WDSClietUnattended.xml

[ICTNUT]

Hi all,

To all those of you that WDS for your imaging I have finally taken the dive into this and Isay I am impressed, could Microsoft actuallyhave a decent imaging system now....?

Anyway as the subject suggests I am trying to setup an unattended.xml file that will format ANY size drive, repartition to a single partition and user the whole drive for that partition.

I have got it so that it wil format to NTFS, remove any partitions, but I have been unable to get ti to create a single partition based on the size of the drive. I currently have the size set in the XML file.

Does anyone know how to tell WDS to just use the whole drive???

[Gatt]

Yeah, one of the Microsoft guys @ BETT said something about this - i think you need to tell WDS to create a custom partition (via DISKPART) but NOT to specify the size, WDS/DISKPART then usese the whole disk for the partition

IIRC, this only works for Vista though.. Which I'm guessing you are if you're using the XML files....

[djones]

I have very nearly finished writing a step-by-step guide to HAL independent XP deployment using WDS. The WDSClientUnattend bit is the last piece of the jigsaw but I 'think' I have got it to do what you want. However, I am now on paternity leave for a couple of weeks and won't be able to test properly 'till I'm back and don't think I've brought the working files home although will check. If you haven't found the answer in a couple of weeks, PM to remind me and i'll check how far I got. IIRC I had to be able to do what you want as some of our machines use several odd boot and OEM recovery type partitions that I wanted to eradicate.

Dave

Edit: Did you try the example posted here by 'maniac' in answer to your initial enquiry? I think my file is similar to this one.

[djones]

Try this in the <DiskConfiguration> section...

<DiskConfiguration>
  <Disk wcm:action="add">
    <CreatePartitions>
      <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
        <Order>1</Order>
        <Type>Primary</Type>
        <Extend>true</Extend>
      </CreatePartition>
    </CreatePartitions>
    <ModifyPartitions>
      <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
        <Active>true</Active>
        <Extend>false</Extend>
        <Format>NTFS</Format>
        <Label>OS</Label>
        <Letter>C</Letter>
        <Order>1</Order>
        <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
      </ModifyPartition>
    </ModifyPartitions>
    <DiskID>0</DiskID>
    <WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
  </Disk>
</DiskConfiguration>

This is taken from notes I've got at home but I can't find the actual file I'm using, sorry. Let us know the result.

Dave.

Edit: IIRC it is the <Extend>true</Extend> option that specifies to use all available space. You can use <Size>123456</Size> instead to specify the exact size (obviously!) but not both at the same time (again, obvious - but easily done when copying and pasting bits of code IME).

[ICTNUT]

Thanks guys, i'll give your suggestions a go and report back later today.