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Thanks for your further information. Regards

prathapml Success at last!! I've been researching how to achieve this for about 18 months & a clean install due to a new motherboard was the incentive to do it. I can't put into words just how grateful I feel for your help with this I'm now in the postition where I can at least return a small snippet of information: the Program Files\Common Files folder must be specified or it will default to a 2nd Program Files folder on the OS partition. My 1st attempt with a new winnt.sif omitted that line with the extra quote then was rewritten to include it with the correct syntax for the 2nd successful install. I inialally also tried to include monitor settings which didn't work - no matter, stuff like that can easily be done after installing. Other settings such as time zone were cut & pasted from the unattended.txt file generated by setupmgr.exe were incorrect & I suspect this version is a bit buggy (2180). The 1st task after disabling System Restore was to install X-Setup Pro & change my account profile settings by moving most of stuff like Cookies, Favorites, Desktop, Application Data, SendTo (Shell folders) to a 3rd partition. I left the Local Settings system folder alone because it contains a small bit of the registry hive there. If I trash the OS, my account or want to completely uninstall any application, I simply restore an image of drives C & D as a pair & hopefully rarely have to restore E where my data, settings & docs will be located but imaged from Task Scheduler on a weekly basis during the night (Drive Image 5 will reboot into Dos, image then reboot back into Windows then return to Standby mode). Some settings such as the date structure for IE History are actually stored in the registry & not in the History folder itself, so I can also schedule a batch file once a week to save these keys (Extensible Cache) in case I need to restore C&D. This way my system doesn't need much doing to it after complete restoration which takes less than 30mins. This setup also leaves my OS partition in a fairly read-only state where fragmentation will be minimal. When I can afford a 2nd SATA h/d, I will remove my 1 remaining loud IDE disc & boot off the SATA array then connect both DVD & CDRW both as masters with 2 slave channels spare. Then I can buy a new XP3200+, 2x512MB PC3200 RAM, etc.....! Once again, you helped me greatly with this project! Regards

Thanks for your tips! I've tried twice without success - both failed at line 12: ;SetupMgrTag [Data] AutoPartition=0 MsDosInitiated="0" UnattendedInstall="Yes" [unattended] UnattendMode=ProvideDefault OemPreinstall=No TargetPath=\WINDOWS ProgramFilesDir="D:\Program Files" CommonProgramFilesDir=""D:\Program Files\Common Files" [GuiUnattended] EncryptedAdminPassword=NO OEMSkipRegional=0 ProfilesDir="D:\Documents and Settings\" [userData] ProductKey=XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX FullName="My Name" OrgName="" [RegionalSettings] LanguageGroup=1 [identification] JoinWorkgroup=WORKGROUP [Networking] InstallDefaultComponents=Yes [Components] msmsgs=off msnexplr=off I'm not familiar withe the syntax to know which IS line 12, but guessing that we ignore the header, subheadings & spaces, it appears to point to the product code that works fine used manually. A further question if I may. Do I need to create these folders on the D drive in advance of installing?

Hi from the UK I'm a home user of WinXP Pro which I've just reinstalled due to a new m/b. My 1st step was to do a repair install of my existing one which generally went fine. The only thing I lost was ACPI power management that even dumppo.exe couldn't fix. The loss of ACPI PM was enough to spur me on to do a fresh install sooner rather than later. I've always wanted the entire Documents & Folders on another partition then move portions of my own profile to a third. Although I've heard it's possible to move the D&S folder after install - its not a recommended method & was hoping to do an SP2 slip-streamed CDRW with a winnt.sif to relocate certain system folders. Unfortunately, due to reactivation being required within 3 days, I was in too much of a hurry & my unattended install attempt failed, so did a normal one which has been activated OK, giving me time to do some research on my final install. My 1st & only post on the Unattended forum went unanswered, perhaps because I gave the impression that I was pirating XP which I'm not, so will post again. Thanks & regards

Hello I'm about to attempt my 1st unattended install of XP Pro on my home PC. The reason for doing so is to move the Document & Settings folder, the Program Files & Program Files\Common Files off the boot partition to drive D. This seems easy enough, especially when using setupmgr.exe to create a winnt.sif file. Is this possible using a slipstreamed XP Pro SP2 CD created from my original Upgrade copy? Will it merely ask me to insert qualifying media? I'm unfamiliar with this process which seems more about doing an unattended installation rather than my desire to move system folders. I only have less than a day left before reactivation is required (I did a repair install after upgrading my motherboard, although I tested ACPI power management & m/b drivers by doing a fresh attended install to another partition (which didn't prompt for any qualifying media as it happens). This copy is virgin more or less & will at least allow access to all partitions for 28 more days. I'm trying to avoid activating my current repaired install because it's about to be ditched & I will also be adding new h/w incrementally such as new disc drives. Some help here will be much appreciated! Regards, Paul