Win2k unattended install ??

[John Prophet]

OK, how EXACTLY do you do this when booting from the cd??

Cuz I see all the directions for doing it from a command line with the unnattend switch etc....but, uhh, there is no command line when booting from CD is there? lol.

The only thing I saw in the resource kit was to rename the file "Winnt.sif".

So how exactly is this supposed to work...you boot from the cd then put that floppy in with the answer file on it...but how doe4s it know to read the floppy..cuz it just ignored mine.



Any ideas? I know its simple.

Thanks, JP

[Siliconjunkie]

There has to be an unattend file somewhere, I got this working once but have forgotten, I will look some and tell ya what I find out.

Too much internet and not enough to do at work.

[Siliconjunkie]

This agrees with what you said..
http://www.win2000mag.com/Articles/I...&pg=1&show=855
When you boot from the CD-ROM, Win2K's Setup program looks in the A drive for a 3.5" disk, which Setup uses as its answer file. You'll need to create winnt.sif and save it on a 3.5" disk before you run Setup.

And here is the MS word on it
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=216258

They both agree on this "The unattended answer file must be renamed to Winnt.sif and copied to a floppy disk so Setup can access it."

MS also says: "The answer file must contain a valid [Data] section. This is explained later in this article."

Maybe your file wasnt perfect so it decided that it wouldnt use it and just went on.

What I want is to be able to put it all on the CD, no floppy.

[Micro Bean]

This is what I could find: heres the link to that site

click win2k pro then click deploy then unattended install




Microsoft Windows 2000 Guide to Unattended Setup
Answer File Parameters for Unattended Installation of the Windows 2000 Family of Operating Systems

Microsoft Corporation

Unattended Setup mode is a hands-free method of installing Microsoft® Windows® 2000 that is convenient for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), Administrators in corporations, Value Added Resellers (VARs), and other users.

Note For a complete listing of Winnt.exe and Winnt32.exe commands, see Windows 2000 Help. Or, at a command prompt, switch to the \i386 folder on the Windows 2000 product CD, and then type: winnt /? or winnt32 /?

To start Windows 2000 Setup in unattended Setup mode from MS-DOS® or Windows 3.1/Windows for Workgroups, a user must specify:
winnt /u:<answer file> /s:<install source> /t:<target drive>


To start Windows 2000 Setup in unattended Setup mode from Windows 95 or Windows 98, Windows NT®, or Windows 2000, a user must specify:
winnt32 /unattend:<answer file> /s:<install source> [/syspart:<target drive>] [/tempdrive:<target drive>]


where:

<answer file> is a file that contains answers to questions that should be automated during installation.
<install source> is the location of the Windows 2000 installation files.
/syspart copies all boot files to the target drive and marks it as active. This option is only valid for Winnt32.exe.
/tempdrive copies all the installation files to a temporary folder on the target drive. This option implies that Windows 2000 must be installed in the specified drive and is only valid for Winnt32.exe.
If the temporary folder is full, the user is prompted to choose another directory during setup. After this is done, unattended setup continues.

Note The /tempdrive parameter, like the /t switch for the Winnt.exe command, is useful to ensure the correct drive is chosen without user intervention when the hard disk has multiple partitions or hard disks.

/t (Optional) copies all the installation files to a temporary directory on the target drive. This option assumes that Windows 2000 is installed in the specified drive and is only valid for Winnt.exe.
If the temporary directory is full, the user is prompted to choose another directory during setup. After this is done, unattended setup continues.

Note Use the /t or /tempdrive switches to install Windows 2000 to a partition other than the boot partition on a computer.

A combination of /syspart and /tempdrive is useful if the target drive is used as the primary drive on another computer. The /syspart and /tempdrive parameters are optional. By using them together, you can create a custom image that can be used across non-identical computers. GUI-mode Setup then completes the installation on those computers.

Important If you direct /syspart to a non-boot drive on your computer, remove that drive before restarting your computer. Otherwise, your computer cannot boot.

To start Windows 2000 Setup in unattended Setup mode from the Windows 2000 product CD

The computer must support booting from the CD-ROM drive—El Torito No Emulation CD boot support.
The answer file must be named Winnt.sif and must be placed on a floppy disk to be inserted as soon as the computer boots from the CD.
The Winnt.sif answer file may also be placed on and run from a bootable CD. For more information about creating a bootable CD, see KB article Q167685, "How to Create an El Torito Bootable CD-ROM" at the Microsoft Product Support Services Web site:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/

The answer file must contain a [Data] section with the required keys specified. For more information, see "[Data]," later in this document.
Note When using the Remote Installation Service (RIS) to install Windows 2000 on a computer that has a bootable network card, specify the network card as the first bootable device and demote all others. You then provide the maximum possible number of methods for successfully deploying Windows 2000 to computers in your environment. For more information about using RIS, see "[RemoteInstall]," later in this document.

One method to simplify this process is to modify the BIOS to specify the CD-ROM as the first bootable device, the floppy drive as the second, and the hard drive as the third.

Answer File Format
In general, an answer file, such as Unattend.txt or Sysprep.inf, consists of section headers/keys, parameters, and the values for each parameter. Most of the section headers are pre-defined, but some may be user-defined. You don't need to specify all of the possible parameters in the Unattend.txt file if the installation does not require them.

The file format is as follows:

[section1]
;
; Section contains keys and the corresponding
; values for those keys/parameters.
; keys and values are separated by '=' signs
; Values that have spaces in them usually require double quotes
; "" around them
;
key = value
.
.
[section2]
key = value


Invalid parameter values generate errors or may cause incorrect behavior after setup.

Description of Answer File Parameters
Bold

for a section or a key name. The exact name specified must be used.


<user-def>

for a key or a section name when specified and enclosed in brackets (< >) and italicized. The name used can be specified by the creator of the answer file.


Key values

are string type, unless otherwise mentioned. Wherever Type = Numeric is specified, the value is written as a decimal number unless expressly mentioned otherwise.


Optional

indicates that the key is optional. Unless indicated, all keys are required for the given section.


Default

indicates the default value assumed if a key is not present.



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[John Prophet]

Thanks for the replies.

Im not sure if I had the "data" section or not. Plus I see that when you run setup manager that you get an "unnattend.bat" file also....which of course if you look at it, it doesnt seem to have the proper name for the answer file you just created using setup manager, lol.

So I will retry again after I look up some more info on this BAT file etc.

I just think it is sort of interesting that I have the W2k resource kit, the official Msoft 70-210 training kit, several other 70-210 and 70-215 type books from the local library and nowhere in any of them can I find EXACTLY how to make this work, lol. Being as how computers are EXACTING in nature you would think there would be an EXACT method expicitly stated for unnattended installs off of the cd.

I have found dozens of references to the switches used from a command prompt but as I said, what good does that do you when booting from a cd? I would like to find somewhere that it tells me expicitly WHERE in the process off booting from the cd that it reads off of the floppy...just little details like that. Also if I find that I must use this bat file I will be amused cuz I cant find much reference to it in MS land, lol.


Anyway, its all a good learning experience....and I am sure that when I attempt to install over a network that I will look back on these problems as quaint, lol.

Thanks, JP