I need a means to determine the Harddrive's partition and format status ,that is recognizable in a batch program. I have a setup utility that can install a windows operating system from soup to nuts, except that I have to manually FDISK the drive and then manually FORMAT it before the utility can take over. I want the batch program to test the drive and determine whether or not it is partitioned and if not, use GDISK or another batchable FDISK tool to create a partition. If the correct partition is found, the batch program will skip the partition operation and determine whether or not the disk is formatted. If not formatted, the batch will format the drive, then go on to finish the installation. If the drive IS formatted, the formatting step is bypassed and installation continues.

My problem is that the batch program doesn't know the status of the drive and it will produce an error message and hangs the program, if the drive is not formatted, and FDISK requires the computer to restart after Fdisking. So far, I have not seen anything on the internet that will test a HDD and provide a true/false status concerning partitioning and formatting (a numeric value or any kind of testable value for status is OK). I want to be able to insert a CD, thumb drive, or floppy disk, turn on the computer and walk away, until the operating system is fully installed. Why not use a preconfigured image disk you say... Because I may have to install several operating systems on different brands and models of computer.

wch3120

BTW wch3120 is my signon for another location: BH95051.

After posting this message I located a utility which I believe will resolve my problem, called: DRVREADY.EXE. The few tests I have done so far have given me differeing exit codes (errorlevels for you DOS folks), which is what I need to control the batch file. I actually found two versions of it. One gives 0 & 1 exit codes , the other displays several exit codes up to 255.

Thanks to anyone who tried to help.

bh95051