Creating 2 or more partitions

[Tel]

Hi All

Is it possible to create 2 more partitions using Unattend? eg. For my users I like to create 10GB partion and the 2nd partition takes up the rest of the drive (whatever it might be).

URGENT!!!

[ardnelias]

How To Use XP's DiskPart Commands

http://www.wintrouble.net/discus/messages/53/5083.html

The command-line DISKPART utility in Windows

http://searchwin2000.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid1_gci953071,00.html?FromTaxonomy=%2Fpr%2F5e3

You'll need to register with the website (free) in order to access the second article.

Here is the MS website link to diskpart:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/diskpart.mspx

Hope its of use.

[Megachip]

Is i possible to run DiskPart bevor install???

[db2k]

i agree this would be nice to do - im surprised there isint more info on it

[JPamplin]

Actually, the best way to do it is to have a batch file auto-format your HD, then reboot, then start the install process. Can you do this on a read-only CD? Yes!

This assumes your hard disk is either a) empty or only has one partition on it from a previous install. Here's the logic tree:

Test 1: Is drive empty?

This test uses AEFDisk's ALLSIZE (HD capacity) compared to FREESIZE (unallocated space) - if they are identical, the drive is empty.

If Yes - GOTO format subroutine, create a C: and D: drive, auto-reboot

If No - Check for Drive D: existence

Test 2: Does D: exist?

Again, this script assumes that your existing drives do not have a D: partition - only THIS script creates that, so if it's there, we know the HD is ready to install on.

If Yes - drive has been formatted using AEFDISK, so goto install script

If No - pre-existing C: drive exists, GOTO DeleteALL and remove all partitions, then goto formatCD and format C: and D: drives, and reboot.

So, here's the code:

@echo off

GOTO IsHDempty

:IsHDempty

@AEFDisk 1 /FREESIZE

@AEFDisk 1 /ALLSIZE

IF "%freesize%"=="%allsize%" GOTO formatCD

GOTO CheckForD

:CheckForD

IF EXISTS d:\nul GOTO install

GOTO deleteALL

:deleteALL

@AEFDisk 1 /DELALL

GOTO formatCD

:formatCD

(however you wish to define csize goes here, or you can hard code 10240 below in place of %csize% - I use INPUT.COM to type it in on the fly [do a search here for my previous article on it])

@AEFDisk 1 /PRI:%csize%:0B

@AEFDisk 1 /FREESIZE

@AEFDisk 1 /EXT:%freesize% /LOG:%freesize%:0B

@AEFDisk 1 /formatfat:1:Hard_Disk_C

@AEFDisk 1 /formatfat:5:Hard_Disk_D /reboot

:install

ECHO.

ECHO Creating Install Folder and copying from source ...

ECHO.

IF NOT EXISTS d:\XP\nul (MD d:\XP)

xcopy (path to winxp CD)\*.* d:\XP\*.* /e

ECHO.

ECHO Starting Windows Install ...

ECHO.

d:\XP\i386\winnt /s:d:\XP\i386 /u:d:\XP\i386\winnt.sif

This assumes you start out in DOS using a simple Win98 boot floppy image on your CD instead of WinPE or the Windows Boot Disk images. Works like a champ, plus is fast and simple.

One of the problems with copying subdirectories in DOS is you can't go beyond 8 levels deep in folders. The solution I found is to put your XP install folder into a RAR file, then extract all files from CD to the new D: drive using RAR32 for DOS. That's what I do and it's a proven solution.

JP

[db2k]

who uses boot floppies?

not me that's for sure - id rather not make seperate partitions then have to use boot floppies -

a) i dont even have a floppy drive anymore

floppy disks are unreliable

c) makes it a pain to install with an added media type

[slinger]

I deploy my Windows install through a network with a winbom.ini file

I have a customer that wants a 30 Gig partition on his drives and the rest just formatted.

In my winbom.ini file I have the following code

[DiskConfig]

Disk1 = Drive0.Config

[Drive0.Config]

WipeDisk = Yes

Size1 = 30000 <---you can change this to whatever size in Megs

FileSystem1 = NTFS

SetActive1 = Yes

PartitionType1 = Primary

Size2 = *

PartitionType2 = Extended

Size3 = *

PArtitionType3 = Logical

QuickFormat1 = Yes

QuickFormat3 = Yes

with the above example, you will get a primary partition of 30Gig and whateve ris left as a secondary partition both formatted to NTFS. Again, I have this in my winbom.ini file and not the unattened file that you are probably using?

[JPamplin]

@db2k...

OK, perhaps you missed one of the last lines in the post...

This assumes you start out in DOS using a simple Win98 boot floppy image on your CD instead of WinPE or the Windows Boot Disk images.

I am referring to a CD-based solution, using a DOS floppy image. Sorry you didn't catch that one.

JP

[db2k]

fine u win