Installing Vista on a Machine that does not have a DVD-Rom
Posted by kyle on December 5th, 2006 filed in Vista DeploymentThe Vista Installation image is not small – you can cut it down but getting it onto a CD is a challenge – the answer comes as part of the WAIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit).
There are a few options naturally – one is to deploy via the network or to install off a CD – but how do you get the Install file onto a CD?
Using either imageX /split to split the WIM file and then reconstruct it on the target machine – or use the createspannedshare.cmd command.
The imageX one is ideal for transporting the WIM but not so ideal for actually installing. The tool of choice therefore is createspannedshare.cmd. So how do you use it?
The command is run as createspannedshare.cmd Source Destination [SKU Name]
The steps are:
- Create a source directory on a machine – eg. C:\span\source and copy the entire Windows DVD content to it (make sure you get all hidden and system files!)
- Remove the read-only attribute on the all the files in the directory
- At a command prompt – now run createspannedmedia.cmd c:\span\source c:\span [Vista] – this will then create in the c:\span directory a new folder named Vista with subfolders – CD1, CD2, etc.
- Create an ISO file of each subfolder and burn these to CD – making sure that CD1 is a bootable ISO file – easy way to do this is again use the tools in the WAIK using the following command:
oscdimg -n -b”c:\program files\Windows AIK\tools\PETools\x86\boot\etfsboot.com” c:\span\Vista\CD1 c:\span\Vista\CD1.iso
Once you have done this.. (ie converted all the directories to ISO files, ensuring that the first one is bootable, and then burnt them all off to CD’s) you have the ablility to deploy using CD’s!
Cheers
Kyle
December 6th, 2006 at 3:06 pm
*bow* *bow* we’re not worthy oh great guru
Very cool Kyle, keep ‘em coming!
December 18th, 2006 at 11:31 am
[...] Installing Vista on a Machine that does not have a DVD-Rom The Vista Installation image is not small – you can cut it down but getting it onto a CD is a challenge – the answer comes as part of the WAIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit). There are a few options naturally – one is to deploy via the network or to install off a CD – but how do you get the Install file onto a CD? Using either imageX /split to split the WIM file and then reconstruct it on the target machine – or use the createspannedshare.cmd command. The imageX one is ideal for transporting the WIM but not so ideal for actually installing. The tool of choice therefore is createspannedshare.cmd. So how do you use it? The command is run as createspannedshare.cmd Source Destination [SKU Name] The steps are: Create a source directory on a machine – eg. C:spansource and copy the entire Windows DVD content to it (make sure you get all hidden and system files!) Remove the read-only attribute on the all the files in the directory At a command prompt – now run createspannedmedia.cmd c:spansource c:span [Vista] – this will then create in the c:span directory a new folder named Vista with subfolders – CD1, CD2, etc. Create an ISO file of each subfolder and burn these to CD – making sure that CD1 is a bootable ISO file – easy way to do this is again use the tools in the WAIK using the following command: oscdimg -n -b “c:program filesWindows AIKtoolsPEToolsx86bootetfsboot.com” c:spanVistaCD1 c:spanVistaCD1.iso Once you have done this.. (ie converted all the directories to ISO files, ensuring that the first one is bootable, and then burnt them all off to CD’s) you have the ablility to deploy using CD’s! Info from http://www.vistapcguy.net/?p=46 Published Tuesday, December 19, 2006 2:10 AM by RichardWu [...]
December 19th, 2006 at 4:20 am
Great stuff. One question – how do I obtain the createspannedshare.cmd file? I have the final release of the WAIK installed, and have performed a full search of my drive to no avail. Where can I locate it?
Thanks for some great information.
January 7th, 2007 at 3:41 am
Hi,
I was given 4 CDs to install vista, the problem was that during installation it asks for install.wim, but what i found was just install.swm and other CDs having .swm files also.
How do reconstruct the .swm files back into one single install.wim file?
Any help would be appreciated.
January 10th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Answers to a couple of the questions from this post:
Joe’s question about the reconstruction of the SWM files – essentially you reconstruct on the fly – boot into a Windows PE environment (use the BDD Workbench to create one of these) and then you can use the install as you would normally. ie – use the imagex commands to install the image – the difference is that you are using the multiple discs – so you will have to replace the disks on the way through at the prompts.
This is another reason that I prefer to use the createspannedshare – you get bootable installs without the multiple steps to run them.
January 13th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Great work Kyle .I was breaking my head for the past week to install vista without dvd rom support…
Successfully installed vista…Thankz
Is there any way to create cd’s only for vista ultimate [ for other versions too ]???
February 7th, 2007 at 10:58 am
So where can I find createspannedshare.cmd? Whats it included with?
April 3rd, 2007 at 11:00 am
could you elaborate on post 5.
