heres a quick guide on how to slipstream sp1a and xp and make it use an answerfile.
Tex
Dallas/Ft. Worth
Quick and Dirty Guide to an Unattended XP Install with SP1A
You can use this info or easily mod this to support other service packs or OS’s or add hotfix's and the hotfix rollup etc. But I will simply run briefly thru steps to slipstream sp1a onto a bootable CD with the bat files and other files I provide here in my .zip file. This includes nothing I believe is proprietary and is available from Microsoft. The xpboot.bin the XP bootloader needed to make the finished iso boot into XP. Cdimage is free from Microsoft. I made the bats and they are setup to use the “c:” drive and if you stick stuff elsewhere you need to carefully edit the two bats. To do this you will need a couple GB of space available of whatever drive you choose.
There are much more detailed guides for this stuff on the web. If you enjoy this crap as much as me start digging its very fun.
The difference in what I’m going to show ya today and most your regular slipstreams is we will use an answer file to automate this XP install after we get it slipstreamed. If you have not played with an answer file and install a lot you really got to give this baby a shot. You will never go back. I will include an answer file here that you will need to edit to fit your install. It will install everything automated except let you choose the partitioning info and installation disk etc… It will for example put the cd-key in and answer all the other crap to automate your XP install until you enter the users that will use XP on the final boot. I have it do this and it could be skipped really but …. I have it stop here because I am making a bootable DVD actually on my end that also silently installs Office XP, Nero, and a sh*tload of other apps. I have like four still I am playing with that don’t install silent yet but I am still working on them also. (grin). This is really too cool guys.
So first lets get the SP1a slipstreamed. Then show ya the unattended scripts and roll here.
You need the full SP1a network install version from Microsoft to start of course.
Let’s get started. As I stated my examples and batch’s all reference “C:” drive. You may need to edit the batches if you use another drive.
Extract all the files from the sp1a service pack to a folder lets call c:\sp1a. Use winrar or winzip or the "extract" command. Doesn’t matter...
Copy all the files from the original XP cd to c:\xpsp1a
Extract the .zip file I posted and copy the .bin and .exe files to a directory called c:\temp.
Inside the sp1a directory where you extracted the original sp1a.exe install (you needed the full 100+ mb network version) is a folder called update. Copy at least the two .bat files into that directory. Copy yourself a command prompt also into that directory just to make it painless....and go to the command prompt.
From a command prompt use the bat file I gave ya slipxpsp1a.bat.
If you are not using the "c" drive you will have to edit the two bat files carefully replacing all occurrences of c: with your drive. Your composing the new xpsp1a cd, leaving all the extracted files and making an iso so if you don't have a couple GB available on c: you will have to edit the files and correct the stuff. You must run the slipxpsp1a.bat from the update directory within the service pack and you need to be updating a pure original XP cd without prior service packs.
Its gonna pop up a message that its updating as it copies all the crap into the new combined source cd
When its done use the other .bat file and its going to use that cdimage command to create a bootable iso of XP. It uses xpboot.bin as the XP bootloader for ya. Its setup to get both from a "c:\temp" directory so if you put them somewhere else It will make you a iso in the root directory of c and use Nero or whatever to burn it.
But before you make the iso… (grin) edit the winnt.sif file I also provided.
Correct the machine name, workgroup and cd key to fit your install and your own XP cd product key. For now you can remove the install.cmd
On the last line as we will cover that later. Its for adding the apps/drivers you want updated. You can also remove the OEMpnp drivers section for now. I add a bunch of updated drivers on my DVD also.
Remember when you save it from WordPad or notepad that it cannot end in .txt !!! Its gotta be winnt.sif.
It must be copied to the i386 directory before you burn the cd.
Now cut yourself a unattended install of XPSP1 using the sp1a_iso.bat
If your still having fun and your head is clouding with all the neat possibilities of also automating the install of additional apps like Office, Photoshop, Nero, and registry tweaks etc…(limited by the size of the install cd or DVD only) then I’ll also do another post with a application install script and additional info about installing additional updated drivers etc..
Actually Short-Media could do a great guide complete with sample scripts to download etc… This is a quick and dirty one to get ya started dreaming.
let me know if you guys want the Application install scripts and stuff. You guys may not find this nearly as fun as me but then again.. I am a sick puppy too.
Cheers
Tex
You can use this info or easily mod this to support other service packs or OS’s or add hotfix's and the hotfix rollup etc. But I will simply run briefly thru steps to slipstream sp1a onto a bootable CD with the bat files and other files I provide here in my .zip file. This includes nothing I believe is proprietary and is available from Microsoft. The xpboot.bin the XP bootloader needed to make the finished iso boot into XP. Cdimage is free from Microsoft. I made the bats and they are setup to use the “c:” drive and if you stick stuff elsewhere you need to carefully edit the two bats. To do this you will need a couple GB of space available of whatever drive you choose.
