Unattended Installation Not Working

[iand]

I (thought I had) made a basic unattended install CD for win XP pro following the instructions from MSFN, however when I try to install, I am still asked to select partitions, and to type in the product key.

below are the data and unattended portions of the winnt.sif file

[Data]

AutoPartition=1

MsDosInitiated="0"

UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[unattended]

UnattendMode=FullUnattended

UnattendSwitch="yes"

OemSkipEula=Yes

OemPreinstall=yES

TargetPath=\WINDOWS

The winnt.sif file is in the I386 folder, and the product key is the one that came with the CD....any ideas would be appreciated.

Finally, am I supposed to have done something with the unattend.bat file that wa screated with the unattend.txt I renamed the txt file and moved it to I386 but didn't do anything with the bat file.

Sorry if this all seems a little simple to you, but this is my first atempt so I am learning from the bottom up.

Thanks in anticipation.

Ian

[Aaron]

You haven't posted your full winnt.sif file, so make sure you have this:

[userData]

ProductKey=xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

[iand]

yes I do have that line in the winnt.sif file

the setup doesn't do any automation, I have to choose the partition, the file system, and eventually type in the product key.

No different than before I had the winnt.sif file

[XtremeMaC]

can u post the full sif file???

[MACK-WeBHaZArD]

im having the same problem, X's are info I just blanked out.

;SetupMgrTag

[Data]

AutoPartition=0

MsDosInitiated="0"

UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[unattended]

FileSystem=*

UnattendMode=FullUnattended

OemSkipEula=Yes

OemPreinstall=Yes

UnattendSwitch="yes"

TargetPath=\WINDOWS

[GuiUnattended]

AdminPassword="X"

EncryptedAdminPassword=NO

OEMSkipRegional=1

TimeZone=35

OemSkipWelcome=1

[userData]

ProductKey=XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

FullName="X"

OrgName="X"

ComputerName=X

[Display]

BitsPerPel=32

Xresolution=1024

YResolution=768

Vrefresh=72

[identification]

JoinWorkgroup=X

[Networking]

InstallDefaultComponents=Yes

[Components]

msmsgs=off

msnexplr=off

[XtremeMaC]

hmm yours definitely seems correct.

here's how mine is

small differences in ""

curiosity: vrefresh = 72 really? what kind of monitor is that? i know 60 75, but 72

;SetupMgrTag

[Data]    AutoPartition=0

    MsDosInitiated=0

    UnattendedInstall=Yes

    Repartition=No

    WaitForReboot=No

[unattended]

    UnattendMode=FullUnattended

    OemSkipEula=Yes

    OemPreinstall=Yes

    TargetPath=\WINDOWS

    DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore

    OemPnPDriversPath="Drivers\Audio;Drivers\Ethernet;Drivers\Modem;Drivers\go56.64;Drivers\mouse;Drivers\nokia;Drivers\usb2driver;Drivers\x83"

    AutoActivate = No

    Hibernation = No

    CrashDumpSetting = 0

    DUDisable = Yes

    NtUpgrade = No

    UnattendSwitch="Yes"

    NoWaitAfterTextMode=1

    NoWaitAfterGUIMode=1

[GuiUnattended]

    AdminPassword=*

    EncryptedAdminPassword=No

    TimeZone=35

    OemSkipWelcome=1

    AutoLogon=Yes

    AutoLogonCount=1

    OEMSkipRegional=1

[userData]

    ProductKey=guess

    FullName=whatever

    OrgName=none

    ComputerName=Test2

[Display]

    BitsPerPel=16

    Xresolution=800

    YResolution=600

    Vrefresh=60

    AutoConfirm=1

    ConfigureAtLogon=1

[TapiLocation]

    CountryCode=1

    Dialing=Tone

    AreaCode=814

[identification]

    JoinWorkgroup=MSHOME

[Networking]

    InstallDefaultComponents=Yes

[Components]

charmap=off

chat=off

msmsgs=off

Clipbook=Off

Deskpaper=Off

Dialer=Off

Hearts=Off

Media_clips=Off

Media_utopia=Off

Minesweeper=Off

Msnexplr=Off

reminst=off

rstorage=off

Spider=Off

Templates=Off

TerminalServer=off

WMAccess=off

Zonegames=Off

[shell]

    DefaultStartPanelOff = Yes

[PCHealth]

RA_AllowToGetHelp=0

RA_AllowUnsolicited=0

ER_Include_Shutdown_Errs=0

[systemFileProtection]

SFCQuota=0

SFCScan=0

SFCDisable=1

[systemRestore]

CreateFirstRunRp=0

DisableSR=1

[MACK-WeBHaZArD]

72 hz = NEC Multisync 1545v max refresh rate.

any ideas what the problem could be? Ill tell you exactly what it does, I have it set so I specify the partition, I choose NTFS, it formats and all that fun stuff, copies files over.. then runs XP, Skips over Collecting Information, Dynamic Update and Preparing Installation to Installing Windows. Right after that it asks me for all the info as if I was installing the CD normally..

Any ideas?

[XtremeMaC]

only difference i see between the 2 winnt.sif is

MsDosInitiated="0"

UnattendedInstall="Yes"

i've them without the quotes

that might be it.

or try to make another one.

[MACK-WeBHaZArD]

Ill try it thanks installing windows now on virtual pc.

[Alanoll]

do you not want it to ask for the what paritition and file system?

this would do the file system question:

FileSystem=*

and might have something to do with AutoPartition as well.

[MACK-WeBHaZArD]

still not working :/ I even did what microsoft said in their tech base, except they claim you need to put winnt.sif on a floppy.. let me ask you this, how do you know if winnt.sif is even being read/used? I even left it on auto partition and I still had to agree to the EULA, set a partition.. etc

[xpman]

1. Except for at least one of the entries in winnt.sif showing effect, I know of no way to determine whether it is actually used.

If, like in this case, it seems that none of the settings has any affect, I'd suggest putting winnt.sif on a floppy disk, which seems to override any winnt.sif on the CD. That also saves you the trouble of having to burn your CD over and over again just to incorporate some changes in one text file.

On the CD, the correct location depends on your booting method. For "regular" CDs, it goes into the I386 folder, for multi-boot CDs it must be located within the directory containing the extracted boot floppy disks.

2.) I have my winnt.sif set up to let me select the partition and the file system, but maybe the following information helps:

The following switch prevents windows from deleting all partitions on the first hard disk and creaing one big NTFS partition. So it's a good idea to add it to winnt.sif in any case:

[unattended]

Repartition="no"

The only real problem could be that for the automatic partition selection to work, the partition must be both large enough for windows and may not contain a previous version of windows. So if you are repeatedly testing on a system without manuall formatting the first partition on the hard disk, this may be the reason why it fails. I also don't know whether the content of the $OEM$ folder is added to the size of windows by setup, but if it is, the partition can become too small very quickly.

In any case, OemSkipEula should always work. The fact that it doesn't strongly indivates that winnt.sif is really not used during setup and the floppy disk method is a good place to start - and, as said above, save CD burning time.

[toreach]

Hi all,

i have the same problem with my unattended config. The setup first asks me to choose a partition what i dont want to do

by myself. After done that i have to press b for confirming \Windows as the dir

to use. Thats it. From here on all works

completely without interaction. Setup will start deleting the old system and do

the rest until all is completed. I have just

set the AutoPartition parameter to 1 and added the FileSystem=* into it. ill

test it now with VirtualPC 2k4.

