How to create Windows.old when doing unattended install?

MQInstall · 07 Sep 2020

I have an unattended USB setup perfectly, but as per the guides on win10guru it sets WillWipeDisk to true.

I know in manual installs, if the partition has the correct format, it will tell me that a previous windows was detected and is being moved to windows.old.

I would like to do an unattended install that keeps the previous data in windows.old folder.

I am typically doing these installs on customers laptops that need fixing, so it's very likely that their will be multiple partitions for vendor specific drivers or recovery. Will this be a problem?

Thanks.

zbook · 08 Sep 2020

These tutorials may be useful:
Custom Install Windows 10
How to Restore Files from Windows.old Folder in Windows 10

MQInstall · 08 Sep 2020

zbook said:

These tutorials may be useful:
Custom Install Windows 10
How to Restore Files from Windows.old Folder in Windows 10

This is for manual install. I am asking about unattended install.

Kari · 08 Sep 2020

MQInstall said:

I would like to do an unattended install that keeps the previous data in windows.old folder.

Then solution is simple: just remove the partitioning part, everything in <DiskConfiguration> tags from autounattend.xml answer file.

Below is the sample answer file from this tutorial, step 3.22: Create media for automated unattended install of Windows 10

I've highlighted the part that needs to be removed:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
    <settings pass="windowsPE">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="amd64" 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-GB</UILanguage>
            </SetupUILanguage>
            <InputLocale>040b:0000040b</InputLocale>
            <SystemLocale>en-GB</SystemLocale>
            <UILanguage>en-GB</UILanguage>
            <UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback>
            <UserLocale>en-GB</UserLocale>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" 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>
                            <Size>450</Size>
                            <Type>Primary</Type>
                        </CreatePartition>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Extend>true</Extend>
                            <Order>4</Order>
                            <Type>Primary</Type>
                        </CreatePartition>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>3</Order>
                            <Size>16</Size>
                            <Type>MSR</Type>
                        </CreatePartition>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>2</Order>
                            <Size>100</Size>
                            <Type>EFI</Type>
                        </CreatePartition>
                    </CreatePartitions>
                    <ModifyPartitions>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Format>NTFS</Format>
                            <Label>WinRE</Label>
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
                            <TypeID>DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC</TypeID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Format>FAT32</Format>
                            <Label>System</Label>
                            <Order>2</Order>
                            <PartitionID>2</PartitionID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Format>NTFS</Format>
                            <Label>Windows</Label>
                            <Letter>C</Letter>
                            <Order>4</Order>
                            <PartitionID>4</PartitionID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>3</Order>
                            <PartitionID>3</PartitionID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                    </ModifyPartitions>
                    <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                    <WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
                </Disk>
            </DiskConfiguration>
            <UserData>
                <ProductKey>
                    <Key>VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T</Key>
                </ProductKey>
                <AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula>
                <Organization>Ten Forums</Organization>
            </UserData>
            <ImageInstall>
                <OSImage>
                    <InstallTo>
                        <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                        <PartitionID>4</PartitionID>
                    </InstallTo>
                </OSImage>
            </ImageInstall>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="catalog://agm-w10pro02/hyper-v/iso_files/sources/install_windows 10 pro.clg" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

Resulting answer file looks like this:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
    <settings pass="windowsPE">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="amd64" 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-GB</UILanguage>
            </SetupUILanguage>
            <InputLocale>040b:0000040b</InputLocale>
            <SystemLocale>en-GB</SystemLocale>
            <UILanguage>en-GB</UILanguage>
            <UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback>
            <UserLocale>en-GB</UserLocale>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <UserData>
                <ProductKey>
                    <Key>VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T</Key>
                </ProductKey>
                <AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula>
                <Organization>Ten Forums</Organization>
            </UserData>
            <ImageInstall>
                <OSImage>
                    <InstallTo>
                        <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                        <PartitionID>4</PartitionID>
                    </InstallTo>
                </OSImage>
            </ImageInstall>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="catalog://agm-w10pro02/hyper-v/iso_files/sources/install_windows 10 pro.clg" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

An extremely important part of this simplified answer file is to use correct disk and partition ID, both according to previous Windows installation. Both values are found within <InstallTo> tags:

Code:

           <ImageInstall>
                <OSImage>
                    <InstallTo>
                        <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                        <PartitionID>4</PartitionID>
                    </InstallTo>
                </OSImage>
            </ImageInstall>

DiskID is usually 0, primary disk, but for instance in modern laptops with a large HDD and smaller SSD (like my HP ProBook 470 G5), Windows is in most cases installed on SSD which often is the secondary disk, DiskID 1.

