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Easy way to PXE Boot Windows

Step 3: Installing Windows.

  1. Boot laptop
  2. Select Bart Network Disk
  3. Just accept all the default values this time
  4. type c: then fdisk
  5. Choose option 3 and delete any partitions
  6. Choose option 1 to create a partition, then 1 again to create a primary dos partition
  7. If you wish to create 2 partitions, 1 for the windows installation and 1 for data then select N for using maximum available size
  8. Select your drive size in MB, i chose 8198 for mine
  9. Esc back to the options menu, then select option 2 to make a partition active
  10. select partition number, probably 1 as was the case for me
  11. Esc out of fdisk and restart the laptop
  12. Select Bart Network Disk again
  13. Accept defaults up until “Identification Settings”, tab accross till you come to the lmhosts option, and pless the spacebar to enable it, then go to Ok.
  14. In the blank file that opens up type the ip of your server, followed by tab and its host name, in my case it looked like:
    15. 192.168.2.100       STAR
  15. Press Alt + X to save the file and quit
  16. Just press enter through any other questions to accept the defaults
  17. When you get to the command promt type: format c: /Q
  18. When that finishes type net use x: \\HOSTNAME\SHARE so in my case i typed net use x: \\STAR\WINSTALL
  19. type x:
  20. type SMARTDRV.EXE
  21. type cd i386
  22. type winnt
  23. It will now copy the files from the share onto your harddrive and start the windows install, at this point its worth closing tftpd32 if you havent already so u dont accidentally boot back into the boot floppy on reboot,
  24. Perform a normal windows install, enjoy :)

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Posted in Windows |

16 Responses

  1. Lockstockmods » Blog Archive » Install Windows over network with PXE Says:
    April 26th, 2008 at 10:20 pm

    [...] You may have read in a previous post how i installed Ubuntu on my sisters laptop with PXE, well this worked great, but i couldnt for the life of me get WPA to work on the wireless card, so after about a week of trying i decided to try and PXE boot windows as the laptop had no floppy drive, no CD drive and couldnt boot from USB, what follows is the result of the trials and tribulations of that experience…. enjoy. If you want a quicker, simpler installation with a vanilla XP check this Easy way to PXE Boot Windows guide. [...]

  2. Danny Wade Says:
    April 30th, 2008 at 12:21 pm

    Hey, tried this - works very well, easy to follow :)

  3. Steve Muller Says:
    May 9th, 2008 at 1:47 pm

    Could you please explain step 4 more clearly. how do you create text file so it isn’t default.txt

  4. Kode Says:
    May 10th, 2008 at 2:07 am

    @Steve: you need to have “show known file types” enabled (or something similar, i’ve only done it on an XP machine, writing this on a vista machine, so cant reference), then just make sure it doesnt have an extension

  5. shon Says:
    May 12th, 2008 at 4:46 am

    is there a bart boot disk that contains the NVIDIA ethernet driver? is there a way to make one?

  6. Steve Says:
    May 23rd, 2008 at 11:27 pm

    When I try to map a drive to \\host\shared, I get error 53: The computer name specified in the network path cannot be located. What am I doing wrong?

  7. Kode Says:
    May 24th, 2008 at 2:00 pm

    Most likely you arent setting the lmhosts file properly, this needs to be done before the host can be resolved

  8. Ali Ekri Says:
    May 27th, 2008 at 11:43 pm

    Thanks alot
    i think you must mestion in last step
    - install XP by Map net drive
    and write the command Winnt
    you must have fat32 drive to cache files setup

    otherwise it will stop at startup & exit
    thanks

  9. Ali Ekri Says:
    May 27th, 2008 at 11:45 pm

    Steve Says:
    May 23rd, 2008 at 11:27 pm
    When I try to map a drive to \\host\shared, I get error 53: The computer name specified in the network path cannot be located. What am I doing wrong?

    I thik your network not working propley so or there is anther DHCP working in same Networking assign the system and confilect with the tftpd32
    thaks

  10. Ali Ekri Says:
    May 27th, 2008 at 11:46 pm

    shon Says:
    May 12th, 2008 at 4:46 am
    is there a bart boot disk that contains the NVIDIA ethernet driver? is there a way to make one?

    there is I think availabe in Universal Boot Disk i test it very will
    thanks

  11. Alexander Wöhrer Says:
    June 2nd, 2008 at 11:04 pm

    Error 53:
    NetBios to tcp/ip hass enabled on XP machine - worked for me,

    Alex

  12. david b Says:
    July 2nd, 2008 at 11:17 pm

    i have gone over and over this. i am not new to pxe install, i have done it many times for ubuntu myself, I guess i am getting lost where it is to look for the default, but cant find it. I have completed the task’s to a t, i have dbl and triple checked the contents of the “output” file, it is the same as yours!
    i must have messed up on the default file, but i named it default, not defaul.txt. any ideas? thanks

  13. Kode Says:
    July 4th, 2008 at 9:42 am

    @david That sounds really bizarre, do you have any IM software? I’ll talk directly to you if you want, email me ur address to kode-at-lockstockmods.net change the -at- to the at sign obviously :) I have msn, gtalk and yahoo, first two are best though

  14. kayes Says:
    July 9th, 2008 at 12:50 pm

    Your tips helped me very much. Thousands of thanks to you for this easy tips.

  15. Sporting Legend Says:
    July 19th, 2008 at 1:30 pm

    Is there any way to add drivers for the LAN cards? As I get an invalid drive specification error when accepting the defaults

  16. Niall Says:
    July 24th, 2008 at 12:41 pm

    After selecting Bart Network Disk, My system just sits on: Loading boot sector… booting….

    Anyone any ideas?

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