Using the Syspart Method to Preinstall WindowsWhen

Using the Syspart Method to Preinstall Windows
When you use the Syspart method, you stop the installation of Windows after the file-copy phase of Setup, duplicate the hard disk, and then complete Windows Setup on each destination computer built from the duplicate hard disks. For more information on the Setup process, see Stages of Windows Setup.

The Syspart method does take less time than running Winnt32.exe on every computer. However, because both the text-mode and GUI-mode phases of Setup must run on each destination computer, this legacy technique is more time-consuming than duplicating a fully installed version of Windows onto one or more destination computers, as described in Creating a Master Installation and Placing the Base Operating System on the Destination Computers.

Use two hard disks, with a primary partition on the clean, newly formatted destination hard disk. The destination hard disk does not need to be physically installed in the master computer; instead, you can access the destination hard disk through a network connection.

Important

Winnt.exe does not have the Syspart command-line option. You must use Winnt32.exe.
Run the winnt32 /sysprep command from a computer already running Windows 2000, Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional, or Windows 2002 Server. You cannot use this command-line option on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, or 64-bit editions of Windows.
To create a hardware-independent snapshot of Windows files

Choose a computer to use as the master computer. The master computer must use Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional, or Windows 2002 Server.
Start the master computer and connect to the preinstallation distribution folder.
Start Windows Setup, and then click Start, click Run, and then type:
Winnt32 /Unattend:Unattend.txt /s:install_source /Syspart:system_drive2 /tempdrive:system_drive2

where:

Unattend.txt
Specifies the answer file used for unattended Setup. It provides answers to some or all of the prompts the end user normally responds to during Setup. Using an answer file is optional when creating the master installation.
install_source
Specifies the location of the Windows files. You can specify multiple /s options if you want to install from multiple sources simultaneously.
system_drive2
Specifies the system partition of a second hard disk on which you preinstall Windows and applications.
Because the /syspart and /tempdrive options reference the same drive, Windows is installed on the primary partition of a that hard disk.

Important

The /syspart option for Winnt32.exe is only run from a computer already running Windows 2000, Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional, or Windows 2002 Server. You cannot use this command-line option on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, or 64-bit editions of Windows.
If you use the /tempdrive option, make sure you have sufficient free disk space on your second drive to install both Windows and your applications.
After Setup copies files to the hard disk, shut down the computer.
Remove the hard disk from the computer, and then use disk-duplicating equipment or software to make copies of the hard disk.
Install a duplicated hard disk into a destination computer.
Start the destination computer and complete Windows Setup.
Run Sysprep, with the -nosidgen option, to prepare the computer for the end user.
For more information about Sysprep, see Using Sysprep.

You can also use the Syspart method to create a master installation to duplicate onto computers that use a different hardware abstraction layer (HAL).

To create a HAL-specific snapshot of Windows files

Create a source disk using the Syspart method to copy files.
Make enough copies of this disk to configure and use as the master installation(s) for each type of computer you preinstall in your factory.
For each type of computer, place a source disk into the hardware-specific "master computer". Turn on the computer.
Windows Setup completes automatically.

When Setup is complete, run Sysprep to prepare the computer for the end user.
Duplicate the hardware-specific hard disk and install the each duplicate in a computer identical to the master computer.