• Registered: 2007-12-06
  • Posts: 13

Topic: [SOLVED] Recovery and repair Consoles bypassed during setup

I'm at my wits end on this, despite spending two days searching and studying why this is happening, so I need some help.

I'm trying to make an XP Pro recovery CD that can be used with SFC (easy), as well as for booting for accessing the Recovery Console and for installation repair. Want to send copies of this out to VAR clients, since most OEM disks won't do these things.

I started with a retail XP Pro Upgrade SP1, slipstreamed SP2 with nlite. The resulting CD works just like it's supposed to, though of course no SATA drivers.

To add SATA drivers, I used DriverPacks as follows:

1. Copied the slipstreamed XP SP2 source directory, ran nlite again on the new copy to remove SCSI/RAID drivers, languages and keyboards.

2. Then ran DriverPacks on the new copy to add the Mass Storage drivers (text mode on), Method 1, QSC on, and default for everything else.

3. Finally used nlite again to just burn the ISO image.

The problem is when this CD is booted, the first setup screen is skipped, the one where you can select SETUP/Recovery Console/Quit, and goes directy to SETUP, where "Searching for previous versions of Microsoft Windows" is displayed, followed by a display of discovered partition(s) and options for the different ways to install Windows relative to the disovered partition(s).

Why is the first setup screen being skipped (winnt.sif or other options, etc.) and how can I prevent it, so I can access the Recovery Console, etc.

Thanks, Basil Irwin.

  • OverFlow
  • DriverPacks Administrator & BASE Developer
  • Offline
  • From: Cincinnati
  • Registered: 2006-12-02
  • Posts: 6,730

Re: [SOLVED] Recovery and repair Consoles bypassed during setup

two things.

First this is not well documented and your being a DriverPacks newbie there is no way you would be expected to know this.
DriverPacks doesn't replace all of the OEM drivers so DON'T DELETE them. You definately still need them.

@Jaak and mr_smartepants lets get this in the tutorial?

Second DriverPacks will not function if OemPreinstall=Yes is not present in winnt.sif. OemPreinstall=Yes specifically excludes the menus you want.

two workarounds
     One put in a floppy with a blank winnt.sif - The winnt.sif  on the floppy superceeds the one on the CD / DVD.
     Two create a multiboot CD /DVD here is a guide from our very best friends over at MSFN Multi Boot Guide

Thanks for helping us to help you
and pointing out some info that is not readily available.

we need you to "keep your wits about you" sir!

DP BartPE Tutorial   DP_BASE Tutorial   HWID's Tool     Read BEFORE you post    UserBars!
http://driverpacks.net/userbar/admin-1.png
The DriverPacks, the DP_Base program, and Support Forum are FREE!.

OverFlow's Website

  • From: Cambridgeshire, UK
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 6,226

Re: [SOLVED] Recovery and repair Consoles bypassed during setup

OverFlow wrote:

@Jaak and mr_smartepants lets get this in the tutorial?

Will do!
I'm way behind in my tutorial updates (sorry Jaak).
I'll try to get to it this weekend...I'm swamped with work.

Read BEFORE you post.  HWID tool   DriverPacks Tutorial   DONATE!
http://driverpacks.net/userbar/admin-1.png
Not all heroes wear capes, some wear Kevlar!
  • OverFlow
  • DriverPacks Administrator & BASE Developer
  • Offline
  • From: Cincinnati
  • Registered: 2006-12-02
  • Posts: 6,730

Re: [SOLVED] Recovery and repair Consoles bypassed during setup

It's all good! smile

DP BartPE Tutorial   DP_BASE Tutorial   HWID's Tool     Read BEFORE you post    UserBars!
http://driverpacks.net/userbar/admin-1.png
The DriverPacks, the DP_Base program, and Support Forum are FREE!.

OverFlow's Website

  • Registered: 2007-12-06
  • Posts: 13

Re: [SOLVED] Recovery and repair Consoles bypassed during setup

Well, the floppy option is out since modern systems don't have one anymore.

But I'm still a bit confused why the floppy trick would even work. Wouldn't the absence of
OemPreinstall=Yes cause the added drivers not to install?

basil.

