Recipe for Mass Storage Device Support

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Here’s the scenario – you’re getting ready to do a trial installation of WEPOS 1.1 Update on a new machine before making preparations to deploy the image onto multiple identical machines. Should be a typical installation, right? Pop in the CD, go through the wizard, wait for the reboots, and then you’re done. But wait… Rats. Setup does not recognize the machine’s mass storage device (hard drive) because it is too new and you need to install its drivers during Setup. Well then, from here you have what used to be your only options for solving this problem.

Option A:

  • Place a copy of the WEPOS Setup CD onto your machine.
  • Copy the .inf files to the <WEPOS Setup CD>\I386\inf folder.
  • Copy the .sys files to the <WEPOS Setup CD>\I386\system32\drivers folder.
  • Copy the .dll files (and pretty much all other driver files) to the <WEPOS Setup CD>\I386\system32 folder.
  • Burn yourself a bootable CD and hope that all will work. If it doesn’t, you might have to make changes and then burn another CD to try again.

Option B:

  • If you haven’t already, download the INFImporter Utility tool from the Microsoft Download site. 
  • Use the tool to generate an .xml file by feeding it an .inf file. Do this for all necessary .inf files.
  • During installation, use the /devicefile command-line switch to point to the .xml file (and, indirectly, to the drivers).

Better yet, combine the two so that you:

  • Place a copy of the WEPOS Setup CD onto your machine.
  • Create an .xml file named DriverInstall.xml using the INFImporter Utility tool.
  • Copy the DriverInstall.xml file to the same directory as Setup.exe.
  • Copy the driver files to the location as specified in DriverInstall.xml file.
  • Burn yourself a bootable CD and then…

...you get the idea. One way or another, you’ll have several steps to complete before you reach the end result.

With the introduction of the Support for Mass Storage Device feature in WEPOS 1.1 Update, you no longer need to go through so much hassle for what was supposed to be a simple trial on a single machine. All that’s required is a floppy disk with the mass storage device support, and you’re good to go.

An additional screen has been added to the wizard as part of this feature. When you come to the Additional Drivers for Mass Storage screen, just select the “Search for and install additional drivers” option and make sure you’ve inserted your floppy disk. Setup automatically selects the best driver and caches the files for later use.

Two additional tips for using this feature:

  1. This procedure only works for a manual installation. If you want to do an unattended installation, you’ve got to do it the long way.
  2. If you’re doing an installation of WEPOS to determine whether the driver you’ve just installed works, be sure to let the installation run to the end. That is, just seeing that First Boot Agent (FBA) is able to kick in doesn’t mean all will be fine and dandy. You may get a blue screen a couple minutes into FBA.

That’s all there is to it. There’s no messy preparation beforehand and no time wasted (sounds a little like a no-bake cheesecake recipe)!

- Christina