We Got Served

Delving into the We Got Served Wiki again, we find a new How To guide, written by Gamer (a stalwart of the WGS forums) providing a full walkthrough on how to create your own slipstreamed Windows Home Server installation DVD or USB drive. Over to Gamer for the low-down:

One of the problems with installing Windows Home Server on a self-built machine is the lack of in-box driver support for many components - this can often lead to BSODs if those drivers aren’t copied to the correct location by the installer. I’ve had my part of frustrations and dispair too with this problem.That’s whyI’ve been working on a slipstream tutorial for Windows Home Server - the objective being to create a new Windows Home Server installation DVD which has your hardware’s drivers in the correct place for a seamless (and indeed unattended) installation.

I wrote this tutorial especially for beginners, so that they can build, and more importantly, install their own slipstreamed Windows Home Server. Making a slipstreamed Windows isn’t as hard is it used to be. Looking at the finished tutorial it looks like a lot of work, but it really isn’t! Personally I think it will save you time if you ever need to re-install your server and best if all it does what it should do: an UNATTENDED install.

What You Will Need

Optional:

• ISO burning software like ImgBurn (Freeware).
• Nero Burning ROM or the 15 days TRIAL version and a CD boot image for making the DVD bootable.
• a USB Stick to install WHS from.

Setting Things Up

First of all, I recommend you follow this guide EXACTLY to the letter so there won’t be any misunderstandings. You should read through the tutorial entirely before starting and familiarize yourself with the process. Once you have started, I strongly recommend NOT TO READ OR JUMP AHEAD! You’ll lose focus on the things at hand and surely screw things up. It’s really not that difficult, maybe a bit complicated at times, but if you stay focused on the steps and pictures you’ll eventually get there. For people who have experience with slipstreaming Windows this shouldn’t be too hard. This guide is aimed at people who have never done a slipstream before.

1. Create a folder called WORK on your C:\ drive. This is our work area.
2. Copy your DOS drivers folder into C:\WORK, and rename it to DOS.
3. Make a folder in WORK called WIM, and copy the file cdrom:\SOURCES\BOOT.WIM from your WHS Disc to the root of C:\WORK
4. Make another folder in C:\ called FINAL and copy the CONTENTS of the folder cdrom:\SRV_2003 to C:\FINAL. This is going to be the new WHS installer, replacing your old WHS DVD.
5. Download the Windows AIK and burn the ISO or mount it with your Virtual Drive.
6. Insert the burned CD-ROM and you should now see the Welcome to Windows Automated Installation Kit window appear. If autorun is turned off then navigate to the CD and execute STARTCD.EXE
7. Select Windows AIK Setup and change the install dir to C:\WORK\AIK.
8. Download GImageX and extract it to C:\Work. The extracted file makes a folder called Install. Rename that to GImageX to keep things clear.
9. Download the Self-extracting archive of nLite and install it to C:\WORK\nLite.

Now, we’re halfway there. That wasn’t hard at all. Right? Check the pictures below to see if everything is the same.

 
Pic 1: WORK

Pic 2: FINAL

Slipstreaming
Part 1: WinPE

Make a note of the size of boot.wim (located in your C:\WORK) and follow the steps below:

1. Execute GImageX by navigating to C:\WORK\GImageX, then select your version (x86 is for 32 bit systems, and x64 for, well, 64 bit systems )
2. Select the Tab Mount.
3. Mount Point: C:\WORK\WIM
4. Source: C:\WORK\boot.wim
5. Turn on Read and Write and click on the Mount button.
6. Open up My Computer and navigate to C:\WORK\WIM. You will see the following folders: Program Files, ProgramData, Users & Windows (See Picture 1)
7. Open up a Command Prompt (for Vista: Right click -> Run as Admin) and type (or copy & paste) in the following: cd C:\WORK\AIK\Tools\PETools\ <press enter> then peimg.exe /inf=c:\WORK\DOS\*.inf C:\WORK\WIM\Windows <press enter> (See picture 2)
8. Go back to GImageX. Select the Mount Point, select Commit Changes and press the Unmount button. If it was successful, you will see a new window popping up with the text: Committing changes and unmounting image…please wait… Image unmounted successfully.(See picture 3)
9. Close GImageX and the Command Prompt. Open My Computer again and navigate to: C:\WORK. Notice the boot.wim size. If the size has grown then the drivers are included.
10. Copy the altered boot.wim file to a safe place!

Pic 1: WIM

Pic 2: Command Prompt

Pic 3: GImageX

We’re done with the first part of this slipstream.

Part 2: SVR_2003

 OK, if you thought that was easy enough, then this is going to be a walk in the park. Seriously! Get yourself some coffee or a coke, stay away from the beer! We need to be focused on things to come. :)

1. Start nLite (C:\WORK\nLite\nLite.exe) and select the C:\FINAL folder. You’ll see some info about Windows 2003 SBS Server. (See Picture 1)
2. Press Next. We don’t have any presets, so we press Next again.
3. Now we’re in the Task Selection. Press the Drivers button and press Next.
4. In the Drivers section we click on Insert and select Multiple Driver Folder.
5. Navigate to C:\WORK\DOS, press OK, press All, press OK again.(See Picture 2)
6. Make sure the Mode: Textmode Driver is selected. Click on one of the drivers, as you can see it turns blue. Now press CONTROL+A to select them all and click OK. (See picture 3)
7. We’re back in the Drivers section again, seeing a few drivers. Press Next.
8. Now we’re asked to start the Process, press HELL YEAH! ….erm, I mean YES :)

Now that this is done you’ll see some info in nLite. My total size is now 584.35 MB, Integrated Drivers: 0.17 MB and the installation grew by 0.55 MB. Press Next and Finish. We’re done with Part 2!