This is my current winnt.sif in \i386. Hope u know whats wrong with it.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Data]

AutoPartition=1

MsDosInitiated="0"

UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[unattended]

UnattendMode=FullUnattended

OemSkipEula=Yes

OemPreinstall=Yes

UnattendSwitch="Yes"

FileSystem=*

Repartition=No

TargetPath=\Windows

DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore

AutoActivate=No

WaitForReboot="No"

OemPnPDriversPath="Drivers\000_Chipset;Drivers\001_Inf_Update;Drivers\

002_Onboard_LAN\;Drivers\003_RTL_8139;Drivers\004_SATA;Drivers\

005_Graphic;Drivers\006__tv;Drivers\007_Sound;Drivers\008_Monitor;Drivers\

009_Keyboard;Drivers\010_Mouse"

DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore

ProgramFilesDir="C:\Programs"

CommonProgramFilesDir="C:\Shared"

[GuiUnattended]

AdminPassword="0"

EncryptedAdminPassword=NO

OEMSkipRegional=1

TimeZone=110

OemSkipWelcome=1

ProfilesDir="C:\Data"

[Display]

BitsPerPel=24

Xresolution=800

YResolution=600

Vrefresh=85

[userData]

ProductKey=------------------------------

FullName="Windows XP"

OrgName="Microsoft"

ComputerName=Home

[TapiLocation]

CountryCode=49

[identification]

JoinWorkgroup=Arbeitsgruppe

[Networking]

InstallDefaultComponents=Yes

[Components]

AccessOpt = On

Appsrv_console = On

Aspnet = On

AutoUpdate = Off

BitsServerExtensionsISAPI = On

BitsServerExtensionsManager = On

Calc = Off

Certsrv = On

Certsrv_client = On

Certsrv_server = On

Charmap = On

Chat = Off

Clipbook = Off

Complusnetwork = On

Deskpaper = Off

Dialer = On

Dtcnetwork = On

Fax = Off

Fp_extensions = On

Fp_vdir_deploy = On

Freecell = Off

Hearts = Off

Hypertrm = On

IEAccess = On

Iis_asp = On

Iis_common = On

Iisdbg = On

Iis_ftp = On

Iis_htmla = On

Iis_doc = On

Iis_inetmgr = On

Iis_internetdataconnector = On

Iis_nntp = On

Iis_pwmgr = On

Iis_serversideincludes = On

Iis_smtp = On

Iis_smtp_docs = On

Iis_webadmin = On

Iis_webdav = On

Iis_www = On

Iis_www_vdir_printers = On

Iis_www_vdir_scripts = On

Iis_www_vdir_terminalservices = On

Indexsrv_system = On

Inetprint = On

Licenseserver = On

Media_clips = Off

Media_utopia = Off

Minesweeper = Off

Mousepoint = Off

Msmq_ADIntegrated = On

Msmq_Core = On

Msmq_HTTPSupport = On

Msmq_LocalStorage = On

Msmq_MQDSService = On

Msmq_RoutingSupport = On

Msmq_TriggersService = On

Msnexplr = Off

Mswordpad = On

Netcis = On

Netoc = On

Objectpkg = On

OEAccess = On

Paint = Off

Pinball = Off

Pop3Admin = On

Pop3Service = On

Pop3Srv = On

Rec = On

Reminst = On

Rootautoupdate = Off

Rstorage = On

Solitaire = Off

Spider = Off

Templates = Off

TerminalServer = On

TSWebClient = On

Vol = On

WBEMSNMP = On

WMAccess = On

WMPOCM = On

Zonegames = Off

[shell]

DefaultStartPanelOff = Yes

DefaultThemesOff = Yes

[GuiRunOnce]

%systemdrive%\install\runonceex.cmd

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

btw. isnt it possible to use something like "If exist A:\unattend.txt use winnt32.exe /Whatever-A:\Unattend.txt if not use setup.exe"? should be possible, shouldnt it?

[Alanoll]

not if you're booting from a CD

[toreach]

Would be possible if i put a NTFS/FAT32/FAT16 DOS on a CD with a selfmade BOOT SetUpScreen plus the XP Files and a simple Floppy Check. But a simple method like if then else implemented into the OS would be better.

@Macko

It was the same here with nonworking unattended options, but i used the wrong format for winnt32.exe. since i looked into the created unattend batch file by the unattend wizard it was clear that it was me whos wrong. i have just copied the line and everything went the way it should (almost).