Solved Modify partition selection on work provided Win11 image without other changes


Dulce

New member
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4:57 PM
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OS
Windows 11
Hi all,
I have a Win11 image from my work and it's set to skip the partitioning and will choose a drive to install on automatically. I want to change it, either so that I can select the disk partitions interactively or to install on my second disk - but I don't want to change anything else about the installation as work provides many scripts etc that need to run.

Is this possible? It seems that it should be easy to edit the unattended configuration file but I've looked for unattended.xml on the usb and cannot find one.
Although I have found a ts.xml in \Deploy\Control\22H2\ and I can see a step for SMS_TaskSequence_Partition which looks promising. Is it enough to edit this ts.xml file and run the installer again?

I have attached setupact.log and ts.xml (as ts.txt) if it can help.

Many thanks
 
Windows Build/Version
Windows 11 25H2

Attachments

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    Laptop
For a normal media-based install, you would skip the <DiskConfiguration> or <InstallTo> blocks in the unattended file.

Are you the WDS admin, or borrowing your company's image? The reason is if you don't have access to the WDS management server, then this exercise isn't going too far.

WDS modifies a provided ISO and injects hooks into the boot and install WIM's to run different task sequences. Those tasks reside on the WDS server, and the image is useless without the server providing the scripts.

"Format and Partition Disk (UEFI)" runs "%SCRIPTROOT%\ZTIDiskpart.wsf" to partition the disk.
"Set OSDisk" runs "%SCRIPTROOT%\ZTISetVariable.wsf"
"Install Operating System" runs "%SCRIPTROOT%\LTIApply.wsf", which presumably takes the Set OSDisk result as the disk number.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
I am not WDS admin, so I guess this isn't going far.

Thanks for the reply, saves me banging my head on this deadend.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    Laptop
What exactly are you trying to achieve?
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Enterprise 25H2 26200 7462
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Build
    CPU
    Intel XEON E5-2699 v3
    Motherboard
    ASUS X99-A
    Memory
    64GB Teamgroup UD4-3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
    Sound Card
    Integrated
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ACER X34 Predator
    Screen Resolution
    3440 x 1440
    Hard Drives
    Crucial CT1000P 3P SSD8 1TB
    Crucial CT1000 BX500 SSD 1TB
    PSU
    GameMax Pro
    Case
    Fractal Design
    Cooling
    Corsair H110iGT + 6 140mm Fans
    Keyboard
    Corsair K4
    Mouse
    G-Skill G502
    Internet Speed
    300MBs
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    OEM
    Other Info
    ASUS RT-AC87U Router
  • Operating System
    25H2 26200.5074
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS X555LA
    Memory
    8GB
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    OEM
My primary m2/SSD is showing alerts that it may fail soon, so I got a replacement drive. The primary slot is behind the keyboard so I installed the replacement in the secondary drive slot since it was easily accessible. However when I do fresh install using the company provided ISO, it doesn't ask where to install and just picks drive0.

The obvious solution is that I need to take apart the laptop more to remove the failing drive and replace it. I was only trying to avoid taking the laptop apart more than I needed and from a quick search it seemed like it could be possible to either put the disk partition section back to interactive or at least set the install location to drive1.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    Laptop
If it’s your company laptop, why aren’t fixing/replacing the dying SSD?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win11 Pro 25H2 Latest GA build
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Powerspec
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-14900KF 3.20 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI PRO Z690-A WIFI (latest BIOS)
    Memory
    G.Skill DDR5-5600 / PC5-44800 DDR5 SDRAM UDIMM
    Graphics Card(s)
    GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti WINDFORCE OC 12G (GV-N407TWF3OC-12GD)
    Sound Card
    OnBoard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell - various (3)
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    SSD/HDD/NVME
    PSU
    850 Watt 80+ Gold Modular
    Case
    PowerSpec/Lian Li ATX 205 Mesh
    Cooling
    Coolermaster MASTERLIQUID ML240L V2 RGB
    Keyboard
    Logi MX Keys S
    Mouse
    MX Master 3S
    Internet Speed
    600 mbps
    Browser
    various (Opera, Vivaldi, Edge, Brave, Chrome)
    Antivirus
    anitmalwarebytes; superantispyware; defender
    Other Info
    Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.26100.36.0
Companies that use WDS or other deployment solutions will have a standardized HW config.

They normally insist on the system drive being in a specific slot, so the storage controller always picks the same device. This doesn't allow for much variation, and they wouldn't support design changes unless it's a new blessed config.

Sounds like everyone's waiting for the original SSD to fail, which might be soon but hasn't happened yet. As long as the work files are backed up and recoverable, you just wait it out or swap SSD's now.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7

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