[SOLVED] Autounattend.xml - USB-HDD Never unattended

[biatche]

What also sucks is the Win7 USB DVD Download Tool doe not recognize my USB HDD as a valid USB drive, it may think its an external one and this probably would be a solution to fix this autounattend.xml problem...I have to use the old way with diskpart to make mine, but hey, I found a way to make it work so no worries here

Yes, that USB DVD too don't recognize as valid USB drive, but is it a necessary program really, and does it really speed things up? Now, even after adding autounattend.xml to boot.wim, I STILL can't get it unattended. I'm so confused now. I've yet to try my usb flash drive, but what I hate about it is it's slower than my usb hdd, a lot slower. PM me on msn when you're on. I hope timezone won't collide.

I think I might have added autounattend.xml to the wrong folder?? It's currently in the root dir of boot.wim, where inside i see program files, program data, sources, users, windows. I don't see any setup.exe in there though.

[ricktendo]

Make sure you are in boot.wim (image number 2)

Edited November 13, 2009 by ricktendo64

[biatche]

Ah so you used 7zip, i used http://www.windows-now.com/blogs/robert/ar...s-explorer.aspx to mount. I never saw a 1 and 2. So, what's 1 and 2 for? one for x86 one for amd64?

[MrJinje]

Ah so you used 7zip, i used http://www.windows-now.com/blogs/robert/ar...s-explorer.aspx to mount. I never saw a 1 and 2. So, what's 1 and 2 for? one for x86 one for amd64?

Nope they are different bootable PE images.

Image # 2 is what does the main installation, think Image # 1 is when you boot into recovery tools. But will defer if someone has the better answer.

The x64 disk has an different x64 version of boot.wim.

7z can view the contents, but it cannot edit the WIM, only way I know how is via DISM. For future readers see here to learn about DISM

[ricktendo]

Ah so you used 7zip

No I did NOT use 7zip I used dism...I was just using 7zip to show you setup.exe & yes my boot.wim is from x86 so IDK what image number the x64 version uses

Edited November 14, 2009 by ricktendo64

[biatche]

OK, definitely working now. Will need to customize the file now. Been a good learning experience and there'll be more to come. Wasn't quite aware that dism.exe was able to do what imagex.exe was able to do. Weren't familiar with that index part too. I have yet to try autounattend.xml on a flash drive and dvd, but for now, i rather have this done on a usb hdd since it's a lot quicker. I have a script to mount, copy my modified autounattend.xml and unmount and finally copy the updated boot.wim to usb-hdd. takes about 15 seconds. If only there were a solution to directly use autounttend.xml rather than the extra modifying boot.wim step, that would really be ideal. I can live with this for now.

Thanks for all the help so far Rick, jejin and se7en.

[ricktendo]

You dont need to do this fix with your DVD but it will still work. IDK about USB flash drives, I think you dont have to because I have not seen anybody else have this problem...only USB hdd users

BTW I am glad it worked for you too, took me awhile to discover it after trying nearly everything else

Edited November 14, 2009 by ricktendo64