remote win98 install

  • Thread starter Thread starter Virginia Kinninmont
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Virginia Kinninmont

Hi all. I'm looking to remote install windows98 (or alternative a bootable
restore cd) between 2 machines linked directly with Xover. Can this be done?
the machine with the drive is a linux box (incase it makes a difference).
(please no suggestions of buy another drive, not useful or practical,
thanks).

any help much appreciated.

cheers
 
You mean install Win98 on a remote machine, then use your other machine as a
remote terminal (to interface to it)? Nothing stops you from installing on
the other machine, at least for setup purposes, then using remote
control/administration to interface to it (over ethernet and tcp/ip),
perhaps using pcAnywhere, for example. Is this what you're after? As far
as using a bootable CD, in theory this seems plausible, but since you can't
write to it, it isn't going to work (at a minimum, how would you handle the
paging file?). However, use of a USB pen drive, even digicam memory card
(SD, CF, etc.) using a card reader and supporting motherboard (one that will
boot USB devices) would probably work too (albeit perhaps not very swiftly,
but probably faster than any CD).

HTH

Jim
 
Hi jim,

Sorry, i didn't explain my requirments clearly. Want i want to do is:-

use the linux box's cd-rom drive over the network in order to create a fresh
install, of win98, to a blank harddrive in the other machine.
reason being, i bought an old ex-corprate compaq ipaq desktop PC which
requires (and currently doesnt have) a laptop cd drive. so all i'm really
trying to achieve is the addition of a cd-rom drive to the ipaq so i can
install on it.

cheers
 
Ah, got it.

I'm frankly not sure it would work. I suppose it's possible, w/ the right
software to access a linux share (using Samba?), but not sure that can be
extended to optical drives. I'm not so concerned about the Windows side,
but whether Linux could share it. Even if all this was possible, I'm not
sure the XP install wouldn't need the CD available after rebooting, when the
share (or any other) network resource might no longer be available.

Assuming that you currently have mininal connectivity between the machines,
you can use FTP, HTTP, or something similar to transfer the CD contents from
the Linux box to the laptop. So you'd have to have the ftp server, http
server, whatever, enabled on the Liunx side, then use IE or other FTP/HTTP
client and copy the files over. For a basic install, you only need the i386
folder contents anyway, but if you want the WHOLE CD, go for it. Using a
standard Internet protocol is just going to make things a whole lot easier.
Or if setting up a server is too much trouble, either email the contents to
yourself, or perhaps find a webhost that will act as an intermediary.
Granted, these last suggestions will take considerable space, more than
perhaps you have available, but it will work, if slowly. Or you might send
and retrieve the CD contents in "batches". I know, not ideal, but desperate
times call for desparate measures.

Once you have the files locally, it's a rather trivial matter to create a
new partition, move/copy the files there, and install from the HD (the CD is
not absolutely necessary for installation, the OS will install just fine
from the HD). But first determine if you want to do this, and how you will
transfer the files, then we can talk about getting the files on a new
partition.

HTH

Jim
 
Hi Jim,

I've done as you've suggested, well kinda. i put the blank drive in my other
pc and partitioned it and copied the cd, replaced it in the other machine.
install was fine with near 100% sucess (apart from a few drivers). still,
its more of annoyance not having a cd drive that i would have expected it to
be but with the network going (samba) it's a bit of a break. anyway cheers
for the help. much appreciated.

cheers.

k
 
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