Why won't $OEM$ copy?

[subassy]

Hey everybody

I'm some-what new to unattended installations. I followed your excellent guide and I think I now I have a pretty good grip on unattended installs from a CD.

I have done several searches on this issue in this and other forums through google etc. If the answer is obvious maybe you can point me in the right direction.

Here's what I have done/found out so far:

I have just started working with running WINNT32.EXE from a PE CD. I wanted to start playing with setting up windows from a hard drive. I though all I would have to do is point WINNT32.EXE to my answer file that works with the CD.

The answer file on the CD copies over everything in the $OEM$ folder just fine and runs the my batch file from cmdlines.txt no problem. However the same answer file doesn't seem capable of compelling the same behavior during the HDD-based install.

A little background:

I have been running WINNT32.EXE from the PE CD with the following. D: is a second HDD, C: launches the install process. The current directory when running this command is d:\xp\i386

WINNT32.EXE /s:d:\xp\i386 /syspart:C: /tempdrive:C: /makelocalsource /unattend:.\unattend.txt

Eventually I found out the setup program is taking my unattend.txt and generating a winnt.sif file in the c:\$WIN_NT$.~BT folder. So I experimented by over-writing this file with my own file (and found out MsDosInitiated must be =1 to install from HDD, thus the edit below).

Here's an excerpt from my unattend.txt:

[Data]

AutoPartition=0

MsDosInitiated=1

UnattendedInstall=Yes

AutomaticUpdates=Yes

[unattended]

UnattendMode=FullUnattended

UnattendSwitch=Yes

OemSkipEula=Yes

OemPreinstall=Yes

OemPnPDriversPath="Drivers\000_pro100nic_INF"

OemFilesPath=d:\xp\i386\$OEM$

TargetPath=\WINDOWS

WaitForReboot=No

CrashDumpSetting=0

DUDisable=Yes

DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore

KeepPageFile=0

Repartition=No

It seems like all I need is the OemPreinstall=Yes and the $OEM$, which is also now in the i386 folder, should be enough. Am I missing something here? Isn't there a way to make $OEM$ copy over and run cmdlines.txt?

I even added OemFilesPath=d:\xp\i386\$OEM$ (also tried just pointing it to OemFilesPath=d:\xp\i386 and OemFilesPath=c:\$OEM$ with no luck. I'm about to just pass WINNT32.EXE a batch file to do all the file copying and kick off what the cmdlines.txt file was supposed to.

Edit/Update 7-28-08:

I guess I didn't ask my question good enough as to warrant an answer. Which is just as well because I figured it out on my own.

I thought I would share my solution with everybody in case it comes up again:

Apparently WINNT32.EXE auto-creates a WINNT.SIF for you whether you specify a answer file or not. If you don't point it to one it just creates a very basic answer file but it is still there in the create c:\$WIN_NT$.~BT folder.

So I copied the generated WINNT.SIF file out of the c:\$WIN_NT$.~BT folder to a separate location. I then opened it and added in all the extra settings I wanted like the components I wanted to skip, all unattended type information with the OEMPreinstall etc. I then formatted the target drive and ran WINN32.EXE again this time using my new WINNT.SIF and it started to work.

I think my provided answer file simply confused the WINNT32.EXE's answer-file-derivative-maker so it was causing errors. Perhaps this is covered else where?

Edited July 29, 2008 by subassy