I have the bootable Win PE cd made
the Vista boot CD without the install.wim
and the 4 split CD’s with splitinstall.swm,
splitinstall2.swm,splitinstall3.swm, and splitinstall4.swm
what are the steps and commands in Imagex to install the 4 .swm files onces booted into WinPE
and after installing the Vista setup.exe disk
one other question when I tried to merge the 4 .swm files they went into a folder called C:\INSTALL and i cannot convert that to a .wim
when i set the directory to C:\INSTALL.wim WinPE said it could not find the directory?
any details are appreciated
April 27th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Where is createspannedshare.cmd? I have tried searching everywhere.
June 8th, 2007 at 7:11 am
Joe’s question about the reconstruction of the SWM files – essentially you reconstruct on the fly – boot into a Windows PE environment (use the BDD Workbench to create one of these) and then you can use the install as you would normally. ie – use the imagex commands to install the image – the difference is that you are using the multiple discs – so you will have to replace the disks on the way through at the prompts.
Imagex will not wait for you to supply the next swm file. Instead it only fails. I have also tried using the wimgapi’s to apply the split swm’s myself. I see no way in the API’s to wait for the next swm to continue applying. I must be able to apply split WIM files (swm) across multiple CD’s and rebuilding the WIM on the target machine is not an option. Does anyone have a solution?
June 13th, 2007 at 8:14 am
Just for the record, I love this post, but there are two mistakes I noticed.
To anyone looking for createspannedshare.cmd or createspannedmedia.cmd- it doesn’t exist; the actual command is createspannedshares.cmd (There’s an *s* at the end).
That tripped me up for about 2 seconds, but I can see where it would be a problem for some.
I’m having other problems, actually. Pshaw.
June 18th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
I able to find this createspannedshare.cmd file
but when I run this command:
createspannedmedia.cmd c:\span\source c:\span [Vista]
It gives me
‘createspannedmedia.cmd’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
Anyone can help me?
August 7th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
I used Windows AIK to cut vista source driectory to 5 Cd and cd1 is bootable,but in cd2 has install1.wim,cd3 is install2.wim… do i have to rename all to install.wim??
March 4th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
Great detailed info. I tried it with a Windows XP MCE DVD, but the createspannedshares.cmd only works with Vista. I’ve searched for a similar tool to do this with my XP MCE DVD, but haven’t found one. Do you know of one?
Cheers,
wxpmcewaik
March 15th, 2008 at 5:00 am
After running createspanned.cmd, my hard drive stops blinking at the imagex tool for windows. It seems that it may have difficulties splitting the install.wim. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
May 28th, 2008 at 6:40 am
Ouch, I tried this and the script didn’t create a folder called vista. Instead it tried to use the base folder (in my case a root drive oops!) so it deleted everything except files currently in use! I lost about 120 gigs of data
November 6th, 2008 at 11:59 am
hey kyle,
i need to ask, is there a way to integrate vista service packs into a vista beta version like in build 5600. every time i does that it give weird error.
thanks, waiting for reply
November 7th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Hey,
I did this and it worked for me. The only thing is, these instructions aren’t fully complete.
1. Install Windows Automatic Installation Kit (WAIK)
2. Create a source directory on a machine – eg. C:\span\source and copy the entire Windows DVD content to it (make sure you get all hidden and system files!)
3. Go to C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools and copy the file “oscdimg” to the C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Samples folder.
4. Go to C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86 and copy the “imagex” file to the C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Samples folder.
5. Open up a command prompt, with administrator rights, and now type: createspannedmedia.cmd c:\span\source c:\span [Vista] – this will then create in the c:\span directory a new folder named Vista with subfolders – CD1, CD2, etc.
6. Create an ISO file of each subfolder (You can use “folder2iso” found at http://www.trustfm.net/divx/SoftwareFolder2Iso.php?b2=1
7. Make CD1 bootable by typing in the command prompt again:
oscdimg -n -b”c:\program files\Windows AIK\tools\PETools\x86\boot\etfsboot.com” c:\span\Vista\CD1 c:\span\Vista\CD1.iso
8. Burn the ISO’s to CD’s and you’re done
November 7th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Sorry,
Here is the correct step 5:
5. Open up a command prompt, with administrator rights, and now type: cd \program files\windows AIK\samples
This will direct the command prompt to that directory. Then type: createspannedmedia.cmd c:\span\source c:\span [Vista] – this will then create in the c:\span directory a new folder named Vista with subfolders – CD1, CD2, etc.
November 7th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Oops, 1 more error lol.
The original instructions say to use “createspannedmedia.cmd” but you actually use “createspannedshares.cmd”
Just replace createspannedmedia.cmd in the instructions with createspannedshares.cmd
May 14th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
hello PC guy!
i need help…i have a toshiba satillite laptop and it was knocked off a table and i guess it crashed. i ordered the disc’s from toshiba and i started to install them. it gets so far and it says problems with swm file…driver not connected. not really sure what to do…do you know what might be wrong?
thanks