Thanks for advice; will try starting it in Ubuntu and using GPart utility. On 2012-07-02, at 7:24 AM, John Heim wrote:

One general piece of advice I would have is to create the most basic autounattend.xml as possible so that it goes all the way through the install w/o asking for input. Then add one thing at a time to get it to do what you want. There is a bare minimum list of keys in the "Step By Step" guide on the documentation menu for the WAIK. There are about a dozen keys you absolutely must have to do a completely unattended install.

When I was fiddling around with automatic installs, I concluded that you had to account for the entire disk. When I was configuring for a dual boot machine and wanted to leave a large amount of space available for linux, I still had to create a large ntfs partition for it in my autounattend.xml file. Then I could have the linux installer reformat that space as ext3 or whatever. But if I just left some space unaccounted for in my Windows autounattend.xml file, it would hang.

Another thing I could never git the automatic install to do was to wipe out existing partitions. I have always wrote zeros over the existing partition table on the disk before starting the install. Its gotten to be just a normal ppart of the install to me. I boot grml first, and use the dd command to write zeros to the first million blocks of the disk.

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda count=1000000

That takes about 30 seconds on most machines. But the whole process probably takes about 5 minutes and there are probably more efficient ways to do it. There may be some way to get the installer to wipe out existing ppartitions but I have never found it. I know that setting "will wipe dis" to true in your autounattend.xml does not do it.

But I'm not sure your install is asking for imput because of a partitioning problem. That's why I think you should go back to the most basic possible install as listed in the Step by Step guide. The "Step By Step" guide is found in the documentation menu for the WAIK.

----- Original Message ----- From: "Don Urquhart" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Sent: Sunday, July 01, 2012 11:54 PM Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] What's Wrong With This Answer File?

...

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> www.google.com </component> </settings> </unattend>

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