g555 Posted August 26, 2008 Posted August 26, 2008 Is there a way to have UnattendedInstall = "Yes"But still have full choice of any partition as target partition (empty or not)?IOW: Have everything after target partition choice be UA?Best combination of settings?ThanksExample answer file…. \I386\WINNT.SIF[Data]Autopartition = 0MsDosInitiated = 0UnattendedInstall = "Yes"[unattended]OemPreinstall=YesOemSkipEula=YesOEMFilesPath=.\$OEM$[GuiUnattended]OEMSkipWelcome=1
TranceEnergy Posted August 27, 2008 Posted August 27, 2008 Your "autopartition" setting there decides whether or not windows setup will auto format a partition for you. Unattended setting doesnt have anything to do with that.
g555 Posted August 27, 2008 Author Posted August 27, 2008 Thanks TranceEnergy.So isAutopartition = 1when it just auto formats (& installs) on the first partition big enough?Anyone know of any other settings that might limit choice of target partition?Thanks
TranceEnergy Posted August 27, 2008 Posted August 27, 2008 A word of caution:Please be aware, i have ONLY used that autopartition = 1 in vmware installs which only has had 1 partition.I dont know for sure 100% what happens if you have multiple partitions or harddrives.I would NEVER use autopartition on a multiple harddrives system, unless i knew for sure 100% that windows would detect the harddrives in same way as bios does, and cabling internally in pc.Some bios detects harddrive startup priority differently. This is especially true for some years older computer where SATA drives are used.Tip: If windows setup detects you have harddrive with "partition1:empty space (no actual partition), partition 2: logical partition, partition 3: primary partition, it would copy boot files to partition 3, and your windowsto your partition 1 which you create with windows setup.
g555 Posted August 27, 2008 Author Posted August 27, 2008 Yesautopartition = 1can be destructive and why I wanted to get a handle on how to best control choice of target partition.Tip: If windows setup detects you have harddrive with "partition1:empty space (no actual partition), partition 2: logical partition, partition 3: primary partition, it would copy boot files to partition 3, and your windows to your partition 1 which you create with windows setup.Are you saying that "non-partitioned empty space" at the start of a disc will become the new system partition that will, eventually, contain the boot files?
TranceEnergy Posted August 28, 2008 Posted August 28, 2008 No im not saying that, i am saying that ******************* IF!********** you were to install windows on a harddrive that had those partitions already there, and you were to install windows on the empty **space** as a newpartition, your ntldr and other boot files would go to the partition 3.IF you install windows onto a empty harddrive, that would never happen. If you install windows into a partition (not empty space) that is primary it would never happen.But please just forget this, you will most likely not need to know all this, if you are doing installs on systems where windows already is deployed/used.Still, good to be cautious if one uses autopartition option on systems with several harddrives, or partitions on single drive even.
g555 Posted August 28, 2008 Author Posted August 28, 2008 (edited) Still, good to be cautious if one uses autopartition option on systems with several harddrives, or partitions on single drive even.Yes, definitely. Thanks for the tip (word of caution part 2). That bazaar quirk would be a real head scratcher (what now??).Good reason to try to fit a boot menu & a PE on the install disk (my next goal) for easier partition management.Thanks for your help Edited August 28, 2008 by g555
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