Unattended Disk does not work

[ank]

Essentially, I have used this forum and XPCreate to create my first Unattended .iso. I tried not to ask for help, and managed to learn everything from the forums. Or so I thought. My final disk has winnt.sif installed in i386 properly, and also includes all of the files I put into the $OEM$ folders. It also loads all the OEMPreInstall drivers during the F6 screen, but when I boot off the disk and install windows (Using Virtual PC), it acts completely like a regular disk, asking me for everything and doing nothing. After the initial driver inclusion, everything seems exactly as a normal Attended installation would. I realize that this is probably some simple error, but I can't find it. Thanks so much in advance for your help. As a note, I've also posted in the XPCreate forums, in case the problem lies there.

Winnt.sif

[Data]

AutoPartition=0

MsDosInitiated="0"

UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[unattended]

UnattendMode=FullUnattended

OemSkipEula=Yes

OemPreinstall=Yes

TargetPath=\WINDOWS

UnattendedSwitch="yes"

FileSystem=*

Repartition=No

WaitForReboot="No"

OemPnPDriversPath="Drivers\ViaSata\SATA;Drivers\ViaSata;Drivers\ViaSata\PIde\Winxp;Drivers\ViaSata\SATA\Winxp;Drivers\00_Via4in1\Inf\Winxp;Drivers\00_Via4in1\Winxp;Drivers\00_Via4in1\IDEWinXP;Drivers\00_Via4in1\AGP;Drivers\02_WDM_3663\AD1980\SMAXWDM\W2K_XP;Drivers\03_USB2_257\USB2\winXP_SP1;Drivers\04_Keyboard\Disk1\Win2K_XP;Drivers\05_Mouse\Win2K_XP"

DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore

[GuiUnattended]

AdminPassword=*

EncryptedAdminPassword=NO

OEMSkipRegional=1

TimeZone=4

OemSkipWelcome=1

[userData]

ProductKey=***********************

FullName="Ananth N. Krishna"

OrgName="Home"

ComputerName=Zenadir

[Display]

BitsPerPel=32

Xresolution=1600

YResolution=1200

Vrefresh=85

[TapiLocation]

CountryCode=1

Dialing=Tone

AreaCode=925

[RegionalSettings]

LanguageGroup=1

[identification]

JoinWorkgroup=Ananth

[Networking]

InstallDefaultComponents=Yes

[Components]

msmsgs=off

msnexplr=off

freecell=off

hearts=off

minesweeper=off

pinball=off

solitaire=off

spider=off

zonegames=off

[GuiRunOnce]

%systemdrive%\install\batch1.cmd

[krismark]

Dude,

You posted your Key

Bad Bad Bad

[jrzycrim]

[Unattended]
UnattendMode=FullUnattended
OemSkipEula=Yes
OemPreinstall=Yes
TargetPath=\WINDOWS
UnattendedSwitch="yes" <----

That should be UnattendSwitch=Yes

[ank]

Yeah, sorry about that. I'm not too worried about it, for reasons I won't mention, but I've taken it off now. Anyways, any ideas on what might be wrong with my install?

[ank]

K, modifying my winnt.sif and creating a new ISO. I'll tell you how it goes. Thanks. Hope it works

[jdoe]

FIRST you should not put your CD KEY - edit your post and replace cd key with

XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

Missing line here

[Unattended]
OemFilesPath="..\$OEM$"

Doesn't mean it will solve all your unattended problem but it's a start.

.....

[jrzycrim]

Missing line here

[Unattended]
OemFilesPath="..\$OEM$"

That's only needed if you place your $OEM$ directory somewhere other than the root of the CD.

[jdoe]

@jrzycrim

I put this line since long time ago and didn't know it was useless for my CD

Thanks for the tips

[jrzycrim]

Can't hurt anything by being there. That would be useful if you wanted to keep all of your oem files on another partition/drive.

[jrzycrim]

Another thing ank, make sure that Winnt.sif isn't named Winnt.sif.txt. That can happen easily if you save it from notepad as a text file. you wouldn't notice it if you have 'hide extensions for known file types' enabled in folder options.

