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I use Compaq Armada m300 which is an utra portable laptop. The problem I have is that the laptop does not come with the cd-rom. I did buy a usb cd rom, which is useless becase it doesn't work in Dos. There is a 10/100 network card in the laptop. When laptop boots up there is a boot agent that asks if you want to boot from a network. I would like to know if there is a way to get windows preferably windows 2000 on the laptop through a network. I was suggested to use Norton Ghost to just clone a hard drive from desktop to laptop through the network. This sounds like a huge pain to do. I wonder if there is a way to install windows from cd-rom of the desktop through a network in Dos. It works when you install windows from shared cd-rom, but it works under windows, not dos. I wonna know if its possible to use shared cd-rom in Dos.

Any Help would be appriciated.

Possible? Yes, but I don't specifically know how b/c I've never done it before. You'll have to create a bootdisk w/ network drivers.

try bootdisk.com

Ghost isn't that much of a pain. In fact its real easy. You will need a network boot disk with the correct drivers for you NIC card so you can get network connectivity.

following is a link from bootdisk.com:
http://www.i386.com/default.asp?page=pa ... rd=booting

Dement,

The problem is I don't want to clone the hard drive from my pc to laptop. For one thing hard drive in my pc is much bigger then laptop and alot of the stuff on desktop i don't need on laptop. Basically i only need a clean OS on the laptop and for that i will need to format the hard on my desktop and install a clean copy and then clone it to laptop. I want to know how to be able to access the cd-rom on the desktop through laptop running DOS.

Thanx for the Help

I am no expert here but tried to expeirment with what you are asking. I started to install win98se from my main PC to my laptop via NIC.
I canceled the install. but it started. I feel it may work but you will ahve to be expert in DOS for DOS networking. I imagine you will need some basic driver to get going as long as you can acces the CDrom drive from your host PC. I think it looks good.

bowtye

I create network bootable DOS disks at my job specifically for the purposes you need it for, and also for cloning machines using Norton Ghost. If you tell me the make, and model of your Compaq laptop, I can create the disk for you, and have you download the files from my website. Very easy to make, yet so helpful disk. Let me know.

MosDef112,

My laptop is Compaq Armada M300 I believe it uses Intel(R) PRO/100 network card.

I appreciate your help.

Okay.. I'll create the disk using NetBEUI, it works better using that protocol. I'll post the link once I'm done.

Okay.. Here it is.. I put the files in a zip file, including instructions on how to make the disk.

ftp://ftp.pcmaglabs.com/public/itlpro100-nb.zip

Let me know how it works.


Sorry, didn't realize I messed up one of the aliases in this domain. This link should work.

MosDef112,

Thanx a lot for the disk it works fine now although i had some problems with passwords at first. I do have another question though. Even though I can boot to network from dos now, I am still unable to get win2000 clean install. It requires a boot disk of its own, so i am just wondering if there is anyway to do it from the network.

Thank You for the Help

Originally posted by Maliy
MosDef112,

Thanx a lot for the disk it works fine now although i had some problems with passwords at first. I do have another question though. Even though I can boot to network from dos now, I am still unable to get win2000 clean install. It requires a boot disk of its own, so i am just wondering if there is anyway to do it from the network.

Thank You for the Help

Run smartdrive (you can find it online), then run winnt.exe from the i386 directory.

I guess it depends on what release of Windows 2000 you have. The one I run it with does it with no problems over the network, albeit it will run slow due to the massive number of files it copies. Network installations can sometimes be cumbersome because network DOS drivers do not have decent caching capabilities. Like glc1 said, try loading Smartdrv prior to running the setup, it may work.

Thanx Guys,

But can you give me more info on SmartDrive, where to get it and how to use it.

Thanx

I'll redo the files for the disk I made for you including Smartdrv, and have you download it again. Give me a few minutes so I can give you the link.

WOW thanx a lot MosDef112

Not a problem. I've completed the changes, you can download the files again via this URL..

ftp://ftp.omarnyc.com/public/netboots/itlpro100-nb.zip

Same exact procedure when creating the disk. Hope this works. Let me know.

For some reason I can't attach to the network at work. It worked fine at home. Probably because at home the network I use is pretty simple only the workgroup. At work I use several servers and connect to the Domain, and for some reason I can't attach to the work domain from laptop. Maybe you have any suggestions, or I will just try it from home in the evining.

Thanx

Yeah.. The infrastructure at your workplace may comprise of switches, and routers. These may/may not block NetBEUI, which is the network protocol that disk is reliant upon to work. It should definitely work if you're simply using a hub to connect the PC's together, and have NetBEUI installed on the PC with the CD-ROM on it. Let me know.

This is really weird I disconnected one Netgear 10/100 hub from work domain and put 2 laptops on it. One ofcourse is my armada m300 the second i just took to share cd rom for armada. I set them to the same workgroup, basically same way my network is setup at home. And I still get the same error message that the computer I am trying to connect could not be found on the network.

Is NetBEUI installed on the laptop you're sharing the CD-ROM? Is File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks installed on it as well?

yep all there

Damn.. Cables you're using are not cross connects, but straight through, right?

regular cat 5 cables connected to a hub

Okay.. Umm.. How about the computer name the laptop with the CD-ROM has? It is a name containing no spaces, and no other alphanumerical characters but A through Z, and 1 through 0? I would name it something simple like LAPTOP1.

i named it "pc", it can't get any simpler then that. It must be the setting that is wrong. I had "obtain IP automatically" when this hub probably does not have DHCP server. Anyway as long as it works fine at home i am happy.
Thanx

Umm.. Well.. The disk I made is not a TCP/IP enabled disk, it's a NetBEUI interface disk. Unless your router isn't allowing NetBEUI traffic, it should work. If it isn't a programmable hub, then you should be able to get to the network resource.

MosDef112,

The disk that you made for me works perfect at home. In fact I just installed W2k very fast and without a single problem using your disk.

Thank You so much for your help.

I'm very delighted to know my disk worked for you. Please let me know if you need any further technical assistance.

Sometimes the network is already slow or your cdrom is on the computer your trying to install on, try copying the files to hard disk first, then installing from there. If you really want to get into it, make a ram drive.