Easy way to PXE Boot Windows

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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 you’ll 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 you’ve 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\
  3. In the c:\OUTPUT\ directory download pxelinux.0 memdisk menu.c32 bartdisk.IMA
  4. In the C:\OUTPUT\pxelinux.cfg\ directory, create a text file that you’ll name default, (not default.txt) containing: 
    DEFAULT menu.c32 TIMEOUT 300 ALLOWOPTIONS 0 PROMPT 0 MENU TITLE PXE Boot System LABEL BartBoot MENU LABEL ^Bart Network Disk kernel memdisk append initrd=bartdisk.IMA LABEL BootNormal MENU LABEL ^Boot Normal LOCALBOOT  0
  5. Launch TFTPD and configure it the following way:
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. Dont forget to SAVE.

Step 3: Installing Windows.

  1. Boot laptop
  2. Select Bart Network Disk
  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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