Bart PE & Partition

[lordsamael]

Hello everybody

I want make a Unattended Windows XP CDrom

but before installation I desire partitioning Hard Drive in C & D

For making That i've read in this forum that Bart PE + Diskpart are usefull

The Trouble is when I use pebuilder a Pre installed CDrom is created

Someone may help me please and give me the right process

[rikgale]

I think that you might be getting confused between the two items that you mention.

BartPE is something completely seperate from the Unattended windows XP cd rom that you wish to create.

BartPE creates a disc image that is burnt to a CD and used before you use your UA XP cd. BartPE is useful for formatting the Harddrives as you mentioned and creating the C and D partions, which is how I set up my machine. For your BartPE disc, look up a tool called UBCD for windows (UBCD4Win). This when combiend with BartPE will give you all the tools you need to prepare your machine for your UAXP cd.

After you have prepared your harddisc put your UAXP cd in and off you go.

Hope this clears things up a bit

Rik

[rikgale]

Try

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

and

http://www.ubcd4win.com/

and

http://unattended.msfn.org/

These pages should see you straight!

[lordsamael]

Thanks !

but according to you It ispossible to build a All in one CDrom ?

Who make partion and after install XP using unattend.txt

If it's possible could you tell me the software(s) I need to use ?

[rikgale]

You could use the multiboot DVD/CD guide

http://flyakite.msfnhosting.com/

Where you could put both cd images on to the same CD/DVD.

It is not possible as far as I am aware, to do what you wish. The closest you are going to get is to the the multiboot CD/DVD guide.

Rik

[DonDamm]

ERD Commander 2005 will boot you into a WinXP like environment and has the diskpart tool as you see under WinXP. It is actually very fast at formatting and will prepare your disk just fine with a C: and D: partition. I use it for setting up my test in a VM. If you set up a dual boot DVD as mentioned, you can then use that or the tools rikgale mentioned to accomplish the task.

It is difficult to do this completely unattended though. It is possible with diskpart.exe, but you have to be able to script it and select the volume. I never figured out how to do that unattended.

Otherwise, the diskpart tool is available as a part of the installation process and you could just include AutoPartition=0 in your winnt.sif file and create your partitions there as you wish, and then proceed with the rest of the install.

I had the same problem trying to set it up for a friend. He has FAT32 on his C: drive and Iwanted to reformat it automatically to wipe out the existing Win2K installation. I ended up having him use ERD Commander to do it. It worked well because it is very similar to what is in Windows so is very easy to follow.

[rikgale]

Sadly ERD Commander costs. BartPE doesn't. If you can afford it go with ERD Commander. However I recommed that you save you money and buy another stick of RAM or some other goodie for your machine instead.

[DonDamm]

The tool, diskpart.exe already exists in the windows installation routine and can be used at the beginning to set any partition size and or arrangement. The difficulty is scripting it and selecting the volume, etc as the "focus". The diskpart tool will operate on whichever volume, space etc., has the focus. That is the tricky part I haven't figured out.

Bart's PE builder is brilliant, btw. and the price is exceptional! ) Tools like BootIt NG are also excellent and small tools. BING isn't free, but if you use the installation disk you create from the install file, boot and choose "Cancel" when asked whether to install, all the partition tools are there and available. this is another brilliant tool which can handle a multitude of OSs and file systems including Reiser, ext3, hpfs, etc, etc.

In truth, I would personally prefer to manually setup the partition environment. There are a lot of variables and you'd have to craft a clever script with a lot of "if, then else" statement regarding sizes and existinig file systems and such.

With any of the four tools mentioned, Bart's PE Builder, ERD Commander, BootIt NG, or the built in MS tool diskpart you can accomplish what you need to. Anything else requires more time than it's worth and that's assuming you can figure out how to make it work.

If you do figure something out, please let us know. I'm still working on a solution, too! )