Hi everyone !

I have been successfully running a Multiboot DVD consisting of 2 Windows installations and a few tools. I have closely followed the MultibootDVD guide from this site. However, recently I have been wondering about something, maybe you guys can explain this.

Now, in the MultibootDVD guide it is described how to seperate the actual boot files from the rest of the Windows XP installation. In the end you wind up with the folder PRO1 that consists of the Windows XP bootfiles and the rest of the installation in the Setup\Pro1\i386 folder.

The "link" between those two folders seems to be the txtsetup.sif file that specifies the folder where the rest of the installation is supposed to be found at:

SetupSourcePath = "\SETUP\XP\Professional\"

Now, what I wanted was to start the installation as usual from the bootDVD but continue the installation from the Windows setup files on my harddisc. I thought that if you have to tell Windows where the i386 folder is, why not direct it to my installation base on my second harddisc. So I changed the above entry in txtsetup.sif to

SetupSourcePath = "D:\Installation\Windows\XP\"

where my i386 folder resides.

Everything went fine at first. The text setup of Windows XP started, then Windows presented me with the "partition manager" where I had to decided where to install Windows. At that point, Windows detected my second harddisc as drive D: already. However, instead of formating and copying files afterwards, setup ended with an error message.

I do´n´t understand why this does not work as expected. I have not changed anything except tell Windows to continue installation from a harddisc instead of the DVD. NTFS drivers have already loaded so Windows should be able to read from an NTFS drive. Also, it had correctly detected the second drive as D: before the error occured so where is the problem in doing this ?

Can anyone explain that ?

Thanks for your help,

Alex

you might try to do a quick pre- install from an OS, grab the answer file and replace the one which is copied from your dvd install. Windows generates a different answer file for a HD install. i think gosh's website has a method for copying the source to hd from a cd.

LiquidSage:

Thanks for posting but I don´t quite understand your answer.

I am starting installation from CD using the Windows XP bootfiles. I am just trying to get Windows to recognize the i386 folder on my harddisc. Why doesn´t this work ? Am I missing something ?

Bye,

Alex

when you install from a hd, an answer file is created telling windows that the install is from the hd and where the install files are located. when you copy from a cd, the answer file is of the type 'cd' install, and the loc. of the cd files is noted. You basically have a 'cd' type install pointing to the hd as the location of the files.

There are methods talked about in this forum which in a general sense, boot from cd, copy installation files (source) to hd and then trigger the installer.

Start an install while in windows, tell it to copy source files to d:\ and then cancel the reboot screen. You will note in the answer files created in the pre install folders ($WIN_NT$) that there are very important differences.