XP Deployment over a Network

[Guest]

I'm having a bit of trouble. I've created a small network between a notebook and a desktop for the purpose of experimentation and training to prepare myself for exam 70-215. I using Windows XP since I can't afford to purchase 2000 just for practice. So, I boot the desktop with a network boot floppy and map a connection to the notebook's C drive where I have copied the \i386 folder. From the command prompt, I can access the \i386 folder for the source files, and then type "winnt" and WinXP setup begins but tells me that it cannot locate a drive large enough to install and that setup cannot continue. Can anyone give me some advice as to what I'm not doing correctly? The disk on the target machine is 14GB so I know it's definitely large enough.

 

[Rob]

is the target machine a standard PC with an IDE drive, or perhaps it uses an
oddball SCSI controller that doesn't have native XP driver support. it
sounds like the hard drive just isn't being seen.

I'm having a bit of trouble. I've created a small network between a

notebook and a desktop for the purpose of experimentation and training to
prepare myself for exam 70-215. I using Windows XP since I can't afford to
purchase 2000 just for practice. So, I boot the desktop with a network boot
floppy and map a connection to the notebook's C drive where I have copied
the \i386 folder. From the command prompt, I can access the \i386 folder for
the source files, and then type "winnt" and WinXP setup begins but tells me
that it cannot locate a drive large enough to install and that setup cannot
continue. Can anyone give me some advice as to what I'm not doing correctly?
The disk on the target machine is 14GB so I know it's definitely large
enough.

 

[Guest]

No, it's standard with the IDE controller. No SCSI components are installed. I can create XP boot floppies and install that way, but across the network, it's like you say, the HD isn't being recognised or something. Very odd. I've never come across this problem before.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I'm having a bit of trouble. I've created a small network between a

notebook and a desktop for the purpose of experimentation and training to
prepare myself for exam 70-215. I using Windows XP since I can't afford to
purchase 2000 just for practice. So, I boot the desktop with a network boot
floppy and map a connection to the notebook's C drive where I have copied
the \i386 folder. From the command prompt, I can access the \i386 folder for
the source files, and then type "winnt" and WinXP setup begins but tells me
that it cannot locate a drive large enough to install and that setup cannot
continue. Can anyone give me some advice as to what I'm not doing correctly?
The disk on the target machine is 14GB so I know it's definitely large
enough.
=================================
If you boot your machine with a network boot disk then the WinXP
installation procedure won't be able to access NTFS drives. You must create
a FAT32 partition. Later on you can convert it back to NTFS.

 

[Guest]

If you are certain that your system is compliant, then save time and don't stuff around by installing from the Network. The data transfer rate will take hours

Copy the I386 folder onto your Desktop Hard Drive from the Laptop. If the desktop doesn't have an operating system then

Once it's done use a floppy startup disk, make sure it has SMARTDRV.EXE copied onto it, boot to DO

type in A:\SMARTDRV.EX

Then type in C:\I386\WINNT.EX

If the desktop does have an operating system then boot up to Window

Open My Computer
Go to C:\I38
run WINNT32.EX

off you go: it will finish a whole lot quicker

 

[Patrick J. LoPresti]

What are you talking about? A network install on a modern machine and
a 100M network takes about 30 minutes. And it does not require
manually copying anything to the hard drive, which is important if you
are installing more than one machine...

- Pat
http://unattended.sourceforge.net/