Installing special folders on mounted partitiond during setup.

[Guest]

I wanted "program files" and "Documents and settings" folder on a separate
partition.
I was able to do that by creating 3 partitions and formating each of those
as NTFS filesystem prior to setup and then by using winnt.sif answer file
during unattended windows xp install.
My final installation looked like
C:/Windows Partition 1
D:/Program files Partition 2
E:/Documents and settings. Partition 3


However my real goal is to have "Program Files" and "Documents and settings"
folder on a mounted partition created during unattended installation. Final
windows xp installation should look like this
C:/Windows on partition 1
C:/Program Files on partition 2 (mounted as folder c:/program files during
unattended install)
C:/Documents and settings on partition 3 (mounted as folder c:/D & S during
unattended install)

Diskpart appears to be different and doesn't give options for mounting etc
when recovery console is used?

Any ideas on how special folders can be installed on mounted partition.

 

[Guest]

I tried doing what you're trying to do awhile ago but after further
consideration of complications, security, whatever else, I decided not to.
However, if you're still curious to try, I can give some suggestions but not
guaranteed will work.

1. Create partitions just as you did.
2. From other OS (on different HD) on the first partition create folders:
- Docs and Settings
- Prog Files
3. Mount the partitions to the empty folders.
4. Install windows using unattended setup with command line parameter:
/tempdrive and /syspart (read documentation on how to use these) to
point to the HD you intend to install windows.

If you have only one HD, then my suggestion would be:
1. After install windows, rename the Docs and Settings and the Prog Files
folders.
2. Create new Docs and Settings and Prog Files folders
3. Mount the partitions to the new empty folders
4. Copy files from the renamed folders to the appropriate partitions/folders.
5. If everything works, you can delete the renamed folders.

If the above solution (with only one HD doesn't work) you can try similar
things by doing parallel install of windows on the same/first partition. But
before doing this, you should:
1. Rename the temp Windows install folders, including Docs and Prog Files.
2. Create empty Docs and Prog Files folders
3. Mount the partitions to the folders
4. Install the permanent/real Windows using the unattended setup to current
partition (parallel install).
Basically, try to combine the two solutions I wrote above.

Things to be considered: security settings for the created Docs and
ProgFiles folders. But I guess you can just copy the original settings to
these folders.

Let me know if you're successful trying this.

linklunk