  • OverFlow
  • DriverPacks Administrator & BASE Developer
  • Offline
  • From: Cincinnati
  • Registered: 2006-12-02
  • Posts: 6,730

Re: [SOLVED] Recovery and repair Consoles bypassed during setup

Sorry i was not thorough in my advise.

mass storage text mode drivers are slipstreamed directly to windows installation and will work regardless of any settings in winnt.sif

the difference being text mode drivers vs. PNP drivers all pnp drivers would be unavailable but not the text mode ones

DP BartPE Tutorial   DP_BASE Tutorial   HWID's Tool     Read BEFORE you post    UserBars!
http://driverpacks.net/userbar/admin-1.png
The DriverPacks, the DP_Base program, and Support Forum are FREE!.

OverFlow's Website

  • Registered: 2007-12-06
  • Posts: 13

Re: [SOLVED] Recovery and repair Consoles bypassed during setup

So, that means for the text mode Mass Storage Drivers, I could just nuke winnt.sif and all will be well as far as the added disk drivers being functional? And by direct integration, does that mean I could nuke $OEM$ also?

Thanks, Basil.

  • OverFlow
  • DriverPacks Administrator & BASE Developer
  • Offline
  • From: Cincinnati
  • Registered: 2006-12-02
  • Posts: 6,730

Re: [SOLVED] Recovery and repair Consoles bypassed during setup

whoa whoa whoa...

now were talkin apples and oranges.

I thought you wanted a "do it all disk" which you could accomplish with a multiboot disk (with multiple configs pointing to a single installation file set). one disk that will install AND repair.

if you just want a disk that doesn't require you to hit f6 and provide a driver.  Just only check textmode mass storage and unselect all other packs. (if you simply delete folders you will create problems. We don't add stuff that is not needed wink )

DP BartPE Tutorial   DP_BASE Tutorial   HWID's Tool     Read BEFORE you post    UserBars!
http://driverpacks.net/userbar/admin-1.png
The DriverPacks, the DP_Base program, and Support Forum are FREE!.

OverFlow's Website

  • Registered: 2007-12-06
  • Posts: 13

Re: [SOLVED] Recovery and repair Consoles bypassed during setup

"If you just want a disk that doesn't require you to hit f6 and provide a driver.  Just only check textmode mass storage and unselect all other packs. (if you simply delete folders you will create problems. We don't add stuff that is not needed."

That is exactly what I want: Recovery Console functionality, Install Repair, and SCF source.
And so for that reason, I did add just the Mass Storage pack in text mode.

Except now I understand that what I really did was to add the Mass Storage pack in text mode AND ALSO CHECK the Masstorage Pack from the list. I didn't realize these two things were mutually exclusive. (This explains why I saw both a text mode and a non-text mode SQC folder.)

So, I just did that. Nothing but the finisher in $OEM$ now. But I still get a winnt.sif file with:

OemPnpDriversPath="0"
OemPreinstall=Yes
command9="%SystemDrive%\DPsFnshr.exe"

I guess this is to make the finisher run, but won't OemPreinstall=Yes still cause the initial dp screen to be skipped? And it seems like running the finisher is a moot issue for my purposes (SCF source, bootable CD-based Recovery Console execution, and bootable CD Installation Repair.)

So once again, I'm back to: if the only thing I've added with driverpacks is the text-mode Mass Storage drivers, and these have been system-iintegrated rather than inserted via $OEM$, why do I even need winnt.sif and $OEM$ (at least for my stated purposes)?

Basil Irwin.

BTW, Jeff, thanks for the help!!!



Thanks, Basil.

  • OverFlow
  • DriverPacks Administrator & BASE Developer
  • Offline
  • From: Cincinnati
  • Registered: 2006-12-02
  • Posts: 6,730

Re: [SOLVED] Recovery and repair Consoles bypassed during setup

hmm you may have found a bug in Bâshrat the Sneaky code

they are not mutually exclusive one is for plug and play drivers and one is for text mode (they are complementary)

the winnt.sof is not required for text mode only i am almost certain can you test that and get back to me?

