stupid question - auto formating?

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does a full unattended install start right from booting to the cd? my questions is, will it delete all partions and install windows on the whole drive, or is this the only part i actually manually do, the partioning and formating?

i am asking because my drive is devided into 2, one side i store my files and the other is for OS/programs

[Synapse]

I believe you can hit use an exsisting partition and select a partition to install to, just make sure your winnt.sif file is set up correctly so it doesn't auto partition and format.

Values you want to check:

[Data]

AutoPartition=1 or 0 ( 1 is on 0 is off)

[unattended]

Repartition=No

I'm not to sure how accurate this is, as i prefer to format and repartition my drive whenever i do a reinstall. You really should backup the data on the second partition incase it does.

check the winnt.sif file refrence in the unattended section for more info.

http://unattended.msfn.org/global/reference.htm

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thanks for the help, can anyone confirm this?

[Scubar]

if ur going to do unattended and u want to customise it abit more than what u can using nlite then i suggest u download the MS Deployment toolkit and read the help file with all the different options available.

and yes those are correct

AutoPartion will just try to install windows onto any partition that it hasnt already been detected on.

Repartion Specifies whether to delete all partitions on the first drive of the client computer and to reformat the drive with the NTFS file system.

[Jito463]

Yet another option is just to unplug all the drives you *won't* be installing Windows onto and just let setup format/repartition the drive you will be installing Windows on.

Edited July 1, 2005 by Jito463

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Yet another option is just to unplug all the drives you *won't* be installing Windows onto and just let setup format/repartition the drive you will be installing Windows on.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i have one drive devided into 2 equal parts, and i dont want "d drive" to get reformated

[cut]

I believe you can hit use an exsisting partition and select a partition to install to, just make sure your winnt.sif file is set up correctly so it doesn't auto partition and format.

Values you want to check:

[Data]

AutoPartition=1 or 0 ( 1 is on 0 is off)

[unattended]

Repartition=No

I'm not to sure how accurate this is, as i prefer to format and repartition my drive whenever i do a reinstall. You really should backup the data on the second partition incase it does.

check the winnt.sif file refrence in the unattended section for more info.

http://unattended.msfn.org/global/reference.htm

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

so can i just add that to my .sif file?

[BrandonS_Mil]

Hey I got an idea.....

How about you either SEARCH the forum before you post or.....

SEARCH microsoft before you post.....

To put it blatently...... SEARCH FIRST.... you know BEFORE YOU POST.

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f*** you. people on these forums answer people needing help way too much with SEARCH.

not all of us can spend all day searching, reading, re-phrasing our search, reading through 400 more posts to not find a specific answer, thats why we ask. so shut the f*** up and dont reply to me if you dont want to help, thanks!

[BrandonS_Mil]

Sorry if i affended you.....

If you had read the Microsoft SP2 Deployment guide... It explained in detail all of what you are tying to accomplish.... I will even provide the link for you since you don't have time to search for 2 minutes....

Deployment Tools

The Windows XP Corporate Deployment Tools (deploy.cab) assists system administrators in installing Windows XP on multiple computers. This file contains updates to Setup Manager, the Sysprep utility, and related documentation.

For more instructions on how to use the tools and perform an unattended setup, read "Windows Corporate Deployment Tools User's Guide" (deploy.chm). This help file is included in the deploy.cab.

Note: The Corporate Deployment Tools are also available on the Windows XP Service Pack 2 CD in the[B] \support\tools directory.[/B]

[DonDamm]

I would suggest doing a quick format of the C: drive prior to putting in the Unattended Installation. That way it will install there and leave D: alone. I've done that for a friend and it is the simplest way. Yes, there are ways to deal with the partition, but you want to remove the existing installation if there is one so there won't be any conflicts or surprises, like installing it onto the D: drive!!! There are many utilities to do that for you like Partition Magic disks, Partition Manager, ERD Commander (the one I like), and there are many others out there, free and not.

[Gee]

thanks for the help, can anyone confirm this?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If you want to Partition Manually

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

[Unattended]
    UnattendMode=FullUnattended
    OemSkipEula=Yes
    OemPreinstall=Yes
    TargetPath=\WINDOWS
    Repartition=No

If you want it to delete all partitions and reformat

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

[Unattended]
    UnattendMode=FullUnattended
    OemSkipEula=Yes
    OemPreinstall=Yes
    TargetPath=\WINDOWS
    Repartition=Yes