SourcePath Value Is Set Back to the First CD-ROM Drive Letter with Sysprep.exe or Riprep.exe

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

SYMPTOMS

When you use the System Preparation tool (Sysprep.exe) or Riprep.exe to create images of systems, the installation source path is set back to the first CD-ROM drive letter during the mini-Setup wizard.

CAUSE

At the end of the mini-Setup wizard, Setup searches all of the mounted devices and drive letters to locate a CD-ROM drive. Setup sets the source path to the first drive letter it finds. If a CD-ROM drive is not detected, the SourcePath value is left intact. The following registry location is being modified:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup

Value: SourcePath (REG_SZ)

RESOLUTION

There may be situations in which you want all the installation sources to point to distribution servers if the source files. To work around this behavior, use either of the following methods (depending on how the images were created):

Changes for Sysprep.exe

1. Create a registry (.reg) file that contains the correct location of the distribution source files.



2. Save the file and name it Dist.reg (without a .txt extension).



3. Create a file named Cmdlines.txt that includes the following information:




[Commands]
"Regedit /s C:\Sysprep\i386\$oem$\dist.reg"

4. Create a $oem$ folder in the Sysprep\I386 folder.



5. Copy the Dist.reg and Cmdlines.txt files to the Sysprep\I386\$oem$ folder.



6. Add a key named InstallFilesPath to the [Unattended] section of your Sysprep.inf file. This key should have the following value:




InstallFilesPath = "C:\sysprep\i386"

Changes for Riprep.exe

1. Create the Dist.reg and Cmdlines.txt file as described in the "Changes for Sysprep.exe" section.



2. On the Remote Installation service (RIS) server that contains the Riprep image, create a Sysprep\I386\$OEM$ folder in the following folder:




RemoteInstall\Setup\Language\Images\Riprep_folder_name\I386\Mirror1\UserData

3. Copy the the Dist.reg and Cmdlines.txt files into the new $OEM$ folder.



4. Modify the RemoteInstall\Setup\Language\Images\Riprep_folder_name\I386\Templates\Riprep.sif file (and any other template files for this Riprep image that you may have created) to add the OemPreinstall and InstallFilesPath values so that they appear as follows:




[Unattended]
OemPreinstall = "Yes"
InstallFilesPath = "C:\sysprep\i386"

5. Close and save the file.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbenv kbsetup kbtool
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb