Microsoft KB Archive/247882

Knowledge Base

Error Message: The Specified Setup Script File Is Inaccessible or Invalid During Unattended Installation

Article ID: 247882

Article Last Modified on 10/30/2006

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APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server

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This article was previously published under Q247882

SYMPTOMS

When you run an unattended installation of Windows 2000, you may receive the following error message:

The specified Setup script file (Path_or_Drive_Letter\unattend.txt) is inaccessible or invalid. Contact your system administrator.

When you run an unattended installation by using a bootable CD-ROM or Winnt.exe command at a command prompt, you may receive the following error message:

Line <line#> of the INF file is invalid. Setup cannot continue. Press any key to restart.

CAUSE

This problem may occur iIf you use Setup Manager to build an unattended answer file and a comma is used in any user defined field that also contains spaces, Setup Manager does not put quotation marks around that field.
For example:

[GuiUnattended]
    TimeZone=33
    AdminPassword=pass, word  <----- missing quotes here.
    OEMSkipRegional=1
    OemSkipWelcome=1

[UserData]
    FullName=my, name   <------- missing quotes here.
    OrgName=my company, inc   <------ missing quotes here.
    ComputerName=test

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, you must manually type quotation marks around any user defined fields that contain spaces in the unattend file, and then re-start the unattended setup by using the corrected unattend file. To find syntax errors in the unattend answer file and then correct them, follow these steps:

1. Open Command Prompt, change to the \i386 folder in the source of the Windows 2000 installation files, type Winnt /u:Name_Of_Your_Answer_File /s: Source_Location_Of_Windows_Files, and then press ENTER.
2. If there is a syntax error, you will see an error message on a blue screen that reports the line number in the answer file that contains the syntax error.
   
   Take note of the line numbers that contain errors.
3. To change the folder location to the location of your answer file, type edit Your_Answer_File, and then press ENTER.

4. Find the lines in the answer file that contain the syntax errors, and then add the required quotation marks.
   For example:

   [GuiUnattended]
       TimeZone=33
       AdminPassword="pass, word"  <-----  quotes added here.
       OEMSkipRegional=1
       OemSkipWelcome=1
   
   [UserData]
       FullName="my, name"   <------- quotes added here.
       OrgName="my company, inc"   <------ quotes added here.
       ComputerName=test

5. Save the corrected answer file and then restart the unattended installation of Windows 2003.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

For a complete list of Winnt.exe and Winnt32.exe commands, see Windows 2000 Help, or, open Command Prompt, switch to the \i386 folder on the Windows 2000 product CD, type winnt /? or winnt32 /?, and then press ENTER.

For information about answer file parameters, on the Windows 2000 CD, in the \Support\Tools folder, in the Deploy.cab file, see the Unattend.doc file.

For additional information about how to perform an unattended installation of Windows 2000, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

216258 HOW TO: Perform an Unattended Installation of Windows from a CD-ROM

Additional query words: deploy setup unattend setupmgr

Keywords: kberrmsg kbprb kbsetup KB247882

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