Network Install?


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Ok, i have a laptop with a bust cd drive. i cant afford the ?150 quid to replace the drive. however, i have managed to find a buyer who doesnt mind the cd drive issue as they have a firewire cdrw drive.

the only problem is i want/need to format and put a fresh copy of winxp on there.

can i do this (the install part) over my network?

i dont think i could install using an external drive as it wouldnt be picked up after the system reboots to start the install.

also im not sure if you can copy the xp cd to the hard drive and then install from there? for that to work id have to have ntfs support in dos to see the setup files.

anyone had a similar problem before?

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To perform a network install (this is to the best of my knowledge) you need a Windows 2000 or 2003 with remote installation services installed. Microsoft does offer some Windows XP boot disks, check the link at the end of my post. I would recommend you use these boot disks and attempt to get your external CD-ROM up and running like that. Also check your BIOS settings, you may have an option to select an external device to boot from.

Boot Disk Downloads - Microsoft.com

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get a copy of partition magic, partition off 1GB as a FAT32 Extended Logical Drive

Copy the i386 folder to the new partition (you may need to assign a drive letter in disk management)

format the original partition and use ms-dos to get to the new partition and execute \i386\winnt.exe

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ok cheers. ive looked into the boot disk thingy. but i think ill go with the partition.

on another note, does anyone know of a company that sells laptop cd/dvd drives? (apart from the laptop manufacturer)

i havent been able to find any so far.

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hello again!

ive created a partition and copied the setup files etc.

the only problem is, how do i run them?

the setup.exe file cannot be run in dos. how can i make it boot like it would from the cd. so i have access to the install/modify/repair screen.

any help is welcome.

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cheers dude.

i guess i should start reading previous posts more thoroughly:

format the original partition and use ms-dos to get to the new partition and execute \i386\winnt.exe

hehe. oh well.

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