Posted on by John Bain

Adding a Format and Partition to Refresh/Upgrade Scenarios for MDT

Adding these modifications will allow a user to start a deployment in Windows(Refresh/Upgrade) and have the deployment boot into WinPE, repartition the drive, format the partition, and install Windows.

I would call this a blended refresh scenario.

  • This has been tested with Vista and Windows 7
  • This has been tested with MDT 2012 update1
  • This will allow adding bitlocker partitions to System drives
  • This will allow adding Dart partitions to System drives
  • There are no modification done to the default MDT scripts
  1. Start off with a clean/new “Standard Client Task Sequence”
    1. Complete all the prompts in the wizard like you would a normal task sequence.
  2. Go into the properties of the task sequence you just created and view the “Task Sequence” tab.
  3. Expand the “Preinstall” folder
  4. Expand the “New computer only” folder
  5. Move “Format and Partition Disk” and “Copy scripts” out of the “New computer only” folder. Move them to just above the “Configure” step.
  6. Now remove these folders:
    1. “New computer only”
    2. “Offline User State Capture”
    3.  “Refresh only”
  7. Now still under the “Preinstall” folder, Highlight the “Gather local only” step
  8. Add a “Set Task Sequence Variable”:
    1. Set “Name:” to “Set OSDTargetDriveCache”
    2. Set “Task Sequence Variable:” to “OSDTargetDriveCache”
    3. Set “Value:” to “C:”
  9. Add another “Set Task Sequence Variable”:
    1. Set “Name:” to “Set DestinationOSRefresh”
    2. Set “Task Sequence Variable:” to “DestinationOSRefresh”
    3. Set “Value:” to “OKTOUSEOTHERDISKANDPARTITION”

Your Preinstall should now look like this!

mdt1

So now in windows, goto your network deployment path and launch litetouch.vbs. This will start the Windows Refresh scenario. Complete the wizards and begin the deployment, MDT will install Win PE and reboot the computer. Once in Win PE our modification will trick MDT into thinking its a New Computer deployment and will proceed as normal.

If you have any question or its not working for you feel free to ask your question in the comment section below.

 

 

17 Replies to “Adding a Format and Partition to Refresh/Upgrade Scenarios for MDT”

  1. possibility of keeping a secondary partition which content some files and format the first partition (which already have the OS ) ?

  5. This is just awsome thank you buddy you saved me,am simply deploying windows 8.1 like charm

  6. Hi,

    I have my TS configured as above with the addition of:

    – a second partition under ‘Format and Partition Disk’ labelled’User Data’ set to 100% of remaining space of disk. (first partition is labelled ‘System’ set to 100GB)
    – under ‘Install Operating System’, ‘specific disk and partition’ is selected: disk 0, partition 1.

    I ran litetouch.vbs. Two partitions were created: one named ‘System’ that was NOT assigned a drive letter and only visible via Disk Management, one name ‘User Data’ that was assigned letter C which is where Windows was installed.

    I need System partition to be assigned letter C and Windows installed to this partition. Any assistance would be appreciated.

    Thanks,
    Simon.

    1. Seems to be some confusion, MDT automatically creates a “System” partition, This is where the boot files and recovery console are stored. For the 100gig partitojn change that label back to OSDisk, See if that resolves your issue, if not I would change specific disk and partition back to c:

  8. I want to create two partitions c: 75% of disk and d: 25% during refresh scenario.With your method only create one partition. is Ok?
    If you want, i can send you my task sequence

    1. I think this is doable, in the example above its sets to 1 partition @ 100% but I dont see why it couldnt be 2 partitions @ 75% and 25%.

      John

      1. Thanks John for your answer

        If i confugure to do 2 partitions: one 75% of disk and second 100% of the remaining disk., the result is two partitions, but letter C: is second partition, and windows is installed in this. Both partitions are primary.

  9. This looks slick. I’m hoping to upgrade our users to an SSD hard drive during our Win7 via MDT deployment. Would this be possible with this script? I’m guessing some modifications will need to be made. Do you envision this as a possibility?

    1. Sorry I would need to know more … the above modifications are for when a harddrive is being formatted. I think you want something else if your going to be changing drives.

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