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Ok, I'm NOT wanting an unattended install. I will install everything manually. What I do want though, is for certain fields to already be populated when the appropriate screen shows up. I want to pre-fill the cd-key, user name, company name, and time zone. That's it, nothing more. How can this be done with Win2K3 and XP? I know back in Win98 I only needed to create a msbatch.inf file with the correct entries, and drop it in the cab folder. Is this possible for XP/2K3?

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Create a WINNT.SIF file and fill it with all your data (names, key, etc...), then set the UnattendMode to ProvideDefaults in the [unattended] section :

[Unattended]
UnattendMode=ProvideDefaults

You should read this page about WINNT.SIF :

http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/view/web/19/

This page on how to create one :

http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/view/web/7/

You can also use nLite and get the WINNT.SIF file it created.

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I have been using nLite, but the install keeps screwing up, saying it can't find files or they're corrupt. I think nLite is doing more than what I want and somewhere along the way, it messes up.

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I have used the provide defaults both with nLite RC6 and RC7 which worked ok for me. If I'd had to guess I'd say your problems are most likely not due to nLite (if they truly are caused by nLite, maybe posting in the nLite bug forum is a good idea). I find the manual method is well described in the links Delprat added - so give it a try.

Edited by Blub
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I have been using nLite, but the install keeps screwing up, saying it can't find files or they're corrupt. I think nLite is doing more than what I want and somewhere along the way, it messes up.

As I said, you only need to get the WinNT.SIF file created by nLite...

nlite is working very well, so do not blame nuhi for his work, and make a real bug report (i've had problems also... even with my Plug&Play camera, i've had problems :whistle: )

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I'm not trying to blame anyone for the problem, and I HAVE posted in the nLite section on this. [Look for the "Missing EULA.txt" post] I've grabbed the microsoft tool for creating the winnt.sif file and I'm in the process of trying that. I've compared both .sif files and noted a few discrepancies between microsoft's and nLite's .sif files. Also, the cd I'm using is an MSDN Windows 2003 cd, with both Standard and Enterprise versions on it, and it's employing some TOC tricks to keep 1GB of data on a 624MB cd. Who knows what this may be doing to the install process.

[edit] I should probably clairify on MSDN cd. All I'm trying to do is create an SP1 slipstreamed server cd that prefill's my comapny's information. The original MSDN cd I have to base all of this from, has both Enterprise and Standard versions on it. Properties of the cd show that it's using a total of 624MB, yet if you do the properties of each install folder, each folder shows 545MB of data, which of course, isn't possible on a CD. I believe MS is doing some TOC tricks to have a single file appear to be in two different folders, or in this case alot of files appearing in two different places.

Edited by Justice
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Okay... Here's the issue I'm running into: Just after Partition creation and format, it goes to copy files. The following shows up:

Error1.png

And here's the winnt.sif file contents:

[Data]AutoPartition=0

MsDosInitiated="0"

UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[unattended]

UnattendMode=ProvideDefault

OemPreinstall=No

TargetPath=\WINDOWS

[GuiUnattended]

EncryptedAdminPassword=NO

OEMSkipRegional=1

OemSkipEula=Yes

TimeZone=15

[userData]

ProductKey=XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

FullName="Company Admin"

OrgName="Company Name"

[LicenseFilePrintData]

AutoMode=PerSeat

[TapiLocation]

CountryCode=1

Dialing=Tone

AreaCode=XXX

LongDistanceAccess="9"

[RegionalSettings]

LanguageGroup=1

[identification]

JoinDomain=DOMAIN

DomainAdmin=Administrator

[Networking]

InstallDefaultComponents=Yes

I don't see a [sourceDiskFiles] entry at all, and I looked here but found no entry for it.

Thanks for any help guys! I'm getting closer!

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Ok, did some research. Found that I didn't have a txtsetup.sif file at all. Ran nLite and had it create one. Same error as above.

[edit] I did find the sp1.cab entry in the txtsetup.sif file.

sp1.cab = 1,,,,,,_x,39,0,0

sp1.cat = 1,,,,,,_x,,3,3

Does this help?

Edited by Justice
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I think I found the problem. Since this cd is a multi-os install I happened to check the other folders on the cd. here's the folder tree:

tree.png

The normal cd files are in the EN_WS03\ENGLISH\WIN2003 folder. \ENT for the Enterprise version, \STANDARD for standard.

I happened to mis-click on the W3KE\ folder and found several files within, and one of those files happened to be a TXTSETUP.SIF file. So now I'm cross checking files between each folder and making sure they match in both areas. HOPEFULLY, this is cause of the problems.

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Look at guides on how to create multiboot CDs before continuing, and you will learn what is that folder structure :

W3KE / W3KS are "boot folders", similar to the bootdiskettes or to "winnt32 /noreboot"

ENGLISH\WIN2003\ENT and ENGLISH\WIN2003\STANDARD are the installation folders.

and all of that fit on a single CD with tools like "cdimage"

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  • 2 weeks later...
I think I found the problem. Since this cd is a multi-os install I happened to check the other folders on the cd. here's the folder tree:

tree.png

The normal cd files are in the EN_WS03\ENGLISH\WIN2003 folder. \ENT for the Enterprise version, \STANDARD for standard.

I happened to mis-click on the W3KE\ folder and found several files within, and one of those files happened to be a TXTSETUP.SIF file. So now I'm cross checking files between each folder and making sure they match in both areas. HOPEFULLY, this is cause of the problems.

I've been having the same problem using my MSDN discs.

I'm looking forward to hearing what you find!

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