- Advantages of Dual Boot Macs (and Labs)
- Remember that Boot Camp is Beta
- Creating and Imaging Boot Camp Partitions
- Unattended Install Files for Windows XP
- Post-Install Deployments
- Building a Custom Boot Disk to Use Ghost
- NetRestore
- NTFS vs. FAT and the Need for External Storage Support
- Parallels DesktopAn Alternative to Boot Camp
- Locating Images in Mac OS X File System for Mass Deployments
- Integrating Apple Remote Desktop
Unattended Install Files for Windows XP
The Windows installer supports answer files that automate the install process by enabling you to provide the answers to each of the questions asked during the install process. Although there are several ways that this can be done in a Windows network environment, the only potential option that is available to Boot Camp deployments is to create an answer file that is burned onto a custom install CD. Ensure that your unattended install enables you to specify the partition in which Windows will be installed rather than selecting one by default.
Setting aside this concern, an unattended install isn’t a perfect solution because you still need to rely on Boot Camp’s Macintosh Drivers CD to install the required Mac hardware drivers for Windows. This install, although relatively simple, still must be run after Windows is installed to enable proper performance of the Mac’s hardware—in particular, the video and network components.
Also, if you are using a Windows domain (whether it be part of a Windows Active Directory infrastructure or one hosted by Mac OS X Server), you cannot join the computer to it during the Windows installation process because you need to use the Macintosh Drivers CD to enable Windows to access the Mac’ s network ports. As such, domain membership cannot be configured in an unattended install answer file.