Deploy Unattended XP Using WDS Server

Hello Guys!

We Will See how to deploy unattained XP using WDS server

Requirements:
Windows Server 2003 or 2008 (Domain Controller, DNS, DHCP, WDS Server)
Windows 7 PE DVD (Windows Automated Installation Kit).
Windows 7 DVD (for Boot.wim file).
Windows XP CD (for Sysprep.exe)
Drivers (I’m demonstrate in VMWare workstation 9.0.1 so I’m gonna need VMware NIC Drivers) .

I’m using Windows 7 PE (Preinstallation Environment) instead of Vista PE or you can use Vista PE, I just want you guys to demonstrate another method of injecting drivers in Image.wim file.

Task to DO
1.    Install and Configure DHCP and WDS server
2.    Install windows 7 PE (Window AIK)
3.    Copy Boot.wim file from Windows 7 DVD located in SOURCES folder.
4.    Inject drivers into Boot.wim file
5.    Add boot.wim on WDS server for Deploying and Capture
6.    Preparing XP installed machine for Unattended Installation.
7.    Configure Client to boot from network card
8.    Capture prepared  XP machine image From client and upload to WDS server
9.    Deploy captured XP image from WDS server to client machine

Step 4 - Injecting Drivers into Boot.wim file.
First you need to know how many indexes are contain in boot.wim file.
To get index Information from boot.wim file
Dism.exe /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:C:\Boot.wim

To mount Boot.wim File.
Dism /Mount-Wim /WimFile:C:\Boot.wim /Index:2 /MountDir:C:\Mount

To inject driver
Dism /image:E:\Mount /Add-Driver /Driver:E:\Drivers\vmxnet\win2008\32bit\vmware-nic.inf
Dism /image:E:\Mount /Add-Driver /Driver:E:\Drivers\vmxnet\win2008\32bit\vmxnet.inf
To save changes and unmounts image

Dism /Unmount-Wim /MountDir:E:\Mount /Commit

For More Help Type: Dism /Image:E:\Mount /?
Note: in order to see help first you must mount image.

Step 6 - Preparing XP installed machine for Unattended Installation.

On client machine create a folder in C:\ drive sysprep

Note: Make sure the folder name in drive C:\sysprep

Note: It is highly recommended that you to copy i386 folder from XP CD into C:\sysprep, this action may avoid some issues with the missing files. You can delete i386 folder after unattended installation, or simply add DOS command in answer file, that is “rd /s /q C:\sysprep”.

Step 8 - Capture prepared XP machine image from client and upload to WDS server

There are some problem occurs while you connecting to WDS server, the problem is the Network Card Driver missing in the boot.wim file. We can add the driver in the boot.wim file. Which is I already did or if you don’t want to inject the drivers into boot.wim file. You can load the driver at capturing time simply using “drvload” command. So download the NIC driver for your network card, and put it on floppy, CD/DVD or USB flash drive and start command prompt with pressing Shift+F10, and Load the driver.

E.g. drvload E:\lan_drivers\driver-nic.inf

After driver loading with positive massage, you have to initialize the network service with the command.
That is “wpeutil.exe InitializeNetwork

4 comments:

  1. his blog has been retired. The latest information on Networking service availability will now be displayed on the network Status.Networking Solutions providers in Jaipur

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Dear Admin
    I dont have VMware drivers.iso
    I don't find VMware drives.iso on VMware site
    Please uploud it to me

    ReplyDelete
  3. I really like you tutorial on deploying Xp through wds...I installed windows 2012r2 and setup wds server based on your tutorial. I deployed Windows Xp based on your tutorial. This is my first OS deployment with this setup. I must note that you must use the windows 7 x86 boot image or you will not be able to see windows xp x86 install images through wds.

    Thanks for the help!!

    Fordwrench
    powerpony@outlook.com

    ReplyDelete