Hi all.

thanks to your work i have successfully installed XP from USB without a glitch. I understand that we cannot use the [Unattended] section from winnt.sif right now, but i need to set some installation options that are usually placed in that section. How can i manage that? Is this not possible with the current version of usb_multboot or is it not possible at all?

What i want in detail is:
1. specifying an alternative location for program files, ProgramFilesDir and CommonProgramFilesDir in [UNATTENDED] section
2. specifying an alternative location for user profiles, ProfilesDir in [GUIUNATTENDED] section (should work afaik)
3. creating directories in %systemroot% before setup fills ProgramFilesDir and ProfilesDir

(3) is needed because i want these directories to be placed relatively inside windows directory and i have read that setup fails when it has to create ProgramFilesDir and ProfilesDir as non-toplevel directories, but fills them correctly if they already exist.

Can someone shed some light on the above issues?

Best regards,
Marcus

For USB-stick the [Unattended] must be removed completely (is necesssary, no other solution)
but XP Install is nevertheless Unattended
Use the winnt.sif file supplied with USB_MultiBoot4.zip
For Unattended Install give your key in productkey="XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX" and remove leading ;

May be you can use ren_fold.cmd

Will be realised in USB_MultiBoot5.cmd, coming soon ....

ren_fold.cmd can be changed such that $OEM\$1 and $OEM\$$ folders are copied
as usual to systemdrive (usually C:\) and systemroot (usually C:\WINDOWS) respectively.
For anything else you want to copy from USB-Drive, you can add similar lines to ren_fold.cmd,
which is executed at T-9 by the Section SetupParams of winnt.sif file

Also Read Here:
http://www.msfn.org/board/FIXEDUsing-USB-M...ot-t112784.html

wimb

I knew about these outside-of-unattended-section options. But they do not cover the very options which i want to tweak, namely 'ProgramFilesDir' and 'ProfilesDir'. Can i just add them there and expect it to work as if i had entered them in the forbidden [UNATTENDED] section?




I am familiar with Unix shell scripting but not so familiar with NT shell scripting, so i have no problem waiting for your next release. But i wonder whether the mentioned script is executed early enough. Having read your link i assume that the script is called from either cmdlines.txt or from SetupParams. But i need the copying taking place even before the startmenu items are created. How do your ren_fold integration plans fit into that scenario?

Best regards,
Marcus

You can use presetup.cmd, it's executed at the beginning of the GUI part, before anything else.
Find the registry changes you need to make for your purposes and use REG .....
I don't recall whether regedit was available at that stage, but you can give it a try too.

New Release USB_MultiBoot5.zip

ren_fold.cmd was changed such that $OEM$\$1 and $OEM$\$$ folders are copied
as usual to systemdrive (usually C:\) and systemroot (usually C:\WINDOWS) respectively.

Format Menu was added allowing to use HP USB Format Tool
for making USB-sticks (greater than 2 GB) with NTFS Format allowing Install of XP in 16 minutes.

USB_MultiBoot5.cmd has now Option for Adding BartPE instead of using PeToUSB.

Possible source of Error in SOURCE Pathes is Detected e.g. when XPSOURCE path contains SPACES.

More Info Here: How to install XP from USB

Download Direct USB_MultiBoot5.zip from CD Forum: USB_MultiBoot5.zip

wimb