Remote Installation And Copying Files

[Wiz0fBaud]

Hey Everyone, I Have quite the little issue here. I have a Win2k Server Machine supporting Remote Installation Services. Right now, what this server is doing is loading WIN XP Pro to client machines via RIS.

Ok so let me expand a little.

I have a manufactured unit with no removable media. I'm trying to put an Windows XP Embedded Image onto it. Which Basically just means copying the files over. Right now I'm using a really really really roundabout way of doing it. What I'm doing NOW is that there are two hard drives. I am loading the secondary hard drive with Windows XP Pro basically just to get network support so that I can copy all the Windows XP Embedded Runtime Files over to the Primary Drive, then I change the BIOS boot order to boot back to the Windows Embedded Drive, and it loads right up.

What I'd like to do, is have RIS boot into something muuuuuuch simpler, like for example something that doesn't need to be installed, or if it is, it could be done very quickly. I was thinking boot to something like a win95 boot Floppy that would load me into dos. From there I can use DOS to transfer all the files to the local drive. I can write a batch file to copy the files. What I'm having a problem with is trying to get network support to do this.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how to make a dos disk boot disk with network support, or is there an alternative? I’m essentially just looking for a method of copying about 1gig of info across a network without depending on 3rd party solutions or, taking like 4 hours to install WinXp Pro just for network Support…

I’d like to avoid dependencies on 3rd party software, and this is really all just one big test to see if anything can be done with these scrap machines. And I have basically exhausted many possibilities, so I need some fresh ideas.

Any help or ideas would be ggggggggggreatly appreciated! Thanks Again

-Mark

 

[markdmac]

You can use the Remote Boot Floppy Generator provided for use with RIS.

Create the boot disk:

To create a remote boot disk

Click Start, and then click Run.
Type the UNC path of the Rbfg.exe utility, and then click OK. Example:
\\servername\REMINST\Admin\I386\RBFG.exe
Insert a formatted disk into the disk drive.
Click the Destination drive option, and then click Create Disk.
Click Close when the disk is ready, and then remove the disk from the disk drive.

Then add support for your NIC card:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;142857

If you have access to an old NT4 server, there is a Network Client Creator applet in Adminstrative Tools that makes this a lot easier in my opinion.

I hope you find this post helpful. Please let me know if it was.

Regards,

Mark