Installation of NT4 from Network

[viney]

Hello, I have the fabulous task of Installing NT from the company Network.

Machine is a compaq deskpro en P3 with 64mb...without[/b] a cd rom drive!!

I have a bootable floppy disk which will connect me as administrator to the network where I can find the NT4 workstation I386 file and winnt files. From this I can start the process of install but there are a few problems.

Install will prompt to make startup floppies I understand "winnt /b" will skip this but the machine will still prompt for restart (which inturn kicks me off the network where the installation is taking place from)

Does anyone know if network install without cd is possible and if so how do I do this?

Many thanks

 

[johncurtis]

You can download full instructions from

http://www.compaq.com/support/files/deskpro/us/download/380.html

Also check out

http://www.ntfaq.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=13866

John

 

[viney]

I have had a read through the links listed above and to be honest for a beginner they are quite confusing.

I get the jist that it will only be possible to install NT from a server machine and not actually from the Workstation (without an OS).

Any further suggestions

 

[LOB]

Well easier might not be better but here's a thought.
Fdisk & Format a 2G partition with FAT16 don't do a system format just a plain format c: /u.
Boot & connect to your network and xcopy the \i386 directory to the HD. xcopy <network>\i386 c:\i386 /s /v /e answer &quot;D&quot; to create a directory.
Don't reboot just change to your HD's \i386 and run your install from there.
Tell install to convert to NTFS during install unless you want to remain at FAT16.
Remove floppy when asked to reboot and it should find its way back to the HD's \i386 to continue.
Use Disk Admin to add whatever is left of your HD to another partition or use some partitioning or imaging software to make HD all one partition.
Easier yet.
Remove the cover and temporarily attach a CDROM for the install. You'll still have to copy the \i386 directory to the HD before your remove the CDROM so you have somewhere to look for the &quot;NT4 CDROM Files&quot; required by whatever additional work wants to see the CD.
Hope this helps.