Hi,

I'm using Windows System Image Manager (SIM) from Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) to prepare an unattended installation of Windows Vista, using FireGeier's excellent guide. I'd like to create separate partitions for programs and user profiles, but mount them in their "default" folders, ie. "%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Users" and "%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Program Files" respectively. What is the best way to achieve such a setup? Please advise.

Hello MICROS~1!

The part with the Users folder is simple. Just put the Windows-Shell-Seutp / FolderLocations / ProfilesDirectory Component to your Autounattend.xml to move your Users Folder.

It's not that easy for Program Files. Note ProgramData Component in FolderLocations is not the Program Files.

Reason: Vista is image based. That means it's not installed, it's extracted to the HD and configured than. So you would have to copy the Program Files Folder to your prefered location and than you would need to change all entries inside registry belonging to the Program Files folder. Could be done with a batch but it's not that easy.

Regards,

Martin

Hi FireGeier,

Thanks for the reply and for the VU batch scripts, which are great (using them, I've just finished integrating hotfixes and it's done in minutes). It seems I didn't explain my problem well, sorry for that. My problem is: how do I make a partition mount in a folder during the Windows PE phase?

I've gone through the Unattended setup guide and there seems to be no XML option for than, so I guess it all comes to running the following diskpart script somehow:

SELECT DISK 0
CLEAN

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY SIZE=10240
FORMAT FS=NTFS LABEL="System" QUICK
ASSIGN LETTER=C
ACTIVE

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY SIZE=15360
FORMAT FS=NTFS LABEL="Programs" QUICK
ASSIGN MOUNT="C:\Program Files"

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY SIZE=8192
FORMAT FS=NTFS LABEL="Temporary" QUICK
ASSIGN MOUNT="C:\Windows\Temp"

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
FORMAT FS=NTFS LABEL="Documents" QUICK
ASSIGN MOUNT="C:\Users"

Can I use RunSynchronousCommand for that? Will it work?

(I know I could set a different path (at least for \Users), but I want to preserve the default directory structure and only use mount points so that everything is transparent to user-space applications.)

Hello MICROS~1!

You could start the script using RunSynchronous command. But if you're following my Guide and installing drivers directly from your removable media, than you script should run before SetDriversRoot.cmd is executed - that would work the same way like described for Drivers from Media.

Regards,

Martin

Sounds like a good idea, I'll try it! Thanks!