How to make a

MULTI OPTION

WINDOWS NT SERVER & WORKSTATION

BOOTABLE INSTALLATION CD

Introduction: -

Well first question on your mind would be what the hell is a MULTI OPTION BOOTABLE INSTALLATION CD

Well I would be happy to explain why I sat down and decided to make one

And educate you as to make one for yourself

History:-

I was system administrator for this Software training institute.

(Currently unemployed because I need to complete my graduation have my exams in March anyone wants to hire me after that ??)

Well anyway………

We had 52 machines all running different versions of windows in 3 different labs

In 2 of the labs the machines have either Windows NT Server or Workstation loaded on them and in the 3^rd all the machines were running different versions of win2k

Machines in lab one with win2k are only for basic training where nothing much happened there

But the other 2 labs are the Lab Rat machines as I like to call them because all the students practice their new found programming skills there

Which include a few amateur viruses and basic unrecoverable screw-up’s galore

It was my job to keep this whole scene running at all times

99% up-time is a must

In the event of a crash the basic procedure was to overwrite the 1^st partition of the concerned machine with an image of the same stored on the server using Norton Ghost 2002 in DOS using the Novell Netware 4.11 Network.

I could have a machine up and running from a clean disk in under 18 min

Well the Netware 4.11 network and Norton Ghost 2002 were’nt actually purchased by my institute

Because of certain sequence of events I was asked to remove both these software’s with immediate effect

Now I was manually required to sit at a machine in the event of a crash and reinstall the OS

This brings me to our current quest

Objective:-

The objective of this exercise is to design a Professional Looking Bootable CD

Which on booting would give me selectable options to directly install WINDOWS NT SERVER or WINDOWS NT WORKSTATION

I know you can just make a regular bootable CD and dump installation of both the OS’s on it

Go to DOS and start the installation

I know you can Duuuhhhhhh…

Well I had a little free time and decided to jazz up this seemingly simple procedure

To make a bootable CD I first decided to first make a bootable floppy that fulfilled my requirements

Scope:-

I hope by the end of this exercise if you grasp the potential of what you could do with this method

Just have a look at what my win98 multi option bootable CD can do

1) Select 1 to Install MS-DOS 6.22
2) Select 2 to FORMAT C: and then Install MS-DOS
3) Select 3 to Install Windows 3.11
4) Select 4 to FORMAT C: and then Install Windows 3.11
5) Select 5 to Install Windows 95
6) Select 6 to FORMAT C: and then Install Windows 95
7) Select 7 to install Windows 98 SE
8) Select 8 to FORMAT C: and then Install Windows 98 SE
9) Select 9 to Install Windows ME
10) Select 10 to FORMAT C: and then Install Windows ME

The possibilities are endless

If you get this right him sure it would be child’s play to achieve the above and more.

Hardware / Software requirements:-

One clean blank 1.44Mb(3.5”) Floppy

One Blank 650\700 Mb CDR\CDRW

A CDRW drive

A CD-ROM drive ( don’t need this if you got a CDRW already)

Installed OS Windows 9.X ( this CD is made in win98se & I think you should too if you don’t tough)

Working copies of WINDOWS NT SERVER & WORKSTATION CD’s / Installation files (by installation files I mean dumps of the original CD’s)

Any reputable CD-Writing software (I am using NERO BURNING ROM http://www.ahead.de )

These are the basic requirements if you need anything more I’ll let you know along the way and where you may get them from

Assumptions:-

If you read any further the following assumtion are made

-You have fulfilled all the software and hardware requirements mentioned above.

- You know how to use Windows NT

- You know a little about DOS and CD writing.

- You are of sound mind and take full responsibility for you actions.

- You shall not hold me accountable for any/all of your stupidity under any circumstances.

- And finally agree to help cut down on global warming by always recycling or at least try to.

