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Is it wise to have a local copy of i386 dir?


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Just atarting to finalise my Unattended disk, which Ive been working on for the last couple of weeks...

I installed something today, which required me to put my XP disk back in, which has not happened before, or not for a long time anyway.

I currently use a Ua disk to install XP, drivers and hotfixes via RunOnceEx, and then point to a local drive to install other apps. Ideally I would like to put the i386 directory in the same place...

Is the i386 necessary, Iven never encountered the need for it to be accessed after an install before today, which lead me to thing maybe it would be good to have one locally... save time copying it from disk, if I cuold make neccessary changes to the registry to point to its location on another drive...

As the i386 comes off the original disks.. may there not be out of date files, which may have been replaced my hotfixes, patches etc... and wojuld not be found in the orignal folder???

Is it just a simple matter of adding a regkey to point to the local i386 dir?

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup]"SourcePath"="x:\i386"

"ServicePackSourcePath"="x:\i386"

Any tips.....??

Cheers

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On your personal machine I think its up to you - it is nice not having to drag out the CD when you need it.

At work I do not put a i386 on local systems. I dont want users to have access to it. It also prevents them from installing something without permission. I do have a copy of my unattend CD shared on a server with a hidden share that only I an my fellow IS guys have access to. This way if we are doing something and we need the CD and dont have one, we can attach to the share and continue on. I also do the same thing with my unattend Office CD.

In both cases I have hotfixes and service packs slipstreamed in so whatever files get pulled of the share, should be the lastest versions.

Enjoy

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If you don't have your source files on the HD when you do certain upgrades it will ask for them...if you have them on the HD and the registry is aware of them, then it will never ask you for the files.

In my opinion, I would think it's best to include a local copy, as there are several situations where it could be useful. You could put it on a network like the previous user commented on, but that would be extra stress to a network, so you need to decide if that's worth it.

In regards to the comment on if it will use older files...no, when you install a hotfix or update, it makes several backups of both the current and previous files. It will know this, and not copy the older files...unless you have serious problems that is. But in a case that severe, you probably would be doing a reload anyway.

Edited by InTheWayBoy
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