Automate partitioning a disk using DISKPART and prompting user for disk or quit

I need to create a batch file which partitions and formats a USB drive. This is to create a Windows 7 USB boot disk.

DISKPART is the tool used and you pass it instructions as in:

DISKPART /s instructions.txt

In my case I want my instructions to look like this:

example prepdisk.txt
SELECT DISK <Prompt user to either enter a number or q for quit>
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
FORMAT QUICK FS=NTFS LABEL="Windows"
ACTIVE
ASSIGN LETTER="C"

Then I would have a batch file like this:

prepdisk.bat:

DISKPART /s prepdisk.txt

But I am stuck on how to prompt the user for a disk id. I also want to be able to quit if unsure because obviously formatting the wrong drive could be dangerous.

Solution

See set /? help. You will need to use set /p var=promptText to ask a user for input. What the user types will be stored in the indicated variable.

Diskpart accepts commands from a script file and from stdin. So we can pipe commands to it to show information to the user and check the selection.

Use this as a base (save as a .cmd file) and adapt to your needs.

@echo off
    setlocal enableextensions disabledelayedexpansion

:ask
    rem select disk to format
    call :showDiskTable
    set /p "diskNumber=Type number of disk to format: " || goto :processCancelled

    rem test disk selection
    (   echo select disk %diskNumber%
        echo list disk
    ) | diskpart | findstr /b /c:"*" >nul || (
        echo(
        echo WRONG SELECTION
        echo(
        goto :ask
    )

    rem confirm disk selection
    cls
    call :showDiskTable
    set "answer=%random%%random%"
    set /p "confirm=If you are sure you want to format disk %diskNumber%, type %answer%:"
    if not "%confirm%"=="%answer%" goto :processCancelled

    rem Create script file
    set "scriptFile=%temp%\%~nx0.%random%%random%%random%.tmp"
    > "%scriptFile%" (
        echo SELECT DISK %diskNumber%
        echo CLEAN
        echo CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
        echo FORMAT QUICK FS=NTFS LABEL="Windows"
        echo ACTIVE
        echo ASSIGN LETTER="C"
    )

    rem execute script file
    type "%scriptFile%"
    rem diskpart /s "%scriptFile%"

    rem cleanup and exit
    del /q "%scriptFile%"

    echo(
    echo DONE
    echo(

    exit /b 0

:showDiskTable
    echo =====================================================
    echo list disk | diskpart | findstr /b /c:" "
    echo =====================================================
    echo(
    goto :eof

:processCancelled
    echo(
    echo PROCESS CANCELLED
    echo(
    exit /b 1

Note that for testing the diskpart /s file is disabled and the script generated is only echoed to console. When everything works as intended, remove the type line (not needed) and the rem before the diskpart