Well, I found out how to install XP over the network I need an image of a boot disk though, and I can't make one myself because none of my computer have floppy drives. Can someone please make one for me? Send it to [email protected] Thanks!
Er... scratch that. I had another idea. Does anyone here know of a program that can present me with a boot menu? Meaning, that its an independent program that itself boots off of a floppy, and can give the use a menu of places to boot again from? I believe that the windows ME setup CD had something like this, before it installed it gave you the option to boot from the HD or the CD. Thank you, and sorry for all the posts... bu I really want to figure this one out.
you can add a boot menu to any CD, DVD or floppy check this although that appears to be only for DOS but it also works on XP & i think the first version of Win that was a bootable CD was XP SP1, however you can make an old Win98 install CD bootable by simply copying the boot sector from the install floppy CD or DVD (i have a bootable Win98 CD image) BTW: used MagicISO to extract the boot sector
Thanks for the reply, but I didn't quite understand the link... couldn't find anything about booting to the HDD, or CD, or whatever :S
on a floppy, you can create autoexec.bat & config.sys in the root directory / folder, these files are then read by your system at boot time, generally the config.sys file contains the hardware drivers you want to load while booting, the autoexec.bat generally contains a list of programs & there location BTW: the autoexec.bat & config.sys are both text files & are editable with any text editing program like notepad, the link i posted contains example config.sys & autoexec.bat files[ot]sorry, i'm using linux & my memory of Windows is fading fast[/ot]
Ok, but how would I be able to boot by writing a custom .bat file? From what I understand, .bat files are lists of automated commands that would normally be entered by the user. Could you show me an example of a .bat file that boots a CD, or write one if you know how? Thanks, I'm pretty confused at the moment. Edit: Maybe make my situation mor clear I have a laptop that has no floppy and won't boot from the CD drive (though the drive itself works, BIOS won't boot it). So here is what I am trying to do: - First, I load the image of a windows 98SE boot disk from my dektop onto my laptop over the network (PXE boot) - Then I have a basic enviornment running, and can browse to my XP cd an run the setup program through DOS. This is what I want to replace. I want to boot DOS over the network, and from there have DOS present me a boot menu so that I can boot the CD in my drive, just as if through the BIOS.
it would be much easier to copy the XP CD to a USB HDD & use these USB DOS drivers BTW: that link also provides autoexec.bat & config.sys examples to use a USB HDD in DOS BTW: can you get hold of a USB HDD ? (i think a 1Gb USB HDD rather than a 512Mb would be better)
Tried it, but my laptop won't boot from a USB device. Edit, actually, that might work... I have a 1 GB stick.
what you want to do is: copy the entire XP CD to your USB HDD, to install XP from, & install (copy) the USB driver to your laptop and make the necessary changes to the laptops autoexec.bat and config.sys, then reboot the laptop & install XP by typing Code: D:\setup.exe (i think that command is right) Edit: your not booting from your USB, you will be booting from HDD & installing XP from the USB
Naw, it would be the same thing as if I had a cd in the drive. I can read from the CD no problem in dos, I just can't make the BIOS boot from it. I just want to boot into DOS so that DOS will give me the option of booting the CD, independent of the BIOS.
Woot! I figured it out, windows XP is installing on my laptop right now. Thank alot for the help donkey!
:doh: just looked on net, does your laptop offer a boot menu, my system does if i press <Esc> while detecting HDDs, it display a menu offering to boot from CD after POST (beep) (the laptop may use a different key):doh:
Yeah, it does, and I had tried it. But even though the DVD drive works fine, the BIOS won't boot it, and I think I know why. When I took it out to re-seat it, I noticed that it was a Toshiba. Kind of ironic, because it is an IBM laptop and Toshiba is competing against them. So the DVD drive must be a replacement, and sin'ce its not an IBM drive the BIOS won't boot. Anyways, I booted a Windows 98SE boot disk image off of my network, and was able to access the windows XP CD from DOS. The first time I forgot to turn on smartdrive and the installation hung, but now it's installing fine
