Executing a batch file _before_ Windows install.

[Nanaki]

Alright, I'm working on an Unattended Install and coming around quite nicely.

The biggest problem I have for now it's not funny unattended, it keeps asking for the partition if Windows is already installed. I don't want this. From what I've read on these forums, it isn't possible on correcting this issue with winnt.sif.

My solution is a bit more complicated. Let me draw a lil' timeline to explain it.

1. PC boots

2. "Press any key to boot from disk..."

3. FDisk starts formatting and creating partitions

4. normal windows setup starts, sees first empty system partition, installs windows without asking.

Is this possible? I would GREATLY aprreciate your help!

EDIT= n/m, I've found a bit of a work around

[Afterdawn]

It's not funny unattended? I bet you mean fully cause unattended installations are never funny!

If you want to use FDISK prior to setup you have to boot a MSDOS bootdisk. So you should either use the partitioning options in winnt.sif, or create a bootdisk with automated fdisk commands and thén use the Installation cd/dvd.

[Nanaki]

lol, whoopsy

No, I want it to be fully unattended. See, the least it should do is to format the entire drive to one partition. Automatically. I want to plug in my disk and only press enter one time in the beginning.

I found a bit of a workaround. But if anyone knows how to create partitions via percentages (like in FDisk) in the unattended install. Lemme hear it.

[wildstyle]

Hey, that's exactly what i want aswell!

I think setting 'Repartition' to 1 will do the trick, im not sure however.

One thing i was wondering about is this:

Filesystem:

Should it be set to NTFS for automatick quick format of the drive?

[Cartoonite]

It's not funny unattended? I bet you mean fully cause unattended installations are never funny!

Oh but they are. You should see some of the doozy mistakes I've made in attempting to configure mine.

I think setting 'Repartition' to 1 will do the trick, im not sure however.

You are exactly right. I had to do this for my vmachine because Setup will not automatically create a partition if there isn't one without this line.

One thing i was wondering about is this:

Filesystem:

Should it be set to NTFS for automatick quick format of the drive?

Quick format with the NTFS file system is the default with Windows XP. This line can be safely omitted unless you want to modify that behavior.

[shigenobuchan]

Am I correct in stating that the Repartition switch only applies for RIS installs and won't work from DVD based unatteded installations? If so, is there a way to do the samething for media based unattended installations?

[druiddk]

This will remove all existing partitions and create one big NTFS:

[Data]
Autopartition = 1

[Unattended]
Repartition = yes
FileSystem = *

[Disk.Config]
  Disk1="Disk1.config"
[Disk1.config]
  Size1="3000"
  PartitionType1="primary"
  FileSystem1="ntfs"
  Quickformat1="yes[Data]"

Now some will obviously like i did think you can modify the "Size1="3000"" but I havent gotten it to work.

[CorbenDallas]

What you otherwise can do is to create a BartPE or WINPE and set yoru partitions with Diskpart and then start the installation from there. Works just fine. The only "problem" I have found there is that I have to copy the I386 folder to the local drive before I start the install. But it goes quite quickly so.

But it is another solution if you want more than one partition for example...

[ah7cald]

Thanks for the post it was very useful, spent hours searching the web for a solution like this. thanks again :-)