Switches to use with "winnt32.exe" for XP installation with

[Rhor]

Hey!.

I don't know if I'm posting in the right place, so I'm sorry if this post is misplaced.

Today I began playing with UBCD4Win 3.20 and after creating my first bootable CD with it I wanted to look for the right way to install my custom XP SP3 from the UBCD4Win's environment if the XP source is located on a second HDD or partition.

My procedure should be as follows:

- Boot from the UBCD4Win disc to the BartPE's environment.

- Format the primary partition where the old XP installation is located (C:\).

- Once "C:\" is clean, I use "winnt32.exe" to begin with the installation.

Now, my custom XP Disc normally is configured to use $OEM$ folders as well, but since I'm using "winnt32.exe" to start the installation, I ignore what switches I should use so the installation program would detect and use those $OEM$ folders, as it would use when booted from a CD.

I tried many options within a virtual machine without success so far.

I want to do this way because it will allow me to burn just one disc (UBCD4Win), and then change whatever I need on the XP source without having to burn a new XP Disc everytime.

Thank you in advance for any help provided.

[gunsmokingman]

If you are going to be installing from a hard drive you have to put the

OEM folder inside of the i386 folder. When you are using UBCD4Win 3.20

open a cmd Promt window where your Xp Source folder is and paste this

into the cmd promt window.

start i386\winnt32.exe /noreboot /tempdrive:C: /unattend:winnt.sif

To get a full list of switches from winnt32.exe open a cmd promt window

in Source\i386 folder and paste the below in the cmd promt window.

winnt32.exe /?

[steve17]

If you are going to be installing from a hard drive you have to put the

OEM folder inside of the i386 folder.

I find I can put the $OEM$ folder anywhere if I use the OemFilesPath thing in the [unattended] section. I use a relative path and I was initially tripped up because I assumed the relative path was relative to the answer file. It turns out it's relative to the I386 (or whatever) folder. If you are making a CD, of course the answer file (winnt.sif) is inside I386 so there is no difference. But I have my answer file somewhere else.

I found it helpful to look at the log. I think it is at %windir%\winnt32.log

For anyone who isn't familiar with the OemFilesPath, there is another confusing thing about it. It isn't the path to the $OEM$ folder but a path to the folder that contains the %OEM% folder. In other words the path should not end with %OEM%.

Edited July 8, 2008 by steve17

[Rhor]

Thank you so much for both responses.

So far I've tried Mr. gunsmokingman's method, and it worked perfectly.

I wanna try Mr. steve17's method as well because that way I wouldn't have to move the OEM folder to another location (the whole process of creating my custom XP disc is made by a script).

The only issue I have left is when the installation program is copying the setup files to the Systemdrive, it stops telling me that a bootcfg.exe haven't been found, but I think that has to do with the UBCD4Win environment, since that file is from Windows Server 2003, but if I skip it, the rest goes as normal.

You two gentlemen saved me a lot of blank CD's and DVD's.

Thank you kindly for the help.

Edited July 8, 2008 by Rhor