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what kinda stupidity is this??
Posted by: whocares at September 5, 2006 4:51 PMI've read 3 different articles that I *thought* could solve my problem and you keep going round in circles without ever saying anything worth listening to...
I think what that guy is actually saying is he wants to format C drive and he does NOT have a working cdrom, therefore cannot boot from a cd! And yes, you kinda covered that part by saying "you cannot do this if you really want to format your HD" but then again, you never really answered that either!
Me, like most people with some sense little sense left, realize that "installing windows" does NOT mean "adding" "upgrading" "installing new hardware" or "repairing" but rather format a HD and INSTALLING WINDOWS.
Anyway, to answer the question that you did not bother to: no, you cannot format your HD like that because the network is kept by the OS itself. You can however create a FAT partition in one of your drives (using partition magic for example), copying the windows installation files (through the network) to that new partition, create a bootable floppy (windows 98 is a very good example), boot your computer with the floppy, format c: from dos, access your partition from dos as well and install windows from your HD to your HD (only a different partition. Just make sure the partition is FAT otherwise dos will not recognize it.
Posted by: Fausto at December 11, 2006 11:58 AMHi, I really like this solution - I've lost count of the times I've been 500 miles from the cd rom when I needed it. However, how much extra space are we talking here? Plus, is there any auto-play stuff to get around?
Many thanks
Don't know about a wireless connection, but if you have a floppy drive and a wired connection, you should be able to boot and do it that way, but remember you have to have the proper drivers installed for either wired or wireless. Is there any way to remove the laptop HDD, hook it up to your desktop via an adapter, and then use the existing OS on the desktop to format the laptop HDD and copy the installation files to the laptop hard drive? It would be a MUCH faster transfer rate than 11Mbps, and once they were in there reinstall the HDD to the laptop and run setup from there. The HDDs on laptops can be removed with just a couple screws on the bottom in most cases, and the laptop IDE to desktop adapters are cheap on ebay as well as simple to install. In your situation that would be the method I would use. Good luck!
Posted by: Lynda Brewer at March 18, 2007 1:27 PMIs it not possible to copy the I386 directory to a 2nd partition on the HDD, run setup within windows, and then format the main partition of the HDD? Thinking it through in my head that would work an absolute charm!? Or am i wrong?!
Posted by: Richard at September 20, 2007 5:50 PM-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
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You can try it, it may work, I'm not sure
Leo
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