Comments on: Unattended XP Installs with Windows Deployment Services

By: allein

allein — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 09:54:29 +0000

Spoony, any chance you are still here…please respond, as I am trying to accomplish the same thing as you :) And the same problem seems to be bugging me too! :-s
Did you find the solution for your problem? Could you post it here? Or email me at allein(a)net4u.hr? I am very interested to know if you managed to solve this, and how!
Thanks Rob for the article!

By: Luke Hackett

Luke Hackett — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 11:07:33 +0000

Hi,

I dont usually post comments on websites like these but i just had to say great instructions and thank you very much.

Regards,

Luke

By: Spoony

Spoony — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:34:21 +0000

Ok, I got my unattend.xml file working to a certain point. Basically,

It will log me into the WDS (Credentials), Select the specific Image, Create the partition I set up…..& then it just sits there. I have to manually push “NEXT” to start “deploying” the image.

I’m going to do some research on that right now, but I’ll just post this in case someone else has already ran into this problem and whats to share a solution.

Thanks Rob, for the create article.

By: Spoony

Spoony — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:08:34 +0000

I’m set on the sysprep.inf file (Fully automated) I’ve used this in the past on my WDS & works perfectly with the XP images I have created. I’ve been doing them manually and decided that I want to remotely deploy images via Wake On Lan, Unattended.xml (Basically I want to install the OS from the comforts of my own office & have it set up to where it picks the correct image to deploy, partitions the drive, & adds it the the domain)

Now here’s my question:

How do I create the unattended.xml file for XP to do all the things I mentioned above? I’m stuck on the “Windows System Image Manager” where creating the answer file comes alittle confusing for me. Is there a guide to create the answer file for an XP image? This is the only part that I’m stuck on so far…the sysprep.inf file is set and ready to go, but I’m alittle confused on this part.

Any help, or links would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

By: Mie

Mie — Fri, 28 May 2010 03:16:04 +0000

Please do does anyone know anything about deploying to virtual machines?

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:55:14 +0000

Hi, I know this is an old page, but I am really hoping that I can get some kind of response from someone, as Google seems to be failing me. Basically I am trying to edit the xp_unattend.xml so that it will create 2 hard disk partitions, a C: of 60gig and a D: using the rest of the space on the drive. This is what the disk config section of my .xml file looks like: OnError 1 Primary true 60000 2 Logical true true NTFS WinXP C 1 1 true NTFS Data D 2 2 0 true The problem I encounter is that this does not appear to actually do anything. I know that my xml file is being used, as it is automatically logging on to the domain for me, but the Hard Disk window still appears, and shows my entire drive as unallocated space. If anyone can point me in the right direction, or see what I have done wrong, I would very much appreciate your feedback. Thanks, -Ben

By: K.o.R

K.o.R — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:06:19 +0000

Hello, thanks for the excellent guide – like many people here it seems, I still can’t get this to work properly – the GUI portion of Setup still completely ignores sysprep.inf, ristndrd.sif, etc.

Can you provide information on how to get NON-SYSPREP images to work (i.e. RIS copies of an XP CD)?

Any help is most appreciated!

By: Anton Gildebrand

Anton Gildebrand — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:58:21 +0000

Hi Rob!

Excellent guide!
But i am having some problems with the sysprep.inf. The file is properly deployed to the computer, but the sysprep isn’t prefilled with sysprep.inf, instad, som of the forms is filled with, for example %OrgName%, which isn’t definied in sysprep.inf.

Help!
How do i make sysprep listen to my sysprep.inf? When i sysprep the computer before creating image, i run sysprep /mini /reseal.

By: more sysprep file details « swyda_techblog

more sysprep file details « swyda_techblog — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:28:10 +0000

[...] http://robwhitehouse.com/windows/windows-server-2003/unattended-xp-installs-with-windows-deployment-... [...]

By: U.K.

U.K. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:42:35 +0000

Is it normal, that the installation process is asking me to select the image I want to install? I have configured it in the unattend.xml file (InstallImage), just as the example above, but the installer keeps asking me for the install image …. ?

I read Microsoft-Windows-Setup is only Vista or higher compatible, but my boot image is vista anyway …