formating c: and installing windows to d:

[petteysw]

i have got everything down to do this except one minor issue....

i am able to format out both c: and d: by creating the partitions , c: is the larger, and d: is 10gb for the windows installation... then i choose to install windows on d: and then c: is required to be formated because the boot files are required to be on c:.... now with out an unattended install i am able to format both in ntfs... but when i started an unattended install - default options mode - i am unable to select what format i would like to format c: with, it just defaults as fat32, and i definitely don't want that.... because a converted volume is less stable than a fresh one due to mft allocation and such....

anyone know an answer to this odd question

[andrew84uk]

i have got everything down to do this except one minor issue....

i am able to format out both c: and d: by creating the partitions , c: is the larger, and d: is 10gb for the windows installation... then i choose to install windows on d: and then c: is required to be formated because the boot files are required to be on c:.... now with out an unattended install i am able to format both in ntfs... but when i started an unattended install - default options mode - i am unable to select what format i would like to format c: with, it just defaults as fat32, and i definitely don't want that.... because a converted volume is less stable than a fresh one due to mft allocation and such....

anyone know an answer to this odd question

Why don't you reverse your drives ? You could put C:\ = BOOT D:\ = STORAGE........................

If you do that then you can run a command line in your unattended installation by batch file to format d:\ this could run at guirunonce when your in windows so you have a drive letter assigned. This is really the only way I personally know about and It's the way I would do it. Is it for a home machine or business machine?

[petteysw]

it is for oem production actually , part of the reason i am avoiding extra tools.... i was seperating out program files, user profiles, to the c drive, and it worked great except for the fat partition part, i was looking more and i think the conversion will be fine because it is going to be the largest partition anyways.... basically making a disk that does both install and reinstall, and keeping the old user accounts via registry backups etc..... if it works i will post links to my downloads when i finish.... but i am working on this for an actuall vendor so i have to keep some wraps on the details... even though most people on this site already know how to do this... but for some reason the current major oem vendors haven't.... poor home users....

[andrew84uk]

it is for oem production actually , part of the reason i am avoiding extra tools.... i was seperating out program files, user profiles, to the c drive, and it worked great except for the fat partition part, i was looking more and i think the conversion will be fine because it is going to be the largest partition anyways.... basically making a disk that does both install and reinstall, and keeping the old user accounts via registry backups etc..... if it works i will post links to my downloads when i finish.... but i am working on this for an actuall vendor so i have to keep some wraps on the details... even though most people on this site already know how to do this... but for some reason the current major oem vendors haven't.... poor home users....

That's quite some task you have yourself in there. Sounds great especially as from a users point of view.

That means their will be no more work lost unless the end user formats it for some reason.

Hm not sure myself its very complicated. I wish you all the best to get it to work and if I think of anything I'll repost back on here.

EDIT: Oh by the way, welcome to the forums

EDIT: by the way, in the winnt.sif file you could put

[Unattended]
FileSystem=NTFS

This would make the default partition format to be NTFS e.t.c

Edited April 25, 2006 by zen62619

[petteysw]

Oh future note since the filesystem entry only refers to the systemvolume, it doesn't change the c to format to ntfs, it still uses fat,

just a note- that was the first thing i tried....

going to try removing all of the partition related lines from the winnt.sif, because i won't need them....

using a default selection mode for the text setup phase due to the install/reinstall issue and the fact that removing the ability to upgrade a system is not part of sales----

[petteysw]

found my answer to my question..... the filesystem entry is suppossed to be ConvertNtfs, not just ntfs

also it still causes the mft file allocation issue i expected after doing more research

but here is the link to where i found a solution to this issue as well

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/winpr...preinstall.mspx

and of course using a registry entry for the mft file allocation will also help

[petteysw]

going to try the converntfs first and see what results i actually get when it finishes... then i will try c: as os and d: as large block partition, and see the results of that.... i think second option is best but requires to used the detached program entry to run at t-9 before the registry looks to the d: drive for the profile and program changes- that was the original issue....

[petteysw]

so the final answer to my original question is simply....

install, then format the drives then reinstall.... with the paths to the other drive...

or use windows pe,, which i actually have so that worked

or pre partition the drives with another tool

or just don't do it because the issues with seperating documents and settings from the systemdrive are a large hassel especially using the same user name on the next install... and getting extra default user folders and stuff like that... still working on it though, i won't stop