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PEXP installer


jdgordon

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gday all,

im writing a program that can be run in winpe (actually any win32 environment) that can edit the winnt.sif file for XP (and 2k3, 2000 might have some problems) and then run winnt32.exe and get windows installing with all the values from the program used in the unattended install...

bassically so u dont have to reburn your xp cd to install it on a friends computer unattendedly..

anyway, its mostly done so i need ppl to test it and tell me what needs fixing.

specifically, does the command to run winnt32 actually work?

also, if any1 can do a background and an icon id appreciate it

i forgot to mention that if a winnt.sif file exsists in the same folder that the exe is in it will load that file as the default values

PEXP installer

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Hmm looks good, but dosent that mean that first we have to copy the XP cd to the hdd, the boot from PE, then start the install ??

Well it can get timeconsuming in some cases... It would be very nice if sombody makes an applicatio of such aim for DOS, so that the no's of cd's required to install XP will be minimal, one in most cases :)

Bye,

Jazz

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u can either have the xpcd on the pe cd or you can connect to a network share with the winxp files on it...

Hmm, well how can we fit the XPCD in the PECD ? i dont think it'll fit..

and where i am, not many ppl have network shares.. so..

Is there a possibility for you to port this app to the DOS ?

Bye,

Jazz

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Well what do ya know...l

to get more info on the PE builder goto www.911cd.net/forums its the home of bootable cd's.. all the info on bootable cd's than you'll ever find,.

And yeeha, i'm a silver member at that site :rolleyes::)

Bye,

Jazz

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Well what do ya know...l

to get more info on the PE builder goto www.911cd.net/forums its the home of bootable cd's.. all the info on bootable cd's than you'll ever find,.

And yeeha, i'm a silver member at that site  :rolleyes:  :)

Bye,

Jazz

I see everyone is trying to stay on topic.

Anyhow, my question is where does the winnt.sif file get created and placed?

And for those of you worried about reburning the CD all you would have to do is write a little script for Diskpart to clean the HD and then create a small partition of at the most 8mb to keep the rest of the hard drive partitioning clean and smooth.

<Don't quote me on partition sizes below I just made them up>

SifPrep.cmd

diskpart /s %systemdrive%\<your folders>\diskpart.txt 

format Q: /fs:fat32 /q /v:CRAP /y

format c: /fs:ntfs /q /v:Install /y

Diskpart.txt example script

DISKPART

   SEL DIS 0

   CLEAN

   CRE PAR PRI  SIZE = 8 ID = 12

   ASSIGN LETTER = Q

 CRE PAR PRI SIZE = 20480 (remember just an example)

   ACT

   ASSIGN LETTER = C

EXIT

After here all you would have to do is point your winnt32.exe to the place where you stored the winnt.sif, here it would be Q:\winnt.sif

Easy :D

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thats likuidkewl, i was looking for a diskpart script that would work coz i could never get partition magic to not give a 702 error...

ok, sorry i should have explained the program a bit...

when youv done all the settings you press install windows. it then asks you where u want to save the sif file to (a ram didks is probably best), it also asks u where the winnt32.exe file is and what hard disk to install to. it will then run winnt32.exe /syspart:%drive% /tempdrive:%drive% /unattend:%sif file% and in the next verison will have options for dynamic update aswell as more as they get added...

so this expects the drive to be ready for install...

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Hmm, well considering the Stay on topic allegation, here i go.

@likuidkewl,

Well thinking optimisticily, will the script actually CLEAN the hdd ? in the sense completely wipe it off ?

Or can it just create a stupid partition anywhere it finds the space.. (prefrrabaly at the start or end of the hdd)

Also, after that, will the pc need to be restarted for the changes to take affect ?

Well if things go as they should, then probably, what we can do is, ask the user if he wants to wipe the XP partition off then create a small 8mb partition at the start of the hdd, then create the winnt.sif there, then start the install, and this time delete the temp partition and reformat everything as C:

The beauty of this can be that it'll all be automated thru batch files in DOS..

Any ideas or doubts ?

Its just that i'm not comfortable with the idea of using 2 cd's just to install XP unattended, when all that can be done with just a dos image in the XPCD.

I hope i make some sense here :)

Bye,

Jazz

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ok, so 200 views.. can any1 give me feedback.. specifically does it actually work? iv tried it in VPC and when it finishes copying the files it doesnt reboot when it should. i havnt had a chance to test it on a real comp yet

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