ML350 Xeon 2.4GHz, SmartStart 6.30 --> W2K Installation Hangs

[Sinisa Kolaric]

I'm trying to setup a new ML350 server with SmartStart 6.30 and W2K Server German, however with no success.

SmartStart does everything OK, up to the point when W2K installation starts. In Win 2000 Setup, I get the message (see the original message in German at the end of this message):



Windows 2000 Setup
------------------

In the script file for unattended installation the following entry is missing

"IDE CD-ROM (ATAPI 1.2)/PCI IDE Controller"

in the [SCSI] section of the INF file txtsetup.sif.

Setup can not continue. Press a key, to cancel setup.



Please note, this is my translation of a message in German, so the real message (in English version of W2K) may be very different.

Thank you for any pointers, SK



PS
Original message:



Windows 2000 Setup
------------------

In der Skriptdatei zur unbeaufsichtigen Installation fehlt der Eintrag

"IDE CD-ROM (ATAPI 1.2)/PCI IDE Controller"

im Abschnitt [SCSI] der INF-Datei txtsetup.sif.

Setup kann nicht fortgesetzt werden. Dr??cken Sie eine beliebige Taste, um Setup zu beenden.

[Liebl]

I have the same problem like you. Is there an answer for these problem?

I use an older version of smartstart 6 but there must be a better solution.

Tell me if you found one

[Ruslan_2]

Hi,

This seems to be a common problem with all localized versions of Windows 2000. Before I tell you our solution I must admit it is for Russian W2K Server. It implies traslating several lines in winnt.sif into your language (German) but I can't advise the exact translation because I don't know the language. These are the steps we take:
1. Start intallation with SmartStart and go through until that error appears
2. Boot the server from DOS floppy with some simple text editor
3. Type the following commands:

A:>C:
C:>cd $win_nt$.~bt
C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\>edit winnt.sif

where "edit" is the editor name

4. Edit winnt.sif file. It should contain a section which reads like this:

[MASSSTORAGEDRIVERS]
"Compaq Smart Array Controllers"=OEM
"Compaq Drive Array Controllers"=OEM
"Compaq Integrated Wide Ultra2 SCSI Controller"=OEM
"Symbios Logic C896 PCI SCSI Host Adapter"=RETAIL
"Symbios Logic C8xx PCI SCSI Host Adapter"=RETAIL
"Adaptec Ultra160 Family Manager Set"=OEM
"Compaq Integrated Dual Channel Wide Ultra2 SCSI Controller"=OEM
"Symbios Logic C8100 PCI SCSI Host Adapter"=RETAIL
"IDE CD-ROM (ATAPI 1.2) /PCI IDE Controller"=RETAIL

You should change it to:

[MASSSTORAGEDRIVERS]
"Compaq Smart Array Controllers"=OEM
"Compaq Drive Array Controllers"=OEM
"Compaq Integrated Wide Ultra2 SCSI Controller"=OEM
"Symbios Logic C896 PCI SCSI "=RETAIL
"Symbios Logic C8xx PCI SCSI "=RETAIL
"Adaptec Ultra160 Family Manager Set"=OEM
"Compaq Integrated Dual Channel Wide Ultra2 SCSI Controller"=OEM
"Symbios Logic C8100 PCI SCSI "=RETAIL
"IDE CD-ROM (ATAPI 1.2) /PCI IDE-"=RETAIL

Of course, you should put German device names instead of Russian ones. All this is done to make device names in winnt.sif correspond to those in txtsetup.sif. So you can look the correct German device names in txtsetup.sif and simply copy them to winnt.sif. Or you can do it the opposite way by editing txtsetup.sif so that it corresponds to winnt.sif. The problem with editing txtsetup.sif is that it is considerably larger than winnt.sif.

I guess the problem is that SmartStart creates non-localized unattended installation files while allowing to install localized wersions of Windows.

5. Remove the floppy and reboot. The instalation should continue ok.

Hope this helps!

Happy hacking,

[Oleg Mochkin]

Hi ! This is well-known bug in SmartStart for non-English version W2K. When you get error
"...entry is missing ...IDE CD-ROM (ATAPI 1.2)/PCI IDE Controller.." you need remove W2K CD and boot from Win95/98 boot floppy. Go to C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\ directory. There are two files - winnt.sif and txtsetup.sif. In this files you can find [MASSSTORAGEDRIVERS] section. Problem is because some line in this section is not according to each other. In winnt.sif some words is in non-English but in txtsetup.sif the same line contain English words (See line with "...=RETAIL" ends.) Workaround is to have identical [MASSSTORAGEDRIVERS] section in both winnt.sif and txtsetup.sif files. You can edit this files in any appropiate method. For my W2K Russian installation I use Win98 Russian boot floppy with Volkov Commander (with embedded text editor). I know there are VC-deutsche version. NOTE: my experience based on W2K Russian version, it may be difference for German localization. I'm not sure... BR, Oleg Mochkin.

[Victor Pendlebury]

The easiest was is to check your language settings : if you choose English during the SS interface and try to install a German Version, the error will occur .

Have you tried choosing German as the SS interface language ?

Hope it helps

Victor

[Victor Pendlebury]

The easiest way is to check your language settings : if you choose English during the SS interface and try to install a German Version, the error will occur .

Have you tried choosing German as the SS interface language ?

Hope it helps

Victor

[Dr. Michael Concepcion]

Lets not get to complicated.
To put it simply, the winnt.sif and the txtsetup.sif should be the same in correspondence to each other, that means there is no language barrier.
winnt.sif
[massStorageDrivers]
"IDE CD-ROM (Atapi 1.2)/PCI IDE Controller"=RETAIL

should match

[SCSI]
atapi = "IDE CD-ROM (Atapi 1.2)/PCI IDE Controller"=RETAIL