OK now that’s all done lets begin

Getting Started:-

Insert a 1.44” floppy in the drive

Go to "windows explorer"

Select the drive in explorer and right click on it select FORMAT from the menu

In the Format Window select only the following

- 1.44Mb (3.5”)

- Quick erase

- No label

- Copy system files

Plz leave all other values blank

And hit START

When it’s done you will have WIN98 bootable floppy

Copying Files:-

Now that we have a bootable floppy we can go about customizing it

For which we are going to need a few files

This fully functional disk but if you want to make a real all-purpose bootable disk I suggest you add the following files

Now that we have all the files we need let’s go about making the two most important files on the floppy the

CONFIG.SYS & AUTOEXEC.BAT

CONFIG.SYS:-

First we will start with CONFIG.SYS (following the sequence of files accessed in the boot process)

Open Notepad and paste the text from below there

;------------------------------------------------------------------
; CONFIG.SYS DESIGNED BY HyPeR_DrEaMz
;------------------------------------------------------------------
[MENU]
MENUITEM=NTSRV, Select 1 to install Windows NT SERVER v4.0.
MENUITEM=NTWRKSTN, Select 2 to install Windows NT WORKSTATION v4.0.
MENUITEM=MSDOS, Boot to MS-DOS
MENUDEFAULT=MSDOS,30
MENUCOLOR=7,1

[NTSRV]
DEVICE=OAKCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD001

[NTWRKSTN]
DEVICE=OAKCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD001 

[MSDOS]


[COMMON]
FILES=10
BUFFERS=10
DOS=HIGH,UMB
STACKS=9,256
DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:OFF
LASTDRIVE=Z
;------------------------------------------------------------------
; CONFIG.SYS DESIGNED BY HyPeR_DrEaMz
;------------------------------------------------------------------

Save the file as config.sys on the Floppy we have just prepared

Explanation of CONFIG.SYS:-

[Menu]

Are the entries for all selection we can make in the menu on booting

menuitem=

Are the actual entries for each selection

menudefault=

Is the default selected value on booting.

The default time for auto selection of an option if no user selection is made is also made here

menucolor=

this the color scheme followed during the boot process

In this case white on blue

You can make your own color combinations using the following

0 = Black
1 = Blue
2 = Green
3 = Cyan
4 = Red
5 = Magenta
6 = Yellow/brown
7 = White
8 = Gray
9 = Bright blue

[ ]

Every entry in the menuitem= must have a further entry in [ ]

Here we can load specific driver unique to a selection made in the menu

[COMMON]

this part loads diver and other options that are common to all the selection from the menu

