Bootable CD similar to W2K CD

[jmalenfant 0]

I have a highly customized W2K build. All functions are initiated by booting off of a floppy. I start it by using gdisk to prep the servers hard drive...reboot. I then boot either to the network or I load DOS mode CD drivers...at the end of this step, I have a Z drive mapped to the root of my build share. I then launch Windows 3.1 and a 16Bit applet that has all company/build specific prompts. Once completed, the builder click the start button and a highly customized unattend build begins.

 

What I would like to replace in this process is the floppy for the CD based version of my build. The whole reason I use a floppy is because once the blue screen copy begins, the builder can pop out the floppy and walk away...coming back to a built server.

 

I can easily create a standard bootable CD. The problem is that the builder has to babysit the build process up until the completing of the blue screen copy so they can remove the CD so to allow the completion of the build.

 

Now to the question: How the heck does Microsoft create a bootable CD that prompts to boot from the CD with a default answer of lack of input?????????

 

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks.

 

Jon

[Cardinal 0]

Is there a setup switch that could perhaps bypass the 'eject cd' prompt? That is, is there a way of overiding that by a particular syntax? I am asking more then answering. Perhaps someone will know.

[DosFreak 2]

Hmmmm, you could try using the boot sector from the NT4 CD....or using floppy emulation on the CD and then putting in the autoexec to run NT setup.

[TomAL 0]

This probably doesn't help you but, my comp when presented with a bootable cd will count down about 10sec asking you to press a key to boot from the cd (if no key pressed it just continues to go through the boot precess from hd). Would this be what you want. if so mine is a BIOS thing no options just built in.

 

Tom

[joeyddr 0]

It is a bios thing and the only os cd i have seen that supported the no response just boot from the hd is the win2k cd, cause the nt4 cd does not do that I remember cause i had left the cd in by accident and had it hose my ntldr file.

[Igor 0]

With Windows 2000 if you just leave the CD in it will wait 5 sec and if no keys are touched will boot of the HD and continue installation.

So don't worry about WIn2k reinstallig itself over and over.

[videobruce 0]

Quote:

With Windows 2000 if you just leave the CD in it will wait 5 sec and if no keys are touched will boot of the HD and continue installation.
So don't worry about WIn2k reinstallig itself over and over.

I did that, but it went back to the copying stage again, I had to remove the CD after the first boot! This was with a CD that was modified to bypass the product key entry!

[duhmez 0]

Quote:

Hmmmm, you could try using the boot sector from the NT4 CD....or using floppy emulation on the CD and then putting in the autoexec to run NT setup.

Putting in the autoexec to run nt setup will boot and run nt setup every boot no matter what.

Might I suggest a network distribution point, from dos? I can help you with a dos network boot disk if needed.