Re: Creating an Unattended Install folder on the Hardrive

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From: Patrick J. LoPresti (patl_at_users.sourceforge.net)
Date: 05/13/04

  • Next message: Jerry: "Re: i have win xp pro, plus! & plus!,digital media edition installed" 
    Date: 13 May 2004 16:51:01 -0400

    "Stephen Wright" <mynamenovoweldropphg@hotmail.com> writes:

    > Oh, not even a comment. Well, either no one knows the aswer to my
    > questions. I find this unlikely. Maybe I have touched on an
    > unspeakable subject, such as attempting to violate the MS user
    > agreement in some way.

    Most people have no desire to do what you are trying to do. Copying
    the installation media to your hard drive is inferior to using a
    CD-ROM or a network install in almost every way. For example, what
    happens when your hard drive fails? What happens when you get a new
    machine?

    > > So then I create the unattend file using the Install from CD
    > > option and then make a few manual changes. Here is my unattend
    > > file at present:
    > >
    > > ;SetupMgrTag
    > > [Data]
    > > AutoPartition=0
    > > MsDosInitiated="0" Tried "1" here too, but it didn't change anything.

    "0" is definitely what you want.

    > > UnattendedInstall="Yes"
    > > [Unattended]
    > > UnattendMode=FullUnattended
    > > OemSkipEula=Yes
    > > OemPreinstall=No

    If you need to add third-party drivers ($OEM$ mechanism), you will
    need to set OemPreinstall=Yes. Should work without it, though.

    > > TargetPath=\WINDOWS

    \WINDOWS is the default for TargetPath, so I would just omit it.

    > > [SetupMgr]
    > > DistFolder=C:\WinXPsp1

    I do not know what this setting does, which means I can guarantee you
    do not need it here.

    > > But when I try to boot into DOS and run winnt then I just get a
    > > lot of errors stating that setup was unable to copy such and such
    > > a file: retry, ignore, or quit setup.

    Please be more specific. What is the error message, precisely? Which
    file? What error number, if any? Does this error happen instantly,
    or after some files have been copied, or after all of the files have
    been copied and the machine reboots the first time?

    What does "dir \winxpsp1\winnt.exe" say?

    > > Why can't I can't I successfully run setup from dos using
    > > Winnt.exe? And one other question that is sure to show my limited
    > > understanding of DOS - How can I see all the command line options
    > > for a DOS executable using the /? switch when the list of command
    > > line options is longer than one screen, such as for winnt.ext?

    "winnt /? | more" should do the trick, assuming you have a copy of
    "more.exe" in your path.

    > > My command line to start the installation is: winnt /s:C:\WinXPsp1
    > > /u:C:\WinXPsp1\unattend.txt

    > > I have my harddrive partitioned with a 2 GB FAT32 primary
    > > partition and 3, 38 GB NTFS partitions.

    Since DOS can only see the FAT32 partition, this means your
    SystemDrive is 2 GB and always will be.

    winnt.exe begins by making a full copy of the installation media on
    the target drive. (Remember that it is intended for use with CD-ROM
    or, more commonly, network installs.) Then it uses that copy to
    install the system, then finally deletes the copy. So you need enough
    space to hold THREE copies of Windows, and I doubt 2 GB is going to
    cut it.

    > > I want to be able to chose the installation directory at the
    > > beginning of GUI mode setup. as I am unable to see the NTFS
    > > portions in DOS of course. I am booting from a basic Windows XP
    > > DOS boot disk.

    I do not think this unattend.txt file is going to do that, since you
    specified a TargetPath and UnattendMode=FullUnattended. You probably
    want UnattendMode=DefaultHide and... Well, I am not sure how to make
    it prompt for the installation directory, since TargetPath normally
    defaults to \WINDOWS for an unattended install.

    > > Why can't my own hard drive be the server?

    It can be, in theory.

    Have you tried just running "winnt.exe /s:..." without specifying an
    unattend.txt file?

     - Pat

  • Next message: Jerry: "Re: i have win xp pro, plus! & plus!,digital media edition installed"

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