[nelix]

I know this question has been asked and answerd before, but i am kinda unclear.

I am planing a cd with both windows xpsp2 and windows2003 on it, rather than going the cdshell multi boot path, is it possible for me to have windows pe load then call the installer from there?

Are there disadvantages to this?

Do i need to partition the drive manualy with this?

Does the installer need a temp partition or can it use the same partition its installing on?

Any examples of others work or anything i should know before i get to work on this?

[gadget]

As far as I am aware, from PE/CD the only thing you can call to install either is the winnt32, this requires a formatted HDD to install to.

More?

[mbouchard]

Nelix,

I use a variation of what you are talking about doing. Basically, after booting PE, I prompt the technician for some information, then run diskpart automatically using a script. I then format the HD and copy the i386 folder to the HD, specifically to C:\NT\I386. I then launch winnt32.exe from the local drive and off we go.

I have attached an example of what I am doing. Included you will find both a CD method and a network method. I have also included the folder structure of each but have removed any server info and inhouse developed apps.

Mike

Attached File(s)

•  PE.zip (92.2K)
  Number of downloads: 68

[nelix]

Thats just the kinda thing i was looking for, thanks very much!

I normaly copy the source files to the disk after install anyhow, so users don't need the cd...

I am also using this method to install the recovery console

Thanks so much!

[mbouchard]

One thing to keep in mind when running setup from a CD is the SFC (system File Checker) and being prompted for the CD in some cases where the source files are needed. If this info in the registry is pointed to a cd even if the i386 folder is local it will still look at the CD. In my Launch.vbs script I include some code to set this reg key to point to the HD local.

Glad I can help.

Mike