Two Seperate WINNT.SIF Files

[GreenMachine]

I'll try again ... soon!

Thanks, it_ybd, for the input.

[agenta]

With the Boot-from-CD method you must use the unattended answer file named WINNT.SIF. This can be either on a floppy disk or in the i386 folder.

If you have a CD with WINNT.SIF in the i386 folder it will automatically use that answer file for the unattended build. However if you use the same CD with WINNT.SIF on a floppy disk, the floppy disk version will take precendence. That is, you can have your unattended Windows installation from CD with or without WINNT.SIF on the floppy disk.

You will not be able to have more than one WINNT.SIF - Windows Setup will use one or the other.

[GreenMachine]

This sounds like the answer I hoped for: Setup uses WINNT.SIF from the CD, unless there is a WINNT.SIF on floppy. Perfect ... except now that there are more and more machine without floppies.

Thanks, agenta.

[Vadikan]

Just my two cents. There's a way to have as many winnt.sif files as you want on the CD. I'll tell right away, that this is a multiboot solution. For example, if you want to have regular and unattended installations on the same CD you can go with Bootable CD Wizard (the web site is really slow, but interesting). Actually, the utility is pretty powerful to handle complicated multiboot installations, and it was probably mentioned somewhere in the Multi-Boot forum. That method was suggested by a member of a Russian board, and it didn't take me long to create dual boot DVD (unattended + regular). 20 minutes I spent on reading the documentation and 10 minutes on creating the disc. Well, I played with the shell settings for another hour then ;-))

The idea is to hexedit SETUPLDR.BIN replacing winnt.sif with, say, winn1.sif. Then, the file is saved as SETUPLD1.BIN in i386, and the winnt.sif is renamed to winn1.sif. That's basically it. Bootable CD Wizard uses bootcat.ini as the config file, where the following text defines the available installations:

\i386\setupld1.bin;Windows XP Professional Unattended
\i386\setupldr.bin;Windows XP Professional Regular  

I can elaborate if needed. But clearly you can have setupldr2.bin leading to winn2.sif, and etc. It's been said, though, that BCDW doesn't work with setupldr.bin from SP2. The workaround is to use setupldr.bin from SP1.

BTW, what if there's no floppy in the config? Where are you gonna put it?

Now I have a question. Why did this question pop up in XPC forum?

[GreenMachine]

Thanks for that, VAD, sounds interesting. The only problem would be that by modifying the files, there may be support/EULA issues with Microsoft. That could cause problems in a commercial environment ...

I do like that site, though. Have to do some more reading ...

I'm not sure how the question got here, but I felt it was interesting enough to think about, instead of just sending him off to the Unattended Forum.

[Vadikan]

by modifying the files, there may be support/EULA issues with Microsoft. That could cause problems in a commercial environment ...

Hmm... I didn't think about. It's a valid point. I've never had patience to read the EULA. Most likely it does prohibit file modification, but... man, there's just one letter change And it has nothing to do with piracy or illegal distribution\installation. I mean, just don't tell M$ you've done that

[GreenMachine]

I know: it is probably not a big deal, rather a technicality. However, I strive to keep XPCREATIONS compatible with Microsoft guidlines, and the only files created or modified are done according to KB articles. In this way, XPCREATIONS can be used in the corporate environment with no worries.