Okay, I'm going to make my first attempt at using WinPE to do an unattended install of Windows.

Here is what I want to accomplish:

LIST]

[*]Automate disk partitioning

[*]Automate disk formatting

[*]Automate Win2003 Server install

[*]Automate data volume population

So, from what I've found so far here is what I've come up with.

Automate disk partitioning / formatting

I'd have in my STARTNET.CMD file a batch file that would run the commands to partition the disk into volumes. It would also format each parition and assign drive letters to them. Lastly, it would mark drive C as active.

Next, Win2003 install:

The STARTNET.CMD file would then execute <drive-something>\...\win32.exe /s:... /unattend:....

I'd feed it my unattended answer file (my original WinNT.sif from my unattended CD) and off it goes.

I have a lot of data that has to populate an additional hard drive, I'm guessing that it would be best to add that process into the GUIRunOnceEx of the Win2003 setup, or I'd have to put it into STARTNET.CMD before I begin the server install.

Am I on the right track so far, or am I way off?

Thanks

You are on the right track.. but you are missing some key points

Let me throw out some questions that I had to deal with.

What Scripting Language are you going to use. Don't use Batch. Use VBScript or Perl.

INI files are your friend! Read and write values to INI files. It's the easiest to mannage and it leave a trail for rebuilds and troubeshooting.

Disk Partitioning:

New install of OS or Rebuild? Delete all volumes? or save existing?

(my build can re-install a new OS intot he existing OS Volume without touching any other data)

FAT32 is the easiest to work with. Create a FAT32 volume and let the Install of Windows convert it to NTFS. This way it is 100% supported by MS. And other apps do not create NTFS volumes in teh same manner as MS. Ran into that with PQI Deploy.

Automated Install:

Where are your going to get your answers to the Unattend.txt (or sysprep) file?

There are a few apps floating around that folks have written that can help. We wrote our own for our own needs. It's INI file driven which makes adding valuse so much easier.

Regional settings? Do you have more than one time zone? Country?

I store my resional settings in INI files. The build reads the propper settings form these files and plugs them into the Unattend.txt

Run once lets you break off and personalize the OS. Most people work in this manner. If you do imaging, becarefull with what you install. cleaning it up for imaging can be a b***h. Somethimes it not worth the trouble down the road. It you are thinking misison critical servers.... Never rollback. always install fresh.

It may take a few extra minutes...but that saves alot of time and money later.

Chris