Unattended Secret: Reducing Size Of Source

[gamehead200]

gosh, your method of doing this works great! I tried this CD (ISO) in Virtual PC and it installed in about 20 minutes...Very sweet!

In your guide on the previous page, your directory contains XPBOOT.BIN. I deleted this from the ISO and it still works fine...

Also, when SP2 comes out, will I be able to slipstream it into this ISO? And one more thing, is it possible to add that SETUP.EXE and AUTORUN.INF files from the regular XP CD to this small one? Would it work the same way in GUI mode?

[gosh]

DMX: My method just avoid the first file copy phase, NOTHING is installed yet. Nothing such as the HAL is determined. It's exactly the same if you booted from cd and did a clean install.

carrot: you integrate hotfixes the same way as before. Just forget about dosnet.inf, everything else is the same.

gamehead200: all my method does is avoid 1 file copy phase. You will lose no data, etc. You can use the xp setup.exe, however you cannot install from the GUI because there is no winnt.exe or winnt32.exe. If you want to slipstream the cd, slipstream BEFORE using my method.

flyakite: The $OEM$ folder for cd bases installs is paralel to the i386 folder (which is usually the root of the cd).

-gosh

[beppemito]

for install application in this xp cd (reduced filesize) can i follow this guide or not?: http://www.MSFN.org/unattended/xp/batch_commands.htm !!!!where must i put the folder's program?in $OEM$, in BOOT or in I386 folder?thanks

[gosh]

Like i've said a billion times you put $OEM$ parallel to i386 folder, which should be on the root of the cd!!!!!!!

[carrot]

This is exactly the method I used only here arises the conflict at the above link it says:

Lastly, open up DOSNET.inf in the i386 directory and add the following text beneath all the values in [Directory]:

Which Gosh said I don't need but installing all in the Guirunonce is slow and installs the hotfixes in a way that I find questioning since the files in the hotfixes are not in the XPCD. So in case of reinstalling (or I must be wrong, which is a good possibility since I'm a newby) things old files on XPCD will or can overwrite the new ones from the hotfixes

It's prob. me but all the different ways makes me dazzle and All I want is a clean unattended hotfixes pre-installed unattended smooth installation, with a minimum of wasted space on the XPCD and on my hard disk after installation….

[DMX]

so does it mean that by following this method the windows installation will be compatible with different systems or only my system?

does anybody tried to use the installation that this method produces on other systems?

[valkyre]

This is amazing, I can't wait to try this out. And the ability to use the recovery console is a life saver! Thanks so much for writing out a guide on this gosh.

[flyakite]

Hey Gosh, can this method be used for the 3 different Windows 2003 Server editions as well? I'd like to include them all on my DVD but the three together take up 1.5 gb, and I will end up needing some of that space.

[valkyre]

Alright, I tried it and I got this error message during the inital blue setup screen.

File \i386\ntkrnlmp.exe could not be found.

The error code is 14.

Any ideas? I had to reinstall Windows after that error because while booting into Windows it said that the hal.dll file was missing or corrupt.

[gosh]

So far everything ive said applies to any version of NT. Now let's make the cd not have an i386 folder on the root. This makes the cd look more professional, and it also makes the cd more organised.

First, put your i386 folder into another folder. For this example we're gonna put it into a folder called WinXPPro. I'm not sure if there's a folder name limit, but i recommend keeping the name under 8 characters.

Next, edit txtsetup.sif in each BOOT or VOLX folder and edit the SetupSourcePath. Change it to this:

SetupSourcePath = "\WinXPPro\"

This has to be done in each boot folder, but you don't have to do it for the txtsetup.sif file in the i386 folder (if you have one). Doing this will make setup look in the WinXPPro folder for the source files, not the root of the cdrom.

Next, in the WinXPPro folder, make sure you have the following files:

$OEM$ <--- only if youre doing an OEMPreinstall

i386 <--- source files

setup.exe <--- you can put the xp setup.exe here (optional)

spnotes.htm <--- only if you're installing xp sp1 or higher

WIN51 <--- this has to be here

WIN51ic <--- only if installing xp home

WIN51ic.SP1<--- only if installing xp sp1 home

WIN51ip <--- only if installing xp pro

WIN51ip.SP1<--- only if installing xp sp1 pro

If you're smart you're probably thinking, "why do i need to add the cd ident files to the winxppro folder? They're already on the root of the cdrom". Or you might think "why do i need to do this, since txtsetup.sif will tell xp setup to look in the WinXPPro folder for the source files". That's very true. The reason why you have to include the cd identification files is because of a bug (in sp1?). XP setup is hard coded to install the drivers from an i386 folder, it doesn't look at the SetupSourcePath value in txtsetup.sif.

To see what i mean look at txtsetup.sif at this part:

[sourceDisksNames.x86]

1  = %cdname%,%cdtagfilei%,,\i386

2 = "%cd2name%","%cd2tagfilei%",,\cmpnents\tabletpc\i386

3 = "%cd2name%","%cd2tagfilei%",,\cmpnents\mediactr\i386

4 = "%cd2name%","%cd2tagfilei%",,\cmpnents\netfx\i386

100 = %spcdname%,%spcdtagfilei%,,\i386,1

When setup starts at the 33 min mark, it starts installing hardware. Setup looks in a folder called i386 under the cd ident files because of the 1 and 100. For example setup looks for amdk6.sys in the i386 folder under the cd ident files.

amdk6.sys = 100,,,,,,,4,0,0

The 100=%spcdname%,%spcdtagfilei%,,\i386,1

So if you don't have the cd idents in the WinXPPro folder, but you do have the idents on the root of the cd, XP Setup will look for an i386 folder on the root of the cdrom, but won't find it! So make sure you have the cd ident files in the root of the cdrom AND the WinXPPro folder. Otherwise you will get blue screens. For 6 months my xp all in one cd kept blue screening on me and i could never figure out why. Finally i figured out what was going on.

