For a few weeks now (probably closer to a month), I've been setting up an Unattended XP CD, using predominantly info from this site. As far as all of that goes, it works. It uses a modified hotfix/patch install, similar to MSFN.org/unattended/xp - by the time I got it working, I couldn't be bothered swapping it over to webmedic's big improved version. That can wait for when I've more time to play around and test.

After going through the 'copy to cdrw, try on second pc, have problem, erase cdrw, rinse and repeat' procedure rather a lot, I decided to give the network install method a shot. That could wait too, while I hunted down all of the registry changes I wanted, and such.

Now that everything is compiled, and ready to run, I have one rather annoying problem.

Details of setup first, I guess..

I boot onto the network using this - all fine.

share my unattended working folder, and map it to x: - all fine.

Installing, it won't read from the unattended script - \i386\winnt.sif - crap.

Dig into the deployment tools, go through setup manager again, get an actual distribution share setup, and save the unattended file. Things are looking rather easy.

Problems that I get stuck with:

Have to edit winnt.bat to point to winnt (rather than winnt32) AND dick around with the switches. Get it all finally working fine using the line

x:\i386\winnt /s:\\sleeper\windist\i386 /u:\\sleeper\windist\Winnt.sif /rx:lang

Sweet, I think. Reads from the unattended script.

I happened to notice that it created the $oem$ dir inside \i386 (unattended file I used was pre-existing, so it pointed to install.cmd), so I copied the $1 and accompanying driver, application and hotfix dirs in there too.

Crux of the problem:

FOr the life of me, I can't get it to copy them over with the rest of the setup files.

I tried copying \$oem$ into \windist, so it sits parallel to \i386 in the dir structure. Still won't copy.

Even tried this:

x:\i386\winnt /s:\\sleeper\windist\i386 /u:\\sleeper\windist\Winnt.sif /rx:lang /r:\\sleeper\windist\$oem$\ /r:\\sleeper\windist\$oem$\$1\test\

in the hopes that it'd copy one of them over, so I could slip in a boot disk after first reboot and check they're there. Nada.

Tried changing MsDosInitiated="0" to "1" in winnt.sif (as well as copying the files into \i386 just in case), and still no luck.

It's really got me puzzled, and it seems that any seemingly-useful info I could find via google relates to RIS installs - something I am short of hardware to try.

I'm going to just do the install from CD so Dad has a half-decent computer to use, but for future reference, I'd be grateful if anyone can help me sort out where I went wrong - or if it's even possible. Using a network share will allow me to not worry about creating 2-cd unattended installs, or chasing down dvdrw access, and looks much nicer for working with small-medium sized networks

I would be interested to see your SIF file.

Do you have the following item in it?

OemPreinstall = yes

The only bit I haven't got working is setting up the custom default theme, but I'm not too concerned for the moment.

There's a couple of things added for the network install, but it's basically a working winnt.sif from my cd install.

Chopped up the oempnpdriver line so it wouldn't make the page ridiculously wide.

;SetupMgrTag
[Data]
    AutoPartition=0
    MsDosInitiated="0"
    UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[Unattended]
    UnattendMode=FullUnattended
    OemSkipEula=Yes
    OemPreinstall=Yes
    TargetPath=\WINDOWS
    Repartition=No
    UnattendSwitch="no"
    WaitForReboot="No"
    Hibernation = No
    OemPnPDriversPath="Drivers\Catalyst3_6\2KXP_INF;Drivers\Catalyst3_6\tv_out\WDM_XP;Drivers\nf2\display\;
Drivers\nf2\audiodrv;Drivers\nf2\ethernet\winxp;Drivers\nf2\gart;Drivers\nf2\ide\winxp;Drivers\nf2\memctl;
Drivers\nf2\smbus;Drivers\nf2\usb;Drivers\IntelPro;Drivers\SilSATA"
    DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore

[GuiUnattended]
    AdminPassword="%*%"
    EncryptedAdminPassword=NO
    OEMSkipRegional=1
    TimeZone=255
    OemSkipWelcome=1

[UserData]
    ProductKey=%*%
    FullName="Muad'Dib"
    OrgName="NichTech"
    ComputerName=*

[Display]
    BitsPerPel=32
    Xresolution=1024
    YResolution=768
    Vrefresh=60

[TapiLocation]
    CountryCode=61
    Dialing=Tone

[RegionalSettings]
    LanguageGroup=13,17,3,2,5,16,4,12,15,7,8,10,11,9,6,14,1
    Language=00000c09

[GuiRunOnce]
    Command0="%systemdrive%\install\install.cmd"

[Identification]
    JoinWorkgroup=POOP

[Networking]
    InstallDefaultComponents=Yes

[Components] 
    msnexplr=off

[Shell]
    CustomDefaultThemeFile=%systemdrive%\themes\MyDefaultTheme.theme
    DefaultStartPanelOff=Yes

[PCHealth]
    ER_Display_UI=1
    ER_Enable_Applications=All
    ER_Enable_Kernel_Error=1
    ER_Enable_Reporting=1
    ER_Enable_Windows_Components=1
    ER_Exclude_EXE1=notepad.exe
    ER_Force_Queue_Mode=1
    ER_Include_EXE1=iexplore.exe
    ER_Include_MSApps=1
    ER_Include_Shutdown_Errs=1
    RA_AllowFullControl=1
    RA_AllowToGetHelp=0
    RA_AllowUnsolicited=0
    RA_MaxTicketExpiry=600

[SetupMgr]
    DistFolder=C:\windist
    DistShare=windist

[Branding]
    BrandIEUsingUnattended=Yes

[Proxy]
    Proxy_Enable=0