Unattended install spanning multiple CD's?

[GTO455]

Hello All,

Thanks to the guides on this site (as well as the user info), I finally created a unattended DVD for my W2K3 installs. It has cut my server babysitting time in half. I am p***ed off at myself for not doing this earlier! I pretty much followed the guide step by step, and used nlite to integrate the SP's and hotfixes into the installation files.

Unfortunately, I have run into a bit of an issue and was hoping someone could help.

My UI ISO image is close to 1GB. This size is fine for burning on to DVD's, but a majority of my servers are older still have CD drives installed on them and most won't boot from USB. I was hoping someone here could tell me how I can split my current ISO image on to 2 CD's. I have searched the internet and this site but have come up empty. I could possibly be searching for the wrong phrases, but I think I covered them all.

I have found plenty of utilities that will split an ISO image and then reattach on the other end. But I am looking for the first CD to start my unattended installation and then prompt me for the second CD to continue with the installation. I can't use a nretwork install because some systems cannot be connected to the internet.

Has anyone come up with a solution to this? If so, can you please let me know!

Thanks!

[Kelsenellenelvian]

You need to look into a 3rd party installer for all of your apps like xplode, wihu or WPI (all can be found on this forum) WPI's main site can be found in my sig.

This way you have your os on one disk with a script to call for the install wrapper using yet another ap like cdswitch or just manually switching the cds at the right time.

WPI is actually very simple to configure and has a very easy to customize interface (see the themes page) WPI and cdswitch are both free and open to use for corporate use, please remember to try to donate if your find them really usefull.

Cdswitch --> http://www.msfn.org/board/Cd-switching-Uti...amp;hl=cdswitch You can also find a version of cdswitch in the WPI tools package that has a couple of WPI-ish themes with it.

WPI Forum ----> http://www.msfn.org/board/Windows-Post-Ins...rd-WPI-f93.html

WIHU ----> http://www.msfn.org/board/Windows-Installa...tility-f90.html (Might not be for corporate use I am not sure)

XPlode ----> http://www.voidfx.com/FX/XPlode:Information (NOT free for commercial use)

Edited March 18, 2008 by Kelsenellenelvian

[GTO455]

Thanks Kelsenellenelvian, I will give that a try.

At a previous company they created an installation set of CD's that would load a ramdisk, copy all of the data to an assigned ramdrive and then begin the install. I just wish I remember how it was done!