Booting my XP machine from a mapped drive on my vista machine

[Ned]

To anyone,

Is it possible to boot one laptop on my wireless network from my mapped cd
drive on another laptop on my wireless network. I know I can install
software from my mapped cd drive to another laptop, because I did it this
weekend. But now I want to take it one step further. I'm working on my
friends laptop with an inoperable cd drive. We want to reformat his hard
drive and reinstall the operating system. I want to know how I can get his
laptop to boot from my mapped cd drive. I running Vista on my machine with
the mapped drive and my friend is running XP on his machine with the
inoperable cd drive. I need the step by step process on how this can be
accomplished.

Thanks,

Ned

 

[Phillip Windell]

Is it possible to boot one laptop on my wireless network from my mapped cd
drive on another laptop on my wireless network.
No.

I know I can install software from my mapped cd drive to another laptop,
because I did it this weekend.

No you did not. You did not do what you think you did. You installed that
sofware on the local machine you were sitting at with the "mapped drive"
being simply the Installation Location. The Application did not install
within the remote machine itself even though the application may be
"sitting" on one of its drives.

But now I want to take it one step further. I'm working on my friends
laptop with an inoperable cd drive. We want to reformat his hard drive and
reinstall the operating system. I want to know how I can get his laptop to
boot from my mapped cd drive. I running Vista on my machine with the
mapped drive and my friend is running XP on his machine with the
inoperable cd drive. I need the step by step process on how this can be
accomplished.

You have to replace the CD Drive with one that works.

--
Phillip Windell
www.wandtv.com

The views expressed, are my own and not those of my employer, or Microsoft,
or anyone else associated with me, including my cats.
-----------------------------------------------------

 

[GTS]

It's not possible.

 

[Jack \(MVP-Networking\).]

Hi
Mapped drive or any other Network related function depends on a live working
Networked computer.
When you reformat, or want to install form CD the computer in question does
not have in the process a normal live Network.
If the laptop has the capacity to take a boot from External USB device you
can get and external USB CD drive and use it to Boot the original OS CD.
Jack (MS, MVP-Networking)

 

[John]

No.

The quick and easy way: borrow a working CD drive

The hard way:
google "RIS" which is short for remote installation service (or server?).
You'll have to install a Windows 2000 Server. I think Microsoft changed the
name to "Windows Deployment Service" on Windows Server 2003. Not sure what
it's called on Windows Server 2008.

I successfully installed Windows 2000 Pro on a laptop that doesn't have any
(internal/external) peripherals. The laptop only has an 10/100 ethernet
port. It boots off the network. The laptop then looks for a RIS box and
automatically kicks Windows setup. Btw, this isn't over WiFi though. I did
it over wired connection (ethernet).

Might be worth a shot if you're into learning new stuff and have so much
free time

 

[Anteaus]

A possible repair-scheme here is to boot into DOS or WinPE from a USB 'key'
or USB hard-disk. You can then run the Windows install from a network share,
if required, or from the USB disk. You cannot however boot from a network
share.

I'm assuming you don't have a floppy drive, of course.

To run a Windows install you need the i386 folder from the Windows CD, and
you run 'winnt.exe' from DOS or 'winnt32.exe' from WinPE to start the setup.

Failing this, take the HD out of the laptop and connect it to a desktop
computer with a 2.5/3.5 adaptor, SYS it with DOS, copy i386 (and subfolders)
to it, put back in the laptop and proceeed.