Unattended install of a 5300 Controller fails

[Ayman Altounji]

I am trying to produce an unattended install of Windows 2000 Advanced Server on my ML570 with 5300 Raid controller. I have produced a disk with a unattended script file (winnt.sif) with (I think!) all the relevant sections to load the 5300 controller as an OEM mass storage driver. I've included the txtsetup.oem and files on my floppy disk. I boot the machine, let the system boot off of the Win2K CD, then insert my floppy disk. During the first textmode part of the setup I receive the error "File txtsetup.oem caused an unexpected error (18) at line 1041 in d:\nt\private\ntos\boot\setup\oemdisk.c". How can I make the script pick up the 5300 controller files from my floppy disk and then install Win2K from my script?

[Mark Cloutier]

Dear Andy Davidson;

Thank you for your query. There is a tool available from Compaq, called the SmartStart Scripting Toolkit, that will be helpful in developing your unattended installation file. Basically, you need SmartStart ver 4.9 or greater to have the correct TXTSETUP.OEM file. It should be dated 09/21/00 or later, to correctly identify the 5300 Series of Controllers. This file is represented in the SmartStart Scripting Toolkit, ver 1.3, available to you from the Compaq website, http://www.compaq.com/manage/toolkit.html. The documentation should help with your problem resolution. Please feel free to contact me if you have any other questions.

[Ayman Altounji]

I am having the same issue trying to build an unattended w2k server installation. I have tried the txtsetup.oem file from both SmartStart 5.3 CD and Scripting Toolkit v1.5 with the same resulting error message on the screen. I have built a bootable CD with additional applications beyond the base OS install. Where on the CD does txtsetup.oem belong? I have placed it in the following locations: $OEM$\textmode; $OEM$\$1\drivers\SCSI; $OEM$\$1\$WIN_NT$.~LS. I have modified my winnt.sif file in the \i386 directory for [MassStorageDevices] and [OEMBootFiles] with the appropriate entries. Any help on this will be appreciated.

[Matt Wood_1]

I'm researching an almost identical issue with Win2k, SP4 slipstreamed, installing to a DL360(G3). This W2k install will be run from a bootable CD. I have been unable to get this scenario to work with the instructions in MS KB288344 or KB816299 (windows 2003). Reference http://www.ee.ethz.ch/~slist/realmen/msg00014.html for similar experiences.
The other attempted fixes for this appear to include editing txtsetup.sif, txtsetup.oem, unattend.txt (winnt.sif) and some indicate editing the driver .inf's.