Windows 2012 Autounattend still asking about disk configuration

Question

I'm a huge fan of automation and so on, so having the ability to do this is kinda important.

In this instance, we're naming the file Autounattend.xml, putting it in the root of the boot disk, and recreating the ISO for booting from DVD. I'd like to use WDS, but that's not an option right now.

I used System Image Manager to create the Answer file, a section of which is shown below.

<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="modify">
                    <CreatePartitions>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="modify">
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <Size>71024</Size>
                            <Type>Primary</Type>
                        </CreatePartition>
                    </CreatePartitions>
                    <ModifyPartitions>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="modify">
                            <Active>true</Active>
                            <Extend>false</Extend>
                            <Format>NTFS</Format>
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                    </ModifyPartitions>
                    <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                    <WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
                </Disk>
                <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
            </DiskConfiguration>
            <ImageInstall>
                <OSImage>
                    <InstallTo>
                        <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                        <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
                    </InstallTo>
                    <InstallFrom>
                        <MetaData wcm:action="add">
                            <Key>/IMAGE/NAME</Key>
                            <Value>Windows Server 2012 SERVERSTANDARD</Value>
                        </MetaData>
                    </InstallFrom>
                    <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
                </OSImage>
            </ImageInstall>

Still shows this: should be continuing.

I've tried all sorts of stuff, including wcm:action="add" throughout. I've no idea why this might not work on windows 2012. I've got identical config on the Windows 7 Autounattend.xml file, and that works fine.

Any ideas?

EDIT: ~~Oddly enough, this works.~~ Spoke too soon. This crashes with the error below.

<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>
                            <Type>Primary</Type>
                            <Extend>true</Extend>
                        </CreatePartition>
                    </CreatePartitions>
                    <ModifyPartitions>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Active>true</Active>
                            <Extend>true</Extend>
                            <Format>NTFS</Format>
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                    </ModifyPartitions>
                    <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                </Disk>
                <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
            </DiskConfiguration>
            <ImageInstall>
                <OSImage>
                    <InstallTo>
                        <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                        <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
                    </InstallTo>
                    <InstallFrom>
                        <MetaData wcm:action="add">
                            <Key>/IMAGE/NAME</Key>
                            <Value>Windows Server 2012 SERVERSTANDARD</Value>
                        </MetaData>
                    </InstallFrom>
                    <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
                    <InstallToAvailablePartition>false</InstallToAvailablePartition>
                </OSImage>
            </ImageInstall>

arse.

Tom O'Connor · Answer 1 · 2013-07-25T08:52:56.447

On MDMarra's suggestion in Chat, I added a system partition to the manifest.. Something required for EFI compatibility, apparently.

This, now, seems to work.

So it looks like Windows 7 has no specific requirement to have a System Partition (although it will be created automatically in a non-unattended installation), whereas Windows Server 2012 will fail to install without a system partition.

Creating the partition is as simple as putting 0x27 in the TypeID box for the partition.

<DiskConfiguration>
                <Disk wcm:action="add">
                    <CreatePartitions>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>2</Order>
                            <Type>Primary</Type>
                            <Size>71800</Size>
                        </CreatePartition>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <Size>512</Size>
                            <Type>Primary</Type>
                        </CreatePartition>
                    </CreatePartitions>
                    <ModifyPartitions>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Active>true</Active>
                            <Format>NTFS</Format>
                            <Order>2</Order>
                            <PartitionID>2</PartitionID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <TypeID>0x27</TypeID>
                            <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <Active>false</Active>
                            <Extend>false</Extend>
                            <Format>NTFS</Format>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                    </ModifyPartitions>
                    <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                    <WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
                </Disk>
                <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
            </DiskConfiguration>

Windows 2012 Autounattend still asking about disk configuration

1 Answers1