3 Partitions (Drive C)

[Jesda]

[Data]
    AutoPartition=0
    MsDosInitiated="0"
    UnattendedInstall="Yes"

Guys I have 3 Partitions in my HDD. I wanna create an unintended CD but is this a right way to install on first Partition (Drive C)?

I tried AutoPartition=1 but it won't work and if =0 then I have to use my keyboard to select the partition.

The thing is, I don't wanna use my k/b cos the one I currently use is Bluetooth and it won't work with DOS.

[Jesda]

so there is not solution? please reply so I don't search for answer no more.

[codeblue]

I am also intrested in this. I have an 80gig HD and want to split it into 3 sections of different sizes. If im correct 3rd party software is neded as this can't be done in Winnt.sif.

I have a copy of Partition Magic that i used to split my HD, could i somehow use this to partition my HD before the Unattended XPCD kicks in?

[oioldman]

What you have setup, enables you to specify where and how big manually.

If yo have it set so that "AutoPartition=1" it will by default use all of it, and i haven't yet found a way around it so i do it manually.

» I want to manually control my partitioning and formatting options...

If you prefer to manually choose a partition during text-mode setup with full control on choice of filesystem, then make sure you have these lines set as they are under the [Data]and [unattended] sections in winnt.sif:

[Data]

AutoPartition=0

[unattended]

FileSystem=*

If you want to automate this process with exact specifics on drive letters, partition sizes and filesystems, you may want to consider using Bart's PE and diskpart.

Was taken from http://unattended.msfn.org/xp/winnt_sif.htm

Hope it helps a little, and no doubt if i'm wrong i'll be told.

[codeblue]

If you prefer to manually choose a partition during text-mode setup with full control on choice of filesystem, then make sure you have these lines set as they are under the [Data]and [unattended] sections in winnt.sif:

This would not be fully unattended as is would stop and ask me for partition sizes.

Can anyone help?

[Astalavista]

there is a trade of here bec. if you specify the partition sizes

what happens if u change hard drives let say to 160 SATA or a 200 SATA

would you still want those specified partition sizes?

or if like at our office we have different size hard drives on different workstations.

[codeblue]

unfortuantly, and greatfully, i am a family man and little money to spend on new HD's. So the specific sizes arn't something i will need to change for the near future.

Astalavista, do you know how to do it? Also like your idea of the GUI to install programms, unfortunatly i cant help as i know nothing of programming. My unattended XPCD i would like to contain NO software, then after installation slap in a DVD disk with all software on, tick the ones i want and it would then install everything unattended. Wraith was working on this with XPdeploy but stopped some time ago, although i read he is trying to incorpreate it into XPlode 2.0.

[Astalavista]

dude... if your married do what i do, HIDE your paycheck from your WifE!. then you can afford a new hard drive.

My wife bleeds me dry. LOL

pls tell me how large is your hard drive. and into what size you want

it partitioned

[codeblue]

I have a 80gb HD and i need 5 partitions.

30 gb

32 gb

5 gb

5 gb

and the rest for windows and programs

[buletov]

What you have setup, enables you to specify where and how big manually.

If yo have it set so that "AutoPartition=1" it will by default use all of it, and i haven't yet found a way around it so i do it manually.

» I want to manually control my partitioning and formatting options...

If you prefer to manually choose a partition during text-mode setup with full control on choice of filesystem, then make sure you have these lines set as they are under the [Data] and [unattended] sections in winnt.sif:

[Data]

AutoPartition=0

[unattended]

FileSystem=*

If you want to automate this process with exact specifics on drive letters, partition sizes and filesystems, you may want to consider using Bart's PE and diskpart.

Was taken from http://unattended.msfn.org/xp/winnt_sif.htm

Hope it helps a little, and no doubt if i'm wrong i'll be told.

with these set like this:

[Data]

AutoPartition=0

[unattended]

FileSystem=*

can I remove this one:

[unattended]

Repartition=No

[jaclaz]

fdisk is "scriptable", up to a certain point, see this:

An FDISK script from a patron of www.fdisk.com named Ryan:

To make FDISK do whatever you want, automagically

go through a dry run in FDISK and write down all the options you enter

edit a file and call it fdisk.scr

in that file, put each option, one per line, and make sure you press

return after each one

save the file

now, when you run fdisk, make sure you run fdisk < fdisk.scr

and viola.. you are all fdisked up

as an example my batch file looked like this

REM ** autoform.bat**

echo Run FDISK?

choice /c:yn

if ERRORLEVEL 2 then goto FORMAT

if ERRORLEVEL 1 then goto FDISK

:FDISK

call fdisk.bat

goto END

:FORMAT

format c: /s/u

goto END

:END

REM **fdisk.bat**

fdisk < fdisk.scr

(info found here:

http://www.fdisk.com/fdisk/)

and of course format can be invoked from batch.

However it is risky, as you "play blind", an error in the handmade file and poof, nothing works!

A much better solution is to use Diskman, which is completely scriptable:

http://diskman.dyndns.org/

jaclaz

[codeblue]

Diskman 4 doesn't say enything about formatting NTFS file system and Diskman 5 doesn't run under dos and is still at a beta stage.

have you used diskman jaclaz?

[BAM]

Maybe look at Microsoft DiskPart here: When to use DiskPart Scripting

Never figured it out how use it, but my guess is that if you REALLY want this, then i will get a PM to tell me that you got it working during unattended install!!

I'm very interrested....

[GnarlyC]

I have never tried this myself, but there are other posts that explain this pretty well. You cannot make multiple partitions with setup. You will have to boot into WinPE or BartPE and use diskpart, etc. from there. Then you can invoke a script to install the OS. Search for posts that explain how to do an unattended install from WinPE or BartPE. It can all be made to be unattended, there's just a few extra steps involved past editing winnt.sif.

Hope that helps,

GnarlyC

[Godfatha]

Well...

the things described are "neat" but the problem is, that scripting with fdisk would have to be started before the windows setup routine is started. I have no clue how get that working, well one clue but that would involve a kind of "Multiboot" method. Where not windows is booted, the windows boot disks are booted in which u made some changes but that could be complicated. Would that work, you could create all partitions u want new. With the tags in the Winnt.sif:

[Data]

AutoPartition=1 (Windows chooses the first partition that has sufficient space for the installation)

...

[unattended]

Repartition=No/Yes (Repartition all partitions to one big partition?)

FileSystem = ConvertNTFS (well convert old FAT32 drives to NTFS?)

...

u could make windows install on drive C: created earlier.

after that you could use DiskPart in the winnt.sif to create the other partitions and formate them while the GUIRunOnce phase.

The only problem would be the first partition, which you would have to create manually or with an intelligent script based on fdisk maybe that deletes everything, creates c: and starts the windows setup routine. The problem on the script is, that there are methods to call the correct boot sector with some programs like cdshell, but i don't know about such a program that could ALSO call a batch file. Or the other way i don't know about any program that can boot a bootsector if its possible to call batch files with it.

so if there are suggestions on the first part of the problem the rest shouldn't be the hardest act.