making my own recovery cd.....

[diesel_98a]

i have one for win98 & winME, but the winME never gets used. my idea is to strip all the winME stuff out of it and insterting winXP stuff. what the disk does is on a new harddrive is to create 2 new partations (a c: & d:), it formats them using fat32, after that it copies the win98 folder from the win98cd and puts it on the d: (the d: is about 7% of the total drive space). then when the recovery cd is run it just runs the install from the d:. however all the win98 setup information is on the cd in a makedisk (a batch file). i have extracted it and everything can be modified, however how do i turn it back into the makedisk batch file once done? would i be able to insert the winxp winnt.sif into it had have it run from the d:? the plan is to be able to modify software and items on the d: for winxp w/out having to burn a new cd each time, but just to run the recovery cd to reinstall from the d:, at no time do i want to image the drive and use that.

i have attached a zip file that shows the makedisk i need to recreate, and a pic of some of the contents that are in the makedisk. might need to resize the contents one, i had to resize to get it attached.

[diesel_98a]

ok i have decided to remove all the winME stuff and i am replacing the win98 stuff w/ winxp stuff.

in the autoexec batch file i have the following

:win98

path=a:\;d:\

a:\format.com c: <A:\y

d:

cd WIN98

setup a:\win98.inf /im /is /ie /nr /iv

goto QUIT

i believe what i need to do is to direct it to the winnt32, but not sure what would need to go after it

something like this:

:winXP

path=a:\;d:\

a:\format.com c: <A:\y

d:

cd WINXP

cd I386

winnt32 d:\winXP\i386\winnt.sif /im /is /ie /nr /iv

goto QUIT

i am not even sure what would even go after the winnt.sif

any ideas????

[diesel_98a]

i found this:

x:\i386\winnt /s:x:\i386 /u:x:\unattend.txt

so maybe it should look like this then:

:winXP

path=a:\;d:\

a:\format.com c: <A:\y

d:

cd WINXP

cd I386

winnt32 d:\winXP\i386\winnt /s:d:\winxp\i386 /u:d:\winXP\i386\winnt.sif

goto QUIT

[Alanoll]

all the switches for winnt.exe can be found either on the Microsoft site, or using /? at a command prompt.

you can't run winnt32.exe from a DOS environment unless that environment is within windows. But for a basic switch set...

d:\winxp\i386\winnt.exe /s:d:\winxp\i386 /u:d:\winxp\i386\winnt.sif should do ya.

[diesel_98a]

the only thing i haven't searched was ms, but i thought that might be close, i figured out how to make the makedisk app, so i am going to be testing it, hopefully tonight. so far all the files on it can be download from somewhere on internet. w/ this idea it might change the way to install but still use the unattended method.

it will be a day or too be4 i can post my updates, as i am having a problem w/ the boot image, and i hope to get it sorted out be4 the weekend. going to try the isobuster to see if that helps.

at this time i haven't been able to even look into anything, but hoping to work w/ it alot this weekend, so not much will happen until then.

Edited July 30, 2004 by diesel_98a

[diesel_98a]

so far no good, image file is not working for some reason. i have tried like 3 different images, but no success. i just got an idea that i will try.

i have also started messing around w/ the winpe, maybe that will work as well.

[diesel_98a]

well my great idea didn't work, so off to the drawing boards, but one idea is trying to run an sfx archive in dos to install winxp, anybody know if running an install using a sfx archive off the d: drive will work? i am thinking not, maybe try using ramdrive, but that is way to small to work i would think. i got this idea, cause i have switched my installs of wallpapers and user acct picts to install using an sfx archive, which works sweet!!!

on another note, i have just updated my win2ksp4 cd w/ updated software, something i have done was in add IE6 install & directx9b to sfx archives to install using unattend mode, if it works (which i have yet to test) will save about 40mb.

[jaclaz]

diesel_98a

Just a few ideas:

1) if you install W98 before XP, why don't you run WINNT32 from it?

2) as I mentioned somewhere else Qualystem has released as FREEWARE

their solutions to run W98 from CD

Qualystem? Rescue 1.2 Free Edition

http://www.qualystem.com/en/download.html

you can make a W98 based "pre-installation environment", it could be, combined with some W98 shrinking technique, small enough not to take the space needed by the XP install. (this is something I have been thinking about lately but had too much other things to do I did not have time to investigate further)

jaclaz