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Install XP from winPE?


Damnation

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does anyone know how to install a syspreped XP WIM Image from winPE?

I've tried, but i keep getting a "Windows could not display the images for installation" error at the image selection phase.

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any help?

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1 hour ago, Tripredacus said:

Use DISM to apply the image, not Setup.exe.

Heck! :w00t:

I would have never thought that your crystal ball worked so much better than mine, that street dealer that sold me the special washing solution must have been a crook. :(

Or maybe I really need to buy a new one :unsure: as even when mine was new and perfectly tuned I would have not been able to see that Setup.exe was used instead of Dism (BTW from an unknown PE attempting to apply an unknown XP WIM residing on unknown media to an unknown hardware).

jaclaz

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Setup can give this message for a variety of reasons. It shows it in the "image selection" page. On a normal installation of anything Vista or newer, the usual cause of this message is a incorrect XML, pointing to a wim location that is incorrect, having wrong install key, etc.

99.999% of the time, a person wouldn't use Setup to install XP at all, except for that one minuscule case of some Vista beta version allowing for you to install an XP image... *supposedly* as I've only read it and never tried it myself. :ph34r:

So with such a generic post as OP made (no details about the PE, the Setup version, media type, etc) I can make a generic response also. And the numbers are on my side that they aren't using some obscure Vista Setup+WinPE combo.

PS: jaclaz could have said "why not use imagex.exe to install it?" and I would have had to post this emoticon: :blushing::lol:

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57 minutes ago, Tripredacus said:

Setup can give this message for a variety of reasons. It shows it in the "image selection" page. On a normal installation of anything Vista or newer, the usual cause of this message is a incorrect XML, pointing to a wim location that is incorrect, having wrong install key, etc.

99.999% of the time, a person wouldn't use Setup to install XP at all, except for that one minuscule case of some Vista beta version allowing for you to install an XP image... *supposedly* as I've only read it and never tried it myself. :ph34r:

So with such a generic post as OP made (no details about the PE, the Setup version, media type, etc) I can make a generic response also. And the numbers are on my side that they aren't using some obscure Vista Setup+WinPE combo.

PS: jaclaz could have said "why not use imagex.exe to install it?" and I would have had to post this emoticon: :blushing::lol:

Just for the record jaclaz would have NEVER use the verb "to install" together with either DISM or Imagex, as what both normally do is to "apply" a WIM image.

BUT the whole point was not only about the assumed running of setup.exe (which version BTW?, AFAICR the XP one didn't use images at all), but rather on the exact nature of the actually cited "sysprepped XP WIM image".

Such an image - besides been sysprepped (online or offline) would have been needed to be "captured" (other verb useful in the context of using a .wim image), and the exact way it was captured may make an additional difference.

In other words, whatever the tool used, it could have been a case of GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out).

But I can also make a generic response ;):

Do the right thing!

jaclaz


 

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The best way of capturing an image nowadays is:

  • give it a generous serving of pepper spray to the face
  • bludgeon it to submission
  • 'cuff it behind the head
  • kick it forcibly into a .WIM


It always works beautifuly, although some care is needed not to let it get speckled with purple...
 

:angel
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1 minute ago, dencorso said:

The best way of capturing an image nowadays is:

  • give it a generous serving of pepper spray to the face
  • bludgeon it to submission
  • 'cuff it behind the head
  • kick it forcibly into a .WIM


It always works beautifuly, although some care is needed not to let it get speckled with purple...

 

:angel

Naah, most XP installs are ALREADY in a state of submission after having be sysprepped, particularly if sysprepped offline.

Usually only some good ol' fashioned SHOUTING is enough to have them enter the .wim image without fuss.

Some people BTW believe that it is better to give them orders in German, but I never needed to use that.

jaclaz
 

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  • 3 months later...
9 hours ago, Destro said:

I found this guide that is like 100 steps you have to take to do this.   No thank you.  Way to make installing XP difficult. https://sites.google.com/site/vmwarethewiki/Create-WIM-images-of-Windows-XP-for-system-deployment

Not really.

The whole point of that linked guide is about sysprepping the image (and then deploying through WDS), not a "normal" install. 

