[gosh]

Well of course if you manually delete files on your xp cd it'll reduce the size. The reason i use my method is because it's quick, it allows you to use several unattend files, it saves 150 megs, and it'll cause no problems.

Using my method is exactly the same thing as running winnt32.exe and doing a clean install. Manually deleting files, deleting folders, could cause unforseen problems. And my way you don't remove any features. When you manually remove windows media player and stuff like that you are removing features, mine is feature complete. Also compressing files using winrar will cause setup to take longer as it uncompresses the files.

And even if you make a huge batch file that removes hundreds of files from the xp install, you still won't have access to recovery console using an unattended install, or have the option to repair XP.

-gosh

[Evan]

One question...

I have made an unattended CD without deleting any of the original files. I have only altered the winnt.sif. The disk will not display the recovery console nor allow me to repair an existing XP installation.

This is my only problem with my unattended disk. Do you know how I'd fix that? It must be an entry in winnt.sif, can't think of anything else.

[gosh]

If you are using an unattended file there is NO WAY to access recovery console or repair xp. If you look at my 2nd post i describe how to get around this.

-gosh

[jonnywi]

@gosh
does it run with a real unattended installation not over cd with winnt.sif?
I'm connecting to a share and run

set ntpfad=v:\i386
%ntpfad%\WINNT  /S:%ntpfad% /U:%ntpfad%\_unat.txt /UDF:ue%ANS%,%ntpfad%\_udf.txt /E:C:\winnt\install2.bat

via this method, the setup have 2 parts for copy files
thx

[Paul 365]

This is something i am going to try as i like the idea, But i have one question for you.

When is the HAL created?

If it is in the stage that creates the two folders then this process is only good for the pc it is created on.

If it is after that then all is well and it can be used for all pc's.

Can anyone give any details on the HAL and when it it created as this is something i don't know much about.

[Bachus]

I've followed your guide gosh and Setup still goes through textmode setup before continuing GUImode setup. Should that be happening? Also, when I tried to run winnt32 with the unattend switch it told me that my winnt.sif was invalid. Any ideas?

[DaveXP]

anyone know why i only get one folder and that one is $WIN_NT$.~BT i dont get the other one?

[Westi]

Quote

anyone know why i only get one folder and that one is $WIN_NT$.~BT i dont get the other one?

I tried this with the same result.

When i use 'winnt' unter DOS, the 2nd folder is created.
No explanation to this behavior...

Be careful with editing the Diskemu.cmd:
Never use TAB and never leave spaces at the end of each line,
the batch will NOT run.
You get a BAD COMMAND ERROR !
And don't forget the EOF at the end of the script.

If you burn with Nero:
('cause cdimage.exe is "For internal use only" and don't burn)
Bootfile is loader.bin
No Emulation
Segments 4
...like normal XP-BootCD

Summary, i use this GREAT method to have the opinion to include a WIN98SE-BOOTDISK
to create partitions with Xfdisk or other tools.

-Thanx gosh

[DaveXP]

know still no luck here

[gosh]

Let me do a little more explaining.

You should only run winnt32.exe /noreboot from the GUI. When you run this command, all setup does is copy files using dosnet.inf. Then it restarts your computer and runs setup from your hard drive.

If you look at the ~LS folder you will see several files are not there, such as winnt32.exe and winnt.exe. Microsoft's documentatioln says that when you boot from an xp cd, winnt32.exe is launched. As you can see, this is not true. Using my method our cd won't have winnt32 or winnt. When you boot from cd, setupdd.sys is run (text mode setup). After rebooting into GUI mode, syssetup.dll is run under the setup.exe process.

You can only use this method to install from CD, since there is no winnt or winnt32. And like i said you can only do clean installs, not upgrades.

