Remote Installation Of XP

[Guest]

I have come to the conclusion that I won't be able to do this, but am hoping
maybe I'm wrong and somebody here will have a suggestion for me.

I have a friend with an unformatted hard-drive that lives several miles
away. His computer currently has an unpartitioned hard-drive. When trying
to install windows he discovered that his cd drive has died.
Checking his bios we found that PXE boot is an option in his boot order.

I have a home network that includes a windows 2003 server, I've installed
RIS and am confident that if he brought his computer here and hooked up to my
router I will be able to install windows for him over the network.

My question is: Is there anyway for me to install windows to his computer in
it's current location?
He has only the one computer with no server available to him, he also has no
floppy drive.

If anyone has a suggestion that would be wonderful as he is not able to get
up here until the end of the month.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I have come to the conclusion that I won't be able to do this, but
am hoping maybe I'm wrong and somebody here will have a suggestion
for me.

I have a friend with an unformatted hard-drive that lives several
miles away. His computer currently has an unpartitioned
hard-drive. When trying to install windows he discovered that his
cd drive has died.
Checking his bios we found that PXE boot is an option in his boot
order.

I have a home network that includes a windows 2003 server, I've
installed RIS and am confident that if he brought his computer here
and hooked up to my router I will be able to install windows for
him over the network.

My question is: Is there anyway for me to install windows to his
computer in it's current location?
He has only the one computer with no server available to him, he
also has no floppy drive.

If anyone has a suggestion that would be wonderful as he is not
able to get up here until the end of the month.

Have him buy a replacement CDROM drive?
(If a laptop - perhaps a USB CDROM drive?)

 

[Guest]

Have him buy a replacement CDROM drive?
(If a laptop - perhaps a USB CDROM drive?)

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way



That was my first thought as well. He'll be able to do that next time he comes up to see me.

We're trying to figure out if there's anything that can be done in the
meantime. I've never worked with RIS before, but have been researching it
online.
At this point I simply want to know if I am right in my conclusion that
doing a remote install to a single computer in another location is not
possible.

I understand it's possible in an Enterprise setting, but I'm assuming in
that scenario there are other servers on the LAN which are responsible for
directing the PXE boot to the distribution folder.
Is there anyway to do a PXE boot through an ISP to a remote network? Maybe
with a PXE boot disk?

 

[Guest]

Have him buy a replacement CDROM drive?
(If a laptop - perhaps a USB CDROM drive?)

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way



A new cd rom drive is a necesity...but one that he won't be able to take care of for a couple weeks at least.

I have not worked much with RIS and would like to know if I was right in my
conclusion that an RIS install will only work if there is a DHCP server on
the LAN for a PXE boot to work.
I've found plenty of information on IRS, but none that definately confirms
or denies that it cannot be done to a single computer via an ISP connection.