Here's what I have:

I am new at trying to make an unattended installation. I managed to make a cd that contains all of the service packs, updates, and is basically "drop the cd in the computer and turn it on" style of installation. Here is my problem... I am trying to make this cd to automatically install all of the drivers required for a group of 13 different models of Dell computers. I have all of the drivers downloaded into the directory structure listed in the Unattended Guide under Intermediate, Drivers via CD and have followed the instructions listed there to get the drivers to install; however, the drivers do not install. My source is on my hard drive pulled from a Dell installation CD. I have followed the instructions listed on that document, but I get no drivers installed. I have also followed the instructions listed on the forum thread by Pyron, but still no joy. I am slightly confused as to how to make this work. I know that the source has SP3 already on the install, so I am wondering if this may be causing the problem as the guide was written for SP2. Any information on this subject would not only be appreciated, but welcome as well. Basically, the end result would be to just drop this cd into a Dell computer (one of the specific models that I have drivers for) and have Windows install with all of the necessary drivers (chipset, video, audio, lan, wireless). I wouldn't think this would become such a problem, but I don't seem to be able to make this happen. Please help!

Try drivers via winnt.sif method.

http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/view/web/34/

That method has always worked for me. Despite what the guide says, you don't have to put each driver in it's own folder. Many drivers can be dumped in the same folder, like monitor drivers. And thanks to unified drivers, like Realtek audio or Nvidia graphics, you can use many of the same packages across different hardware.

I haven't made one for 13 different machines, but I did one for 4 and it worked fine.

Edited January 15, 201016 yr by SyntaxError

Thanks Syntax. I appreciate the info!