Jump to content

Alternatives to Physical Floppy for winnt.sif

cdusseau
 Share

Recommended Posts

cdusseau

cdusseau

Posted
Posted

I have an annoyingly unique situation. I need to load machines unattended, but I need to use an original OEM restore disc to do it. this means I can't slipstream any files into a new disc.

I do not want to have to rely on floppies to host a single file that I need (winnt.sif) as I feel it would be unreliable and inefficient. What I would like to know is if anyone has an alternative such as using a ramdrive to emulate a floppy. I have little to no experience with ramdrives, but if its possible I was hoping to create a ramdisk, copy the files to it and then load the CD setup.

Let me know if I'm completely off track.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

urie

urie

Posted
Posted

I have an annoyingly unique situation. I need to load machines unattended, but I need to use an original OEM restore disc to do it. this means I can't slipstream any files into a new disc.

I do not want to have to rely on floppies to host a single file that I need (winnt.sif) as I feel it would be unreliable and inefficient. What I would like to know is if anyone has an alternative such as using a ramdrive to emulate a floppy. I have little to no experience with ramdrives, but if its possible I was hoping to create a ramdisk, copy the files to it and then load the CD setup.

Let me know if I'm completely off track.

If you are using original restore cd i,e, oem slp cd then winnt.sif is already on cd in i386 folder.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cdob

cdob

Posted
Posted
I need to use an original OEM restore disc

Which boot device do you use?

Do you have a second DVD drive? Do you boot from USB?

emulate a floppy

Grub4dos can emulate a floppy drive. And can chainload setupldr.bin from DVD drive.

Setupldr.bin does access virtual floppy drive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jaclaz

jaclaz

Posted
Posted

Use grub4dos mapping features to map a floppy image to RAM (if only needed during TXTSETUP part - real mode), add Firadisk driver if access to the floppy is also needed in the GUI part (protected mode).

Read this seemingly unrelated thread:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=137714

And this one:

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=20543

jaclaz

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cdusseau

cdusseau

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Basically the only thing the floppy is needed for is the answer file for unattended installation. I obviously cant just use the one on the OEM CD because I need to customize it.

If I can somehow use grub4dos to emulate a floppy, put that one file onto it and then launch XP setup that would be absolutely perfect. I've used grub4dos a bit, but I am not familiar with how to do any of that with it. Suppose I have a floppy image with the file on it and the XP setup CD, what would I put in my menu to mount the floppy image and then load xp setup?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cdob

cdob

Posted
Posted
I obviously cant just use the one on the OEM CD because I need to customize it.
Idea, not tested:

RAM load the whole OEM CD. Use grub4dos write and edit \i386\winnt.sif

Suppose I have a floppy image with the file on it and the XP setup CD, what would I put in my menu to mount the floppy image and then load xp setup?

Help us to help you: answer the question.

Boot device is importand.

Example, may work or fail at unknown boot device

title load floppy image - launch setupldr.bin
ls /FLOPPY.IMA || find --set-root /FLOPPY.IMA
map --mem /FLOPPY.IMA (fd0)
#(fd1) optional, required at some BIOS
map --mem /FLOPPY.IMA (fd1)
#map (hd0) (hd1)
#map (hd1) (hd0)
map --hook
ls /I386/SETUPLDR.BIN || find --set-root /I386/SETUPLDR.BIN
chainloader /I386/SETUPLDR.BIN

In addition: grub4dos may write to virutal floppy \winnt.sif

Imagine one floppy image and different winnt.sif configurations.

Compare the mentioned thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cdusseau

cdusseau

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Looks like it mounts the floppy fine, but it hangs up at this line:

ls /i386/setupldr.bin || find --set-root /i386/setupldr.bin

I'm thinking it's because I am booting from a USB key and trying to load setup from a CD. Isn't it just looking for setup on the USB key? Can I change root to the cd drive somehow (will only have 1 in each machine) before I try to find it?

EDIT: I used cdrom --init and it finds a cdrom, but still no luck on finding setupldr.bin

I was also wondering once this works, will it make a difference to g4d whether i am using ide or sata cdroms?

EDIT2: Well I got it working for my first test system, what worked for me:

title Launch XP Pro Desktop Setup [Branded]
ls /FLOPPY.IMA || find --set-root /FLOPPY.IMA
map --mem /FLOPPY.IMA (fd0)
#(fd1) optional, required at some BIOS
map --mem /FLOPPY.IMA (fd1)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
map --hook
cdrom --init
map --hook
root (cd0)
ls /I386/SETUPLDR.BIN || find --set-root /I386/SETUPLDR.BIN
chainloader /I386/SETUPLDR.BIN
boot

And when I say working I mean it is installing as I speak, I'll report back about any drive letter issues and when I try it on a system with an internal floppy.

Edited by cdusseau
Link to comment
Share on other sites
cdusseau

cdusseau

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Well this method works great on systems with IDE opticals, but fails miserably on systems reliant on SATA opticals. Obviously this is due to the fact that grub4dos does not support SATA cdroms.

So...is there anyway to boot to a sata CDROM from grub4dos while preserving that virtual floppy or am i SOL?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cdob

cdob

Posted
Posted
Well this method works great on systems with IDE opticals, but fails miserably on systems reliant on SATA opticals. Obviously this is due to the fact that grub4dos does not support SATA cdroms.

Sorry, could not resist: What's a SATA cdrom?

Did anybody build a CD-ROM drive with SATA connectors?

Do you use AHCI mode? Do you use IDE emulation mode?

Do you use a friendly BIOS? Try SATA optical drive at IDE emulation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cdusseau

cdusseau

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Well this method works great on systems with IDE opticals, but fails miserably on systems reliant on SATA opticals. Obviously this is due to the fact that grub4dos does not support SATA cdroms.

Sorry, could not resist: What's a SATA cdrom?

Did anybody build a CD-ROM drive with SATA connectors?

Do you use AHCI mode? Do you use IDE emulation mode?

Do you use a friendly BIOS? Try SATA optical drive at IDE emulation.

Sorry, when I refer to a CDROM I refer to any optical...more precisely a DVD/CDRW drive.

The computers I deal with are mostly DELL machines and as such dont seem very friendly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cdob

cdob

Posted
Posted
The computers I deal with are mostly DELL machines

My condolence. There are strange BIOS approaches.

Random ideas:

boot a PE, run winnt32 /unattend http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/winnt32.mspx

try burg, a grub2 with grub4dos

use a physical floppy still

Adjust original OEM restore disc. It's insane, if you are allowed to use USB key boot, but not to change original OEM restore disc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...