Pic 1: nLlite

Pic 2: nLite Drivers Integration

Pic 3:nLite Drivers Selection

Pic 4:FINAL+SRV_2003

Pic 5: SVR_2003

Pic 6: FINAL+WHS

Part 3: Building the ISOs

OK, here are three choices, Build your slip-streamed WHS with nLite, Nero or use your USB stick. Personally I like to use Nero for building my bootable ISO’s. Simply because it’s more reliable then nLite. If you have problems with booting from DVD created by nLite then I suggest using Nero instead. Make sure when burning CD’s or DVD’s that you burn them on a low setting. Boot CD’s or DVD’s burned on high speed might become unbootable in the end. I suggest keeping your C:\FINAL folder in case nLite doesn’t work out. That way you can start with Nero and skip the first 3 steps.

nLite

1. Start nLite again and press Next.
2. Browse to the C:\FINAL folder, press OK and Next.
3. In the Presets Section, press Next.
4. In the Task Selection, press Bootable ISO and press Next.
5. Press Explore, select all the files by pressing Control+A. Press Control+X to cut the selected files. Make a new directory called SVR_2003 in the C:\FINAL folder and paste all the files into the C:\FINAL\SVR_2003 folder (See picture 4 and 5)
6. Copy all files and folders (except the SVR_2003 folder) from your Windows Home Server DVD to the C:\FINAL folder (See picture 6).
7. Copy the boot.wim file (located in C:\WORK) to C:\FINAL\sources, overwriting the original.
8. Go back to nLite and press Make ISO.
9. Press Next and Finish.
10. Burn the image with ImgBurn and you’re done!

Nero Burning ROM

1. Open My Computer and navigate to C:\FINAL. Press Control+A to select all the files and then Control+X to cut the selected files. Make a new directory called SVR_2003 in the C:\FINAL folder and paste all the files into the C:\FINAL\SVR_2003 folder (See picture 4 and 5)
2. Copy all files and folders (except the SVR_2003 folder) from your Windows Home Server DVD to the C:\FINAL folder (See picture 6).
3. Copy the boot.wim file (located in C:\WORK) to C:\FINAL\sources, overwriting the original.
4. Start Nero Burning ROM.
5. In the New Compilation window, select DVD-ROM (BOOT) at the left.
6. At the right, select the BOOT tab. (See picture 7)
7. Select Image File and browse to the boot.bin file you previously downloaded.
8. Select Enable expert settings and select kind of emulation to No Emulation
9. Load segment of sectors: 07C0 and Number of loaded sectors: 4
10. Go to the ISO tab and select the following: File system: ISO 9660 + Joliet, File name lenght: Max. of 31 chars (Level 2), Charater set: ISO 9660 (standard ISO CD-ROM). Select all Relax restrictions. (See picture
11. Go to the LABEL tab and give your disc a name, any name is fine. Press New.
12. Copy the whole content of the C:\FINAL directory to the compilation. (See picture 9)
13. Press burn and see how your new WHS DVD is being burned. (You’re also able to make an image file using the Image burner in Nero if you wish).

Pic 7: Nero BOOT

Pic 8: Nero ISO

Pic 9: - Nero COMPILATION

USB Stick

My absolute favorite way of installing WHS! And definitely the easiest way to prepare the installer.

1. Open My Computer and navigate to C:\FINAL. Press Control+A to select all the files and then Control+X to cut the selected files. Make a new directory called SVR_2003 in the C:\FINAL folder and paste all the files into the C:\FINAL\SVR_2003 folder (See pictures 4 and 5)
2. Copy all files and folders (except the SVR_2003 folder) from your Windows Home Server DVD to the C:\FINAL folder (See picture 6).
3. Copy the boot.wim file (located in C:\WORK) to C:\FINAL\sources, overwriting the original.
4. Prepare the USB Stick
5. Copy all files in the C:\FINAL folder to your USB stick.

Done

You’re done slipstreaming your Windows Home Server. Now all you have left to do is install your new server!

FYI

Windows Home Server has an unattended installer which works almost great. There are some problems when loading drivers in the 2nd part of the installer (the Windows 2003 blue screen installer) which is very picky sometimes, turning out into BSOD’s. This has to do with the first installer (Windows PE) for some reason. Why? I truly don’t know, but it’s fixable by slip-streaming the DOS drivers for your hard disks.

I’ve tested it numerous times in a lot of different ways, but it seems adding the driver to the boot.wim alone it isn’t good enough. so we need to add the same DOS driver to the i386 folder as well.

When you have followed this slipstream guide it will make your install and, more importantly, your re-installs more pleasant. That’s why I wrote this tutorial, and because I like a challenge . The original slipstream wiki was a bit unclear in things, and I hope this revised tutorial will make things easier to understand.

Credits

I’ve learned a lot using the thread from SME at the Microsoft Windows Home Server forums (The original thread can be found here), and based my first tutorial on it. This revised version still has the basics, but I changed the whole approach of it, also slip-streaming the WinPE installer. There was not much documentation about it on the internet, but the little I found was enough to point me into the right direction.

A big thanks to Gamer for the walkthrough and to Drashna for managing the We Got Served Wiki.

More: Slipstream Wiki Guide | We Got Served Wiki