[Blind-sysadmins] What's Wrong With This Answer File?

2 Jul 2012

      Good evening all,
I have a weekend job, first crack at it fresh out of the college exam, with a sick laptop. After an assessment and discovering that the owner's avg Internet security trial has expired, I decided to do a wipe and clean Windows 7 32 bit install. I chose a 32 bit Windows, because that is what he originally had on it, and,though technically the processor is 64 bit capable, it only runs at 2.3 ghz, and my understanding is that 3 ghz is recommended for win 7 64. The hard disk is partitioned three ways.

The installer stops at the selection screen where you choose Starter, Basic, Premium, etc. When we choose Premium, it then balks at a screen asking which partition to install to. I added two "modify partition" elements, with action remove, thinking that would remove the secondary and tertiary partitions and allow the install to proceed in partition 1, same result.

Is it possible the answer file is not being read at all? I think the first partition was named "rv bios"; are there cases where you can't repartition except via special non-microsoft tools?

I am using the Windows Automated Installation Kit, with the autounattend.xml being placed on a flash drive. I insert the flash drive about two seconds after hearing the cd being read. One possibly important fact about the cd: it did not come with the laptop. I downloaded an iso of Windows 7 32 bit, as I wasn't sure if my store-bought Windows 7 64 bit cd would work, and with the understanding that such a download is legal, provided you have a licence key. Fortunately I have the owner's key noted down in a text file.

Below is the content of the answer file. Would much appreciate any suggestions what could be wrong with it, or what I might have to do specially re the partitioning skeme. Thank you in advance.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
    <settings pass="oobeSystem">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Deployment" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <Reseal>
                <Mode>Audit</Mode>
            </Reseal>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <OOBE>
                <HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
                <ProtectYourPC>3</ProtectYourPC>
            </OOBE>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="windowsPE">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <SetupUILanguage>
                <UILanguage>en-us</UILanguage>
            </SetupUILanguage>
            <InputLocale>en-us</InputLocale>
            <SystemLocale>en-us</SystemLocale>
            <UILanguage>en-us</UILanguage>
            <UILanguageFallback>en-us</UILanguageFallback>
            <UserLocale>en-us</UserLocale>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <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>
                            <Format>NTFS</Format>
                            <Label>system</Label>
                            <Letter>C</Letter>
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
                            <Extend>true</Extend>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="remove">
                            <Order>2</Order>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="remove">
                            <Order>3</Order>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                    </ModifyPartitions>
                    <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                    <WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
                </Disk>
                <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
            </DiskConfiguration>
            <ImageInstall>
                <OSImage>
                    <InstallTo>
                        <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                        <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
                    </InstallTo>
                    <InstallToAvailablePartition>false</InstallToAvailablePartition>
                    <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
                </OSImage>
            </ImageInstall>
            <UserData>
                <AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula>
                <FullName>Trevor & Family</FullName>
            </UserData>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="specialize">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-IE-InternetExplorer" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <BlockPopups>no</BlockPopups>
            <Home_Page>www.google.com</Home_Page>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:c:/win732_files/sources/install.wim#Windows 7 HOMEPREMIUM" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

[Blind-sysadmins] What's Wrong With This Answer File?

Don Urquhart