Spindles, drives and partitions

[krombit]

Windows XP Pro.

Two or three years ago I slipstreamed XP Pro to include SP1. Last weekend I followed the instructions on msfn.org to create a new Windows install CD to include Mass Storage Manager (MSM) drivers to create a RAID 0 drive whilst at the same time, slipstream to XP SP3 and relocate C:\Documents and Settings to E:\UserDocs.

My intention was to end up with a system that had both RAID and a non-RAID drive with Windows being installed in an existing Windows directory on the non-RAID drive that already contained two other partitions besides the C: drive.

It all worked pretty much as expected (almost). What I ended up with was a Windows installation on the C: drive in a WINDOWS.0 folder.

How do you manage drive(s)/partition(s) during an unattended install? IE. How do you delete existing partitions, create new partitions, format partitions and how do you assign drive identifiers (C:, D:, E: ...) to partitions? How do you nominate where to create the Windows folder, overwriting a previous installation if it exits?

Raymond

[IcemanND]

The simple answer is you can't format more than one partition. If you want to create and format more than one partition before installing XP you have to do it from a PreInstallation environment like WIndows PE or BartPE.

[Kelsenellenelvian]

What I do is at that section when you choose partition you press "C" to create a partition then press escape to go back and do it again.

This way you can create several partitions and then choose the one you want to install to.

Once Windows is installed you THEN actually format the raw partitions.

[IcemanND]

What I do is at that section when you choose partition you press "C" to create a partition then press escape to go back and do it again.

This way you can create several partitions and then choose the one you want to install to.

Once Windows is installed you THEN actually format the raw partitions.

That will not work if he is redirecting the doc and settings folder, the partition it is being pllaced on has to be formatted before setup tries to create the directory. If you are not redirecting any of the system folders then your method will work fine.

[Kelsenellenelvian]

DER!!!! *Slams head on keyboard!

Sorry my bad...

[krombit]

Thanks for the advise on the need to format the drives during the PreInstallation phase. It then just becomes a question of how do you nominate which partition (now with an associated drive name) becomes the %systemdrive% and how do you specify the Windows %systemroot%, overwriting any existing Windows installations?

Raymond