Systems Deployment

We currently have several new Dell systems that shipped with Windows 7. These systems have 3 partitions-a hidden Dell diagnostic partition, a Dell system recovery partition, and the main Windows 7 OS. When creating a new image with the Kace box, I want to keep the Dell diagnostic partition and I don't really need the recovery partition since I am installing Windows XP Pro to our clients. I found out how to do this using the diskpart script under the preinstallation tasks. He is what you need to do to keep the Dell diagnostic partition and delete the other two partitions:

On the Kbox webpage, go into the Preinstallation Tasks and select from the Choose Action drop down select "New Disk Part Item."

Enter the following information below to the script window:

select disk 0
select partition 3
delete partition
select partition 2
delete partition
create partition primary
select partition 2
active
assign
exit

So partition 3 is the main Windows 7 OS you will delete and partition 2 is the Windows 7 recovery partition that will be deleted. Remember that you need to use this preinstall task when you are just starting to create your base image. You can't just use this preinstall script for an image that you have already created with sysprep(kimage). So, basically I would use this preinstall task along with your Windows XP Pro scripted install and then you would build a base image with all of your tweaks and software. You could then sysprep it and capture/upload it to the Kbox for mass deployment.

Here is what my 3 preinstall tasks are:
1. The diskpart script we created.
2. Format c: as NTFS
3. Install 2000/XP/2003 MBR


Hope this helps...Good Luck,
Vincent[8|]

Asked 14 years ago 3813 views