AUTOEXEC.BAT:-

Second we start with AUTOEXEC.BAT

Open Notepad and paste the text from the box below there

::------------------------------------------------------------------
::           AUTOEXEC.BAT DESIGNED BY HyPeR_DrEaMz
::------------------------------------------------------------------
@ECHO OFF
:BASIC
LH MSCDEX.EXE /D:mscd001 >nul
GOTO CHOICE
::
::
:CHOICE
IF "%config%"=="NTSRV" GOTO ISRV
IF "%config%"=="NTWRKSTN" GOTO IWRKSTN
IF "%config%"=="MSDOS" GOTO QUIT
::
::
:ISRV
echo   ÚÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄ¿
echo ÚÄÁÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÁÄ¿
echo ³  þ                Installing Windows NT Server 4.0                 þ  ³
echo ÀÄÂÒÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÒÂÄÙ
echo   ÀºÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄĺÙ
echo    º    __        ___           _                   _   _ _____      º
echo    º    \ \      / (_)_ __   __³ ³ _____      _____³ \ ³ ³_   _³     º
echo    º     \ \ /\ / /³ ³ '_ \ / _` ³/ _ \ \ /\ / / __³  \³ ³ ³ ³       º
echo    º      \ V  V / ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ (_³ ³ (_) \ V  V /\__ \ ³\  ³ ³ ³       º
echo    º       \_/\_/  ³_³_³ ³_³\__,_³\___/ \_/\_/ ³___/_³ \_³ ³_³       º
echo    º                    ____                                         º
echo    º                   / ___³  ___ _ ____   _____ _ __               º
echo    º                   \___ \ / _ \ '__\ \ / / _ \ '__³              º
echo    º                    ___) ³  __/ ³   \ V /  __/ ³                 º
echo    º                   ³____/ \___³_³    \_/ \___³_³                 º
echo    º                                                                 º
echo   ÚºÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄĺ¿
echo ÚÄÁÐÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÐÁÄ¿
echo ³  þ                                                                 þ  ³
echo ÀÄÂÒÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÒÂÄÙ
echo   Àº ÚÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁ¿ ºÙ
echo    Èͳ HyPeR_DrEaMz Creation       ³    Copyright HyPeR_DrEaMz Ltd.³Í¼
echo      ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
echo                             Please wait...
TYPE nul |CHOICE.COM /N /CY /TY,5 >nul
FINDCD -e -f
For %%D In (Z Y X W V U T S R Q P O N M K J I H G F E D C) Do If Not ErrorLevel H%%D Set CDROM=%%D
If %CDROM%'==' For %%C In (Echo Goto:QUIT) Do %%C ERROR: Error...
%CDROM%:\SERVER\WINNT.EXE /B>nul
:SUCCESS
GOTO QUIT
::
::
:IWRKSTN
echo   ÚÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄ¿
echo ÚÄÁÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÁÄ¿
echo ³  þ             Installing Windows NT Workstation 4.0               þ  ³
echo ÀÄÂÒÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÒÂÄÙ
echo   ÀºÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄĺÙ
echo    º    __        ___           _                   _   _ _____      º
echo    º    \ \      / (_)_ __   __³ ³ _____      _____³ \ ³ ³_   _³     º
echo    º     \ \ /\ / /³ ³ '_ \ / _` ³/ _ \ \ /\ / / __³  \³ ³ ³ ³       º
echo    º      \ V  V / ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ (_³ ³ (_) \ V  V /\__ \ ³\  ³ ³ ³       º
echo    º       \_/\_/  ³_³_³ ³_³\__,_³\___/ \_/\_/ ³___/_³ \_³ ³_³       º
echo    º   __        __         _        _        _   _                  º
echo    º   \ \      / /__  _ __³ ³ _____³ ³_ __ _³ ³_(_) ___  _ __       º
echo    º    \ \ /\ / / _ \³ '__³ ³/ / __³ __/ _` ³ __³ ³/ _ \³ '_ \      º
echo    º     \ V  V / (_) ³ ³  ³   /\__ \ ³³ (_³ ³ ³_³ ³ (_) ³ ³ ³ ³     º
echo    º      \_/\_/ \___/³_³  ³_³\_\___/\__\__,_³\__³_³\___/³_³ ³_³     º
echo    º                                                                 º
echo   ÚºÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄĺ¿
echo ÚÄÁÐÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÐÁÄ¿
echo ³  þ                                                                 þ  ³
echo ÀÄÂÒÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÒÂÄÙ
echo   Àº ÚÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁ¿ ºÙ
echo    Èͳ HyPeR_DrEaMz Creation       ³    Copyright HyPeR_DrEaMz Ltd.³Í¼
echo      ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
echo                              Please wait...
TYPE nul |CHOICE.COM /N /CY /TY,5 >nul
FINDCD -e -f
For %%D In (Z Y X W V U T S R Q P O N M K J I H G F E D C) Do If Not ErrorLevel H%%D Set CDROM=%%D
If %CDROM%'==' For %%C In (Echo Goto:SUCCESS) Do %%C ERROR: Error...
%CDROM%:\WRKSTN\WINNT.EXE /B >nul
:SUCCESS
GOTO QUIT
::
::
:QUIT
echo.
echo Exiting to MSDOS prompt
echo Please wait...
echo.
TYPE nul |CHOICE.COM /N /CY /TY,2 >nul
::------------------------------------------------------------------
::           AUTOEXEC.BAT DESIGNED BY HyPeR_DrEaMz
::------------------------------------------------------------------

Save the file as AUTOEXEC.BAT on the Floppy we have just prepared

Explanation of AUTOEXEC.BAT:-

:BASIC

This part loads all driver/utilities that are common to the entire boot process

In this case I am loading the CDROM DOS Driver

:CHOICE

This part is the decision maker in the whole AUTOEXEC.BAT

It forward the boot process to other parts in the autoexec depending on the selection made in the boot menu.

