WinPE Network Boot Image ??

The laptop is in VERY poor shape -- it will not boot floppy or cd -- and it
recently crashed its HD -- so I'm using it as a learning tool for XPe. The
eventual goal is to network boot diskless game stations. I've created
several SDI images using Target Designer, but despite jumping through every
hoop I have found mentioned on net, I still cant get any of them to work....
everything from missing/corrupt hal.dll, to unreadable boot device after
using sdimgr/readpart to create a "ramdisk image", and various iterations
with boot.ini menus

I know I'm missing something basic here, and its just been real frustrating
cause there is no single "start to finish" doc and I'm not sure I'm piecing
together what step fragments I have found correctly.


"KM" <konstmor@nospam_yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:e0IOd8a3EHA.1260@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

> John,
>
> The question of network booting WinPE has been discussed in this NG:
>

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...rk+boot&qt_g=1

>
> In short, unless you license MS WinPE to make your customization you won't

be able to change it to meet your needs.

> You can, however:
> - Create your own XPe mini image to boot with. The image will be

replacement for WinPE for you.

> To create the image you don't really need to start with TAP but

rather drag important components manually.

> - Or look at the Bart's PE (search google)
>
> In any case, this all seems to be an overhead to just run TAP on the

device. Don't you have CD-ROM in the laptop? Or XP installed?

>
> KM
>

> > I've got a device that boots via PXE, but has no CD or Floppy in

functional

> > condition (a very much battered Toshiba Laptop) that I'm using to learn
> > about XPe.
> >
> > After several days I have yet to create an image that will load

correctly on

> > the laptop, and would like to setup to boot WinPE to the laptop over the
> > network so I can get a TAP report on the hardware.
> >
> > Is it possible to create a WinPE network boot image or is there

someplace I

> > can get one ??
> >
> > Detailed instructions appreciated !!
> >
> >

>
>

John,

So, you don't have any OS currently running on the laptop?
Then can you open it and hook up whatever is needed (CD-ROM, another HD, etc.)?

Also, if the laptop BIOS supports USB boot you can boot to DOS off a USB flash key.

The same thing for PXe. I guess you do have this option in the BIOS (otherwise why you would ask about tthe RB). So, you can boot to
DOS or XP Pro using RIS (search this NG archive for 3COM/RIS soultion, I posted a link to it a while ago).

KM

> The laptop is in VERY poor shape -- it will not boot floppy or cd -- and it
> recently crashed its HD -- so I'm using it as a learning tool for XPe. The
> eventual goal is to network boot diskless game stations. I've created
> several SDI images using Target Designer, but despite jumping through every
> hoop I have found mentioned on net, I still cant get any of them to work....
> everything from missing/corrupt hal.dll, to unreadable boot device after
> using sdimgr/readpart to create a "ramdisk image", and various iterations
> with boot.ini menus
>
> I know I'm missing something basic here, and its just been real frustrating
> cause there is no single "start to finish" doc and I'm not sure I'm piecing
> together what step fragments I have found correctly.
>
>
> "KM" <konstmor@nospam_yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:e0IOd8a3EHA.1260@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

>> John,
>>
>> The question of network booting WinPE has been discussed in this NG:
>>

> http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...rk+boot&qt_g=1

>>
>> In short, unless you license MS WinPE to make your customization you won't

> be able to change it to meet your needs.

>> You can, however:
>> - Create your own XPe mini image to boot with. The image will be

> replacement for WinPE for you.

>> To create the image you don't really need to start with TAP but

> rather drag important components manually.

>> - Or look at the Bart's PE (search google)
>>
>> In any case, this all seems to be an overhead to just run TAP on the

> device. Don't you have CD-ROM in the laptop? Or XP installed?

>>
>> KM
>>

>> > I've got a device that boots via PXE, but has no CD or Floppy in

> functional

>> > condition (a very much battered Toshiba Laptop) that I'm using to learn
>> > about XPe.
>> >
>> > After several days I have yet to create an image that will load

> correctly on

>> > the laptop, and would like to setup to boot WinPE to the laptop over the
>> > network so I can get a TAP report on the hardware.
>> >
>> > Is it possible to create a WinPE network boot image or is there

> someplace I

>> > can get one ??
>> >
>> > Detailed instructions appreciated !!
>> >
>> >

>>
>>

>
>