Windows Unattended Install Questions

[sjaguar13]

I tried to do the Windows unattended install thing and never got it to work. I tried a few ways, including the setup manager thing from the SP2 developer's cab file and the Windows Unattended CD Creator. The thing from the cab file made a text file and that was it. I changed that to winnt.sif and moved it to the i386 folder. I booted with a floppy, loaded smartdrv, and then ran winnt.exe from the i386 folder and it asked me every question just like normal. I used the Windows Unattended CD Creator thing and it created two files, the winnt.sif file in the i386 and then a settings.txt file in the root directory. It still didn't make it unattended, though. After looking around, I found a lot of Microsoft things saying that you have to have the file on a floppy because that's where the installer checks for such a file.

If you do that, wouldn't you get an error everytime the computer reboots because of a non-valid system disk? It seems like you would have to be there to remove the disk, and it would be easier than answering the questions, but it wouldn't be completely unattended. Is there a way around that? Another Microsoft thing I saw said you had to pass in the answer file and the source files when you run winnt. This seems like it would make more sense, since you could then have multiple answer files on the same CD, it would actually find the answer file, and becuase the first question it asks is where are the files at. I am assuming this is the way it should be done, but then I wonder why there is so much stuff talking about the winnt.sif file and why someone spent the time making a programming that makes that file. Is there a way to get the installation to see the winnt.sif file in the i386 folder?

I had to install an OS on 10 computers, none of them had a monitor. That's the main reason why I wanted to use the unattended install. I have since finish installing them, but now it bothers me that after 10 tries, I couldn't get it to work even once.

[EzyStvy]

In case you haven't seen these:

How to use the Sysprep tool to automate successful deployment of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;302577

How to use Sysprep with Windows Product Activation or Volume License Media to deploy Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;299840

Description of New Features in Sysprep for Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;282190

Unsupported Sysprep scenarios
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;828287

[thefultonhow]

http://www.nliteos.com/

I use that when creating an unattended install disk. It adds unattended switches, integrates service packs, updates and drivers, tweaks the OS< and creates a bootable ISO that you can then burn to CD. You will have to put in switches in WINNT.SIF to have Windows auto-parition the drive though. There are WINNT.SIF references in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

[sjaguar13]

The Sysprep pages say the files are just like unattend.txt. Is that the name of the answer file I should have been using?

Does NLite put everything in the right place, so when I run winnt.exe from i386 it works without passing in any parameters? The thing I used was like that and created an iso file, but it still didn't work.

[thefultonhow]

nLite will create a WINNT.SIF file and put it in the i386 directory. That's the only thing you need for an unattended install. You don't even have to run winnt.exe -- just boot from CD and press a key when it tells you to and it will go through the process.

I created an unattended CD with 2000 Pro, and although I didn't use nLite for the whole thing it installed 2000 and a whole bunch of updates and programs without any user intervention.

[sjaguar13]

Windows 2000 Professional was the other OS I installed. I couldn't get it to work for that either. I didn't actually boot from the CD, though. I don't know if that was the problem. All 10 computers where started with network boot disks, which then mounted the network drive containing the files. After that, the files were copied from the network drive to each computers hard drive. Then the computers rebooted and the started up with a different boot disk, a Windows 98SE disk. Then the winnt was run.

The files were copied to C:\xpcd, so the winnt.sif file was located at C:\xpcd\i386\winnt.sif. Was that the problem, being copied to the hard drive and then booted with a disk?

[thefultonhow]

It's possible that would have been the problem. I'm not sure if winnt.sif gets processed if you start setup from winnt.exe.

Any reason you didn't want to use a CD? (For future reference, nLite also lets you get rid of the "Prress any key to boot from CD..." prompt.)

[sjaguar13]

Originally Posted by thefultonhow Any reason you didn't want to use a CD?

The computers didn't have CD-Rom drives.