The PartitionID can be 1, 2, 3 or 4. depending on how and when previous Windows installation was made. It must match the PartitionID of the Windows partition in previous, existing Windows installation:

PartitionID 1: legacy BIOS / MBR setup without System Reserved partition
PartitionID 2: legacy BIOS / MBR setup with System Reserved partition
PartitionID 3: UEFI / GPT setup, old default partitioning in W10 v. 1909 and earlier (EFI, MSR, WinRE, Windows)
PartitionID 4: UEFI / GPT setup, new default partitioning in W10 v. 2004 and later (EFI, MSR, Windows, WinRE)

That's it. Disk will not be wiped, and user data from previous installation will be moved to Windows.old folder.

Kari

MQInstall · 09 Sep 2020

I was waiting for your reply, the unattended install legend himself :)

If my boot device (USB) is NTFS UEFI, can I still install to an MBR partition without issue? If not, will running mbr2gpt.exe through synchronouscommand in the windowsPE pass allow me to?

Do you think this is a good way to keep user data, I've heard one can use task sequences but it seems much more complicated compared to an answer file.

Kari · 14 Sep 2020

MQInstall said:

If my boot device (USB) is NTFS UEFI, can I still install to an MBR partition without issue? If not, will running mbr2gpt.exe through synchronouscommand in the windowsPE pass allow me to?

Partitioning mode (MBR or GPT) of the install media has nothing to do with partitioning of the Windows system disk. In whatever your install media is created, whatever partitioning it uses, can be used to install Windows on any MBR or GPT partitioned hard disk.

Kari

MQInstall · 15 Sep 2020

Kari said:

Partitioning mode (MBR or GPT) of the install media has nothing to do with partitioning of the Windows system disk. In whatever your install media is created, whatever partitioning it uses, can be used to install Windows on any MBR or GPT partitioned hard disk.

Kari

So if the hard disk is MBR, I would have to change the unattend file to do MBR install (in the disk configuration part)

Berton · 15 Sep 2020

MQInstall said:

So if the hard disk is MBR, I would have to change the unattend file to do MBR install (in the disk configuration part)

It's my experience a reinstall or Upgrade install process creates the windows.old folder as needed. BUT, if having data one doesn't want to lose or that exists nowhere else it'd be best to have it copied elsewhere and I wouldn't trust the Cloud.

Kari · 15 Sep 2020

MQInstall said:

So if the hard disk is MBR, I would have to change the unattend file to do MBR install (in the disk configuration part)

If you want to keep your data, as your original post implies, the autounattend.xml file for Windows Setup as shown in my previous post is exactly the same, because actually no partitioning is required.

Berton said:

I wouldn't trust the Cloud.

It's not often that I completely, totally, profoundly disagree with you. I would not survive without cloud, in my case OneDrive and SharePoint.

Everything I need is always on cloud. I even exclude OneDrive folders on my devices from my daily incremental backups, because I don't have to think about losing the data. Microsoft's OneDrive is the most safe and secure place to store your important data.

Kari

Berton · 15 Sep 2020

Kari said:

If you want to keep your data, as your original post implies, the autounattend.xml file for Windows Setup as shown in my previous post is exactly the same, because actually no partitioning is required.

It's not often that I completely, totally, profoundly disagree with you. I would not survive without cloud, in my case OneDrive and SharePoint.

Everything I need is always on cloud. I even exclude OneDrive folders on my devices from my daily incremental backups, because I don't have to think about losing the data. Microsoft's OneDrive is the most safe and secure place to store your important data.

Kari

That's okay, why "I" was mentioned.