AutoPartition

[ectavares]

Hi!

IF I make my answer file using setupmgr.exe it puts AutoPartition=1.What does it do?

Does it delete the partition and format it or what?

[Aaron]

AutoPartition

Installs Windows to the first available partition that has adequate space for a Windows installation and does not already contain an installed version of Windows.

[Sie Tjin Kian]

Hi ectavares,

when you want to be able to choose the partition where windows have to be installed or to partition your HD during Windows Setup use AutoPartition=0.

In most case I think this is the better way cause you have the Option where Windows will be installed to.

Greez Sie Tjin Kian

[Bunzzing]

AutoPartition

Installs Windows to the first available partition that has adequate space for a Windows installation and does not already contain an installed version of Windows.

Ok, so if I have a pc with one hdd, which has no partition, setup will automatically install xp on the first hdd, right ?

What do I have to put in de winnt.sif if I do have a pc with one hdd, no partition, but an older xp installation already on the hard drive ? Now I had to manually go thru the 2 stages below (see screenshots)

I really want to get rid of both the above screens. I want the installation to work on my system and the installation should not check if the hdd has 1, 2 or no partitions, with or without a prior installation of xp ?

What do I do ?

[paul3vanz]

just wondered if i can ask a question here,

on an original xp cd, if there is an existing WINDOWS folder it lets you choose to format the partition or just overwrite the main folders.

on my unattended disc, if there is an existing WINDOWS folder, it doesn't let you have the choice, it just says u can overwrite the folders or install to a different folder e.g. WINXP

is there any reason for this difference? i really am sure it's different. could it be any options set in any of the answer files or something.

[rustycaps]

Just delete then re-create the partition you want to install to, and will have no problems with having to delete existing directories, because there won't be any anymore.

[ebeighe]

I want XP to stop and allow me to select the partition...

I made a Fullunattended answer file with SetupMgr, then edited my unattend.txt so that it says:

Autopartition=0 (I also tried Autopartition="0")

But it still just picks the first partition (i want to use the second partition) without asking!

Am I hallucinating?

Thanks!

[Exodia]

I have problems with my windows setup skipping over partition selection. The strange thing is, it seems to be totally random at times. A few weeks back i was having problems with my install, it kept quiting during file copy, it was a ram problem and i solved it. But before i did, i tried installing at least 10 times and sometimes i would get the option to choose a partition and sometimes it would go right over and straight to file copy. On saturday i did an install on an old drive i had. It was already ntfs and had some stuff on it. Windows setup didnt give the option to delete or choose a partion, it just went straight to file copy. This was a problem because now i have tons of old stuff that i need to delete manually.

I guess windows setup just does whatever the hell it wants too!

[ebeighe]

hey. maybe this will help. After I posted my question, and read yours, i finally found what appears to be the "official" story... its in file ref.chm from the deploy.cab....

I pasted the info about autopartion below.

Interesting note: the only value allowed is 1. (I would imagine setting it to 0 is the same as not specifying?) Anyway here is how I solved my problem -- which was, I wanted to do an unattended install to the second partition:

I got rid of the AutoPartition line (commented it out), and called winnt32.exe with a /tempdrive:D:

Strangely, there appears to be no option to force an unattended install to allow the user to pick a partition.

-------------------------------------------

AutoPartition Value: 1

Installs Windows to the first available partition that has adequate space for a Windows installation and does not already contain an installed version of Windows. Either omit the AutoPartition entry from your answer file or set the value of AutoPartition to 1. If AutoPartition = 1, the /tempdrive command-line option of Winnt32.exe is ignored. If you do not set the value, text-mode Setup installs Windows on the partition where $WIN_NT$.~LS is located.

[Aaron]

Strangely, there appears to be no option to force an unattended install to allow the user to pick a partition.

There is, change AutoPartition to 0 then add Filesystem=* to [unattended]