[Mutliple Drivers Problem]

I'm pretty sure Windows Setup won't recurse through subdirectories, so you'll need to specify every directory that contains drivers.

[Question about regtweaks.reg...]

I prefer importing registry settings via cmdlines.txt during the OEM part of the install because then the Default User changes get imported over to the administrator account.

[Problem in removing Desktop Wallpaper]

I think XP uses Internet Explorer to manage wallpapers. Try changing

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop\General\Wallpaper

[$OEM$ and makelocalsource]

Thanks MCT. I didn't realize that was an option in winnt.sif. More was wrong, but after that I figured it out.

A question, though: why does every guide say that $OEM$ should be in the same directory at i386? My install only copied it properly once I copied it into i386 (i.e., E:\files\i386\$OEM$). Any idea? Even Microsoft's site has them in the same directory.

[Wallpaper]

Do you mean while Windows is actually installing, or to set a default user wallpaper during install? For the former, I'm almost certain the answer is no. As for the latter, it's simply a matter of setting up an unattended install and using something like cmdlines.txt to set the appropriate registry key. I'm pretty sure it's

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\Wallpaper

[Partitioning questions...]

ConvertNTFS, I'm pretty sure, formats the drive if it's RAW and converts it if its FAT.

[$OEM$ and makelocalsource]

I am first booting into BartPE, where %SystemDrive% does refer to the CD-ROM drive. Other than $OEM$ not being copied, the installation goes fine. That's my problem.

[$OEM$ and makelocalsource]

On the CD-ROM drive, call it E:, I have:

E:\files\i386\ and E:\files\$OEM$

I run:

%SYSTEMDRIVE%\files\i386\winnt32.exe /unattend:%SYSTEMDRIVE%\files\i386\winnt.sif /s:%SYSTEMDRIVE%\files\i386 /syspart:C: /tempdrive:C: /makelocalsource

Is this all correct? Setup runs fine, but there is no $OEM$ folder in C:\$WIN_NT$.~LS, nor is anything in my $OEM$ directory copied anywhere.

[$OEM$ and makelocalsource]

When performing and unattended install using winnt32.exe's /makelocalsource option, it doesn't appear that the $OEM$ folder is copied. Is there any way to get Windows to do this when using /makelocalsource?

[Partitioning questions...]

I would change FileSystem=NTFS to FileSystem=ConvertNTFS, but yes, that is correct.

[Windows installation problems using BartPE]

Work in what way? Diskpart runs fine here. If you change the shell, as I did, the Logical Disk Management service is not started and you get an error when you run diskpart. However, that's why I have "net start dmserver" and "net start dmadmin" in that batch file.

Diskpart definitely partitions everything correctly. The problem is that I have to juggle drive letters, and I wasn't expecting the assignment to be retained after boot.

[Windows installation problems using BartPE]

Because I needed to create a very specific partition arrangement and then format the drives, I decided to use BartPE to run launch my Windows unattended install (since the unattended install cannot partition things prior to installation). I want the setup to go like this: 8GB C: system partition and D: the rest of the drive, then setting ProfilesDir=D:\ in winnt.sif so C:\Documents and Settings\ is instead D:\.

I configured BartPE to launch a file called install.bat in the root directory of the CD as the shell (instead of nu2menu). Here is that file.

@echo off

REM if EXIST C:\install GOTO _install
REM if NOT EXIST C:\install GOTO _prepare

:_prepare
net start dmserver
net start dmadmin
diskpart /s %SYSTEMDRIVE%\diskpart.cfg
if ERRORLEVEL 0 GOTO _format
if NOT ERRORLEVEL 0 GOTO _error
GOTO _end

:_format
format C: /FS:NTFS /V:System /Q /y
format M: /FS:NTFS /V:Profiles /Q /y
REM echo install > C:\install
GOTO _install
REM GOTO _end

:_install
REM del /f C:\install
%SYSTEMDRIVE%\files\i386\winnt32.exe /unattend:%SYSTEMDRIVE%\files\i386\winnt.sif /s:%SYSTEMDRIVE%\files\i386 /syspart:C: /tempdrive:C: /makelocalsource
IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 0 GOTO _error
GOTO _end

:_error
start /wait cmd
GOTO _end

:_end

Here is my diskpart.cfg:

select disk 0
clean
create partition primary size=8192
select partition 1
assign letter=C
active
select disk 0
create partition extended
create partition logical
assign letter=M

I thought that Windows would reassign the drive letter M: to D: upon reboot, but that is not the case. The installation finishes but it cannot load the profile directories and all sorts of bad things happen. Is there any way around this? Or any thoughts on the matter?

Thanks.

[Partitioning prior to unattended install]

Thanks for the reply, but the idea was to get an install that was completely unattended. I want to stick the CD in, come back in an hour, and have Windows XP installed. Moreover, this doesn't address the question of how to actually create the partitions and get Windows set up how I want (and need) it.

As for the 8GB, that is fine for what this computer is going to be doing. The only software installed is going to be Firefox, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Photoshop, and PuTTY.

Thanks again for the reply.

[Partitioning prior to unattended install]

Hello everyone. I found this forum in the course of searching for an answer to the question I am about to ask. I found some other things on this forum related to my question, but none seemed to answer it exactly so I thought I'd give it a shot.

I am trying to create an unattended Windows XP with SP1 installation disk, but I also want to separate the system files and the user data. To do this I make one 8GB partition for the system (C:) and a second partition taking up the rest of the space (D:). I have the unattended install working so that C:\Documents and Settings\ is instead located in D:, which is what I want. However, it would be ideal if I could have these partitions created and formatted before the installation process so it is truly "unattended." As it stands now, the point at which the install runs arbitrary commands is after the installation and if D: is not already formatted then the install halts.

I've been looking into perhaps using BartPE and diskpart, but I am not sure how to go about doing that. All the documentation is very sparse, and what I want to do seems pretty simple. I've created similar scripts in the past to do this sort of thing for MacOS and Linux/UNIX, but is it possible with Windows? If so, can anyone here give me some advice about how to do it?

Thank you.