Not-quite unattended windows setup

[Ozz]

Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone knew how I can make it so that you only get to choose your installation directory in a WinXP setup? Using the M$ tool in supporttools, I\'ve chosen \"Hide Pages\" - but it seems to force me to choose an installation dir! Can I not leave that to the user?

Cheers,
Ozz

[Twinkie]

I have yet to try that one, but normally if you leave an answer blank in the unattend or winnt file the install will stop and ask you.  Even if you selected full unattend.  Have you tried that and if you do unsuccesfully let me know and I will try to figure it out.

[Ozz]

I tried creating a winnt.sif file that had just the serial number info in it, but it still asked me to input it during setup. Any thoughts?
I followed your guide, which is excellent, to make an XP, 98SE and ME CD. But I wanted to go one step further and add a switch for Manual/Automated setups. For 98SE and ME I simply modified the \"Boot with CD support\" menu in config.sys, to change the command line of the setup to setup unattend.txt. This seems to work (I have no way of checking since ME and 98SE setups seem to hang when running them in VirtualPC, as soon as you need to click on anything, and I haven\'t got a spare HDD to try them out on in real life), but at least I can tell it\'s filling in the values. I\'m also trying to do the same for XP, so I took a Win98 bootdisk and added smartdrv, and made it do:

WINNT /s:%CDROM%:UENGLISHXPPROi386 /u:%CDROM%:UENGLISHXPPROi386zunatt.txt

This loads fine and jumps straight into \"Copying files\" (in the blue bit in the beginning of setup), but then it seems to stop copying files at some point, and nothing happens. Any ideas on why this is?

One last question: I found another SETUPLDR.BIN file (in the i386 dir) - should I replace this one with yours as well?

Sorry for the long post!
Thanks!
Ozz

[Space Between]

you must not of read my many complaints on this issue here.

ok you cannot unless running a 32 bit console have the user choose the install dir.
it defaults to WINDOWS or whatever is set in the .sif
if you leave this field blank it defaults to WINDOWS (I think cant remember exactly)
I know if you use invalid charater\'s like \"/\" or \"?\" the system halt\'s and you have to reboot and make another disc with a valid dir
the scripting for the unattended setup is now different from win2k\'s. in win2k\'s you could type in Manual for that and it would prompt the user for what dir he/she want\'s to install...but that is no more.

on the prompt for serial key. it worked for me in full unattended mode. It did not work for any of the user choice\'s whatever they were.

all in all you can still prompt user for the install dir but you must be running a win32/64 machine. hence it is for only network installs ...basically.

there is a OEM tool disc if you can find it that will help you on that...might even allow you to do it but from what i have heard, read, and experienced it will not for it\'s not in the scripting language.

Also you might want to have a copy of your WINNT.SIF in both the setup files dir WINXP (or whatever) and in the UENGLISHWINXPCOR (or whatever)

You could however due it a different way with diskemu...and this is the only way i due it now for multi comps.
After you have formatted the drive if you have to, copy all the files to the hdd with recovery console edit the WINNT.SIF to  whatever you want. (you could use a 98x image if the hdd was unformatted then format to fat, then copy, and when running setup format again to ntfs). This helps if you are installing on a computer that you do not know the system path and want to preserve the current file system. So in other words if you want the user to pick the install dir it\'s more complicated and also alittle more time consuming...but works. But at this point the user is probably gonna be you and it would of probably been faster to just plain install. But then again to plain install you cannot chosee your destination directory...so it can come in handy.

IF you find a way to do this please please let us or atleast me know...it would save me time.

[Space Between]

forgot ...the setupdlr.bin does not need to be modified if all is in it\'s correct directories as it was before when it worked.

btw to Twinkie

i love your site man...only 1 complaint though. Ive looked all over it and i cannot seem to find where you mention that you must use diskem1x and also there is no spot that mentions that you have to download it off of bart\'s site. I could be missing this on the other hand somehow. Although it\'s apparent to have it to most of us since we have already done it...but to someone who never has might be confused on what to use and where to get it.