UNATTENDED INSTALLATIONS IN WINDOWS 2000
Although I don't usually answer questions about beta products, several
readers have asked me how Windows 2000 (Win2K--formerly Windows NT 5.0) will handle unattended installations compared with NT 4.0. Some basic
differences are starting to appear. An example of NT 4.0's unattended
installation standard syntax is
winnt\[32] /u:<answer file> /s:<install source>
In this example, /u: specifies the name and location of the answer file and /s: specifies the location of the NT source files.
An example of Win2K's unattended installation standard syntax is
winnt\[32] /unattend:<answer file> /s:<install source> /syspart:<target drive>]
In this example, /unattend: specifies the name and location of the answer file with two important differences. First, you must spell out the word unattend, rather than using the letter u. Second, you can specify the amount of time Win2K Setup waits at the boot menu before continuing (e.g., unattend30 makes Setup wait 30 seconds at the boot menu before continuing). The variable answer file contains answers to questions you want to automate during the unattended installation (also known as unattend.txt in NT 4.0). The /syspart: flag causes Win2K Setup to copy all boot and temporary files to the drive and mark them as active. (This function works only with winnt32 and is primarily for subsequent disk replication.) As you can see, Microsoft has expanded the available unattended installation options in Win2K.
Q: Can I use rdisk to back up information to another type of disk (e.g., an
Iomega Zip disk) than a 3.5" disk?
I assume you need to use a Zip disk because of the size of the security and
Security Accounts Manager (SAM) files (sam._ and security._) in the repair
directory on your hard disk. Unfortunately, rdisk supports only high-density 3.5" disks in the A drive. However, you can use a third-party backup program to back up your files to another drive.
Q: Can we prevent Windows NT 4.0 from creating the My Briefcase desktop
application during an unattended installation? My company is trying to maintain strict security, and we don't want users to have access to My Briefcase.
To disable the creation of the My Briefcase application during an
unattended installation or over a network installation, copy the folder that contains the installation files for your computer type (e.g., the I386 folder for x86-based computers) from the NT CD-ROM to your hard disk. Using Notepad or another text editor, locate and open the layout.inf file, search for syncapp.exe, and insert a semicolon in front of the line to indicate that this line is a comment and not an executable line of code, as follows:
;syncapp.exe = 1,,28672,,,,,2,0,0
Using a text editor, locate and open the txtsetup.sif file, search for
syncapp.exe, and insert a semicolon in front of the line to indicate that this line is also a comment, as follows:
;syncapp.exe = 1,,,,,,,2,0,0
After you have made these changes to disable the creation of My Briefcase, you can begin installing NT over the network or perform an unattended setup.
Q: I'm having trouble installing modems on my network. Can you provide some simple guidelines I can use to troubleshoot the installations?
You can follow certain procedures to debug modem installations. Although I
prefer using external modems, I've included guidelines for troubleshooting
internal and external modems.
Troubleshooting internal modems. A common problem with
internal modems involves COM port assignments. If an internal modem defines the COM port, make sure that you properly configure the modem's jumpers (this step is very important). Internal modems almost always have a jumper on the adapter that configures the modem for use as a particular COM port.
Make sure that no conflicts exist between the motherboard port assignments and the internal modem port assignment. If you configure the modem to use a particular COM port that the motherboard has already assigned to another device or a serial card (physical port), you must set the internal modem to use a different COM port. If possible, use the BIOS setup to disable the motherboard's COM port that matches the COM port number you set on the internal modem. For example, if you set both the internal modem and the physical COM port to COM2, you must either change the internal modem COM port setting to an available COM port or use the BIOS setup to disable the physical COM2 port.
Make sure you haven't configured any other adapters or devices to use the same base I/O address or IRQ as the internal modem. You can typically use COM3 with an IRQ of 5 for an internal modem. However, if you have a sound card, you might need to choose an IRQ other than 5 because many sound cards use that interrupt. (By the way, sound cards are the devices that most often conflict with internal modems.)
Go to the Ports applet in Control Panel to verify that the IRQ settings and the I/O addresses are correct. Use the Event Viewer to check the System log for I/O or IRQ conflict errors. When possible, use the standard COM port settings, as Table 1 shows. Notice the overlapping IRQ addresses, which NT handles quite well.
You don't need to add a new port in the Ports applet to add support for an internal modem. Ntdetect will detect the internal modem and the COM port that you've configured the modem to use. If you clicked Add in the Ports applet to add a duplicate port, click Delete to remove the duplicate port. If you still have problems getting the internal modem to work, verify that the modem is not defective. Finally, you might want to upgrade the modem firmware, but always check with the modem vendor before implementing this type of change.