[ank]

****, you called it, I think. I had reformatted a few days ago and forgotten to change the Hide file Extension in Folder Prperties. It IS listed as .sif.txt. Let me change that, and leave it running tonight and see what the iso does in the morning. Thanks alot, I think that may have been it. I'll update you guys tomorrow

[jrzycrim]

That's cool. I was looking at ref.chm and it had this to say about UnattendSwitch:

Syntax UnattendSwitch = Yes | No

Values

Yes

Instructs Setup to skip Windows Welcome.

No

Instructs Setup not to skip Windows Welcome.

Default Value

No

Example UnattendSwitch = Yes

Comments

Use UnattendSwitch only when you perform an unattended Setup with Winnt.exe, Winnt.sif, and the CD Boot method. This entry is not necessary if you use Winnt32.exe to run Setup.

NOTE

UnattendSwitch is not the same as the UnattendedInstall entry in the [Data]section of the answer file. UnattendSwitch controls Windows Welcome; UnattendedInstall does not.

I figured there must be some other reason your unattended wasn't working.

I haven't looked at my winnt.sif in a few weeks. I forget what some of the entries are actually for.

[ank]

That did fix the problem. Thanks again. This is exactly what a forum should be. I did want to ask a question regarding

UnAttendedSwitch = Yes or = "Yes"

Cus the example of a winnt.sif given on the Unattended MSFN Examples Page and on the Winnt.sif Reference page suggest the latter. but earlier in this thread, the opposite was suggested. Do both work and if not, which is correct. Thanks again.

[prathapml]

[Unattended]
OemFilesPath="..\$OEM$"

That's only needed if you place your $OEM$ directory somewhere other than the root of the CD.

So, I suppose, you can actually call your $OEM$ as Any_Folder, and specify that in the winnt.sif? And it will work?

I've seen that the above mentioned entry actually refers to the SystemDrive, not the CD (i.e., OemFilesPath="..\My_Folder" would make setup search for a folder by that name on C:\, and not on the CD as desired).

[jrzycrim]

That did fix the problem.  Thanks again.  This is exactly what a forum should be.  I did want to ask a question regarding

UnAttendedSwitch = Yes or = "Yes"

Cus the example of a winnt.sif given on the Unattended MSFN Examples Page and on the Winnt.sif Reference page suggest the latter.  but earlier in this thread, the opposite was suggested.  Do both work and if not, which is correct.  Thanks again.

[Data]
    AutoPartition = 0
    MsDosInitiated = 0
    UnattendedInstall = Yes

[Unattended]
    UnattendMode = FullUnattended
    OemSkipEula = Yes
    OemPreinstall = Yes
    TargetPath = \Windows
    UnattendSwitch = yes
    Hibernation = no
    FileSystem = *
    WaitForReboot = No 
    DriverSigningPolicy = Ignore
    nondriversigningpolicy = Ignore
    OemPnPDriversPath = Drivers\001_Sound;Drivers\002_Modem

[GuiUnattended]
    AdminPassword = XXXXXX
    EncryptedAdminPassword = No
    OEMSkipRegional = 1
    TimeZone = 35
    OemSkipWelcome = 1

[UserData]
    ProductKey = "XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX"
    FullName = "Jim Roberts"
    OrgName = "Earth"
    ComputerName = IgorXI

[Display]
    BitsPerPel = 32
    Xresolution = 1024
    YResolution = 768
    Vrefresh = 75
    ConfigureAtLogon = 1
    AutoConfirm = 1

[TapiLocation]
    CountryCode = 1
    Dialing = Tone
    AreaCode = 502

[Identification]
    JoinWorkgroup = WORKGROUP

[Networking]
    InstallDefaultComponents = Yes

I only put quotes around values that the ref.chm examples did. In the past, I've had quotes around some values like UnattendSwitch = "yes". But the above winnt.sif works fine. For the drivers path, you would need quotes if there are spaces in the paths to your drivers.

It's UnattendSwitch not UnattendedSwitch.

So, I suppose, you can actually call your $OEM$ as Any_Folder, and specify that in the winnt.sif? And it will work?

I've never used that in my Winnt.sif so I really don't know.

Here's what ref.chm has to say about it:

OemFilesPath

Specifies the path to the \$OEM$ folder (containing OEM files) if it does not exist under the i386 folder of the distribution share point.

It may or may not work for a unattended CD. *shrug*