DP BartPE Tutorial   DP_BASE Tutorial   HWID's Tool     Read BEFORE you post    UserBars!
http://driverpacks.net/userbar/admin-1.png
The DriverPacks, the DP_Base program, and Support Forum are FREE!.

OverFlow's Website

  • Registered: 2007-12-06
  • Posts: 13

Re: [SOLVED] Recovery and repair Consoles bypassed during setup

OK, I just ran the test and everything worked just like I wanted it to! So I'm finally a happy camper!

I added only the text mode Mass Storage drivers, and then nuked both the unneeded/unwanted winnt.sif file and the rump finisher-only $OEM$ afterwards, and then ran nlite to burn the ISO.

The resulting CD performed exactly like I expected and wanted it to; worked perfectly on the  SATA laptop I've been using for testing, including appearance of the initial dp screen, and subsequent test of Recovery Console.

It does seem like in MassStorage text-mode only case that winnt.sif and $OEM$ shouldn't be generated, and prevents a useful function, namely generation of recovery-repair-only CDs that include a nice set of modern disk drivers, and therefore will function on a wide variety of machines.

All of this has now made me wonder what is the source of the text-mode drivers. Are these a subset of drivers extracted from the MassStorage DriverPack?

Perhaps a couple more lines of explanations about this issue in the tutorials would be useful.

Also, since the two subsets of drivers are mutually exclusive, it might make things a bit less confusing if the "DriverPack MassStorage text mode" wasn't separated by spaces from the main list. As is it now stands, I thought this was some kind of option, rather than a DriverPack. In fact, move this to right below "DriverPack MassStorage 7.11" in the DriverPack list.

Even better, list these next to each other and rename as follows:

"DriverPack MassStorage text-mode drivers 7.11"
"DriverPack MassStorage plug-n-play drivers 7.11"

  • Jaak
  • Old Timer Rookie
  • Offline
  • From: Eeklo, in the East Flanders
  • Registered: 2006-07-23
  • Posts: 3,594

Re: [SOLVED] Recovery and repair Consoles bypassed during setup

Hi
I wonder which boot image you use.
I seldom use Nlite to make an ISO, because I use Nero, and use the original Microsoft boot image file (what I extract with isobuster).

(in other words, I'd like to know the differences by heart, but I don't.)
You use method 1.. I will test that one day. (I can make Repair setup capable CD doing Method 2)

In Method 2, delete SetupOld.* after setup, and you can run repair, or in place upgrade repair.
Leave NTupg folder intact, and search forum about fake setup error.

The answer was 42?
Kind regards, Jaak.
  • Jaak
  • Old Timer Rookie
  • Offline
  • From: Eeklo, in the East Flanders
  • Registered: 2006-07-23
  • Posts: 3,594

Re: [SOLVED] Recovery and repair Consoles bypassed during setup

TM is for TM, and PnP need not be included (in a way)

The Mass storage Pack has some PnP drivers and M1 puts a reference to them in $.
TM uses basic IO.
PnP choices are made when enhanced features are already in place.

for Nvidia
Tm
5
6
those are currently used for TM

I dont' use sysprep either, and would welcome JakeLD, or eXort, or any other prepper to help you help us.
I am intrigued.
I need to learn more in order to write sections in our tute.

The answer was 42?
Kind regards, Jaak.
  • Registered: 2007-12-06
  • Posts: 13

Re: [SOLVED] Recovery and repair Consoles bypassed during setup

I"m not sure what you mean by boot image. I assume everything on my ISO is sourced from an XP PRO retail upgrade disk, SP2, and DriverPacks, except the boot sector supplied by nlite, which, according to the inline help "is a boot sector for all Windows versions which will initiate normal boot with i386/amd64 folder.".

I can see now that Method 2 makes sense for what I want to do, since, presumably $OEM$ and winnt.sif wouldn't be generated

At the time, though, I didn't consider using Method 2, as I didn't understand that text-mode drives are a different set (or at least a subset) of drivers than the MassStorage DriverPack drivers, and I didn't understand that the text-mode drivers were integrated into microsoft source files.

In fact, because I had thought the disk drivers wouldn't unpack until well into the operating installation process, that there would be no way that Method 2 would work for me.