That's it. You now don't have an i386 folder on the root of the cdrom. Instead, you have a WinXPPro folder, which makes the cd look more professional, like a MSDN cd.

-gosh

[Ypsos]

Creating the ISO file?

GUI version of CDIMAGE English Beta 3

Download

normaly you have to type these switches on command line

Usage: CDIMAGE [options]sourceroot targetfile

       -l  volume label, no spaces (e.g. -lMYLABEL)

       -t  time stamp for all files and directories, no spaces, any delimiter

             (e.g. -t12/31/2000,15:01:00)

       -g  encode GMT time for files rather than local time

       -h  include hidden files and directories

       -n  allow long filenames (longer than DOS 8.3 names)

       -nt allow long filenames, restricted to NT 3.51 compatibility

             (-nt and -d cannot be used together)

       -d  don't force lowercase filenames to uppercase

       -c  use ANSI filenames versus OEM filenames from source

       -j1 encode Joliet Unicode filenames AND generate DOS-compatible 8.3

             filenames in the ISO-9660 name space (can be read by either

             Joliet systems or conventional ISO-9660 systems, but some of the

             filenames in the ISO-9660 name space might be changed to comply

             with DOS 8.3 and/or ISO-9660 naming restrictions)

       -j2 encode Joliet Unicode filenames without standard ISO-9660 names

             (requires a Joliet operating system to read files from the CD)

           When using the -j1 or -j2 options, the -n, -nt, and -d options

             do not apply and cannot be used.

       -js non-Joliet "readme.txt" file for images encoded with -j2 option

             (e.g. -jsc:\location\readme.txt). This file will be visible as

             the only file in the root directory of the disc on systems that

             do not support the Joliet format (Windows 3.1, NT 3.x, etc).

       -u1 encode "UDF-Bridge" media

       -u2 encode "UDF" file system without a mirror ISO-9660 file system

             (requires a UDF capable operating system to read the files)

       -ur non-UDF "readme.txt" file for images encoded with -u2 option

             (e.g. -usc:\location\readme.txt). This file will be visible as

             the only file in the root directory of the disc on systems that

             do not support the UDF format.

       -us sparse UDF files

       -ue embed file data in UDF extent entry

       -uf embed UDF FID entries

       -uv UDF Video Zone compatibility enforced

       -b  "El Torito" boot sector file, no spaces

             (e.g. -bc:\location\cdboot.bin)

       -p  Platform ID for the "El Torito" boot catalog

       -e  Do not set floppy emulation mode in El Torito boot catalog

       -s  sign image file with digital signature (no spaces, provide RPC

             server and endpoint name like -sServerName:EndPointName)

       -x  compute and encode "AutoCRC" values in image

       -o  optimize storage by encoding duplicate files only once

       -oc slower duplicate file detection using binary comparisons rather

             than MD5 hash values

       -oi ignore diamond compression timestamps when comparing files

       -os show duplicate files while creating image

           (-o options can be combined like -ocis)

       -w  warning level followed by number (e.g. -w4)

           1  report non-ISO or non-Joliet compliant filenames or depth

           2  report non-DOS compliant filenames

           3  report zero-length files

           4  report each file name copied to image

       -y  test option followed by number (e.g. -y1), used to generate

             non-standard variations of ISO-9660 for testing purposes:

           1 encode trailing version number ';1' on filenames (7.5.1)

           2 round directory sizes to multiples of 2K (6.8.1.3)

           5 write \i386 directory files first, in reverse sort order

           6 allow directory records to be exactly aligned at ends of sectors

               (ISO-9660 6.8.1.1 conformant but breaks MSCDEX)

           7 warn about generated shortnames for 16-bit apps under NT 4.0

           b blocksize 512 bytes rather than 2048 bytes

           d suppress warning for non-identical files with same initial 64K

           l UDF - long ads used in file entries instead of short ads

           r UDF - number of ad's is random

           w open source files with write sharing

           t load segment in hex for El Torito boot image (e.g. -yt7C0)

           f use a faster way to generate short names

       -k  (keep) create image even if fail to open some of the source files

       -m  ignore maximum image size of 681,984,000 bytes

       -a  allocation summary shows file and directory sizes

       -q  scan source files only, don't create an image file

[beppemito]

is normal C:\INSTALL\BOOT\system32 have only 2 files? NTDLL.DLL and SMSS.EXE? :/

[MaLi]

Yes, perfectly normal....

[Ypsos]

Hallo

Any idea how to add winternals Erd Commander 2003

I’ve renamed the directory I386 (from erd commander) to ERDC

and edited setupldr.bin, spcmdcon.sys, txtsetup.sif, and xpboot

ERD Commander 2003 works

I looked over the original CD all letters were in lower case

First when I make a ISO all letters were in capital

Used GUI version of CDIMAGE know there in low

CD WORKS perfect

SPECIAL THANKS TO gosh

[spookytay]

So how much would a CD like that cost retail from M$?