User Profiles - Create and Move During Windows 7 Installation

Open a Elevated Command Prompt and see what it says.

Command prompt by default opens on your user profile folder. If your user profile is on C:\Users\Frodi, the command prompt opens there, if on F:\Users\Frodi it opens there.

An elevated command prompt (Run as administrator) by default opens on C:\Windows\System32.

To change drive in command prompt simply type the letter of the drive followed by colon and press Enter. Use then CD commands to move to correct folder, command CD \ always returns to the root of current drive.

If I for instance open the command prompt on this computer, it opens on D:\Users\Kari. If I want to see command prompt on C:\Windows\System32, I first switch to C: drive by typing C:, then move with CD Windows\System32 to that folder. Back to root of the C: drive with CD \ as seen here:



To answer your question about fatal error we need a lot more information. Which edition of Windows, upgraded or clean install, your answer file (script), which drives you have, where and on which drive you have your Windows installation media when you sysprep, which edition of Windows install media you are using when sysprepping and so on.

Kari

Is it possible to do a repair install of the OS and maintain the Users and ProgramData on the separate drive?

Britton30 said:

Is it possible to do a repair install of the OS and maintain the Users and ProgramData on the separate drive?

Sorry, it is not possible:



My repair procedure, have done it a few times:

• Relocate Users and ProgramData back to default locations by booting to Audit Mode and running sysprep with modified answer file (environment variable FolderLocations set to defaults on C:)
• Do the repair install
• Relocate Users and ProgramData back to wherever you had them

Kari

Would this be the correct answer file then? My install media will be a USB stick and it shows up as F as my system is at the moment.
Move.zip

Yes, that's OK if:

1. You have a 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate
2. The install media (DVD or ISO) is on F: drive

Start > Run > C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\Sysprep.exe /audit /reboot, after reboot run sysprep using this answer file as told in tutorial. It moves Users and ProgramData back to default locations on C:.

After sysprep has run and computer once again rebooted to Audit Mode, do an OOBE boot to exit Audit Mode as told in tutorial. Notice that you need to go through full OOBE / Welcome phase by entering the initial username and computer name and letting Windows to boot to desktop. At this phase although your previous user accounts remain in system you need to use a new not used username. I always use user Test here.

When finally on desktop in normal (OOBE / Welcome) mode, start repair install. When repair install stops after last reboot for username & computer name press CTRL + SHIFT + F3 to enter (reboot to) Audit Mode and run sysprep again to move folders back where you want to. Continue as told in tutorial.

Going to bed, it's half past one here, but I will stay online another 10 to 20 minutes if you have any additional questions. Otherwise it has to wait until tomorrow.

Kari

Forgot from previous post:

Moving folders back to defaults on C: can take a while, depending on how much there is to move. To avoid an hour long sysprep phase I normally backup docs, pics, music, videos etc. and delete them from user folders to make folders to be moved as empty as possible. DO NOT DELETE ANYTHING ELSE THAN YOUR PERSONAL FILES i.e. let AppData remain intact, as well as the folder structure (OK to delete docs from My Documents but leave the folder itself).

Kari

OK, thanks Kari, go to bed, lol. I think I'm a bit tired to go at this right now. Also upset about the Sandy Hook killings.

After moving my personal data out of Users and starting sysprep I have this error.

Did you stop the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service? Extract from the tutorial:

Based on my own experience, sysprep does not always like Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service (WMPNetworkSvc). Reason is unknown to me. If you get an error message when trying to run the XML script, end the service and try again.

Type this to Command Prompt to stop the mentioned service and press Enter:

Code:

net stop WMPNetworkSvc

Now run the script with sysprep command once again.

Kari