approximately 25 blank DVD so far!)

I'm a bit lost as to where to go from here and becoming impatient - has anyone managed to succesfully slipstream a OEM WHS installation disk using nLite or am I the first to try?

All suggestion welcome

Regards

Alan

[Arie]

1. I don't believe that nLite supports Windows Home Server. Please refer to the official web site to verify.

2. Instead of burning physical copies everytime, why not simply test within a virtual environment?

[farrina]

Thanks for the suggestions - I've found my DVD - RW cache. I think you are correct in saying WHS is not currently supported by nLite.

Have done some further digging around and having found this thread on another site it would appear that I am not the only person having fun.

http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeSer...6&SiteID=50

So far I have NOT been succesful using the posters suggested method but will continue to explore.

I really want to enable the RAID functionality of my board as whilst WHS seems very good at backing up other PC's solutions for backing up itself seem somewhat lacking.

Regards

A

[Arie]

Why not use normal Microsoft methods to add drivers to your installation disc, such as via WINNT.SIF? By heart I would say that this should work on Windows Home Server too.

[mageguru]

What you need to do is this...

1st: Using ISO creation/editor software like UltraISO create a 1:1 image of your WHS DVD.

This is image will be a bootable Image (Important later).

2nd: Mount the image, UltraISO includes this feature.

3rd: Load up the I386 directory in nLite under the SVR_2003 directory on the Mounted CD image.

4th: Choose the directory on your HD where nLite its gonna dump the I386 folder.

5th: Do what you would normally do with nLite to add drivers. Do not make any other changes to the unattended or extras section. WHS is already preset to be unattended. Do not choose the make ISO function and finish. nLite will then do the intergration.

6th: At this point you can unmount the image. Now load up that image you created in UltraISO again. Delete the I386 folder under SVR_2003. Then drag the new I386 folder created by nLite into UltraISO under the SVR2003 folder.

7th: Finally go to file and Save As choose a new name for the ISO (not to copy over your original image incase something goes wrong you still have an original to work with). Remember this is a bootable image, so burn that image to a dvd. You should now be able to rock and roll.

[farrina]

Have tried all the obvious things and a few more not so obvious, all without success

Found these couple of threads that may be of interest to others walking a similar path.

Tried this http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeSer...6&SiteID=50 not sure if things have changed since (eg final media release issued) but I could not get this to work despite multiple tries and meticously following the instructions

The setup routine for WHS is remarkably similar to Vista. In particular it is possible to (hooray) point the installer at a CD for those pesky F5 drivers of old (no more floppy disks). Microsoft link here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939424/en-us

However this only works if the installer then copies the drivers to the correct location. Irritatingly it all seems to be going swimmingly well until the next reboot when it blue screens again complaining about missing hardware (ie hard disk)

See here http://brendon.davis.to/2007/12/17/whs-rtm...a-driver-issue/ for one users experience and workaround. Unfortunately in my case it did not come up with an error message to hint as to from where the files were missing - merely blue screened again.

I've given up in disgust for the present (Microsoft do not recommend a RAID setup for WHS anyway) but it would have been nice to have the security of a hardware RAID 1 for the base OS system files.

Regards

A