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Thread ID: 62908	2005-10-23 08:23:00	Win XP - Install	vista (8617)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
398579	2005-10-24 05:53:00	i think it's a challenge rather than computering.	dds (7234)
398580	2005-10-24 06:48:00	Thanks PC Tek, Great Info, I had a look at MS KBASE and the steps you have mentioned work fine for existing installation: support.microsoft.com I am planning on doing new install and MS Kbase says to make entry in the unattend.txt file so it specifys the location of the "Docu and Settings" folder. And to run "Winnt32.exe /unattend" I am not sure how to go about installing in this manner. For normal install we just put the CD and go thru the wizard etc I am guessing that for the above method i will need to boot into DOS mode Get a file created and store it somewhere. I dont want the whole process to be unattended, just get up to the part where it specifys the location path and then goes into normal prompt mode. Can someone advise on this I would install the operating system and all applications on the 6 Gig drive. All data and profiles on the 4 Gig drive. Good idea by the way. You can make a CD that will do an unattended install and in fact I have done this. If you can make do with a combination of you formatting the 6Gig drive and installing the O/S and applications then formatting and leaving blank the 4Gig drive then do so. You can then change the "My Documents" folder to be on the second drive without altering the registry. This will not change the profiles or other stuff like application data etc. I find it sufficient to keep the "My Documents" folder on another partition rather than C:\. Also I export data from Outlook to another drive. When you install WinXP there is no way whilst doing it that you will get a message as to where you want the profiles etc stored. Surely though you only need to keep a backup or fail safe restore method to to be able to recreate all documents etc and all downloads. How many profiles do you currently have? Why not use a folder for each user in which to store what they like? This may be a problem in so far as I found a herd of MP3s in a subfolder off c:\windows\system32 on one system I checked.	Elephant (599)
398581	2005-10-24 06:58:00	come to think of it, i have actaully done a winxp pro install on a 2gb hdd, onlf for testing purposes, used it for a few hours, it does work, but once you start installing your programs, space is tight...... and 128mb ram..... ouch! 1Gb here and loving it, no lag.....	Prescott (11)
398582	2005-10-24 08:05:00	come to think of it, i have actaully done a winxp pro install on a 2gb hdd, onlf for testing purposes, used it for a few hours, it does work, but once you start installing your programs, space is tight...... and 128mb ram..... ouch! 1Gb here and loving it, no lag..... Where did Vista ever say how much RAM was installed? A person had a guess but never do we know until we are told. Battleneter had a guess but we do not know. Speedy Gonzales asked but no answer. Is there only 128Meg RAM on the system in question? You apparently know but I have not had that confirmed.	Elephant (599)
398583	2005-10-24 08:19:00	touché.....	Prescott (11)
398584	2005-11-03 07:51:00	Thanks Elephant\Speedy\pctek for all your help and links I finally managed to do it using a clean install. Just in case someone comes along needing know how to do a similar setup and without the hassle of wading thru Microsoft KBase heres how i did it. Use setupmgr.exe found on Windows Xp CD under \Support\Tools\Deploy.cab Go thru the setup wizard and when it prompts you save the file save it as "winnt.sif" (instead of unattend.txt if using Win XP CD for installation on host PC) on a floppy. Open the winnt.sif file in notepad and edit as: [GuiUnattended] ProfilesDir =D:\foldername Note that Windows XP does not create "Documents and Settings" folder by deafult and it will just create user profiles under the foldername you specify. I learnt it the hard way by dping the install twice! If you want it to be appear exactly how it appears for deafult install then use [GuiUnattended] ProfilesDir = "D:\Documents and Settings" Also note that if you have a folder name with spaces in between Dos mode setup will not allow it and you will get error as soon as Win XP boots from CD and reads the winnt.sif file. So you will need to use " So after the editing of the winnt file on the floppy, boot PC from Win XP CD (bootable) and as soon as it goes into text mode setup it will scan floppy for the "winnt.sif" file. If you went for fully automated install during the setup wizard, then just kick back relax and sip a copy while Windows XP installs without prompting you for any information. Heres a sample contents of winnt.sif Cheers vista ============================= ;SetupMgrTag [Data] AutoPartition=0 MsDosInitiated="0" UnattendedInstall="Yes" [Unattended] UnattendMode=ProvideDefault OemPreinstall=No TargetPath=\WINDOWS [GuiUnattended] ProfilesDir = "D:\Documents and Settings" EncryptedAdminPassword=NO OEMSkipRegional=1 [UserData] FullName="Press F1 User" OrgName="PC World" ComputerName=anything [Identification] JoinWorkgroup=WORKGROUP [Networking] InstallDefaultComponents=Yes	vista (8617)
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