Folder Structure / BSOD

[engert100]

Hi.

Assuming i have the following directory structure:

$OEM$
 --------> $1
	---------> Drivers
	   --------->000_network

And within the 000_network folder i have another folder called Dell

and in my Winnt.sif i have the following entry: OemPnPDriversPath="Drivers\000_network,

then i get a BSOD with: session3 initialization failed why i try this CD in one of my DELL-s.

I assumed that by pointing the Winnt.sif to 000_network folder, it will look in the subfolder also. I guess i assumed wrong.

However this presents a problem if you want to put 30 different drivers in ONE folder, because you don't know which is which.

So i'm trying to keep things organized and name things properly.

Does anyone have any ideas how to solve this problem?

Thanks.

[mazmorbid]

Yes you assumed wrong Windows only searches direct folder entries in the winnt.sif file, it does not search sub directories, This is the structure I created for my Laptop:

$OEM$\$1\DRIVERS\INF .. and in this folder I made 000_chipset, 001_network etc .. In the DRIVERS folder I placed all my original drivers (This gets copied to C:\) and in the INF folder (also gets copied to C:\) I created 000_chipset, 001_network etc, I placed all of the .inf and .cat files for the the drivers into them, your winnt.sif entry should look something like this:

OemPnPDriversPath="DRIVERS\INF\000_CHIPSET;DRIVERS\INF\001_NETWORK etc ..

Hope this helps .. ?

[engert100]

Hi and thanks for your reply.

Your suggestion however, does not create an organized structure for folders.

What i'd like to do is within 000_network folder have different subfolders named dellgx270, 280, 290 etc which should have only network driver files.

This however cannot be done because windows does not seem to scan subfolders.

So, how about if i create a .cab file with all the subfolders within. Would this work?

Then i can simply point winnt.sif to OemPnPDriversPath="Drivers\000_network\myDrivers.cab. This cab file will have all the organized subfolders in it.

Is this possible?

Thanks.

[mazmorbid]

No that wont work, windows only searches for .inf and .cat files I believe, you will need to put something like this in your winnt.sif:

OemPnPDriversPath="Drivers\000_network\dellgx270;Drivers\000_network\dellgx280" etc ..

[engert100]

Another question.

During the Text setup, how does windows look into drivers.cab and extracts what it needs.

Thanks for your help.

[mazmorbid]

I'm not really sure, I am only new with this, I just followed this here, but now you have me thinking

[engert100]

I will try this and will let you know if it works.

Working on it right now...

[engert100]

The problem is that i don't have visual basic to create a .cab file so i'm looking around for a good software to create one.

Edited July 7, 2008 by engert100

[mazmorbid]

IZArc can create .cab files ... or you could use IExpress and select "Create compressed files only" it comes with WinXP and Vista ...

Edited July 7, 2008 by mazmorbid

[mraeryceos]

Why not just use "makecab" at the command prompt?

[mazmorbid]

when I try to use makecab on my Vista system it just flashes a dos box up leaving me to do nothing, is that normal? I assumed it was as iexpress uses makecab to make the cab file?

[mraeryceos]

Try it on an XP system if you can. I haven't had any probs with makecab. I've even used a makecab version for win98 quite a bit without probs. Haven't used Vista.

Edited July 10, 2008 by mraeryceos