SysPrep changes drive letters

[Jeremy Mlazovsky]

We use the option in unattend.txt to re-assign the
location of the "Documents and Settings" folder so that it
is at "D:\Documents and Settings" instead of on C: (the
system drive).

Our problem is this: On a number of machines, usually
those with a ZIP drive or a Smart Card Reader, after
restoring an image and rebooting, SysPrep re-assigns the
drive letters.

This causes us some real problems because all of a sudden
Windows is expecting the profiles folder on D:, but now
the SmartCard Reader or the ZIP drive or assigned D:
(usually the original D: volume is assigned E.

When you boot into Windows after SysPrep, of course you
receive error message about the missing profiles. If you
try to open Disk Management MMC snap-in, it barfs because
it has no idea where %TMP% and %TEMP% point to and cannot
save the temp files Disk Manager needs to run. Under
certain conditions the console version works, but it is
not as intuitive.

Also, as you can imagine, running the console-based
version of DiskPart in a Windows PE session only re-
assigns the drive letters for the Windows PE session.

Is there any way to get SysPrep to leave the drive letters
assignments alone or something along those lines?

Thanks.

Jeremy Mlazovsky
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Scott McArthur [MSFT]]

Jeremy,

Couple of factors here. We don't officially support running Sysprep on a
system that has multiple drives. You can do it but we don't support it.
Sysprep will also reset mounteddevices which is what contains the drive
letters. You could probably script this post setup using diskpart. You
can use this to assign driver letters in a scripted fashion

Scott McArthur[MS]
Microsoft Windows Server Setup Support
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
--------------------
| Content-Class: urn:content-classes:message
| From: "Jeremy Mlazovsky" <[email protected]>
| Sender: "Jeremy Mlazovsky" <[email protected]>
| Subject: SysPrep changes drive letters
| Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 08:33:28 -0800
| Lines: 34
| Message-ID: <[email protected]>
| MIME-Version: 1.0
| Content-Type: text/plain;
| charset="iso-8859-1"
| Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
| X-Newsreader: Microsoft CDO for Windows 2000
| X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4910.0300
| Thread-Index: AcOfA4xUvLKEEH4kR1S3IjoiZ8suQA==
| Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment
| Path: cpmsftngxa06.phx.gbl
| Xref: cpmsftngxa06.phx.gbl
microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment:90141
| NNTP-Posting-Host: TK2MSFTNGXA09 10.40.1.161
| X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment
|
| We use the option in unattend.txt to re-assign the
| location of the "Documents and Settings" folder so that it
| is at "D:\Documents and Settings" instead of on C: (the
| system drive).
|
| Our problem is this: On a number of machines, usually
| those with a ZIP drive or a Smart Card Reader, after
| restoring an image and rebooting, SysPrep re-assigns the
| drive letters.
|
| This causes us some real problems because all of a sudden
| Windows is expecting the profiles folder on D:, but now
| the SmartCard Reader or the ZIP drive or assigned D:
| (usually the original D: volume is assigned E.
|
| When you boot into Windows after SysPrep, of course you
| receive error message about the missing profiles. If you
| try to open Disk Management MMC snap-in, it barfs because
| it has no idea where %TMP% and %TEMP% point to and cannot
| save the temp files Disk Manager needs to run. Under
| certain conditions the console version works, but it is
| not as intuitive.
|
| Also, as you can imagine, running the console-based
| version of DiskPart in a Windows PE session only re-
| assigns the drive letters for the Windows PE session.
|
| Is there any way to get SysPrep to leave the drive letters
| assignments alone or something along those lines?
|
| Thanks.
|
| Jeremy Mlazovsky
| (e-mail address removed)
|

 

[Jeremy Mlazovsky]

I wish I had some way of knowing ahead of time that this
is an unsupported process. *sigh*

Thanks for the tip. I'll look into scripting DiskPart.
If I figure out a working script I'll post it.

-----Original Message-----
Jeremy,

Couple of factors here. We don't officially support running Sysprep on a
system that has multiple drives. You can do it but we don't support it.
Sysprep will also reset mounteddevices which is what contains the drive
letters. You could probably script this post setup using diskpart. You
can use this to assign driver letters in a scripted fashion

Scott McArthur[MS]
Microsoft Windows Server Setup Support
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights