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Unattended Secret: Reducing Size Of Source


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In the first part of the thread, we make $NT$.BT .LS folders...

According to the guide i rename the .LS XPHome and the .BT VOL1.

Then the guide says to copy Vol1 to XPHome... however, later on in the guide you show them as being equal level on your directory tree.

I'm very confused about how to structure the directory.

Hi Guyanthalas,

Go to Gosh's Homepage and click on guides.

Click on Reducing Size Of Source link.

All is explained in a step by step guide.

Enjoy and Good Luck :)

Cheers,

dare2001

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:)

Hi, I'm about to set up a diskless/CDless install-environment with PXE. So I have to boot from harddisk after file transaction. I don't want to read all the 23 Pages here :-/

Here's my question:

How will I get it work, that Windows setup starts by booting from hard disk?

I'm very confused about the Windows install-routine after testing several configurations. (I haven't found a documentation about the Windows setup-process)

I'm so far that the following works:

TFTP-Server (DHCP and Trivial File Transfer) give the client a PXE (PrebootExecution Environment)-image, that does the follwing (fullautomatet):

- partition and (quick- or full) format Drive c:

- extracting a file system image containing boot files (io.sys, msdos.sys and command.com) (*1)

- copy necessary files (i386.exe (dos-rar-imgage), drivers, autoexec.bat, unattend.txt)

Then it starts HD - DOS.

DOS extracts the rar-files and starts the Windows unattended setup. But after starting the unattended installation Windows setup takes very long to copy files. How is it possible to start the setup process at the time, when the $WIN_NT$.~bt and $WIN_NT$.~ls folders already exist at the hard disk by NOT making an image of the partition (including those folders)?

My intention is to provide several unattend.txt files for installation and easily update i386 folder when new service packs are released.

(*1) This image should then contain the bootloader that starts the rest of the setup process.

I can give more Information if it's wanted :rolleyes:

c ya

thancxs macxs

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Alright, i burned through the guides.. but i'm still not exactly seeing my answer here. I'm making a multiboot CD using BootScriptor www.bootscriptor.org. I'm familier with its coding... Just like DiskEMU i point at the .dat files (Bootimage uses .BIN, so i have renamed)

Due to the nature of the disk, my tree is not direclty off of root.

CCDE  <---- This will be the root of the CD

    -bscript

        -images     <---- All folders up from this MUST be structured this way

            -OS

                -Win2k

                    +i386

                    +W2K1

                    +W2K2

                    W2K1.bin

                    W2K2.bin

                -WXPHome

                    +i386

                    +HOM1

                    +HOM2

                    HOM1.bin

                    HOM2.bin

                -WXPPro

                    +i386

                    +PRO1

                    +PRO2

                    PRO1.bin

                    PRO2.bin

Alright, its harder to illustrate a directory tree then i thought. Either way, Do i need to edit txtsetup.sif to reflect this large structure?

(SetupSourcePath = "\bscript\images\OS\WXPPro\i386" ? Do I need the i386 in the path? will this even work?

Thanks for your help!

---((( Guyanthalas )))---

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You do need to edit txtsetup.sif to reflect the path to the source files. Make sure the cd idents are in the correct folders. Somewhere in this thread i showed how to put the i386 folder not in the root of the cd, follow that.

-gosh

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Got a quick question;

First, put in your xp cd or copy it to the hard drive. Then type winnt32.exe /noreboot. If you get any errors at this step, see Note1 at the bottom.
I assume that's with an operating system installed; such as XP. I then do winnt32.exe /noreboot making sure I am in the directory where the setup is (probably doesn't matter) and then install.
Once XP Setup comes up, go through the prompts, make sure you say you're doing a clean install (not upgrade). At the "Setup Options" screen, click on "Advanced Options", and make sure "copy all installation files from the CD" is checked. If it's grayed out - that's fine.

Where do I install to? A different partition or folder?

And it won't reboot - I did it and it still rebooted.

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Stupid questionb probably from a stuid newby, but here it is : :)

I have followed Gosh's Guide and all went well (thx). But then I wanted to add my $oem$ folder, and this only went good when I added the $oem$ folder before I made the iso and then burned the iso.

Now my question; (because my unattended install is pretty much a work in progress); is it possible to copy my 'smallversion' unattended XPCD to my HD, so that I can edit my $oem$ folder and batchfiles, and then burn a bootbal cd again?

I used several methods, but either the cd wasn't bootable, or I got the error 'couldn't find NTLDR' ...

Any tips? I'm now gonna try and copy the stuff to the HD and remake a isofile form that... maybe this helps... )

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Well I thought so, but thisd goes wrong:

or I buirn it in data-mode (nero 6.0.0.23) and my cd isn't bootable, or I burn it as a bootable cd, using the bootimage as described in the guide on this site on how to make a unattended cd and then I get the message: NTLDR is missing... :s

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Make sure everything is in caps (to avoid problems), make sure VOL1.DAT is hexed to point to the folder VOL1, make sure setupldr.bin is hexed to point to VOL1. In short make sure you did every step right.

-gosh

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Well, I do not use the VOL things etc (just the first , basic part of reducing the source, but anyway, remaking a iso and then burn the iso does work so not that much extra work. will settle fr this method as searching what causes the 'normal' method to go wrong can take anything btween 5 minutes and months :)

Anyway, THx for the fast replys !

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