I386, no reply yet.

[Amit]

No one could reply to this issue i posted 2 days back. I
would like to know from some MVP, MCSE if or not this is
officially possible, so i can stop searching for boot
utilities over google.

I wanted to install win2k pro on 40 machines which dont
have a CD rom. All have I386 folder in D:\
I want to have a clean install. The clean install on
executing winnt.exe from I386 isnt a clean install. I want
to format C: with NTFS. So i wont be able to use 98's disk
as it wont read I386 on D: because its NTFS as well.
So i made 2k pro 4 boot disks to begin the installation,
BUT how do
i direct the installation FROM D:? It looks for CD instead.
Steve L Umbach told me he modified some .inf file in one
of the boot disks. I found only one inf file in 4 disks
and i dont see anything that can be changed there. What
should i change there?
Purpose is to install 2k pro from D:\I386 and format C:
with NTFS and without using CD ROM.
Thanks.

 

[Rick Chisholm]

best thing to do would be use Sysprep and ghost, copy a windows ghost
image to d: and ghost from d: to c:


Rick

 

[Doug Sherman [MVP]]

You have to edit the Winnt.sif file - see:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=131735

Doug Sherman
MCSE Win2k/NT4.0, MCSA, MCP+I, MVP

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Hi Amit.

I see you are still having a problem with this, so I created some boot floppies to
take a look to see if I could remeber what I did.

On the first boot floppy look for a file named textsetup.sif and open it with notepad
and use edit to search for "setupdata" and read the description there of how to add a
line for the file to use the hard drive instead of cd for source path as shown below
from a paste from mine with the <<<<< pointing to the specific line. Note that if you
are installing from partition 2 of a hard drive the line would be
\device\harddisk0\partition2. If you are installing from a second drive the line
would include \device\harddisk1\partition1 if using the first partition of the second
drive. Good luck. --- Steve

[SetupData]
;
; SetupSourceDevice is optional and specifies the nt device path
; of the device to be used as the setup source. This overrides
; the CD-ROM or winnt local source.
;
;SetupSourceDevice = \device\harddisk0\partition1
;
; SetupSourcePath specifies the path relative to the source device
; where the setup source tree is to be found.
; All media descriptors are relative to this.
;
SetupSourceDevice = \device\harddisk0\partition2 <<<<<<<< add this line..
SetupSourcePath = "\"
MajorVersion = 5
MinorVersion = 0
DefaultPath=\WINNT

 

[Amit]

I dont know if you will be reading this Steve. But worked
great. Where were you when i was formatting all 40 after
installing CD roms in all..
You are more user friendly than win2k itself.
Thanks a lot.

-----Original Message-----
Hi Amit.

I see you are still having a problem with this, so I created some boot floppies to
take a look to see if I could remeber what I did.

On the first boot floppy look for a file named

textsetup.sif and open it with notepad

and use edit to search for "setupdata" and read the

description there of how to add a

line for the file to use the hard drive instead of cd for source path as shown below
from a paste from mine with the <<<<< pointing to the

specific line. Note that if you

are installing from partition 2 of a hard drive the line would be
\device\harddisk0\partition2. If you are installing from a second drive the line
would include \device\harddisk1\partition1 if using the first partition of the second
drive. Good luck. --- Steve

[SetupData]
;
; SetupSourceDevice is optional and specifies the nt device path
; of the device to be used as the setup source. This overrides
; the CD-ROM or winnt local source.
;
;SetupSourceDevice = \device\harddisk0\partition1
;
; SetupSourcePath specifies the path relative to the source device
; where the setup source tree is to be found.
; All media descriptors are relative to this.
;
SetupSourceDevice = \device\harddisk0\partition2 <<<<<<<< add this line..
SetupSourcePath = "\"
MajorVersion = 5
MinorVersion = 0
DefaultPath=\WINNT

No one could reply to this issue i posted 2 days back. I
would like to know from some MVP, MCSE if or not this is
officially possible, so i can stop searching for boot
utilities over google.

I wanted to install win2k pro on 40 machines which dont
have a CD rom. All have I386 folder in D:\
I want to have a clean install. The clean install on
executing winnt.exe from I386 isnt a clean install. I want
to format C: with NTFS. So i wont be able to use 98's disk
as it wont read I386 on D: because its NTFS as well.
So i made 2k pro 4 boot disks to begin the installation,
BUT how do
i direct the installation FROM D:? It looks for CD instead.
Steve L Umbach told me he modified some .inf file in one
of the boot disks. I found only one inf file in 4 disks
and i dont see anything that can be changed there. What
should i change there?
Purpose is to install 2k pro from D:\I386 and format C:
with NTFS and without using CD ROM.
Thanks.

.

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Great to hear it worked and glad to help. --- Steve

I dont know if you will be reading this Steve. But worked
great. Where were you when i was formatting all 40 after
installing CD roms in all..
You are more user friendly than win2k itself.
Thanks a lot.

-----Original Message-----
Hi Amit.

I see you are still having a problem with this, so I created some boot floppies to
take a look to see if I could remeber what I did.

On the first boot floppy look for a file named

textsetup.sif and open it with notepad

and use edit to search for "setupdata" and read the

description there of how to add a

line for the file to use the hard drive instead of cd for source path as shown below
from a paste from mine with the <<<<< pointing to the

specific line. Note that if you

are installing from partition 2 of a hard drive the line would be
\device\harddisk0\partition2. If you are installing from a second drive the line
would include \device\harddisk1\partition1 if using the first partition of the second
drive. Good luck. --- Steve

[SetupData]
;
; SetupSourceDevice is optional and specifies the nt device path
; of the device to be used as the setup source. This overrides
; the CD-ROM or winnt local source.
;
;SetupSourceDevice = \device\harddisk0\partition1
;
; SetupSourcePath specifies the path relative to the source device
; where the setup source tree is to be found.
; All media descriptors are relative to this.
;
SetupSourceDevice = \device\harddisk0\partition2 <<<<<<<< add this line..
SetupSourcePath = "\"
MajorVersion = 5
MinorVersion = 0
DefaultPath=\WINNT

No one could reply to this issue i posted 2 days back. I
would like to know from some MVP, MCSE if or not this is
officially possible, so i can stop searching for boot
utilities over google.

I wanted to install win2k pro on 40 machines which dont
have a CD rom. All have I386 folder in D:\
I want to have a clean install. The clean install on
executing winnt.exe from I386 isnt a clean install. I want
to format C: with NTFS. So i wont be able to use 98's disk
as it wont read I386 on D: because its NTFS as well.
So i made 2k pro 4 boot disks to begin the installation,
BUT how do
i direct the installation FROM D:? It looks for CD instead.
Steve L Umbach told me he modified some .inf file in one
of the boot disks. I found only one inf file in 4 disks
and i dont see anything that can be changed there. What
should i change there?
Purpose is to install 2k pro from D:\I386 and format C:
with NTFS and without using CD ROM.
Thanks.

.