User Profiles - Create and Move During Windows 7 Installation

Kari · 13 Feb 2016

Those error messages are telling that the temp folder (the drive where it is located) is full. On which drive you have your Users relocated, how full is that drive?

I have never had these issues, and as you can see if you read through the whole thread, all over 1,000 posts, you are about the first one telling that .NET Framework cannot be installed-

urzu7 · 13 Feb 2016

It is a totally clean install of Windows 7 onto my SSD and a totally empty 2TB HDD to which I moved my User and Program Data to so I doubt that the drive is full but rather it cannot be found/accessed.

Like you said, I found it weird too that I am the first to encounter this situation but through countless clean reinstalling of Windows 7, I figured that if I were to leave the User and Program Data untouched in the SSD, there is no trouble at all in running Windows update and installing .NET frameworks.

Kari · 14 Feb 2016

You misunderstood my point. Relocated Users folder is most definitely not the reason why installation of .NET Framework 4.6.1 and Avira failed in your case, you need to search the reason elsewhere.

Although quite tired to constantly needing to show that this method works, that the various errors users get are mostly caused by either the user him/herself, or PC having some other issues, I decided to prove my point once more.

I installed Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 today on a test machine (I'm fully moved on to Windows 10), sysprepped it relocating the Users folder to drive D:, and finally installed both .NET Framework 4.6.1 and Avira, the same software you are claiming that can't be installed when Users folder is relocated. Both installations worked perfectly without any whatsoever issues.

Captured the process, too:

micks88 · 08 Mar 2016

Hello people of the forum and Karl, since its yours thread and tutorial ive read 20 times.
First post here and and im looking for help.
Well i built my own system just over a year ago and the ssd was getting full being only 120GB so i read about moving the user folder and program data and here i am. Having done the fresh install and copy and pasted the xml file i get an error when rebooting into oobe mode (Windows could not parse or process unattend answer file[C:\Windows\Panther\unattend.xml] for pass [oobesystem]. The settings specified in the answer file cannot be applied. The error was detected while processing settings for component [Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup]. )

so i double and triple checked im doing everything correct to which i think i am.. windows is loaded to C drive, i want to move to D drive and windows boot disc is in E drive and file on G drive (USB).
but clearly im going wrong somewhere... here is what my xml file looks like

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
<settings pass="oobeSystem">
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-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">
<FolderLocations>
<ProfilesDirectory>d:\Users</ProfilesDirectory>
<ProgramData>d:\ProgramData</ProgramData>
</FolderLocations>
</component>
</settings>
<cpi

fflineImage cpi:source="wim:E:/sources/install.wim#Windows 7 HomePremium" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

I think ive posted that bit correctly and hopefully you can see where im going wrong.
Here is a copy of the error from the panther file, not sure if this is correct either.
[QUOTExml xmlns:s="uuid:BDC6E3F0-6DA3-11d1-A2A3-00AA00C14882"
-^][/QUOTE]
or this if i open it in notebook.

Fingers crossed thats correct, i sooo hope you can help me out here its got my head battered.
Regards
Michael
oh and if you need any more info just ask.

Kari · 08 Mar 2016

micks88 said:

Fingers crossed thats correct, i sooo hope you can help me out here its got my head battered.
Regards
Michael

Hi Michael, welcome to the Seven Forums.

I suspect it is faulty drive letters; the drive D: as target is often more problematic than other drives, read this warning from this same tutorial on our sister site the Ten Forums, it applies to Windows 7, 8 and 8.1, too:

Warning

If you intend to use drive D: as the location for the relocated Users folder, please read this before proceeding!

Windows "likes" to set the the drive ID letters like this:

Drive C: > The system drive where Windows will be installed
Drive D: > First optical drive (CD / DVD drive)
Drive E: > Second partition on the same disk where the C: is located, or in case that disk only has one partition, the first partition on the secondary disk

Now when you sysprep telling it to move the Users to D: drive, after the reboot Windows might find that the D: is an optical drive and your intended drive D: is now E:, sysprep fails and you have to reinstall.

To be sure you are able to use drive D: for the relocated Users folder you need to set the drive letters manually before the sysprep is run. In Audit Mode you can do this for instance with Disk Management by manually changing the drive letters:

Change the optical drive letter to something at the end of the alphabet, I use X:
Change the drive letter of the partition or disk you intend to use for the Users folder to D:
If the partition or disk you want to use already has a letter D:, change it to something else, close the Disk Management, open it again and change the letter back to D:

See the tutorial at our sister site the Seven Forums: Drive Letter - Add, Change, or Remove in Windows

I recommend to always set drive letters manually to override the defaults but this is especially important for those wanting to use drive D: for relocated Users folder.

(Quote from Users Folder - Move Location in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums)

If you can access the system, the error log tells more. If possible find the log file setupact.log in C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\Panther and post it here.

If nothing else helps, my recommendation is to restore a system image and start from beginning.

Kari

micks88 · 08 Mar 2016

Hi Kari, (apologises for above - wrong spelling of your name) thanks for the reply and the speed.
i think this is what you are after. i shall change the drive letters around like you say and await anything else you have to say about the below.
thanks

micks88 · 08 Mar 2016

Thanks

micks88 · 08 Mar 2016

Sorry for super long posts, I thought as much when posting there would be another way.

Kari · 08 Mar 2016

micks88 said:

and final part i hope..
im sure there would of been another way to do that.. short way or something.

In the future, please zip the log files and upload them as attachment. Using QUOTE tags with long log files makes the posts annoying to read!

You could also use CODE tags but in this case it would have not helped you because the log file has over 30K characters whereas the max length of a post is 20K characters.

To keep this thread readable please edit all your previous three posts and remove the quoted parts of the log file, I've seen them and there was nothing to find.

That being said, the only error messages I can see are a few SYSPRP WinMain:The sysprep dialog box returned FALSE which only confirms my suspicions; in my opinion what happens is that you are telling to sysprep in answer file to move the Users folder to drive D:, but the OOBE boot (so called Welcome Mode) gives ID C: to Windows system drive, then D: to optical drive, and finally E: to the drive you think is D:.

As sysprep cannot relocate a system folder to an optical drive, it fails.

micks88 · 09 Mar 2016

Thanks so much Kari, I will try doing it later when home from work if you think my relocate file is fine
So I'll follow the change drives like you say, change d drive to something else click OK and then go back and put back to d..?
Also I've change cd drive to M, so I will change that in the relocate file.
And finally I am fine using G drive for USB to hold reclocate.xml file?

Fingers crossed it works.

Kari thanks for you help and excellent tutorial, does this forum not do beer tokens etc to say thanks to people.?

Regards
Michael