KB196288 - Unattended Install prompts for install partition

Article ID: 196288

Article Last Modified on 2/27/2007

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition
Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Standard Edition
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Developer Edition
Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Enterprise Edition

This article was previously published under Q196288

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce the Behavior:

Allocate two FAT partitions on a drive.

Copy I386 directory to a folder on drive C.

Copy files according to 185773 along with Setupdd.sys from the SP4 CD. For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

185773 NTFS Corruption on Drives > 4 GB Using ExtendOEMPartition
Begin the unattended installation:

WINNT /s:c:\i386 /b /u:c:\unattend.txt
Observe the partition selection dialog box following the first restart.

When using the Setupdd.sys file from Service Pack 4 with an Unattended Installation, text mode setup will prompt for the install partition if multiple partitions exist on the drive. This will prevent the unattended installation from continuing until a response is entered.

To avoid the Partition Selection prompt during unattended installation, add the following option to the [Unattended] section of the Unattend.txt file prior to starting the Winnt.exe installation:

   AutoPartition=1

This is a new option added in Service Pack 4. This option will cause the unattended installation to automatically select the installation partition.

SYMPTOMS

A new feature added to Setupdd.sys gives the user an opportunity to select the partition to install to during an unattended installation. By default or if AutoPartition=0 is selected in the [Unattended] section of the Unattend.txt file and when multiple partitions exist, the user will be prompted to select one to install to.

Otherwise, if only one partition exists or if multiple partitions exist with AutoPartition=1 selected, the dialog will not be displayed to select a partition and the partition will automatically be selected.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

Keywords: kbinfo KB196288