How to install windows 2k/xp over network?

SlickNick · 09-13-2004

I'm aquring a 266mhz, 64mb old dell inspiron laptop, and i'm gonna use it for war-driving. Unfortunantley the laptop has no cd-rom, only a floopy and im sure as hell not gonna buy a $50 cdrom for this p.o.s. So is there anyway for me to either install windows 2000 or windows xp from my network, or could I buy a ata > usb adapter and use that to boot on the laptop from windows cdrom Help>?

Thorn · 09-13-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by SlickNick

I'm aquring a 266mhz, 64mb old dell inspiron laptop, and i'm gonna use it for war-driving. Unfortunantley the laptop has no cd-rom, only a floopy and im sure as hell not gonna buy a $50 cdrom for this p.o.s. So is there anyway for me to either install windows 2000 or windows xp my network, or could I buy a ata > usb adapter and use that to boot from a cdrom? Help>?

You can share the CDROM drive on another PC over the network, map to that, and do the install from there.

SlickNick · 09-13-2004

Ummm? No. Because the pc boots from the bios into the windows cdrom normally. You cant map a network drive while in the bios..

motec · 09-13-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by SlickNick

Ummm? No. Because the pc boots from the bios into the windows cdrom normally. You cant map a network drive while in the bios..

Well, you could always boot up the machine that will be sharing the cd rom, and THEN put the disc in the tray.....

You'd need to make a network boot disk that would allow you to map a drive to the other machine, making sure that it had the correct network drivers for the laptop but that's not that big a deal.

SlickNick · 09-13-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by motec

Well, you could always boot up the machine that will be sharing the cd rom, and THEN put the drive in the tray.....

You'd need to make a network boot disk that would allow you to map a drive to the other machine, making sure that it had the correct network drivers for the laptop but that's not that big a deal.

I dont think you get the first part. I meant by the laptop boots from the bios into the windows cd and installs normally. But since i dont have a cdrom in the laptop, i would have to share a drive over the netwrok from another comp and put windows cd in that. But then where the heck do i get a network boot disk that will allow me to map a network drive and then boot from it?

motec · 09-13-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by SlickNick

I dont think you get the first part. I meant by the laptop boots from the bios into the windows cd and installs normally. But since i dont have a cdrom in the laptop, i would have to share a drive over the netwrok from another comp and put windows cd in that. But then where the heck do i get a network boot disk that will allow me to map a network drive and then boot from it?

Well, that's exactly what was suggested - share a drive over the network.

Bootdisk.com is a good spot for bootdisks - I know there are a couple different network boot disks there that should allow you to see the shares on another machine.

You can then partition and format the hard drive then copy over the i386 directory from the CD and run the setup from there. I've not done it with XP but it worked just fine with multiple pervious versions of windows.

SlickNick · 09-13-2004

Brillant! Never thought of just copying the directory over and installing from a bootdisk then! Will try that tomrrow when laptop comes!

Thorn · 09-14-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by SlickNick

... i would have to share a drive over the netwrok from another comp and put windows cd in that. ...

Exactly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SlickNick

... But then where the heck do i get a network boot disk that will allow me to map a network drive and then boot from it?

There are any number of places that you may download such bootdisks, or you can roll your own. Almost MS OS from DOS through XP will do this with a book diskette.

SlickNick · 09-20-2004

I have a old 266mhz/64mb 5gig hard drive of ram laptop that I wanna use for war driving. Its a dell insprion 3000. But it has no cdrom, only floppy. SO I put in a pcima network card and copied over the win2k install cd to a folder on my hard drive, but when I tried to run setup.exe from a bootdisk it said it could not be run in dos mode? Any ideas on how to get win2k installed on this puppy?

Thorn · 09-20-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by SlickNick

I have a old 266mhz/64mb 5gig hard drive of ram laptop that I wanna use for war driving. Its a dell insprion 3000. But it has no cdrom, only floppy. SO I put in a pcima network card and copied over the win2k install cd to a folder on my hard drive, but when I tried to run setup.exe from a bootdisk it said it could not be run in dos mode? Any ideas on how to get win2k installed on this puppy?

Wasn't this answered for you once? Thought so.... Merged.

Why are you copying the CD? Merely map to the shared drive.

If a mapping drives and a Win2k network install are too much for you, you might want to go to a basic computing site (e.g. Tom's Hardware). Most have detailed tutorials on things like network installs.

11-01-2006

I was just searching google for information on accessing a shared drive from a small bootable cdrom, and I came across this question. Thought I might throw my $0.02 in 'case it helps someone else browsing.

Of course this question has nothing to do with Wifi in particular, but it's already been asked so I might as well follow up here.

SlickNick: Don't use setup.exe this is a windows setup program and won't find much usefulness under DOS, navigate to your i386 directory and run:

x:\i386\> smartdrv
x:\i386\> winnt.exe

running smartdrv will greatly (from my experience) speed up the process of windows setup copying the files it requires.

