Gathering install info up front

[pup]

So... I've used XPCreate, plus all the excellent info from the various sites around (big thumbs up to AaronXp, GreenMachine, and Jono ) to build myself an unattended XP build CD. I'm happy with that. Service packs, hotfixes, etc... all sorted.

But I'd like to be able to prompt for the Username and Computer Name up-front.

I'm looking for suggestions on how to do this. I don't like floppy disks, so I'd like to leave all my install files on CD. I also like to leave the partition settings out of the winnt.sif file, so that XP prompts for where you'd like it installing (the only part that is not unattended).

Looking round, I've seen a number of methods mentioned, but want to know what people think (or if there are any good guides, etc... for any of them), including:

* Using WinPE to front the install (if doing this, then I assume I could do the partioning at this stage?!?)

* Setting up a batch file to prompt for information, then saving the winnt.sif to floppy (not really what I want)

Any suggestions/links etc. would be greatly appreciated,

[Jono]

i would recommend using winpe as a lot of bonus's are then introduced for recovery and deployment e.g. you can create a program to do what you want partitioning etc.

[Jazz]

Well i think that we both want the same thing... pls refer to here..

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=18442

maybe we can do something about it..

Bye,

Jazz

[jdgordon]

if u dont mind using winpe to do it then have a look at this progra im writing (http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=18484) its still alpha but _SHOULD_ work.. need ppl to test it

[pup]

Thanks for your replies,

I'll have a go this weekend and tell you all how I get on