All you need is a blank disk and a little patience
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A 3.5" MS-DOS 6.22 boot disk that lets you boot a computer and access
shared files across a TCP/IP network is a useful administrative tool. A
TCP/IP boot disk is handy when you're using imaging software to roll out a
standard client image across the network, running an unattended
installation of Windows NT 4.0, or troubleshooting a machine that has a
FAT partition. The main problem with a TCP/IP boot disk is fitting onto
one disk all the files that you need to access a share across a
TCP/IP-based network.
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Few administrators have access to a machine that they can use to directly
format an MS-DOS TCP/IP boot disk. However, you can use the following
procedure to make such a disk. You need only a blank 1.44MB 3.5" disk, an
NT Server 4.0 CD-ROM, MS-DOS network adapter drivers, and a Windows
workstation. You need to create a separate boot disk for every different
type of network adapter you use.
Step 1
Insert a blank, formatted 3.5" disk into the workstation's drive A.
Step 2
Insert the NT Server 4.0 CD-ROM into the workstation's CD-ROM drive (drive
E in this article).
Step 3
Run E:\support\hqtool\makedisk.bat to create an NT 4.0 hardware query
disk, which works as an MS-DOS boot disk that you can customize.
Step 4
After makedisk.bat has finished running, go to the 3.5" disk. Remove
hardware query components that makedisk.bat has placed on the disk (i.e.,
A:\zipfile.exe, A:\setramd.bat, A:\dos\findramd.exe, and
A:\dos\ramdrive.sys). The boot disk doesn't need the hardware query
components, and they consume valuable disk space that you need for the
TCP/IP networking components.
Step 5
To ensure that A:\autoexec.bat doesn't reference any files that you
removed in Step 4, edit A:\autoexec.bat to contain only
@echo off
prompt $p$g
All you need is a blank disk and a little patience
www.tartoos.com
A 3.5" MS-DOS 6.22 boot disk that lets you boot a computer and access
shared files across a TCP/IP network is a useful administrative tool. A
TCP/IP boot disk is handy when you're using imaging software to roll out a
standard client image across the network, running an unattended
installation of Windows NT 4.0, or troubleshooting a machine that has a
FAT partition. The main problem with a TCP/IP boot disk is fitting onto
one disk all the files that you need to access a share across a
TCP/IP-based network.
Few administrators have access to a machine that they can use to directly
format an MS-DOS TCP/IP boot disk. However, you can use the following
procedure to make such a disk. You need only a blank 1.44MB 3.5" disk, an
NT Server 4.0 CD-ROM, MS-DOS network adapter drivers, and a Windows
workstation. You need to create a separate boot disk for every different
type of network adapter you use.
Step 1
Insert a blank, formatted 3.5" disk into the workstation's drive A.
Step 2
Insert the NT Server 4.0 CD-ROM into the workstation's CD-ROM drive (drive
E in this article).
Step 3
Run E:\support\hqtool\makedisk.bat to create an NT 4.0 hardware query
disk, which works as an MS-DOS boot disk that you can customize.
Step 4
After makedisk.bat has finished running, go to the 3.5" disk. Remove
hardware query components that makedisk.bat has placed on the disk (i.e.,
A:\zipfile.exe, A:\setramd.bat, A:\dos\findramd.exe, and
A:\dos\ramdrive.sys). The boot disk doesn't need the hardware query
components, and they consume valuable disk space that you need for the
TCP/IP networking components.
Step 5www.tartoos.com
To ensure that A:\autoexec.bat doesn't reference any files that you
removed in Step 4, edit A:\autoexec.bat to contain only
@echo off
prompt $p$g
SET PATH=A:\DOS
Step 6
To prevent errors when config.sys attempts to reference the hardware query
components that you deleted, edit A:\config.sys to contain only
DEVICE=A:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=A:\DOS\EMM386.EXE FRAME=NONE
DOS=HIGH,UMB
FILES=30
BUFFERS=20
LASTDRIVE=Z
STACKS=9,256
SHELL=A:\COMMAND.COM A:\ /E:512 /P
This step completes the creation of the MS-DOS boot disk.
