Help with multiple drives and partitions

[AndyJD]

I am getting an error that Disk Configuration could not be parsed when using the Autounattend.xml file that was created using Windows System Image Manager.

I have 2 x 250GB drives with two 125GB platters. I would like to partition as follows:

1. Disk 0
   • Partition 1 - Vista (C:)
     
   • Partition 2 - Programs (D:)
     
   • Partition 3 - Users (E:)
     

[*]Disk 1

• Partition 1 - Virtual (F:)
  
• Partition 2 - Images (G:)
  

Here is the Autounattend.xml file that was created using Windows System Image Manager:

			<DiskConfiguration>
				<WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
				<Disk wcm:action="add">
					<CreatePartitions>
						<CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
							<Order>1</Order>
							<Size>59618</Size>
							<Type>Primary</Type>
						</CreatePartition>
						<CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
							<Extend>true</Extend>
							<Order>2</Order>
							<Type>Extended</Type>
						</CreatePartition>
						<CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
							<Type>Logical</Type>
							<Size>59618</Size>
							<Order>3</Order>
						</CreatePartition>
						<CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
							<Order>4</Order>
							<Type>Logical</Type>
							<Size>119237</Size>
						</CreatePartition>
					</CreatePartitions>
					<ModifyPartitions>
						<ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
							<Active>true</Active>
							<Extend>false</Extend>
							<Format>NTFS</Format>
							<Label>Vista</Label>
							<Letter>C</Letter>
							<Order>1</Order>
							<PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
						</ModifyPartition>
						<ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
							<Active>false</Active>
							<Extend>false</Extend>
							<Format>NTFS</Format>
							<Label>Programs</Label>
							<Letter>D</Letter>
							<Order>3</Order>
							<PartitionID>2</PartitionID>
						</ModifyPartition>
						<ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
							<Active>false</Active>
							<Extend>false</Extend>
							<Format>NTFS</Format>
							<Label>Users</Label>
							<Letter>E</Letter>
							<Order>4</Order>
							<PartitionID>3</PartitionID>
						</ModifyPartition>
					</ModifyPartitions>
					<DiskID>0</DiskID>
					<WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
				</Disk>
				<Disk wcm:action="add">
					<CreatePartitions>
						<CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
							<Extend>true</Extend>
							<Order>1</Order>
							<Size>119237</Size>
							<Type>Primary</Type>
						</CreatePartition>
						<CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
							<Order>2</Order>
							<Type>Extended</Type>
						</CreatePartition>
						<CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
							<Order>3</Order>
							<Type>Logical</Type>
						</CreatePartition>
					</CreatePartitions>
					<ModifyPartitions>
						<ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
							<Active>false</Active>
							<Extend>false</Extend>
							<Format>NTFS</Format>
							<Letter>F</Letter>
							<Order>1</Order>
							<PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
							<Label>Virtual</Label>
						</ModifyPartition>
						<ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
							<Active>false</Active>
							<Extend>false</Extend>
							<Format>NTFS</Format>
							<Letter>G</Letter>
							<Order>3</Order>
							<PartitionID>2</PartitionID>
							<Label>Images</Label>
						</ModifyPartition>
					</ModifyPartitions>
					<DiskID>1</DiskID>
					<WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
				</Disk>
			</DiskConfiguration>

Has anbody any idea why this is failing?

[FireGeier]

Hello AndyJD,

I don't know if this will troubleshoot the whole problem but for your second disk there is something missing in your xml:

This is yours:

				   <CreatePartitions>
						<CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
							<Extend>true</Extend>
							<Order>1</Order>
							<Size>119237</Size>
							<Type>Primary</Type>
						</CreatePartition>
						<CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
							<Order>2</Order>
							<Type>Extended</Type>
						</CreatePartition>
						<CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
							<Order>3</Order>
							<Type>Logical</Type>
						</CreatePartition>
					</CreatePartitions>

You've defined size AND extend for the first partition, which will not work. You need to define size OR extend tag. And for the second partition you've defined neather size nor extend. It should look like this:

<CreatePartitions>
						<CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
							<Order>1</Order>
							<Size>119237</Size>
							<Type>Primary</Type>
						</CreatePartition>
						<CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
							<Extend>true</Extend>
							<Order>2</Order>
							<Type>Extended</Type>
						</CreatePartition>
						<CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
							<Order>3</Order>
							<Extend>true</Extend>
							<Type>Logical</Type>
						</CreatePartition>
					</CreatePartitions>

Regards,

Martin

[AndyJD]

Well spotted! It's amazing how much you can look at something and you don't notice a problem. I am sure that was the problem. Unfortunately I can't test it now as I had to get my system up and running. By hook and by crook, I got it sorted. Just wish I had noticed that error you spotted. Thanks again

Edited March 12, 2007 by AndyJD

[AndyJD]

Managed to test this on a another computer, this time with just one hard drive. Still doesn't work though What does happen though if after I have let it run and fail, if I take the disk configuration section out, the autounattend file does execute. The failed attempt has created the three partitions as follows:

Partition 1 - Vista (C:)

Partition 2 - Programs (D:)

Partition 3 - Unallocated

There I can create the logical partition when running setup. It's like it doesn't want to create two logical partitions in an extended partition.

[FireGeier]

Hello AndyJD!

I'm pretty sure, that there is a bug in Setup integrated partitioning. It works fine for me here if I just create 2 Partitions. If I start to create a third one it starts to fail, if I'm using extend tag. It does not fail if I set the size manually for the third partition, but this does not make any sense.

So here is "my" workaround to create 3 Partitions:

<DiskConfiguration>
				<Disk wcm:action="add">
					<CreatePartitions>
						<CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
							<Order>1</Order>
							<Size>25000</Size>
							<Type>Primary</Type>
						</CreatePartition>
						<CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
							<Extend>true</Extend>
							<Order>2</Order>
							<Type>Extended</Type>
						</CreatePartition>
						<CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
							<Extend>false</Extend>
							<Order>3</Order>
							<Type>Logical</Type>
							<Size>70000</Size>
						</CreatePartition>
						<CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
							<Size>10</Size>
							<Order>4</Order>
							<Type>Logical</Type>
						</CreatePartition>
					</CreatePartitions>
					<ModifyPartitions>
						<ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
							<Active>true</Active>
							<Extend>false</Extend>
							<Format>NTFS</Format>
							<Label>Vista_OS</Label>
							<Letter>C</Letter>
							<Order>1</Order>
							<PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
						</ModifyPartition>
						<ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
							<Active>false</Active>
							<Extend>false</Extend>
							<Format>NTFS</Format>
							<Label>Programme</Label>
							<Letter>D</Letter>
							<Order>2</Order>
							<PartitionID>2</PartitionID>
						</ModifyPartition>
						<ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
							<PartitionID>3</PartitionID>
							<Order>3</Order>
							<Label>Daten</Label>
							<Format>NTFS</Format>
							<Active>false</Active>
							<Extend>true</Extend>
							<Letter>E</Letter>
						</ModifyPartition>
					</ModifyPartitions>
					<DiskID>0</DiskID>
					<WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
				</Disk>
</DiskConfiguration>

So the idea of this workaround is, that you're creating a third partition with small size and extend this third partition using modify partition.

Hope that'll help you out.

This seems to be a bug, but not 100% sure.

Regards,

Martin

[AndyJD]

Yes I suspect it is a bug too Martin. Thanks for your suggestion. I will give it a try tomorrow hopefully