WinXP Automated Installation Raiders

It takes more than an hour to install Windows XP in the usual way. Fortunately, Microsoft has designed a fully automated installation function since Windows 2000, which has saved us a lot of time. When I installed Windows XP, I made some improvements to the fully automatic installation function. The process of manually inputting commands in the initial stage of installation was floppy disk booting and automatic batch file execution, realizing a fully automatic installation,
Installation time has also been reduced a lot.
The following will introduce the two installation methods (installing Windows XP from the hard disk or from the CD), how to make the boot disk and how to generate the fully automatic installation answer file unattend.txt.

First, the establishment of automatic batch file

1, from the hard disk installation

(1) in a pure DOS format a floppy disk with the format A: /s command.

(2) Create a Config.sys file on the floppy disk and edit the command line:

device=C:\\Windows\\himem.sys

Hint: For Load the Windows system information file himem.sys so that the DOS system can run smartdrv.exe.

(3) Create the Autoexec.bat file on the floppy disk and edit the command line:

C:\\Windows\\smartdrv.exe
X:\\i386\\winnt/u:i386\\UNATTEND.TXT /sX:\\i386 /t:Z:

Tip: X disk represents Windows XP installation The logical disk where folder I386 is located, Z represents the logical disk on which Windows XP is installed, and unattend.txt is a fully automatic installation response file created with Windows Installation Manager.

(4) In CMOS, set the boot order of the computer to boot from a floppy disk, hard disk, or CD.

(5) Use a good floppy disk to boot the system. When the floppy drive goes out, remove the floppy disk. Under normal circumstances, the computer will automatically complete the installation of Windows XP.

2. Installing from CD-ROM

(1) Format a floppy disk in pure DOS with the format A:/s command.

(2) Copy the fully automatic installation response file unattend.txt into the floppy disk (put this file on the hard disk, as long as the path is set, the installer will find it).

(3) Create a Config.sys file on the floppy disk and edit the command line:

device=C:\\Windows\\command\\ebd\\oakcdrom.sys /d:mscdxxx
Device=C:\\Windows\\himem.sys

(4) Create the file Autoexec.bat on the floppy disk and edit the command line:
C:\\Windows\\command\\mscdex.exe/d:mscdxxx
C:\\Windows\\smartdrv.exe
X:\\I386\\winnt/u:A:\\unattend.txt /s:X:\\i386 /t:Z:

Tip: Config The command line in the .sys file is
device=C:\\Windows\\command\\ebd\\oakcdrom.sys /d:mscdxxx and Autoexec.bat

in the command line C:\\Windows\\command\\ Mscdex.exe /d: mscdxxx are to load the optical drive under pure DOS. It is worth mentioning that if the file oakcdrom.sys can only be copied in the boot floppy disk, the command line in Config.sys should be changed to device=oakcdrom.sys/d:mscdxxx, note:
Config.sys and Autoexec The xxx in mscdxxx in .bat can be any character, but the two must be the same.

(5) Put the floppy disk and the CD into the machine, and set the boot order of the computer to be booted by CD or floppy disk in CMOS.

(6) Booting with a floppy disk, the floppy disk will have a second light. This is the system looking for and reading the response

file unattend.txt in the floppy disk, and the floppy disk is turned off after the floppy disk is turned off. Take it out, and the future work will be handed over to the computer for processing.

Second, Winnt.exe parameters detailed

The above two methods involve the Windows XP installation file Winnt.exe, so I am here to introduce Wint.

Several parameters commonly used by exe.

(1)/r:<Specify the directory name>

This parameter can always install the contents of the directory specified by the user (to be included in the I386 directory) during installation, such as Some older hardware devices, drivers that come with Windows XP may not be supported, then we will install the directory where these device drivers are located in the Winnt directory at the time of installation.

(2)/rx:< Specify the directory name >

This parameter has the same function as the above parameters, except that the user-specified directory is automatically deleted after installation.

(3)/s:<Pathname>

By default, the installer will call many installation source files located in the current directory (ie the I386 directory of the CD) during installation. . We can copy all I386 to the hard disk first, and then use this parameter (such as Winnt /s:c:\\i386) to locate it to speed up the installation.

(4)/t:< Partition Name>

By default, the installer uses the C drive as the storage space for temporary files during installation and installs Windows XP on the C drive. . We can use this parameter to change the storage space of temporary files during installation, such as Winnt/t:d:.

(5)/u:< Answer File Name >

This parameter can be combined with an answer file for unattended, fully automated installation.

Three, the production of the answer file

Automatic installation of the answer file unattend.txt is made by the automatic installation manager. In the Tools subdirectory of the SUPPORT directory of the installation disk, locate a CAB compressed file called Deploy and extract the file to see the setupmgr.exe program. Double-click the program to run the Unattended Installation Manager.

After step-by-step prompts, select the appropriate option or enter the appropriate data to generate a fully automated installation response file. Since the production process is relatively simple, it will not be described here.

Open the prepared answer file with Notepad, we can see that the content just filled in is recorded in this file in a certain writing format. At this time, you can also make appropriate modifications. For example, we can modify "Reparttion=Yes" (excluding quotation marks, or "=No") under [Unattended] to set whether to delete all the original partitions during installation. A new NTFS partition. Modify "FileSystem=ConvertNTFS" (without the quotation marks, or "=LeaveAlone") under [Unattended] to set whether the installation partition is formatted as an NTFS file system or remains unchanged.

It should be noted that if you are familiar with the meaning of the various options in the automatic installation answer file, you can also directly modify the unattend.txt file provided in the I386 directory of the installation disk to create a suitable answer file