Three options in boot menu of CONFIG.SYS relate too three options here

:ISRV

 &

:IWRKSTN

This is where you finally land depending on the selection in the boot menu.

After :CHOICE redirects to one of these selection this is actually where the bulk of the actions are carried out

And is dependent on selection made earlier in the CONFIG.SYS

In this case first the prompt displays a message as to which OS is being installed

Next step is to now identify the cdrom drive for which we just loaded the drivers in :BASIC

And then initialize a file off the cdrom in this case %CDROM%:\DCC\DC.EXE where %CDROM% is the identified drive letter

:QUIT

This the terminating point of the whole boot process

you wont actually see this part in action unless you select Boot to MS-DOS while booting because on the previous two options the machine would/should have restarted before you reach this point

Finishing up the Floppy:-

Now that were all done close up everything and pop the floppy in the drive

And let’s give it a restart with A: as the first booting drive

Also drop some CD with a DOS executable in the CDROM

Just don’t forget to modify your path %CDROM%:\WRKSTN\I386\WINNT.EXE /B for this test only to what ever the executable file on your CD is.

Now if all is well you will have successfully booted up for a sample of what you will see on the finished CD

don't forget to reset the path back to the original path after the test run

Making The CD:-

Now that we have a working bootable floppy

We are now going to use this bootable floppy as are base for our bootable CD

So go ahead and open Nero

Say FILE>NEW

Select “Bootable CD” in the left pane

And insert the Bootable floppy we just created

And it pretty much does everything else

U could maybe skip over to the Label page give it a few more details

And hit NEW

Now comes the copying of the actually installation files

Using the browser go to the installation files we dumped on your hardisk

It is assumed that you copied Entire Windows NT Server CD to a folder named SERVER

And the Windows NT Workstation CD to a folder named WRKSTN

Select these 2 folders and drag them onto new CD pane

I added another folder with Service pack’s and other standard utilities like IE6.0 & Antivirus Etc.

You could add whatever you may need.

If you’re done adding all the stuff you need

Give it a once over and check it all once again

plz make sure u have given the correct path for initializing WINNT.EXE

Then hit write CD

Conclusion:-

When your done writing take the CD out put it in your cdrom drive selected as first boot device in the BIOS

And restart

If you followed all the above instruction you should have booted to the sweet blue screen of success

Notes:-

By the end of all this You may be wondering why the hell would someone want to waste his time I writing all this

This was so simple

Well actually it is childishly simple if you get everything together

But till a week ago I was struggling to use FINDRAMD to find out the last logical drive available

I now know you can’t but that’s in the past it’s all working now

the only thing in the whole procedure that was actually difficult was

- Loading the CDROM Drivers in DOS

- Then Finding the Drive Letter it has taken (always the last logical drive)

- And then get a file to run off the CD now that we have the path

I have a few more challenges I have to overcome anyone wanna help me out :-

Maybe someone out there would be so kind as to help me in solving these few problems of mine

1)Can anybody out there work out this one for me i need a procedure where I could combine the Windows 2000 bootable CD bootsector (which prompts before booting off the CD )and the above current setup.

2) Anyone know how to make a nice design for the ECHO statements in the AUTOEXEC.BAT

3) Any ideas as to how suppress output of device loading in CONFIG.SYS

4) Anyone help me make a program to make the AUTOEXEC.BAT & CONFIG.SYS in one automated process

I hope u have gained some thing useful from the above.

Also if you don’t like anything plz let me know Or you have a suggestion or any positive input on the subject

Mail me and I’ll think about doing something about it

[ HyPeR_DrEaMz2000@yahoo.com ]