Automaticly formating C drive before setup starts

[The_Freak]

Hello all,

I'm trying to make an unattended windows installation, which works but the only thing i can't get automated is the fact that i want to have my C partition formated automaticly before the windows setup starts...because you can't let windows format a partition with the winnt.sif.......

It must be possible but i'm not sure how......i've read things about using BartPE or Windows PE but i'm not sure where to start to make these things fully automatic.......

Does anyone know how to do this???

[Gray]

What's wrong with...

[unattended]

Repartition=Yes

That works lovely for me!

[prathapml]

Using "Repartition" would remove all partitions, and make one BIG C: drive of the entire HDD. You wouldn't use it on a computer which has been in operation for some time, has lot of data on it, and not been backed up (you will lose your D:, E:, etc. as well).

The only way to get the C: drive alone formatted automatically seems to be to use the WinPE method - but that's too much trouble for what its worth. If formatting is all that's bothering you, you'd rather stay with that bother, than waste weeks trying to get your WinPE right.

[The_Freak]

What's wrong with...

[unattended]    Repartition=Yes

That works lovely for me!

that option will remove all existing partitions.......i only want my c partition formated, not the others

[edg21]

that option will remove all existing partitions.......i only want my c partition formated, not the others

I would suggest using BartPE or if you have access to it WinPE, you can do whatever you want to the hdd before running setup.

[XtremeMaC]

u could also use partition magic boot disk to do those.. won't be automated though.

also search the board, i've seen many ppl ask this question and have tried numerous ways to accomplish this. most ppl write their own batch file..

[Ebola_One]

I'm having the same problem, I don't want to specifiy any particular partition size, but I want windows to install on the first partition available (It's a huge assumption, but I know that the first partition will always be the one I want to have windows installed to)

Is there anyway to do this?

Here's my Winnt.Sif (with all the uneccessary crap taken out):

[Data]
    AutoPartition=1
    MsDosInitiated="0"
    UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[Unattended]
    UnattendMode=FullUnattended
    OemSkipEula=Yes
    OemPreinstall=Yes
    TargetPath=\WINDOWS
    UnattendSwitch=Yes
    WaitForReboot=No
    FileSystem=ConvertNTFS
    Repartition = No

[GuiUnattended]
    AdminPassword=*
    EncryptedAdminPassword=NO
    OEMSkipRegional=1
    TimeZone=290
    OemSkipWelcome=1
    AutoLogon=Yes
    AutoLogonCount=5

Have I got a setting wrong?

When I change Repartition to equal Yes, it just brute force deletes the partitions & formats away happily, which I understand, but when I set it to No, shouldn't it just re-format the first partition? or is that what WinPE is for?

[edit]

Do I need to have a partition already formatted for use before i start the windows unattended install?

[/edit]

Thanks.