JSI Tip 8086. When you use a Windows 2000 RIS server to deploy Windows XP, the installation hangs on a blank screen?

When you use a Windows 2000 RIS (Remote Installation Services) server to deploy Windows XP Professional, the installation hangs on a blank screen, just after the last Client Installation Wizard screen.

This behavior occurs because the Windows XP NTLDR (OSChoice.exe) file uses a larger data structure than the one used by the Windows 2000 RIS server, which leads to unpredictable results if the BIOS has data in a memory location that the Windows XP NTLDR expects to be empty.

The best workaround is to use a Windows Server 2003 RIS server to deploy Windows XP.

If that is not feasible:

01. Extract the OSChoice.exe and StartROM.com files from the Windows XP CD.

02. Start the Windows 2000 RIS server in safe mode.

03. Navigate to the %systemroot%System32reminst folder on the RIS server.

04. Rename OSChoice.exe to OSChoice.bak.

05. Rename StartROM.com to StartROM.bak.

06. Copy the extracted files from step 1 to the %systemroot%System32reminst folder on the RIS server.

07. Navigate to the RemoteInstallOSChooseri386 folder on the RIS server.

08. Rename NTLDR to NTLDR.bak.

09. Rename StartROM.com to StartROM.bak.

10. Copy the extracted files from step 1 to the %systemroot%System32reminst folder on the RIS server, renaming OSChoice.exe to NTLDR.

11. Restart the Windows 2000 RIS server normally.