[ProClub]

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.

[Wesmosis]

thanx, gonna try it soon

[MAVERICKS CHOICE]

Certainly a nice tute & thanks for sharing.

Cheers

MC.

[ProClub]

I'm glad it helped. I intend to post more in detail if there is something unclear. Just let me know.

[jklucker]

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.

[Telenut]

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)?

[jklucker]

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]

This post has been edited by jklucker: 23 March 2006 - 11:09 AM

[Madhits45]

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.

[jklucker]

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.

[MAVERICKS CHOICE]

jklucker, on Mar 24 2006, 02:16 PM, said:

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.

[Madhits45]

jklucker, on Mar 23 2006, 09:16 PM, said:

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.

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.

[dm82m]

Hey guys,

I solved the problem. If anyone of you like to knwo how to boot up from an usb device and install
winxp from the usb device please contact me by mail: dm82m AT gmx DOT com

Sincerly.


--------------------------OLD POST--------------------------


Hello together,

I am very happy about this post.
This is the most usefull tutorial I found for this thematic on the www.

My thanks goes to ProClub and all other replyers.

I want to do the following: I want to create a bootable USB flash stick with
BartPE wich is able to install win xp on a computer without a cd/dvd or disk drive.

I created the BartPE and used PE2USB.cmd from Bart to generate a bootable USB flash stick.
Then I copied the i386 directory from a win xp cd to the USB flash stick.
At the moment the root folder is showing the following:

ntldr
ntdetect.com
winnt.sif
bartpe.iso
I386

So if I boot up my computer with the USB flash stick the bartpe.iso is loaded into ram by ramdrive.sys
After loading the bartpe.iso into RAM the system boots with BartPE.

Watching into the explorer shows the following volumes:
B: - The ramdrive wich is everytime generated by BartPE
C: - The local harddrive from the pc
D: - The USB flash stick with the I386 folder on it
X: - The ramdrive wich was generated at booting (the extract of bartpe.iso)

I have one BIG problem:
If I start the "D:\I386\winnt32.exe" in the BartPE then the installation of win xp will install on the
USB flash stick (D:) and not on the local harddrive (C:).

Is there any possibility to install the win xp onto the local harddrive (C:)???

Please help me and thank you for you comments!

Sincerly.

This post has been edited by dm82m: 11 May 2006 - 08:28 AM

[AHRIMANSEFID]

Plz Help For Config PE For Install

[tcsdoc]

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.

[tweed]

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.

[oioldman]

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

[mazin]

dm82m, on Apr 30 2006, 01:12 AM, said:

I have one BIG problem:
If I start the "D:\I386\winnt32.exe" in the BartPE then the installation of win xp will install on the
USB flash stick (D:) and not on the local harddrive (C:).

Is there any possibility to install the win xp onto the local harddrive (C:)???

I think these switches are what you need:

D:\I386\WINNT32.exe /tempdrive:C:\ /unattend:D:\I386\winnt.sif

They can be used via a batch file, however.

[oioldman]

Can somebody please show me there folder structure so i can see where mine is wrong as really would like to understand how this all works.
As stated i can do a CD & RIS and have installed bartpe and created diskpart files.

Thank you

[Djé]

oioldman, on Jun 16 2006, 10:09 AM, said:

Can somebody please show me there folder structure so i can see where mine is wrong as really would like to understand how this all works.
As stated i can do a CD & RIS and have installed bartpe and created diskpart files.

Actually, the bartPE CD and the UaXPCD *ARE* 2 separate things (and both have a I386 folder, although quite different one from the other).
You can have your UaXPCD folder wherever you want: on the bartPE disk or on a partition of your HD, or on a USB drive or on a remote share that you connect to, etc.
Installing windows from BartPE is then just a matter of running winnt32.exe from where it is (in your UaXPCD folder).

In my case, I have a (almost-)normal bartPE CD. On it I have a script that connects to a network drive:

NET USE Z: \\Dje\XPCD /user:nodomain\install install

and then run winnt32.exe from where it is on Z:

Z:\I386\WINNT32.EXE /unattend:Z:\I386\WINNT.SIF /tempdrive:c:

That's all! (well no, the whole thing is more sophisticated than this, with a lot of cool scripts to automate and customize things, but ultimately, it breaks down to this).
I'm running it like this since months.

If your UaXPCD folder is on the bartPE disk (X:) then you don't need the 'NET USE ...' command and would just run:

X:\UaXPCD\I386\WINNT32.EXE /unattend:X:\UaXPCD\I386\WINNT.SIF /tempdrive:c:

(Not tested) You may even not need the '/tempdrive:c:' option in this case.

For the $OEM$ thing, the point not to forget (at least when making a local source) is:
either put the $OEM$ folder INSIDE I386, or use OEMFilesPath=..\$OEM$ in the [Unattended] section of winnt.sif

[iceangel89]

is there a "My Computer"? so i can boot my XP install from USB HDD.