Unattended XP install becomes an upgrade

[Beyonix]

Hello people,

I guess I'm still a bit of a newbie concerning the topic of creating unattended XP setups which might explain why I do not get this to work. Like many of you, I own a valid XP SP2 cd that I want to spare so I thought I could make a nice unattended setup for both backup purposes and for the sake of a nicer, more personal result.

What I did:

-I user nLite (latest version as of now) to rip my XP-SP2 legal and stand-alone CD

-I also tried this later on by copying the files manually to my HDD and selecting them there

-Integrated some driverpacks and all latest hotfixes

-Integrated some nice addons which I took from the forums here and from the nlite-os website

-Configured windows to my preferences, nothing special so far, just using the nLite GUI

-Let nLite compile the new cd for me: 880 MB big or so

-Let nLite make an ISO for me

-Equipped the ISO in deamon tools, connected the drive to VMware

-and later on loaded the ISO directly in VMware itself.

The result was everytime (from the top of my head): "Windows has not detected a previous Windows installation, it wants to verify if you qualify to use this upgrade"... insert some previous Windows installation disk... :S

I have ripped these files from a standalone CD, it's no upgrade CD!

I also tried to make an ISO using UltraISO, using the exact same bootrecord that was used on the original CD. Didn't work either.

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...amp;mode=linear

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...mp;#entry474939

These forum discussions I have found match my error yet their solutions didn't seem to help me (or I implemented them wrongly)...

In short: I cannot get my WinXP-SP2 install to get past the point of checking for a valid pre-XP installation to upgrade, while that check shouldn't be necessary in the first place! If someone sees a solution for this, any help will be greatly appreciated!

ps: I have now also redone the whole process, just copied the cd to local drive, started nLite, left out all drivers and addons, same error still!

[Beyonix]

After a bit of trial & error, I managed to create an ISO that booted, if I toggled all items off, the last one remaining was Unattended, so my assumption is that the error must be in some configuration of the unattended section.

That is alot better already, will let you know my progress but any help is still welcome of course

[Beyonix]

Hmm, okay... let me rephrase that, I was a bit quick to judge!

Even when selecting Nothing at all in the first menu (just make bootable image), it actually cannot install. When I select unattended setup that it is the first screen I get, if I deselect Unattended it looks succesful, I just get it later because unattended normally handles those screens.

Sooo...

once again in short:

Ripping my CD (no matter what way), then building an image of the data (no matter what way) with a boot rom (no matter in what way it is is made) -> will result in an image that is very confident that it is an Upgrade instead of a standalone version...

I just hope this is something So obvious that someone will point out for me soon so I can slap myself against the head, because right now, I'm pretty much clueless about what to do .

[Beyonix]

Newest progress:

It must be some VMware thingy or so... If I load my real physical official legal windows XP CD now under VMware, it produces the same error?

/me pulls hair out of his head

I should have tested that before I rewrote the image a zillion times!

Perhaps it actually works then if I burn in on a DVD, but I'm not in the mood anymore to test it now... Going to a pub and have a few beers now, I wish you all a nice Sunday and hope you've used it more productively than I have

edit: Came back and decided to load the real CD in Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 -> same error... I think I will go and cry now next thing I will do is download an illegal version of XP and see how that works out, stupid piece of software!

Edited April 1, 2007 by Beyonix

[gtaylor]

You can check the version of Windows on the CD by opening the SETUPP.INI file in the I386 folder and looking at the PID line.

PID=XXXXX YYY

The first five digits determine the CD type (retail, volume, OEM or upgrade) and the last three digits determine the key type (OEM or Retail). You can Google the PID to determine your CD type. If the first five digits are 55043 then you almost certainly have an upgrade CD.