-gosh

[miso1391]

Hi

you can put all file and folder in

C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT

to

C:\$WIN_NT$.~LS\i386

and delete this files
C:\$WIN_NT$.~LS\i386\migrate.inf
C:\$WIN_NT$.~LS\i386\disk101
C:\$WIN_NT$.~LS\i386\disk102
C:\$WIN_NT$.~LS\i386\disk103
C:\$WIN_NT$.~LS\i386\disk104
C:\$WIN_NT$.~LS\i386\BOOTSECT.dat
C:\$WIN_NT$.~LS\i386\winnt.sif "replace this one with ur own file"

and replace the orignal folder "i386" with this one and burn it without editing boot.bin and setupldr.bin



edit:
copy BOOTFIX.bin from old "i386" to the new one ( to avoid setup loop )

[Ghost]

This method sounds very good! Does it mean though that it will only work on the one machine? If not then can you force it to take the Hotfixes and DX so on into the setup? (no more .cmd or slow svcpak)

[Klaassh]

Westi, on Oct 9 2003, 02:30 PM, said:

Quote

anyone know why i only get one folder and that one is $WIN_NT$.~BT i dont get the other one?

I tried this with the same result.

When i use 'winnt' unter DOS, the 2nd folder is created.
No explanation to this behavior...

If you are using the /unattend:c:\unattend.txt switch, cut your unattend.txt down to just the basics needed in it for now.
I have a fairly large unattend and it didn't like it


Nice Post, gosh
I have no checking to base this on but I do believe that this method cuts a couple of mb more than just manually deleteing the files, at least the finished iso from this and my other clean ISO are different in size but I can't be sure I didn't add something to the previous one or do something different (theres been so many)

[gosh]

Like i said, this is just like if you did a clean install. You can slipstream anything you want, you can use an $OEM$ folder, anything you like. It'll work on any computer, etc.

-gsoh

[jonnywi]

@gosh
ist's easier to save the winnt.sif to floppy.
if no floppy insert, you can load recovery console.....
the setup without and with your minimazing windows xp cd will lunch the winnt.sif from floppy. if on cd winnt.sif exists it will be ignored.

note!
make shure that boot from floppy disabled

[gosh]

What's easy is subjective. To you, using outdated floppies might be fine. For me, i like having everything on 1 cd. I avoid floppies like the plague. Floppies always seem to go bad on me. Besides, this site isn't for regular installs. If you just wanted to do a standard install, support.microsoft.com would be the site to use.

-gosh

[rexhsu]

Btw,if I would like to use seperate $OEM$ dir for each wxp install in one cd,how to do that?Where to put $OEM$ dirs?

My CD structure like this
[ROOT]
+----[$OEM2$] -> point to VOL2
+----[$OEM3$] -> point to VOL3
+----[VOL1] ->Regular Install
+----[VOL2] ->Full Unattended
+----[VOL3] ->Unattended,but only hotfixes installed
.....

Counld "OemFilesPath=" achieve that?Should the path relative to the %systemdrive% or cdrom?

Following is my winnt.sif in VOL2
OemFilesPath="$OEM2$"

and VOL3
OemFilesPath="$OEM3$"

But at the end of dos setup,setup didnt copy all of the $OEM2$ or $OEM3$ to my harddisk.What's wrong?

[gosh]

Here's the directory of my last cd:

