This may or may not be an old topic but I have spent hours searching the internet for the answer and am yet to find it.......

How do I move docs and settings to d: using an unattend.txt for XP?

There is an MS document referring to W2K, and some guy on the MS website reckons it works for XP, but IT DOESN'T!

Any help will be appreciated.

You add this under [GuiUnattended] in your winnt.sif I believe:

ProfilesDir="D:\Documents and Settings\"

the guy above^

Thanks for the quick response.....

Is that the exact format/syntax? I have tried an answer file with the following:-

ProfilesDir=D:\Documents and Settings

But get an error message about the syntax. Do I need the "'s and the second \

yeah, i think you do need the " ". not sure about the last \. I put one at the end of mine though and it worked.

Brilliant! This has worked, thanks to all for help.

It is ridiculous that you cannot find this answer from Microsoft.

@jimbojones: Not to rain or your parade but that little answer is in the resource kit on the Windows XP cdrom.... Read the ref.chm file in the "support.cab" file in the SUPPORT directory on the Windows XP cdrom.

[GuiUnattended]

AdminPassword=*

AutoLogon=Yes

AutoLogonCount=3

OEMSkipRegional=1

OEMSkipWelcome=1

TimeZone=4

ProfilesDir=C:\WINNT\Profiles

You add this under [GuiUnattended] in your winnt.sif I believe:

        ProfilesDir="D:\Documents and Settings\"

But how do you tell Windows to run with the user profiles in the folder if it's on a different drive? I'm getting the famous "user.PCNAME" folders. If I skip the auto user creation step, and create users after install, will they default to the properly named folders? I'm aiming to not have to back up the contents of the profiles each install. What am I missing?

Ok, tiny brainstorm here.... If you relocate the My Documents and shared folders physically to another drive, then reinstall WITHOUT using the winnt.sif setting, then use a reg file to redirect the shell folders in RunOnceEx, that should work for a single user, right? If it does, how can I get that to run once on the first login for EVERY user? I know it's the combo of winnt.sif and auto user creation causing the double folder problem, but solving this per user is causing me fits.

Use RunOnceEx in the HKCU hive, and not the HKLM hive. Set it from CMDLINES.TXT or SVCPACK.INF, and then all new users will run it once.

Use RunOnceEx in the HKCU hive, and not the HKLM hive. Set it from CMDLINES.TXT or SVCPACK.INF, and then all new users will run it once.

I've read the hive guides and they make less sense now than when I thought it was where honey comes from. If I do that, would I need to prepare 2 sets of RunOneceEx? One to install programs, once, and one to move Docs and Settings, per user? Pardon me if I come off like an absolute dolt, but this is the ONE issue that I haven;t been able to crack no matter what I try.

I'm trying to convince a friend that partitioning the drive into a Wondows and Files type setup is a good idea. I'm ofering to do a custom setup disk for him, but he refuses to just suck it up and use the "stuff" partition as a seperate drive, he has 5 different user profiles. Moving them all with TweakXP per install would kill me.

Thanks guys.

No time ... This thread gives an example of what I would do ...

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=22042&st=0

You could also use the HKCU\RunOnceEx idea I mentioned above. I have not tried it, but there was a good example in this forum about 2 months ago.

Again, sorry, but I am packing my bags at the moment to hop on a plane in a few hours. Gotta love Summertime!

i like the GreenMachine's MAKEUSER.CMD on this threadEnhanced User Setup.

it maps only needed user shell folders to another drive/path with %USERNAME% environment variable, and leave the userprofile on systemdrive, so i dont need to worry about the userName.computerName issue.

if you need FULL backup userprofile, ignore me.

Once again, thanks zippy! I was wondering where I posted that ...

This link may work a little better:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=19639

(The other link did not show all the posts for me.)