Introduction

Unattended setup mode is the means by which Administrators and other users install Windows 2000 in a hands-off fashion.

• To start Windows 2000 Setup in unattended 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> 

Note /t is an optional parameter, but is very useful if the hard disk has multiple partitions or if there are multiple hard disks in the computer to ensure that the user is not prompted for the partition to use as the install partition during setup.

winnt32 /unattend:<answer file> /s:<install source> [/syspart:<target drive>] [/tempdrive:<target drive>]

Note /syspart and /tempdrive are both optional parameters. Used together, they provide a solution to create a custom image that can be used across non-identical machines, for which GUI-mode setup completes on those computers.

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

<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 directory on the target drive. Specification of this option implies that Windows 2000 must be installed in the specified drive. This option is only valid for Winnt32.exe.

/t copies all the installation files to a temporary directory on the target drive. Specification of this option implies that Windows 2000 must be installed in the specified drive. This option is only valid for Winnt.exe.

A combination of /syspart and /tempdrive is useful if the target drive is to be used as the primary drive on another computer.

Note

If you use /syspart and point it to a non-boot drive on your computer, remove that drive before restarting your computer. If this is not done, the computer will not boot.

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

1. The computer must support booting from the CD-ROM drive - El-Torito No Emulation CD boot support
2. The answer file must be named WINNT.SIF and be placed on a floppy disk to be inserted as soon as the computer boots from the CD-ROM.
3. The answer file must contain a [Data] section with the required keys specified. See the [Data] section description later in this document.

Note

When using Remote Install Server to install Windows 2000 to a computer that has a bootable network card, specify the network card as the first bootable device, instead, and demote all others. This will provide the maximum possible methods of successfully deploying Windows 2000 to computers in your environment.

One method to make this process as easy as possible 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 third.