[Cynan]

Hey,

I was wondering how you go about installing Windows XP/.NET over a LAN. I have a machine connected up (to my LAN) with only a floppy drive in, and wish to installed Windows from another computer to it.

Is there a way to select this when booting up of the installion floppies? I don't think I've ever seen the option to do that before...

Maybe I can run the installation program from the target machine in its current O/S, and the installation program will handle it for me? but then I figure it will copy files across, and so render my unable to format the partition when it reboots... arg.

Help? lol.

Ta.

[Champion_R]

What you should do is place the installation files in a shared folder. Then you need to find the software to access the shared folder from the bootdisk. Sorry, I can't remember the software that you need, hope someone else does.

[HardcoreGK]

Does "Machine2" have an OS already installed or would you be performing a network boot?

If there's already an OS, you can just share the CD-ROM on Machine1 and access the drive from Machine2.

Your other possibility is to just transfer the i386 folder to the HDD on M1, share it on the network, and access it from M2.

If there's no OS on the first machine, it would be a lot simpler to hit the local Best Buy and pick up a CD-ROM than it would to set up a network boot for a system with just a floppy.

Hope this helped.

[clutch]

This covers the remote deployment methods available.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treevie...bc_cai_rzfk.asp

[Cynan]

The target machine (machine 2) did have an OS previously installed, and in the end, opted for copying the i386 folder across first hand and then converting the drive to NTFS.

I do intend to try and do a network boot type of installation to at a later date if posible - its a learning experience

Thanks for that link clutch, and the rest of you for your much valued input.

[Alien]

Quote:

This covers the remote deployment methods available.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treevie...bc_cai_rzfk.asp

Cheers for posting that Clutch, from following various links from there I now know how to do an unattended setup...well sort of. I think it will install XP itself ok, but I'd like to know more about the options that are possible [installing other programs, drivers, etc]. I don't suppose you'd happen to know of anywhere that lists all the possible keys/variables that can be set in the Unattend.txt file, would you?

<a couple of mins later>
Oh, I just found ref.chm - holy ****! that's gonna keep me busy for a while, reading through all that lot!