To install Windows NT on an x86-based computer, you normally need three bootable floppy disks, in addition to the distribution CD-ROM, distribution share, or distribution floppy set. When the winnt or winnt32 command is used to install Windows NT over the network, these floppy disks are normally created by Setup.
If you don't need to reformat the file system on the boot drive (usually C:), you can dispense with the bootable floppy disks by using the /b switch with the winnt or winnt32 command. You can reformat drives (other than the boot drive and the drive holding the temporary installation files) while installing without floppy disks.
Note In rare instances, you might be using a SCSI drive for which Windows NT does not have a driver. If this drive is the drive on which you want to install Windows NT, the winnt /b or winnt32 /b command will not work, because the target drive is not visible to the Setup program. Check the hardware compatibility list in your Windows NT documentation set to make sure the driver you need is included.
If people in your organization will be installing without bootable floppy disks, you might want them to perform an unattended setup as well. In an unattended setup, an unattended answer file is used to answer all of the questions that Setup asks. The Windows NT Setup Manager utility, included with this resource kit, makes it easy to create the unattended answer file. You can create as many different unattended answer files as needed to accommodate the various users in your organization.
The command to perform an unattended installation is winnt /u[:answer_file] or winnt32 /u[:answer_file], where answer_file is the file name of the unattended answer file. The /b switch is always assumed when the /u switch is used with the winnt or winnt32 command. If no unattended answer file is specified, the defaults will be used for all installation options (as though you pressed Enter at every prompt in an attended installation). Since there is no default for the username or organization name, the user must be present to respond to prompt for these values if no unattended answer file is specified, or if the unattended answer file that is specified has no entries for these values. These prompts occur early in the graphical mode portion of Setup. Your users can enter the winnt /u[:answer_file] or winnt32 /u[:answer_file] command, wait long enough to answer the username and/or organization name prompt, and then leave the Setup program to continue unattended.
You can create an unattended answer file for each user, to allow completely unattended installation, or you can create more general unattended answer files, in which case the user must provide user information interactively after entering the winnt /u [answer_file] or winnt32 /u [answer_file] command. Unattended answer files are easy to create with the Windows NT Setup included with this resource kit. The help file included with the utility provides general information about unattended answer files and unattended setup, as well as specific help on the individual dialogs and on the values you are asked to supply.
Since Setup Manager allows you to edit existing unattended answer files, and to save your edits to a new unattended answer file, you might want to begin by making template unattended answer files for the various setup configurations used in your organization. For example, you might have many users in each of three different time zones. Or, some users might be participating in a workgroup only, while others are participating in a domain. Once you have created a template unattended answer file for a group of users, you can open the template, edit the user information to specify the user name and computer name, and save the file to a new name based on the user name. Each user can then specify his or her personal unattended answer file in the winnt or winnt32 command.
If you are using Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) to manage computer resources in your organization, you can use package definition files (PDFs) to install or upgrade Windows NT. See the Microsoft Systems Management Server documentation for information on using PDFs to install operating systems.