Now I see Method 2 would work because the text-mode drivers are directly integrated, and Method 2 would prevent $OEM$ and OEM entries in winnt.sif from being generated.

Bottom line, it seems to me that just adding text-mode hard disk drivers and nothing else ought to produce a working Recovery-capable CD, whether using Method 1 or Method 2, without a bunch of manual file manipulation afterwards.

Basil.

  • OverFlow
  • DriverPacks Administrator & BASE Developer
  • Offline
  • From: Cincinnati
  • Registered: 2006-12-02
  • Posts: 6,730

Re: [SOLVED] Recovery and repair Consoles bypassed during setup

As i said you may have discovered a bug in Bâshrat the Sneaky's code.

I am in process ATM of codeing a base beta and will add this to my list of bug fixes.
PS you can report this over at bugtracker if you like!

95 percent of our users do not use method one becuse of the 4096 character limit. and Bâshrat the Sneaky himself considers it oblsolete.

I Think that it is very useful because the result of a method one slipstream is a disk that can be used by add new hardware wizard on an existing install (select search removable media). however this takes up a little over 500 meg as opposed to the 290 meg used by method two but they both are so much better than the 1.5 gig they consume when extracted. (IE new hardware was added and you need a driver but dont know which one - well its bound to be in teh packs somewhere - hee hee)

Mass storage text mode is deliberately separated from the packs because it is unique and unlike the packs.

It is in fact not a pack at all. although all the files for text mode are extracted from the current mass storage pack (as you supected) the pack itself is not needed on the destination disk at least not for a recovery cd. if you were doing an install you would suffer greatly because of the performance enhancments that exist in the PNP drivers. (16 bit vs. 32 bit drivers)
I would like to reiterate here they are not mutualy exclusive they are complimentary.

I agree that both methods should produce the same result - if text mode is the only box selected.

You are now an unofficial tester - thanks for helping us to help you.

jeff...

DP BartPE Tutorial   DP_BASE Tutorial   HWID's Tool     Read BEFORE you post    UserBars!
http://driverpacks.net/userbar/admin-1.png
The DriverPacks, the DP_Base program, and Support Forum are FREE!.

OverFlow's Website

  • Registered: 2007-12-06
  • Posts: 13

Re: [SOLVED] Recovery and repair Consoles bypassed during setup

Well, I just tried Method 2; everything else the same; namely just text-mode Mass Storage drivers, and all worked perfectly without any tweaking at all.

Problem of skipping dp initial setup screen is a function of Method 1.

Basil.

  • Registered: 2007-12-06
  • Posts: 13

Re: [SOLVED] Recovery and repair Consoles bypassed during setup

Being a newbie, I naively chose Method 1, since I didn't think I needed the apparent complexity of Method 2.

At any rate, I submitted a bug report via bugtracker per your suggestion.

basil.

  • OverFlow
  • DriverPacks Administrator & BASE Developer
  • Offline
  • From: Cincinnati
  • Registered: 2006-12-02
  • Posts: 6,730

Re: [SOLVED] Recovery and repair Consoles bypassed during setup

well your not a newbie anymore now your a regular...

or perhaps you didn't notice the upgrade you recieved for having more than ten posts...

i will assign the bug to myself... tee hee..

Thanks Basil you have helped to make driverpacks that much better and i belive i speak for the entire DriverPacks Team when I say

thank you

Bug assigned to me!  i had better get on it or ill have to chew myself out!

Last edited by OverFlow (2007-12-07 18:57:52)

DP BartPE Tutorial   DP_BASE Tutorial   HWID's Tool     Read BEFORE you post    UserBars!
http://driverpacks.net/userbar/admin-1.png
The DriverPacks, the DP_Base program, and Support Forum are FREE!.

OverFlow's Website

  • Registered: 2006-05-30
  • Posts: 81

Re: [SOLVED] Recovery and repair Consoles bypassed during setup

Actually, this thread may help a lot in what the original question was concerning...

http://forum.driverpacks.net/viewtopic.php?id=1419

always remember.....
YCGIYWG (You Can't Get, If You Won't Give)
DizzyDen