Cannot Obtain Access to $oem$ Folder During Unattended Setup

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server

SYMPTOMS

You can run Windows 2000 Setup in unattended mode when you start your computer from the installation CD-ROM. However, by using this method, options such as Cmdlines.txt or use of the $oem$ folder structure cannot be used even if you create your own bootable CD-ROM with these structures on the media.

CAUSE

This issue occurs because in order for the $oem$ folder structure to be used, it must be created and placed in a folder under the \i386 folder on your distribution share. When Setup is started from the share point, the installation files are copied to the local hard disk in a temporary folder called \$win_nt$.~ls\$oem$. Setup is hard coded to only search for the $oem$ structure immediately under the temporary $win_nt$.~ls folder. During a CD-ROM boot installation using either attended or un-attended mode, the $win_nt$.~ls folder structure is never created on the local hard disk because Setup is being run from CD-ROM. Because of this, Windows 2000 Setup does not know to search the CD-ROM for these files, and they are not used.

MORE INFORMATION

For related information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q216258 How to Perform Unattended Windows 2000 Installation from CD-ROM

Additional query words: Unattended Setup

Keywords : kbsetup kbtool kbui kbOPK kbSBK
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb