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[HOWTO] Unattended CD with BartPE


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Hello everyone!

After having a hard time getting BartPE to work as intended, I decided to write a short tutorial for those coming after me.

So, let's get started. :)

1. Download BartPE and install it. I trust, this does not require further explanation.

2. Create your unattended CD/DVD.

3. Take your i386 folder from your original distro dir and put it into a newly to create xp directory.

So your dir should be: distrodir\xp\i386. This is, because BartPE uses the i386 directory for Windows components.

4. Create a new i386 directory in your distro dir. Inside, create a System32 dir. Inside that, we will put our config files for partitioning and stuff.

5. Put your $oem$ folder INSIDE distro\xp\i386

6. Create your config files. Mine look like this:

autorun1.cmd:

DISKPART /s partinfo.txt
FORMAT c: /fs:ntfs /Q /V:Local /Y
FORMAT D: /fs:ntfs /Q /V:Local /Y
FOR %%i IN (D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) DO IF EXIST %%i:\AUTORUN.INF SET CDROM=%%i:
%CDROM%\xp\i386\winnt32.exe /syspart:c: /tempdrive:d /unattend:"%CDROM%\xp\i386\winnt.sif" /makelocalsource

partinfo.txt:

SELECT DISK 0
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY size=2048
ASSIGN
ACTIVE
CREATE PARTITION EXTENDED
CREATE PARTITION LOGICAL
ASSIGN
EXIT

7. now, create your BartPE project and test it. It should work fine. Note, that this has a positive side effect. Since a local source is created, you may take your CD out if there is no software to be installed from it.

This should be the hard part. Feel free to extend this tutorial.

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  • 1 month later...

I tried your method of deployment as described in your original post, but I'm experiencing a strange error. I get File copy errors with a specific message of incorrect function. I know what you are thinking, "That's easy it's a bad CD burn". That is what I thought at first also. I've recreated the CD about 4 times, recopied my XPSP1 CD to my source location. The files that produce the errors have not been consistent. ie., mstsc.exe, mstsc.hlp, shell32.dll, shfolder.dll

Does anyone have sugestions to look for to try to troubleshoot the problem. I am using the makelocalsource switch.

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So what is this for exactly?

It is a BartPE cd, so you can boot from it and run windows.

And you can install windows with it too? But is is possible to install windows unattended, with driverpacks and tweaks etc... (an nLited version)?

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I created a BartPE CD in order for me to partition the drive that way I need, just like explained at the beginning of this thread. Once BartPE starts I am able to partition and format the drives as needed. I start the Windows XP install using the command line syntax as the main post but I am experiencing file copy errors when copying the CD Source to the local hard drive. I first thought it was a bad burn so I re-created the CD multiple times but the problem keeps occurring but it doesn't happen on the same file it they are different.

The XP source I'm using is not nLit'ed it's directly from the CD. However, I did remove all of the folders except for ASMS, COMPDATA, DRW and SYSTEM32. Otherwise all of the file are present.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thanks in Advance!

[Edit]

The problem was the CD. I used a different CD and it installed with no problems

[/Edit]

Edited by jklucker
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I just built this win pe disc with your instructions and its pretty cool.. But none of my oem stuff shows up when i build the disc.. All the stuff in my oem folder is compressed and i think thats why. The cd ends up being 156megs not to bad.. what do I do with the pe stuff to get it into my unattended. Also i tried with my nlited cd and thats pointless.. Nlite takes out like a billion files this thing needs.. is there a way to get this to dual boot in the first place though? How does your disc work? is it an install and win pe? id like to make this a pe disc with all my apps if thats even possible.. or at least some of the apps i use. Is that possible?

I know I have like a million questions but this seems neat so far. Thanks for the guide. also you might wanna edit this.. maybe I did something wrong. why don't u put the autorun.cmd and partinfo into the i386 folder with all the other windows files.. and then use the winpe folder as the custom dir. why create all those extra folders? Also you might wanna tell people to download the bartpe install.. I tried it with the zip and pe builder and figured it out but maybe thats why my oem folder did not work. Ahh well it boots so i did something right.

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Are you trying to build an unattend Windows XP install? Or, a disc to run recovery applications. The purpose of the PE part is to aid in the limittaions in the unattend install script of Windows. I think the main limittation is that if you want multiple partitions on a single drive you can't truly have an complete hands off install Windows XP. That's where the PE comes in. By booting up to the PE environment you can use DiskPart to create your partitions and while using the rights commands in your unnatend.txt file you can create a completely hands off install.

I haven't quite gotten all the bugs worked out but when I do I will post my batch files and the directory listing.

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Are you trying to build an unattend Windows XP install? Or, a disc to run recovery applications. The purpose of the PE part is to aid in the limittaions in the unattend install script of Windows. I think the main limittation is that if you want multiple partitions on a single drive you can't truly have an complete hands off install Windows XP. That's where the PE comes in. By booting up to the PE environment you can use DiskPart to create your partitions and while using the rights commands in your unnatend.txt file you can create a completely hands off install.

I haven't quite gotten all the bugs worked out but when I do I will post my batch files and the directory listing.

All the best with that been following Barts work for some years now & keen to do similar as you, look forward to a positive outcome.

Cheers

MC.

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Are you trying to build an unattend Windows XP install? Or, a disc to run recovery applications. The purpose of the PE part is to aid in the limittaions in the unattend install script of Windows. I think the main limittation is that if you want multiple partitions on a single drive you can't truly have an complete hands off install Windows XP. That's where the PE comes in. By booting up to the PE environment you can use DiskPart to create your partitions and while using the rights commands in your unnatend.txt file you can create a completely hands off install.

I haven't quite gotten all the bugs worked out but when I do I will post my batch files and the directory listing.

:whistle:

I was trying to build a WinPE disc that would first boot from the cd and then allow you to install windows xp UCD from that.. That would be cool.. So is there a way to have both on one cd? and isnt that the purpose of this guide? Also disk part did not work at all and I'm not sure why. When I run the script on the cd it does nothing. Maybe thats cuz my HD's are way different and you must need to customize that file which i did not do. I did this real fast without customizing any of the files. I still dont know if I followed this thing right or not because of the autorun.cmd and partinf directorie question I had earlyer.

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  • 2 months later...

Sorry, but your tutorial was as clear as mud to a rookie like myself. While I can navigate the directory structure of an unattended cd, I'm at a loss when understanding what needs to be done with BartPE.

I downloaded BartPe from their website and installed it. I have an i386 folder with SP2 and the latest hotfixes slipstreamed. I ran the BartPe program and pointed it to my i386 folder. It created a BartPe folder in my pebuilder folder. In the BartPe folder I have two directorys, i386 and Programs. I assume this is the 'root' of my cd.

The tutorial (step 3) stated to take the newly created distro dir and place it in the xp dir. What is the distro dir and where is this xp dir?

A little more explanation of the BartPe folders for the unattened xp would be appreciated.

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This is VERY fascinating as I do not YET know how to do an unattended xp sp2 WITH a C: and D: partitioning scheme automatically. It appears I can SET the size of partitions ! fab! Thank you! Will read thoroughly.

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i kinda understand what has been explained.

In that,

a: i can create my unattended cd/dvd with no issues

b: i have downloaded and insatlled pebuilder

c: i have created my diskpart file

however, i cannot from the instructions picture the folder layout i require.

SO, can somebody just clarify this for me before i go bonkers

thank you

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