PXE Boot Disk - help needed

**TimoftheC** · #1 22-Sep-2008, 01:17 PM

Hi all,

As some of you may have picked up from other posts, I volunteer on a Saturday with a not-for-profit organisation that refurbishes and sells PCs and Laptops.

We recently had a few laptops donated but we are unable to image them as the bios does not support PXE (they're Toshiba by the way) so I've been looking for a way round it.

I have read a number of articles about creating a PXE boot disk, some of which are a bit convoluted. There are also some sites out there that offer shareware but you have to pay for it but I need a free option.

I have come across this website which seems to deal with creating a PXE boot disk in a fairly straightforward way : -

http://www.granths.com.au/edwiki/ind...imple_PXE_Boot

I can create the disk without any problems (I think) but I cannot really test it until Saturday and if I just sit and wait till then and it doesn't work, Ive wasted a week and I was hoping to get this sorted asap as the workshop does not have a lot of storage space.

What I'm asking is, if anybody who knows and understands PXE and how it works can have a quick look at the site and tell me whether they think I am wasting my time or not - will the procedure listed in the above link work?

If anybody knows of an easier/better method of creating a disk I would be most grateful to hear it.

Regards
Tim

ThomasMc · #2 22-Sep-2008, 01:21 PM

Isn't this doing away with PXE boot disks.

**TimoftheC** · #3 22-Sep-2008, 01:32 PM

Quote:

“

Originally Posted by ThomasMc

Isn't this doing away with PXE boot disks.

”

Thanx for the reply Thomas, but maybe I should have elaborated. The Server software is Windows Server 2000 and the Operating Systems being imaged on the machines are either Win2000 Pro or Win XP Pro, depending on the specs of the individual machine.

Your link appears to relate to installing Vista and therefore probably doesn't apply - unless I'm missing something of course

ThomasMc · #4 22-Sep-2008, 02:29 PM

Quote:

“

Originally Posted by TimoftheC

Thanx for the reply Thomas, but maybe I should have elaborated. The Server software is Windows Server 2000 and the Operating Systems being imaged on the machines are either Win2000 Pro or Win XP Pro, depending on the specs of the individual machine.

Your link appears to relate to installing Vista and therefore probably doesn't apply - unless I'm missing something of course

”

Ah Win 2000, I can confirm it works with XP/Vista and legacy images(clients) and 2003/2008(servers) with Windows Deployment Services but its a shame microsoft are doing there usual of not documenting things properly.

[added]
Link

Modey · #5 22-Sep-2008, 03:48 PM

That universal TCP/IP netbootdisk as linked in on that page is very good Tim. We have been using a variation on it here for a long time now and it's usually very good at detecting the network chipset of most devices. We made a version that includes CDROM drivers, Ghost & Ghostwalker on it, and boots straight into ghost without any interaction. Very handy.