Specifying Drive / Partition for Docs n Settings

[Quisquose]

I've used nLite to change the default name of the "Documents and Settings" folder to my preferred name ("Users") but I am unsure how to specify the drive that this folder should be placed on.

I want to have my "Windows" and "Programs" folder on C:\ and "Users" folder on D:\ (a separate drive, not just separate partition).

I know I can just type a full path (inc. drive letter) into the nLite box provided, but drive letter allocation in Windows has no bearing on what the drive might be called outside of Windows.

I have 1 WD Raptor for my boot drive and 2 x WD Caviar 500Gb for User Data and Backups respectively, but I don't know how I distinguish between the 2 identical Caviar drives in the setup files to ensure that the "Users" folder gets put onto the correct drive.

Any help very much appreciated.

Thank you.

[Quisquose]

Bump.

Can anyone help please?

[ZcWorld]

ok i will have a look at this tonight when its cools down

( its too hot to do anything at the time n im not in the mood to be slowly cooked alive due to the heat and the pc heat ) but i will try to find out how to and give you a reply on

[ZcWorld]

done

i found you gotta have "drive D:" already format

or you going to have a problem

my way was to do this

step1.

format drive e:

it will do drive c: first than e:\

reboot

than e:\ will become d:\

than pick c:\ and install

if you got drive d:\ already format and stuff it should be fine

i didn't have any problems besides that

with two new unformatted hdds in VMware

[Options]

ProfilesDir = "d:\Documents and Settings"

TargetPath = "WINDOWS"

temp_dir = %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temp

Edited November 25, 2006 by ZcWorld

[Quisquose]

Thank you for your research and advice ZcWorld.

I will follow your suggestion and see what happens.

its too hot to do anything at the time n im not in the mood to be slowly cooked alive due to the heat and the pc heat

Heh heh, its freezing cold here in England ........ my central heating is on full blast!

Edited November 27, 2006 by Quisquose

[ZcWorld]

so

did it work ?

ooh

it was about a 33c day here n being inside with two pcs running

it was pushing the room temp to a nice hot 39 ish c and up

it was hot as all ......

[Jethro Bodine]

I'm also curious if this worked for you, as I'm trying to do the exact same thing.

The complicating factor for me appears to be how to do it on a drive that is newly partitioned and formatted and therefore has no OS whatsoever, (no DOS, no Windows) present. Have tried several documented ways to do this already, and none have worked. Per a post in another thread, I'm now suspecting the install CD I created is faulty, and that *might* be my problem. Have to do some more trial and error experimenting to find out what the issue is.

[Jethro Bodine]

Bump to ask if anyone ever got this to work.

I've come to the conclusion that you cannot accomplish this with a raw, unformatted hard drive. At least I could not. For me, whenever I pre-format the HD into two partitions (using for example a USB HD Enclosure and an XP system to do to formatting), the XP install process always fails, with a media read error.

It's only when I use the formatting options available off the XP install screens that I do not get this error and can successfully install. And to further complicate this, the formatting options on the XP install screens do not allow for creating and formatting two partitions, you can only format one partition (being the partition you selected to install the OS to).

[ZcWorld]

didn't i say that you needed to have the hard drivers for pre-formated

so they are listed

c:

d:

than e: is the CD-rom / dvd you installing from

....

but i think i said you could do it

via the text install part

but its a lot of assing around to get it done

its being a long time .. over a month .. cant remember what i did 48 hrs ago

[Jethro Bodine]

Yea, I read what you said. But for my install the only format that is recognized (that does not error out when the GUI part of the install begins) is when I use the formatting options/screens from the XP install process. (The install fails when the HD is in a USB HDD enclosure attached to another XP system and is formatted as C: and D:). And those screens only allow you to format the drive you are installing into, so there's no way I can get a D drive formatted if I install the OS to C. And they also prevent you from (re)formatting a partition that already has an OS on it.

Just so I'm not missing anything, your description above (step1.... reboot ... then pick c:\ and install) means you already have an OS installed om the HD when before you begin, right?

[theles]

Hi there!

Well, for me this doesn't work. I've listed on the following topic:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=88685&hl=

To make it work without interventions, I've made a add-on for nLite, using nLite-AddOn Maker to make the .cab, and winrar to make an extractable package that run a .bat script that assing a letter for the volume, format the drive, give the correct permissions and extract the "Docs and Settings" file on the drive. Without extracting the "D&S" folder for the new drive, the Windows bumps all sort of problems.

If anyone need, I'll gladly send the program. Just PM me with the email.

cheers

Theles