Can anyone explain to me...

[Balkanac]

Okay:

M$ shows us the OS install architecture in the following image...

Unattended install architecture of OS (taken form M$)

I am doing the following (on a clean FAT32 formatted disk with two partitions):

1.) First run (within WinPE) the following command:

<I386DIR>:\WINNT32 /SYSPART:C /TEMPDRIVE:C /MAKELOCALSOURCE /NOREBOOT /U:C:\UNATTEND.TXT

The first copy file phase (Initial stage) is done + Intermediate stage

Now.... I want to distribute this "ready to install partition" to other machines so i can avoid the first copy phase each time when i deploy the OS. This partition contains (for now) the following:

boot.ini

$ldr$

ntdetect.com

txtsetup.sif

$win_nt.~ls

$win_nt.~bt

unattend.txt

If i make a copy of this partition (without rebooting) by using third party imaging tool (like Ghost or Driveimage or any other..) and deploy to destination machines than it works like a charm. Drop the image to first partition of destination disk and reboot the machine. It will continue with second part of textmode-stage installation (Intermediate stage) and run without any problem.

but...

All these files are 8.3 files (no LFN files at this stage) so i should be able to copy them from CD (or network sahre) by using DOS command XCOPY command.

First i take care for creation of destination partition (FDISK and make active partition and format as FAT32 the same as original partition where the Winnt32 was executed) then i copy files stated above.

But when i reboot (and hope it will continue with second stage) it says:

Invalid system disk. Replace the disk, and then press any key.

What do i miss here? How to solve this within MS-DOS command line?

Why doesn't the MBR find the $ldr$...

Is there someting else i have to do in order to emulate the disk imaging tool. Bootsector, MBR fix or stuff like that?

IF anyone can tell me if this is possible...

[/\/\o\/\/]

Did you make the partition active ?

gr /\/\o\/\/

[Balkanac]

Jawel,

As i stated in my previous post...

... (FDISK and make active partition and format as FAT32 the same as original partition where the Winnt32 was executed) then i copy files stated above. ...

Thank you for your reaction...

Anyone else please

Regards

Balkanac

[tim]

Invalid system disk. Replace the disk, and then press any key.

This normally means that the MBR and/or the BOOT sector are not correct.

The BIOS can't find any valid boot code.

First the MBR is loaded and run then, if this is succesfull, it searches for an active partition.

The boot sector from the active partition is loaded and run. It is this second stage that will find and run NTLDR.

Somewhere the chain is breaking down. Most likely the BOOT sector stage.

[/\/\o\/\/]

sorry balcanac,

I did miss that remark bout hte active partition,

maybe you can test the remarks Tim made with a RecoveryConsole or a NT-formatted boot-disk (ntldr + boot.ini etc.)

and try that, it also could be that your boot.ini has not the good disknumbers. (or SCSI i.p.v. MULTI) (you created the partitions an other way that the imaging program would do)

i hope this input helps

gr /\/\o\/\/

PS in the recoveryconsole you can use :

fixmbr

fixboot

but this is for a normal installation, not for the minisetup

but I guess they gonna look for the normal NTLDR not the mini-LDR

(could also be the case with the bootdisk)