Unattended Installs Failing?

[RudeMood12]

I'm finally working on actually rolling out my Windows XP distro, after wading through all the NTUpgrade/OEMPreInstall crap, but I believe I am running into a different problem now.

We are using a boot disk (I believe its called 'Bart's Boot disk) for new computers that do not have an OS yet that allows us to map a network drive from the server that is hosting the distribution folder. It is basically the same thing as Norton Ghost network boot disks. We ran into some data sharing issues initially (the info we were trying to access was on a domain controller, so we had to change the way the DC communicates with client computers in order for us to gain access to the folder). This way we can simply run unattend.bat via the command line.

However, I believe there is some error while it says 'Please wait while setup copies files to your hard disk.' w/ the blue screen I was running this yesterday, and it would proceed to install files (it listed them in the bottom right hand corner of the screen) but eventually that would stop, and the above message would be by itself. The HD activity light would go solid green, and then stay that way for long periods of time. How long should this process take, what exactly is it doing at this point?

I am currently trying it at a different location w/ a different laptop, and this one shows constant activity, but it is not a solid green light. Any ideas on thing I can check?

[RudeMood12]

ok, the install finally went through after like 30 mins, and then the copying of files took like another hour. thats what i get for being connected to the 10MBit hub here

However, when it did its thing and finally started installing windows, it asked for all the information it wouldve gotten from the answer file! So why didnt it properly read the answer file?

I started the install using unattend.bat, so why wouldnt it use the unattend.txt?

[Phyridean]

Well, it depends on what you're copying. If, for instance, you have an install of office in there, that's the time when it copies.

As far as your answer file, it'd help if you posted it and unattended.bat, but I'll hazard a guess.

In unattended.bat, I'm guessing it doesn't get the path to the answer file properly, but it's just a guess.

EDIT: Did I say I was guessing?

[RudeMood12]

here is the unattend.txt --

;SetupMgrTag

[Data]

AutoPartition=1

MsDosInitiated="0"

UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[unattended]

UnattendMode=FullUnattended

OemSkipEula=Yes

NTUpgrade=Yes

DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore

TargetPath=\WINDOWS

[GuiUnattended]

AdminPassword=blahblahblah

EncryptedAdminPassword=Yes

OEMSkipRegional=1

TimeZone=35

OemSkipWelcome=1

[userData]

ProductKey="XXX"

FullName="DECCO"

OrgName="DENS"

ComputerName=*

[TapiLocation]

CountryCode=1

[setupMgr]

DistFolder=C:\windist

DistShare=windist

[branding]

BrandIEUsingUnattended=Yes

Home_Page=

Search_Page=www.google.com

[Proxy]

Proxy_Enable=1

Use_Same_Proxy=1

HTTP_Proxy_Server=

Proxy_Override=<local>

[identification]

JoinWorkgroup=WORKGROUP

[Networking]

InstallDefaultComponents=Yes

[Components]

msmsgs=Off

msnexplr=Off

zonegames=Off

And unattend.bat (this is unmodified) --

@rem SetupMgrTag

@echo off

rem

rem This is a SAMPLE batch script generated by Setup Manager.

rem If this script is moved from the location where it was generated, it may have to be modified.

rem

set AnswerFile=.\unattend.txt

set SetupFiles=\\DISTRIBUTION\windist\I386

\\DISTRIBUTION\windist\I386\winnt32 /s:%SetupFiles% /unattend:%AnswerFile%

it has had no trouble running the upgrades, but this is the first time i have done a fresh install. but we have no other programs installing at that time except windows.