Easy way to PXE Boot Windows May 26, 2008 by Kode This guide provides an easy and relatively

quick way to PXE boot windows which means you can install Windows over the network with PXE without the need for a CD drive. While the previous guide allows you to slip stream updates and add extra programs it took a LONG LONG time to do, especially with all the downloads it needed to do, this one just installs a vanilla XP, nice and simple, and a lot quicker Step 1: Getting started. What youll need: 1. Windows 2000/XP CD (to get the i386 directory off it) 2. PC running 2000/XP (to act as a server) 3. Laptop capable of booting over PXE (such as the L400). 4. Tftpd32 5. Bart Network Boot Disk 6. SMARTDRV.EXE 7. A Share. The Server must be able to share files (any Microsoft Windows computer can). 8. Working router or plain crossover cable. Once youve collected all of the above, lets begin; 1. Create a share, for the sake of argument create it at c:\WINSTALL 2. Copy your i386 folder and SMARTDRV.EXE into this folder 3. Make a note of your computer name/host name, you can find this out by right clicking on My Computer, going to properties, go to Computer Name tab, look under Full computer name, in my example, the computers name is STAR, i believe the name needs to be 12 chars or less for this to work in dos mode, so if its longer change it and reboot.

4. Create a folder to PXE boot from, c:\OUTPUT

Step 2: Setting up a TFTP Server. 1. Install TFTPD 2. Create the following directory c:\OUTPUT\pxelinux.cfg\ (i.e. go to c: right click, select create new directory, name it OUTPUT, open OUTPUT, right click, select create new directory and name it pxelinux.cfg) 3. In the c:\OUTPUT\ directory download pxelinux.0 memdisk menu.c32 bartdisk.IMA (Download the files and put them in this directory) 4. In the C:\OUTPUT\pxelinux.cfg\ directory, create a text file that youll name default, (not default.txt, easiest way to do this is open notepad, copy and paste the details below, click save, navigate to C:\OUTPUT\pxelinux.cfg and name it default including the quotes) containing: 5. DEFAULT menu.c32 6. TIMEOUT 300 7. ALLOWOPTIONS 0 8. PROMPT 0 9. MENU TITLE PXE Boot System 10. LABEL BartBoot 11. MENU LABEL ^Bart Network Disk 12. kernel memdisk 13. append initrd=bartdisk.IMA 14. LABEL BootNormal 15. MENU LABEL ^Boot Normal LOCALBOOT 0 16. Launch TFTPD (if you get unable to locate configuration file Boot Failed: press a key to retry, or wait for reset, then you have NOT named the default file correctly) and configure it the following way: 17. Tip : if you close and reopen TFTP32 and the Current Directory defaults to your home directory rather than to C:\OUTPUT, right-click your TFTPD32 shortcut, go to Properties, and set the Start in textbox as C:\OUTPUT.

18. switch to the tab DHCP Server and fill in your network setup. Note that the PC you want to boot must be in the same Subnet. Enter pxelinux.0 as the boot file. The Screenshot below shows my setup. (IP pool starting address is the ip addresses the DHCP server can start from, size of pool is the amount from the

starting address, in my example the DHCP server can give a client an address from 192.168.2.210 192.168.2.240) 19. Dont forget to SAVE.

Step 3: Installing Windows. 1. Boot laptop 2. Select Bart Network Disk (You may have to press the relevant F key to get the boot device list try F8 or F12 or go into the BIOS and change the boot device priority so network is first) 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: 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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