Installing Windows XP from a Network Share folder

Hi all,

Upon checking the Microsoft website, I saw this:

Over a network connection, unattended setup only supports the upgrading of an operating system; you cannot perform a clean installation on a computer that does not already have an operating system installed.

That quote is from, this page here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/depovg/depxpii.mspx#EFD

I'm a little confused here. I thought that it was possible to perform a clean installation of Windows XP from a network share (for example, in a workgroup environment).

I know an upgrade can be done over a network share, but can a clean install be done also? When I say clean, I specifically mean installing XP from a network share onto a system with no pre-existing operating system installed, in other words a "blank" system - using a DOS network boot disk.

If it can be done, then surely the winnt /s:\sourcepath command could be used to perform the install, is this correct?

However, according to Microsoft, it's not possible, unless I've totally misunderstood what Microsoft are saying.

I'd be grateful if someone could clarify this for me please.

Thanks very much,

Kyza.

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sprkymrk

As far as I can tell it should work as long as you also specify the /u:answer file as well. I have never tested that theory however. If I find out anything else I will post back.

Kyza

Does anybody know?

Silver Bullet

That is what RIS is all about. Installing from a network share on the RIS server. There are no requirements to have an OS on the destination PC to use RIS either. Simply boot to the network that the RIS server resides on and voila.

So to answer your question, yes you can install from a network share.

Kyza

Silver Bullet, thanks for the reply, but I was specifically asking about installing Windows XP remotely from within a workgroup environment. Not within a domain environment, where RIS could be an option.

However since posting my question, I asked my tutor about this and he just got back to me with the following answer:

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"As long as the Boot disk also contains drivers for the network card then this can be done. You will also have to map a drive in DOS so that the system you’re installing on knows how to find the installation folder.

For example if you have shared the installation files in a folder called ‘share’ on a server called ‘server01’, the correct use of the command would be;

net use x: \\server01\share - which would make use of the drive letter x.

You can then use the same path when using the /s:sourcepath switch with WINNT."

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So the answer is yes - it can be done.

Kyza

Breadfan

The only reason I can think of that an over the network method supports an upgrade and not a clean install is that you must use winnt.exe or winnt32.exe to install from the i386 directory and they must have an OS installed in order to use either of those 2 commands.

for a computer with no OS installed on a net share sysprep or RIS is the only way to go.

Hope this helps

sprkymrk

Breadfan wrote:

The only reason I can think of that an over the network method supports an upgrade and not a clean install is that you must use winnt.exe or winnt32.exe to install from the i386 directory and they must have an OS installed in order to use either of those 2 commands.

Winnt32 needs an OS, winnt does not. It can exist and be enumerated from the share. It would be cool if the OP or someone had a few minutes to set this up and test it.

Breadfan wrote:

for a computer with no OS installed on a net share sysprep or RIS is the only way to go.

Sysprep has nothing to do with installing Windows. It simply prepares the system to be imaged.