Copy c:\winnt.sif to C:\$win_nt$.~bt using TXTSETU

[ruudboek]

Hello All,

i want to replace the winnt.sif located in the C:\$win_nt$.~bt folder at a very early stage in the unattended installation. It has to be done before the winnt.sif file is actually red by the installation.

Since TXTSETUP.SIF is about the earliest stage i could find, i was thinking maybe i can modifiy this file so that it copies c:\winnt.sif to the folder C:\$win_nt$.~bt.

My question therefore is : what entries should i add to the TXTSETUP.SIF to make this possible?

Edited May 7, 2006 by ruudboek

[Bezalel]

Why don't you use the correct winnt.sif file to begin with? You might be able to replace the file at the end of textmode by putting it in your $OEM$\$1\$WIN_NT$.BT~ folder but I don't know what you would gain by doing this.

What exactly are you trying to accomplish?

[ruudboek]

Very simpel, i want to be able to modify the winnt.sif from dos, so i can put in the computername.

I want to modify the winnt.sif from dos first, because i don't want to wait for the setup gui to come up asking me to enter the computername.

It just goes quicker that way.

I can load a dos image by using cdshell. Once i'm doing partitioning and entering the computername in dos i can choose to load W2KSECT.BIN which on its turn will start a normal cdrom based winxp installation from cd.

Ofcourse it is possible to kick off the installation from dos to begin with (winnt.exe) , but this way i will not need any dos cdromdriver and also it will skip the useless copying from the i386 files to hdd.

Ruud

[Djé]

You've got 2 different things here:

-the making of the 'local source' when using dos, which happen at the very beginning of the install.

-the using of winnt.sif's answers such as the computer name, which does not happen before well in the GUI mode setup.

I'm not sure what exactly you want to achieve in DOS (but tell us more about if you succeed) but AFAIK, the computer name inside winnt.sif has nothing to do with it so early in the process. And there are many other ways to deal with it later (but still unattendedly). For example the one adviced by Bezalel.

[Bezalel]

If all you want is the customize the computername you should install using a random computername and include a script later on to change the computername. If you want a one-off unattended install I'd suggest putting your winnt.sif on a floppy, using RIS, or starting the install from winnt.exe.