Unattended installation: 2 partitions, OS and documents and settings

[Cybex]

Hi all,

I would like to create an unattended Windows XP installation that does the following:

I (manually) create 2 partitions on my harddrive. The first partition should contain the XP OS files and the "Program Files". The second partition should contain "Documents and Settings" and other stuff that is considered 'backupable' stuff.

What I am trying to achieve here is that I don't have to worry about a new installation, I just put in the unattended CD and install Windows XP. When the installation is done I will have *ALL* settings back! For example: Desktop, Documents, E-mail (I use Thunderbird), Bookmarks (I use Firefox), FTP sites (I use FlashFXP), etc etc.

Do you think this is even possible?

How do I get the "Documents and Settings" folder on the second partition and let Windows know this?

Thanks for any help!

[mls15000]

Add this to your unattend.txt file to move the profile directory

[GuiUnattended]
	ProfilesDir = "D:\Documents and Settings"

After a reload though, it will create new profiles and you will have to move the files from the old profiles to the new profiles.

[licensed123]

At [GuiUnattended] add 'ProfliesDir'="Your Location"

Example:

[GuiUnattended]

ProfilesDir="D:\Documents and Settings"

[Cybex]

After a reload though, it will create new profiles and you will have to move the files from the old profiles to the new profiles.

I was experimenting with that indeed and I also noticed that after a new installation it will create new profiles

Any clues how to stop this happening?

[mmarable]

I don't know if you can stop it from happening. The install is finding existing profiles with different security info already in place.

What you may be able to do (if it fits in with how you're wanting to build this) is rename the existing D:\Docuements and Settings to something like D:\D&S.ORG, install Windows (it'll create new clean profiles) and then move your data back over.

[cluberti]

This should work, as long as you copy the data, rather than move it. Copying files results in the security permissions being applied to the copied files from the parent folder they are moved into (unless specifically disabled in the parent folder's properties), whereas moving files moves the file's previous permissions and attributes over (unless it is across actual volumes, in which case both do the same as copy). Sometimes you would actually want permissions and attributes to follow a file or folder, but not in this case.

Edited December 5, 2005 by cluberti

[Cybex]

Copying / Moving isn't a option for me. The data that needs to be transferred is mutliple GB's, so that will take a huge amount of time. It's also not a very nice way to solve this matter I think.

Surely there must be another way? I tried tweaking the registry with cmdlines.txt, that didn't do anything at all... The registry entries were overwritten afterwards...

Suggestions anybody?

[zeko]

i suggest you leave docs and settings and prog files where they are.

as of ff and tb, you can try this system on another partition with this folder hierarchy:

d:

mozilla

---firefox (install dir)

---thunderbird (install dir)

---profiles

------"name of your profile"

------------firefox

------------thunderbird

then, take the two 'profile.ini' files from

C:\Documents and Settings\"your account name"\Application Data\Thunderbird

and from C:\Documents and Settings\zeko\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox and make sfx to automatically put the files to their location. the profile.ini just tells ff and tb where to look for profile directory. you can add the sfx file to silent install durig the os setup. and optionally you can make a sfx to put ff and tb shortcuts to start menu.

this works for me very nice. i always have my tb and ff up to date. its especially time saving because there's no need to setup e-mail or news accounts.

this can also be applied to my docs location via reg key.

[Cybex]

Hmm thanks Zeko, that's a way to do it indeed. I might use your solution if I don't find an other solution. Thanks for sharing!

[InTheWayBoy]

Don't forget, a large amount of nasty stuff hangs out in your profiles...you wouldn't want to preserve that pesky spyware/virus between backups.

Your best bet is to establish a scheme, and then configure your unattended to work around it. For instance, your core files, like your Documents, Desktop, etc can all be redirected with simple scripts/regedits. Put those on a seperate partition, and use whatever method to apply the changes during the unattended. For programs like Thuderbird, Firefox, Opera, etc you can preconfigure the applications to run from a different location. It takes a little trial-and-error but in the end you have your profiles stored on a seperate partition while the program lives on your disposable system partition. This also helps when new versions of the apps roll out, unless it changes the way you handle the profile redirection. Even so, it's a slick way to seperate the critical custom data from the common program data.

For things like system settings and such, that's a little trickier...I've just gotten real good and blowing through the menus once to configure as I like. You could use something like AutoIT to help with that. It should work fine if you design the script on the same computer it will run on, but in environments with different hardware/software the results can be spotty.

There are many posts in the applications sub-forum that would help in configuring Firefox and Thunderbird for this, and the redirection of My Documents, Desktop, Favorites, etc is done via registry and can be found very easily here or via google.