JFYI, as hinted in an earlier post, a Windows XP can be sysprepped offline (which would simplify the matter):

https://web.archive.org/web/20120222113222/http://www.911cd.net:80/forums/index.php?showforum=43

https://web.archive.org/web/20111124134153/http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=22064

jaclaz

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1 hour ago, Destro said:

The guide I linked describes how to do exactly what the OP asked your links don't.

There is a mis-communication of some kind going on. :dubbio:

As I see it the guide you linked to seems a complex way to create a hardware independent sysprepped image for deployment through WDS.

I personally find it easier to sysprep an offline image, but the OP question was about deploying an already made syprepped image from a WinPE (NOT through WDS)

And anyway all are not "installing XP", but rather "deploying XP", it is not the same as "installing".

jaclaz

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OK but I can think of zero reason why you would go through all of the hassle to do this and not use WINPE to connect to WDS.  OP mentioned nothing about not using WDS or using WDS  He didn't say he was storing his image on a thumb drive or burning it to a cd or DVD.   But anyways because XP has a pretty hard time booting on modern hardware without SATA or scsi controller drivers.  means even if u can get a hardware independent WIM to install you may not even be able to boot from it.  So this seems like a huge waste of time to me.  You can always use WDS and install XP the old way over WDS and u don't even need WIMS for that,

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Well, most people outside a corporation/business/large network (and not *all* corporations) actually have a WDS, and it would be - I believe - improbable that a network administrator would start in 2017 deploying XP images.

I mean, while still a lot of businesses still run XP on some machines, surely they already have suitable images and already know how to re-deploy them, because they were originally deployed when the machine was set up, and as you correctly say modern hardware has a lot of issues with XP drivers, so that deploying an XP image on new hardware makes very little sense..

But you are right :) the OP never mentioned a thumb drive or a CD/DVD.

On the other hand he also never mentioned WDS, and as originally stated by Tripredacus the OP posted a "generic" (too generic) questions and never followed with more details.

Personally I doubt that OP ever used WDS, both the "old" or the "new" way, and the (as we both say very complex) guide you posted a link to uses not a WinPE to apply/deploy the .wim or booting to the WDS to deploy the image, it stops to when the image is captured.

We both concur on the fact that today it seems a huge waste of time to deploy a XP sysprepped image, whatever means are used for doing that, still the OP question was about deploying (even if he calls it "installing") an already existing (sysprepped) image (through WinPE), while the (complex) guide you posted to is about creating a (sysprepped) image (through a VmWare install) and capturing it (through WinPE and WDS).

Simplified, the overall process is in four steps:

1) Install
2) sysprep
3) capture
4) deploy

It seemed to me like the OP asked about #4 only, giving the first three as already done. whilst the mentioned guide stops just before #4.

jaclaz

 

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Yea I agree with you, I kinda figured the reason it's not working for him is because something happened between steps 1-3 :) 

If I was going to deploy XP i would do it either 1 or 2 ways.  1 way make an image on a PC install all of the drivers, sys prep then roll out the image through various ways onto the same machine type.  Some ways are like Acronis, Ghost, clonezilla FOG.  Or  2 PXE boot to WDS and install XP the old way like the way 2003 server WDS worked.   Add some drivers to the source such as NIC and HDD controller drivers. 

WIM is unnecessary for XP installs or deployments.  Hardware independent WIMs is a nightmare for mass deployments requiring you to go to every machine and set up hardware this is counter to the whole reason of making images anyways.  You make the images so you don't have to do that.

I have installed XP WIMs before like from XP for Leagcy PCs and Windows XP embeded uses WIMs but thse WIMs don't have issues like OPs issue.......

Edited by Destro
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10 hours ago, Destro said:

I have installed XP WIMs before like from XP for Leagcy PCs and Windows XP embeded uses WIMs but thse WIMs don't have issues like OPs issue.......

Yep :), and before anyone attempts further strange things, it is better to remind how the particular .wim format that is used in Winflp (Windows for Legacy PC's) is a very early version, not compatible with later imagex or dism, and of course it makes little sense to have a "universal" (as opposed to minimized and machine/use specific) Windows Embedded image, as if you do that, you will come up at the end with something very, very like PosReady2009 ;).

jaclaz

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