Hi,

I'm trying to create a WinPE bootdisk which will allow me to install Windows via an unattended network install. I've already created an unattended CD which works perfectly with the Dell servers, but want to move it to a network location for ease of updating.

I've created a WinPE boot CD using WinPE 2004 (The XP SP2 version). I've injected the same driver files I used for the unattended CD, the latest PERC 4e/Di drivers from the Dell website. The filename is mraid35x.sys.

WinPE boots fine and loads all the network drivers, which I've also injected. When I come to use DiskPart to create a partition, it's unable to find any disks. I've made sure I've created a logical drive initially in the PERC BIOS.

So has anybody got this working ok with the Dell servers? Maybe I have the wrong drivers or something. After all these were the drivers I used for the Windows 2003 unattended CD. They did come from the Dell website on the Windows XP page though.

If anyone's got this working, how did you do it? This is the only thing which is holding me up at the moment, and I'd really like to get it sorted.

Cheers,

Adam

You say you "injected" the driver.

How? Manually?

Since the mraid35x.sys driver already exists, you must also update the txtsetup.sif with the new PNP ID's.

Chris

lo..

I have the exact same controllers (both 4e/Di / 4e/Si & /4e/DC) on my Dell's. Just like Chris is into.. a matter of TXTSETUP entries and it works.

Hi,

I injected the drivers using the drvinst.exe tool. I guess I need to update the txtsetup.sif file in the same way as I do for an unattended setup using the CD? The documentation I read wasn't particularly clear on exactly how to do it.

Cheers for the info. I'll give that a go.

Adam

Adam.

You can't use drvinst for drivers you need during boot. Drvinst vill add them as pnp devices and what requires a running system so that the pnp manager can install them. It's a perfectly working method for a secondary mass storage controller but not for the boot controller. For that you will have to edit txtsetup.sif

Thanks for all the replies.

I've since added the entries into txtsetup.sif as I had done for my original unattended setup CD, and it's all working fine.

Now I just need to get the unattended setup working over the network and I'm there :-)

Cheers,

Adam

Congrats!

Now the fun begins!

Chris