There are much more detailed guides for this stuff on the web. If you enjoy this crap as much as me start digging its very fun.
The difference in what I’m going to show ya today and most your regular slipstreams is we will use an answer file to automate this XP install after we get it slipstreamed. If you have not played with an answer file and install a lot you really got to give this baby a shot. You will never go back. I will include an answer file here that you will need to edit to fit your install. It will install everything automated except let you choose the partitioning info and installation disk etc… It will for example put the cd-key in and answer all the other crap to automate your XP install until you enter the users that will use XP on the final boot. I have it do this and it could be skipped really but …. I have it stop here because I am making a bootable DVD actually on my end that also silently installs Office XP, Nero, and a sh*tload of other apps. I have like four still I am playing with that don’t install silent yet but I am still working on them also. (grin). This is really too cool guys.
So first lets get the SP1a slipstreamed. Then show ya the unattended scripts and roll here.
You need the full SP1a network install version from Microsoft to start of course.
Let’s get started. As I stated my examples and batch’s all reference “C:” drive. You may need to edit the batches if you use another drive.
Extract all the files from the sp1a service pack to a folder lets call c:\sp1a. Use winrar or winzip or the "extract" command. Doesn’t matter...
Copy all the files from the original XP cd to c:\xpsp1a
Extract the .zip file I posted and copy the .bin and .exe files to a directory called c:\temp.
Inside the sp1a directory where you extracted the original sp1a.exe install (you needed the full 100+ mb network version) is a folder called update. Copy at least the two .bat files into that directory. Copy yourself a command prompt also into that directory just to make it painless....and go to the command prompt.
From a command prompt use the bat file I gave ya slipxpsp1a.bat.
If you are not using the "c" drive you will have to edit the two bat files carefully replacing all occurrences of c: with your drive. Your composing the new xpsp1a cd, leaving all the extracted files and making an iso so if you don't have a couple GB available on c: you will have to edit the files and correct the stuff. You must run the slipxpsp1a.bat from the update directory within the service pack and you need to be updating a pure original XP cd without prior service packs.
Its gonna pop up a message that its updating as it copies all the crap into the new combined source cd
When its done use the other .bat file and its going to use that cdimage command to create a bootable iso of XP. It uses xpboot.bin as the XP bootloader for ya. Its setup to get both from a "c:\temp" directory so if you put them somewhere else It will make you a iso in the root directory of c and use Nero or whatever to burn it.
But before you make the iso… (grin) edit the winnt.sif file I also provided.
Correct the machine name, workgroup and cd key to fit your install and your own XP cd product key. For now you can remove the install.cmd
On the last line as we will cover that later. Its for adding the apps/drivers you want updated. You can also remove the OEMpnp drivers section for now. I add a bunch of updated drivers on my DVD also.
Remember when you save it from WordPad or notepad that it cannot end in .txt !!! Its gotta be winnt.sif.
It must be copied to the i386 directory before you burn the cd.
Now cut yourself a unattended install of XPSP1 using the sp1a_iso.bat
If your still having fun and your head is clouding with all the neat possibilities of also automating the install of additional apps like Office, Photoshop, Nero, and registry tweaks etc…(limited by the size of the install cd or DVD only) then I’ll also do another post with a application install script and additional info about installing additional updated drivers etc..
Actually Short-Media could do a great guide complete with sample scripts to download etc… This is a quick and dirty one to get ya started dreaming.
let me know if you guys want the Application install scripts and stuff. You guys may not find this nearly as fun as me but then again.. I am a sick puppy too.
Cheers
Tex
0
Comments
Mike :Rocker:
Check out this site... MSFN Unattended XP CD
The forums page that supports this is here... MSFN Forums
If you need more, I can help you out... I can not give you my version since I am using the volume / corp edition, but I can assist with how to make the CD.
-qch
The driver directory can contain updated drivers for the MB, chipset, nics, etc.... You supply the path to the drivers in the unattended answer in a line that looks like this for example.
OemPnPDriversPath="Drivers\HPT\2.33\Win_XP;Drivers\Ipro1000\PRO100;"
For the apps add two lines at the bottom of the answer file if you don't have them like this
[GuiRunOnce]
%systemdrive%\install\install.cmd
Then modify the "install.cmd" file with a text editor to fit your apps. I'll attach a sample one of mine. I don't think the one I am attaching does all the apps silently. Some will have some questions about where to install etc... I never took teh time to get them all silent but Ofice XP is and a bunch of them are. You need to rename the attached file to just install.cmd as its a batch file and I couldnt attach it here for ya without appending txt to the end.
Looks like you and I use the same stuff... where did you get your info?
-qch
http://www.iamnotageek.com/articles.php?aid=14&page=1
It includes unattended install, third party programs, and drivers.
Did you ever find a driver install method like this Tex? I remember us looking around for that in the icrontic days.
*cheers*