Unattended Network Install Fails After First Reboot

[Brian]

I am trying to install windows xp pro through a Netware share using
the unattend.txt answer file with no luck. Here is the issue...

I have created the unattend.txt file and placed it in the i386 folder
located in f:\install\winxp. The i386 folder was created by copying
the winxp pro cd to f:\install\winxp. On the target workstation,
created a 4Gb partition and formated it as fat32. With a bootdisk, i
boot the target pc and login to the novell network with full admin
rights and start the install with the command
f:\install\winxp\i386\winnt.exe /s:f:\install\winxp\i386
/u:unattend.txt
The install program starts great and copies the files to the harddisk
of the target machine, but when the pc reboots i get a non system disk
and it goes no further.

Any help would be massively appreciated.

Regards,
Brian

 

[Darrell Gorter[MSFT]]

Hello Brian,
Did you make the partition a primary partition and an active partition?
what files are in the root of the partition after the reboot?
What is the exact error that you are seeing?
What other partitions or drives exist in the system? What is the layout of
the partitions and drives?
Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
--------------------

 

[brianbleblanc]

Not sure if my last message was posted so i will post it again. If it
was please forgive me.

Thanks for the quick reply and great pointers. It seems i forgot to
activate the partition after creating it. But my problems are not
over. After it reboots and starts the install program again, the
drivers load and it verifies the c drive. It then reboots again and
starts the install once more. It loads the install drivers and then
tries to copy more files to the harddrive, but then it stops at
atapi.sys saying it can not copy this file. At this point i have the
options to retry, ignore or quit. Retry does nothing and ignore skips
that file to get stuck on another, namely disk.sys. If i continue to
skip files some get copied but there are about 100 that can not be
copied and of course after it reboots again, it stalls and says there
are missing files.

Any suggestions?...i'm i forgetting something again?

Brian

Hello Brian,
Did you make the partition a primary partition and an active partition?
what files are in the root of the partition after the reboot?
What is the exact error that you are seeing?
What other partitions or drives exist in the system? What is the layout of
the partitions and drives?
Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

--------------------
From: (e-mail address removed) (Brian)
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment
Subject: Unattended Network Install Fails After First Reboot
Date: 14 Dec 2004 07:59:43 -0800
Organization: http://groups.google.com
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Message-ID: <[email protected]>
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I am trying to install windows xp pro through a Netware share using
the unattend.txt answer file with no luck. Here is the issue...

I have created the unattend.txt file and placed it in the i386 folder
located in f:\install\winxp. The i386 folder was created by copying
the winxp pro cd to f:\install\winxp. On the target workstation,
created a 4Gb partition and formated it as fat32. With a bootdisk, i
boot the target pc and login to the novell network with full admin
rights and start the install with the command
f:\install\winxp\i386\winnt.exe /s:f:\install\winxp\i386
/u:unattend.txt
The install program starts great and copies the files to the harddisk
of the target machine, but when the pc reboots i get a non system disk
and it goes no further.

Any help would be massively appreciated.

Regards,
Brian

 

[Dick Knowles]

Brian

Have you checked whether the files got copied from the Netware Share? You
can boot from a DOS floppy at the first reboot and inspect the c: drive.
This is the problem that I posted an 11th. I don't know what the solution
is.

Dick

Not sure if my last message was posted so i will post it again. If it
was please forgive me.

Thanks for the quick reply and great pointers. It seems i forgot to
activate the partition after creating it. But my problems are not
over. After it reboots and starts the install program again, the
drivers load and it verifies the c drive. It then reboots again and
starts the install once more. It loads the install drivers and then
tries to copy more files to the harddrive, but then it stops at
atapi.sys saying it can not copy this file. At this point i have the
options to retry, ignore or quit. Retry does nothing and ignore skips
that file to get stuck on another, namely disk.sys. If i continue to
skip files some get copied but there are about 100 that can not be
copied and of course after it reboots again, it stalls and says there
are missing files.

Any suggestions?...i'm i forgetting something again?

Brian

Hello Brian,
Did you make the partition a primary partition and an active partition?
what files are in the root of the partition after the reboot?
What is the exact error that you are seeing?
What other partitions or drives exist in the system? What is the layout of
the partitions and drives?
Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

--------------------
From: (e-mail address removed) (Brian)
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment
Subject: Unattended Network Install Fails After First Reboot
Date: 14 Dec 2004 07:59:43 -0800
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Lines: 19
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 142.227.47.20
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Trace: posting.google.com 1103039984 24901 127.0.0.1 (14 Dec 2004 15:59:44 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: (e-mail address removed)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 15:59:44 +0000 (UTC)
Path:

cpmsftngxa10.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGXA01.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTFEED02.phx.gbl!tornado.fastwebnet.it!tiscali!newsfeed1.ip.tiscali.net!news.glorb.com!postnews.google.c

om!not-for-mail
Xref: cpmsftngxa10.phx.gbl microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment:129510
X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment

I am trying to install windows xp pro through a Netware share using
the unattend.txt answer file with no luck. Here is the issue...

I have created the unattend.txt file and placed it in the i386 folder
located in f:\install\winxp. The i386 folder was created by copying
the winxp pro cd to f:\install\winxp. On the target workstation,
created a 4Gb partition and formated it as fat32. With a bootdisk, i
boot the target pc and login to the novell network with full admin
rights and start the install with the command
f:\install\winxp\i386\winnt.exe /s:f:\install\winxp\i386
/u:unattend.txt
The install program starts great and copies the files to the harddisk
of the target machine, but when the pc reboots i get a non system disk
and it goes no further.

Any help would be massively appreciated.

Regards,
Brian