Hope this helps you, or someone else who stumbles across this... G'luck and i'm off to look for a bootdisk of my own, my laptop has no floppy and the cdrom is 3 seconds away from being completely dead, at the moment it reads a bit of the cdrom and then just get's read errors out the a**.

streaker69 · 11-01-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by distatica

I was just searching google for information on accessing a shared drive from a small bootable cdrom, and I came across this question. Thought I might throw my $0.02 in 'case it helps someone else browsing.

Of course this question has nothing to do with Wifi in particular, but it's already been asked so I might as well follow up here.

SlickNick: Don't use setup.exe this is a windows setup program and won't find much usefulness under DOS, navigate to your i386 directory and run:

x:\i386\> smartdrv
x:\i386\> winnt.exe

running smartdrv will greatly (from my experience) speed up the process of windows setup copying the files it requires.

Hope this helps you, or someone else who stumbles across this... G'luck and i'm off to look for a bootdisk of my own, my laptop has no floppy and the cdrom is 3 seconds away from being completely dead, at the moment it reads a bit of the cdrom and then just get's read errors out the a**.

First off, raising the dead isn't allowed here. I doubt that Slicknick is going to be reading this as he hasn't been back since 10/29/2004.

Second, as a help to you, search for Bart's Boot Disks. That site generally has anything you need to make a bootable disk.

Third, if you can't get a network boot to work, then just pull the drive, get yourself a USB 2.5" drive adaptor for under $20 and copy the entire CD to a directory on the the drive once it's connected to another machine. Plop the drive back into the original machine and install from there. Make sure you formatted the drive as a bootable drive first though.

G8tK33per · 11-01-2006

Asshole.

distatica@gmail.com
24.67.101.6

Barry · 11-01-2006

Damn G8t, you just roll out of bed or something?

G8tK33per · 11-01-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barry

Damn G8t, you just roll out of bed or something?

Pretty much.

09-13-2004	#1 (permalink)
SlickNick Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 9	How to install windows 2k/xp over network? I'm aquring a 266mhz, 64mb old dell inspiron laptop, and i'm gonna use it for war-driving. Unfortunantley the laptop has no cd-rom, only a floopy and im sure as hell not gonna buy a $50 cdrom for this p.o.s. So is there anyway for me to either install windows 2000 or windows xp from my network, or could I buy a ata > usb adapter and use that to boot on the laptop from windows cdrom Help>? Last edited by SlickNick : 09-13-2004 at 07:27 PM.

09-13-2004	#3 (permalink)
SlickNick Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 9	Ummm? No. Because the pc boots from the bios into the windows cdrom normally. You cant map a network drive while in the bios.. Last edited by SlickNick : 09-13-2004 at 07:31 PM.

09-20-2004	#9 (permalink)
SlickNick Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 9	Installing windows on old laptop with no cd.. I have a old 266mhz/64mb 5gig hard drive of ram laptop that I wanna use for war driving. Its a dell insprion 3000. But it has no cdrom, only floppy. SO I put in a pcima network card and copied over the win2k install cd to a folder on my hard drive, but when I tried to run setup.exe from a bootdisk it said it could not be run in dos mode? Any ideas on how to get win2k installed on this puppy?

11-01-2006	#11 (permalink)
distatica Posts: n/a	Use winnt.exe not setup.exe I was just searching google for information on accessing a shared drive from a small bootable cdrom, and I came across this question. Thought I might throw my $0.02 in 'case it helps someone else browsing. Of course this question has nothing to do with Wifi in particular, but it's already been asked so I might as well follow up here. SlickNick: Don't use setup.exe this is a windows setup program and won't find much usefulness under DOS, navigate to your i386 directory and run: x:\i386\> smartdrv x:\i386\> winnt.exe running smartdrv will greatly (from my experience) speed up the process of windows setup copying the files it requires. Hope this helps you, or someone else who stumbles across this... G'luck and i'm off to look for a bootdisk of my own, my laptop has no floppy and the cdrom is 3 seconds away from being completely dead, at the moment it reads a bit of the cdrom and then just get's read errors out the a**.

11-01-2006	#13 (permalink)
G8tK33per Asshole Emeritus Join Date: May 2003 Location: Goomba's Booty Boardwalk Posts: 6,150	Asshole. distatica@gmail.com 24.67.101.6 __________________ "My mind is aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought careening through a cosmic vapor of invention." Sons of Confederate Veterans

09-13-2004	#7 (permalink)
SlickNick Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 9	Brillant! Never thought of just copying the directory over and installing from a bootdisk then! Will try that tomrrow when laptop comes!

11-01-2006	#14 (permalink)
Barry Managing the iTards. Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Ohio Posts: 5,973	Damn G8t, you just roll out of bed or something? __________________ Never do anything you don't want to explain to the paramedics.

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