[Unattended] bad expand.exe

Discussion:

Dany Chouinard

2008-11-28 15:10:45 UTC

Greeting everyone!

I have some problems with my unattended installation. I changed quit a
few things on my deployment server latly so I can't seem to pinpoint the
faulty part.

Simply speaking, once the files are copied locally onto the computer,
the text-based setup of windows starts but he is not able to copy the
EXPAND.EXE files as it is not a valid Windows XP file.

The EXPAND.EXE file present on the server is the exact same size than
the one found on the computer (I used a liveCD to check that).

I have the driverpack integrated in the distribution point, but I was
able to build couple of computer before the EXPAND.EXE starts.

I have tried several different computers with different hardware.

I'm using unattended 4.8R5. I have the problem with nt5x-install and
the "classic" install.

Any idea where I should look?

Dany CHOUINARD
Technicien en informatique -o)
Commission scolaire de l'Or et des Bois /\
***@csob.qc.ca _\_v

tÃ©l. 819.825.4220 ext. 3041
cel. 819.856.6892
skype. dchouinard
courriel. ***@csob.qc.ca

www.danychouinard.net

Juan Jose Pablos

2008-11-28 22:10:54 UTC

Permalink

maybe a network problem?

Thomas Bendler

2008-12-01 09:19:12 UTC

Permalink

On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 4:10 PM, Dany Chouinard

Post by Dany Chouinard
[...]
The EXPAND.EXE file present on the server is the exact same size than
the one found on the computer (I used a liveCD to check that).
I have the driverpack integrated in the distribution point, but I was
able to build couple of computer before the EXPAND.EXE starts.
I have tried several different computers with different hardware.

Did you check if the EXPAND.EXE is in the right version for unattended
(maybe it couldn't be executed because it is 64Bit whatever problem).

Kind regards, Thomas

thom zan

2008-12-01 22:22:22 UTC

Permalink

I was wondering if someone can give me a sample or something to show how I
can choose from a list of
different server models for a selected os? I have multiple DELL platforms
(R300, 1950, 600, etc..) that
when the unattended comes up or via a pxe redirect or soemthing that I can
choose the respectful
unattended file to use? Basically, I load Windows 2003 on these systems
but with different nlite
driver setups for each. I have tried doing it without nlite but for some
it just does NOT work like the
r300 which requires the stupid broadcom drivers to be loaded at a
GUIRUNonce instead.

Thanks.

Thom

Dany Chouinard

2008-12-15 15:06:19 UTC

Permalink

It ended up that I copied my WinXP I386 folder on the server (again) but
this time I seted it up as read only. Things as been fine since.

Dany Chouinard

Post by Dany Chouinard
Greeting everyone!
I have some problems with my unattended installation. I changed quit a
few things on my deployment server latly so I can't seem to pinpoint the
faulty part.
Simply speaking, once the files are copied locally onto the computer,
the text-based setup of windows starts but he is not able to copy the
EXPAND.EXE files as it is not a valid Windows XP file.
The EXPAND.EXE file present on the server is the exact same size than
the one found on the computer (I used a liveCD to check that).
I have the driverpack integrated in the distribution point, but I was
able to build couple of computer before the EXPAND.EXE starts.
I have tried several different computers with different hardware.
I'm using unattended 4.8R5. I have the problem with nt5x-install and
the "classic" install.
Any idea where I should look?
Dany CHOUINARD
Technicien en informatique -o)
Commission scolaire de l'Or et des Bois /\
tÃ©l. 819.825.4220 ext. 3041
cel. 819.856.6892
skype. dchouinard
www.danychouinard.net
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Dany CHOUINARD
Technicien en informatique -o)
Commission scolaire de l'Or et des Bois /\
***@csob.qc.ca _\_v

tÃ©l. 819.825.4220 ext. 3041
cel. 819.856.6892
skype. dchouinard
courriel. ***@csob.qc.ca

www.danychouinard.net

Dany Chouinard

2008-12-17 19:46:12 UTC

Permalink

More news on my case.

So it began with failed deploiement of Windows XP once I moved to a new
Server and upgraded the unattended software, all at once. Incidental as
it ended up. During the text-based portion of the installation, while
copying files, Windows was complaining about a wrong version of
EXPAND.EXE.

I was able to get some peace by putting back the installation files on
the server and setting the file system acces right to 555 (owner, groupe
and everyone to read only).

Unrelatedly, so I tought so, I started to get computers that refuses to
bring the Windows desktop to some user. You could boot to the logon
window, make it accept your username and password and Windows would
returns back to the logon window. Since it was so easier and faster, I
was rebuilding the machines (with unattended), destroying evidence of
the problem.

But today I took the time to investigate a faulty laptop.

Most of my machines are relativly modests, so I can rarely afford the
payload of a resident antivirus. See where I'm heading? I run instead
CLAMWIN once a while, cleaning silently all the nasty stuff the students
grabs doing what students do with computers.

The laptop had a virus (2124 occurences of it actually) called
W32.Expiro-2. Google let me happily know that this virus append itself
to EXE files (EXPAND.EXE for instance). Since I manually connect to my
\\ntinstall\install folder with a full write access account, it were
never long before my point of installation gets corrupted. This
explains my first problem. And the antivirus is erasing (almost) every
EXE files of the laptop, I can also see why Windows refuses to boot
after it had run a couple of hours on the network.

The good news are that my hardware if just fine, as the unattended
software. The bad news, well, I'm sure you guys all know the drill.

I'm going to clean everything now.

With the Season's Greeting to everyone,

Dany Chouinard
Technicien en informatique -o)
Commission scolaire de l'Or et des Bois /\
***@csob.qc.ca _\_v

tÃ©l. 819.825.4220 ext. 3041
cel. 819.856.6892
skype. dchouinard
courriel. ***@csob.qc.ca

www.danychouinard.net

Post by Dany Chouinard
It ended up that I copied my WinXP I386 folder on the server (again) but
this time I seted it up as read only. Things as been fine since.
Dany Chouinard

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