Quote

Directory of G:\

08/23/2001  02:00 AM    <DIR>          CORPFILES
08/23/2001  02:00 AM    <DIR>          DOCS
08/23/2001  02:00 AM    <DIR>          HOM1
08/23/2001  02:00 AM    <DIR>          HOM2
08/23/2001  02:00 AM    <DIR>          HOM3
08/23/2001  02:00 AM    <DIR>          TOOLS
08/23/2001  02:00 AM    <DIR>          VOL1
08/23/2001  02:00 AM    <DIR>          VOL2
08/23/2001  02:00 AM    <DIR>          VOL3
08/23/2001  02:00 AM    <DIR>          WINXPPRO
08/23/2001  02:00 AM    <DIR>          WNP2
08/23/2001  02:00 AM    <DIR>          WNPE
08/23/2001  02:00 AM    <DIR>          XPHOME
08/23/2001  02:00 AM            32,768 AUTORUN.EXE
08/23/2001  02:00 AM            25,214 AUTORUN.ICO
08/23/2001  02:00 AM                59 AUTORUN.INF
08/23/2001  02:00 AM             1,242 DEFAULT.HTM
08/23/2001  02:00 AM               512 DELOAD.BIN
08/23/2001  02:00 AM           124,144 DELPART.EXE
08/23/2001  02:00 AM         1,474,560 DISKEDIT.IMA
08/23/2001  02:00 AM            12,288 DISKEM1X.BIN
08/23/2001  02:00 AM             2,980 DISKEMU.CMD
08/23/2001  02:00 AM         1,474,560 DRVIMG.IMA
08/23/2001  02:00 AM            11,966 EULA.TXT
08/23/2001  02:00 AM         1,024,016 GHOST.EXE
08/23/2001  02:00 AM         1,474,560 GHST2003.IMA
08/23/2001  02:00 AM             2,048 HOM1.DAT
08/23/2001  02:00 AM             2,048 HOM2.DAT
08/23/2001  02:00 AM             2,048 HOM3.DAT
08/23/2001  02:00 AM             2,048 LOADER.BIN
08/23/2001  02:00 AM         1,474,560 MEMTEST.IMG
08/23/2001  02:00 AM         2,949,120 NTFS.IMG
08/23/2001  02:00 AM         2,949,120 PARTMGR8.IMA
08/23/2001  02:00 AM         1,474,560 PASS.BIN
08/23/2001  02:00 AM         2,949,120 PM7.IMG
08/23/2001  02:00 AM         1,474,560 PROOF.IMA
08/23/2001  02:00 AM               112 SERIALS.TXT
08/23/2001  02:00 AM            11,387 SPNOTES.HTM
08/23/2001  02:00 AM             2,048 VOL1.DAT
08/23/2001  02:00 AM             2,048 VOL2.DAT
08/23/2001  02:00 AM             2,048 VOL3.DAT
08/23/2001  02:00 AM                10 WIN51
08/23/2001  02:00 AM                10 WIN51IC
08/23/2001  02:00 AM                 2 WIN51IC.SP1
08/23/2001  02:00 AM                10 WIN51IP
08/23/2001  02:00 AM                 2 WIN51IP.SP1
08/23/2001  02:00 AM         1,474,560 WIN95.IMA
08/23/2001  02:00 AM         1,474,560 WIN98.IMA
08/23/2001  02:00 AM               167 WINBOM.INI
08/23/2001  02:00 AM         1,474,560 WINME.IMA
08/23/2001  02:00 AM         1,474,560 WIPE.IMA
08/23/2001  02:00 AM             2,048 WNP2.DAT
08/23/2001  02:00 AM             2,048 WNPE.DAT
              40 File(s)     24,858,281 bytes
              13 Dir(s)               0 bytes free

This was it's boot menu:

Quote

print ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
print                           XPSP1 2in1 3.8 (05/08/2003)
print                                     by gosh
print ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
print F1=Help
print                 0)   WINXP PRO Volume License SP1 Regular
print                 1)   WINXP PRO Volume License SP1 Unattended
print                 2)   WINXP PRO Volume License SP1 OEMPreinstall
print                 3)   WINXP HOME SP1 Regular
print                 4)   WINXP HOME SP1 Unattended
print                 5)   WINXP HOME SP1 OEMPreinstall
print                 6)   Windows PE SP1
print                 7)   Windows PE SP1 /inram
print
print                 a)   Windows 95b Bootdisk
print                    Windows 98 Bootdisk
print                 c)   Windows ME Bootdisk
print
print                 x)   More Options...
print                 q)   Quit to command prompt
print                 r)   Reboot
print                 Esc) Boot first harddisk

As you can see, it has no i386 folder. For a CD based install, the $OEM$ folder needs to be parallel to the i386 folder. In most cd's this will be the root of the cd. But as you see it's possible to put the $OEM$ folder in a sub folder.

Even though there are 3 options for XP home and XP Pro, i only have 2 $OEM$ folders. I get around your problem by doing this:

My $OEM$ folder basically has 3 functions:

1 - Installs XP Power tools using %windir%\Pwrtoys\pwrtoy.bat
2 - Installs registry hacks using %windir%\Reg\reg.bat
3 - Installs software using %windir%\apps.bat

VOL1 just does a regular install so it doesn't have a winnt.sif file.

VOL2 does an unattended install. So it's unattend file has OEMPreinstall=No, and it has no GuiRunOnce section.

VOL3 does an OEMPreinstall. So it's unattend file has OEMPreinstall=Yes, and the guirunonce section has this:

Quote

[GuiRunOnce]Command0="%windir%\Pwrtoys\toy.bat"
Command1="%windir%\Reg\reg.bat"
Command2="%windir%\Apps\Apps.bat"

So here's what happens: If i do a regular install, the $OEM$ folder might be copied to the hard drive, but it's not used so when setup is done it'll be deleted. If i do an unattended install, the $OEM$ folder might be copied to cd, but once again it's deleted when setup is done. If i do an OEMPreinstall, the $OEM$ folder is copied to the hard drive and used.

The power of my method is it gives me great flexibility. For example, let's say i wanted to do an unattended install of XP, but not do any registry hacks. All i would have to do is remove Command1 from GuiRunOnce. Now power toys and software are installed, but no registry hacks. Another example is you could install all your hotfixes in a batch file, let's call it hotfix.bat. In one install you could process hotfix.bat under GuiRunOnce, in another install you could leave hotfix.bat from GuiRunOnce. This is why i don't understand why some people here put everything into 1 big batch file, you're limiting yourself. Keep everything seperated to allow flexibility.

The only reason i have 2 $OEM$ folders is because of the differences between XP Home and XP Pro. if i wanted to make only an XP Pro cd, i would only need 1 $OEM$ folder.

To sum up, the $OEM$ folder doesn't matter, only your unattend file. I'm sure this is very confuzing, but it took me a very long time to perfect this method. Don't expect to understand everything at once.

-gosh

[gosh]

In the first 2 parts of my 'guide' to reducing the xp source, i kinda skipped over some stuff. Let me go back and fill in the empty pieces.

Let's look at the boot folder. In my first post it was called BOOT, in my second post we renamed it to VOL1, and VOL2. What exactly is this folder's purpose?

The BOOT folders purpose, as the name suggests, is to boot the computer. We made the folder by running winnt32.exe, but there's another way to make it. Hopefully someone savvy enough noticed that the BOOT folder is exactly the same as the 6 xp floppy disks extracted. That's why the BOOT folder has those files called disk101,disk102,disk103, etc. It's the identification files for the XP boot disks. When you run winnt32.exe, it copies these fake identification files to 'fool' xp into thinking you've put in all 6 xp boot disks.

One website makes the BOOT folder by using xp boot disks, not winnt32.exe. See this site under the section 'Extracting the Boot Images to the correct folders'. In his site he calls the BOOT folder ROOT. Different name, same concept.

Since the computer is booted from the BOOT folder, you can add stuff in this folder to use during cd boot. For example, in my cd i put expand.exe, chkdsk.exe, autofmt.exe in the BOOT folder, so when i use recovery console it won't ask me where these programs are. Another thing you can add is the server 2003 chkreg.exe file download it here. It allows you to repair the xp/server 2003 registry.

-gosh

[MaLi]

I probably forgot something but...

I made a CD following your decription and at the reboot I select
nr 2 for my unattended install...

It says something on the screen like "disk.... no emulation.... NTLDR missing"
Then I get a Windows boot menu where Setup is default and a delaytime
of 3-4 seconds... then it halts complaining about a missing hal.dll

Any ideas ?


/Magnus