Step 7
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Copy the E:\clients\msclient\netsetup folder and its contents to a FAT
partition on your local system (drive C in this article) that you can
access when you boot from your new boot disk. The system will use the
Netsetup files to install the TCP/IP networking component to the disk.
Step 8
Create a folder on drive C and name it NIC_Driver. Copy your network
adapter's MS-DOS\Windows for Workgroups (WFW) 3.11 drivers into the
NIC_Driver folder. (You can find the drivers on the CD-ROM or disk that
came with the adapter or download the drivers from the adapter
manufacturer's Web site.) You need at least the two drivers oemsetup.inf
and nic_card.dos. If your adapter doesn't have an oemsetup.inf file, copy
the drivers that are available, then use the workaround described for this
situation when you reach Step 12.
Step 9
Use your newly created boot disk to reboot your machine.
Step 10
Type C:\netsetup\setup.exe
at the command prompt, then press Enter to start the setup program for
Microsoft Network Client 3.0 for MS-DOS. Press Enter again to set up the
Network Client software on your boot disk.
Step 11www.tartoos.com
Select C:\net in the Network Client directory and press Enter. The network
setup program creates a C:\net folder and places all the necessary
binaries and configuration files into that folder. You specify the local
hard disk, not the boot disk, as the file destination because the Network
Client setup program copies more than the essential files, and those files
take up more space than is available on the boot disk. In later steps,
you'll remove superfluous files from the C:\net folder and place the
streamlined C:\net folder on your boot disk.
Step 12
A screen that lists network adapters appears. From the list, select the
network adapter that your system is using. If your adapter doesn't appear
on the list, select Network adapter not shown on list below and press
Enter. On the next screen that appears, enter the path to the NIC_Driver
folder that you created in Step 8 (due to the 8.3 naming format of MS-DOS,
a folder named NIC_DRIVER will be accessible under MS-DOS as NIC_DI~1).
The next screen that appears displays a list of network adapters that your
drivers support. Select your adapter, and when the next screen prompts
you, press Enter to select the Setup for best performance option. This
option configures the network drivers to use more memory for network
buffers.
If you found in Step 8 that your network adapter doesn't include an
oemsetup.inf file, you can select any network adapter from the list,
manually copy the nic_card.dos driver for your network adapter into the
A:\net folder, and copy into A:\net\protocol.ini the entries in the sample
protocol.ini file that comes with your nic_card.dos driver. You also need
to change the netcard, lana0, and bindings entries in A:\net\protocol.ini
to point to the new driver section. Listing 1 (see below) contains a
sample protocol.ini file.
After you adjust the protocol.ini file, edit the netcard entry in
A:\net\system.ini to point to the new nic_card.dos driver. Listing 2 (see
below), shows an example of a system.ini file's [network drivers] section.
Step 13
After you select your adapter, the setup program asks you for a username.
Type the domain account that you'll use to connect to the remote share (in
this article, the username is Administrator). Press Enter.
Step 14
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The next screen that appears, the setup menu, lets you change names, setup
options, and network configuration. Select the Change Names option, and on
the resulting screen, which Figure 1 shows, set Change Computer Name to a
unique name and set Change Domain Name to the domain in which the
Administrator user account resides.
Press Enter, and the program returns you to the setup menu. Select Change
Setup Options, and on the resulting screen, set Change Logon Validation to
Logon to Domain, as Figure 2 shows. Press Enter to return to the setup
menu, then select Change Network Configuration. The resulting screen,
which Figure 3 shows, contains two boxes; you can press Tab to toggle
between the boxes. By default, the NWLink IPX protocol is bound to the
network adapter. To add the TCP/IP protocol, shift to the lower box,
select Add Protocol, and press Enter. A list of protocols appears. From
the list, select Microsoft TCP/IP and press Enter. You return to the
previous screen. To remove the NWLink IPX protocol, toggle to the upper
box and choose NWLink IPX Compatible Transport. Then, move to the lower
box, select Remove, and press Enter. The resulting window will look
similar to Figure 3.
If your network doesn't use DHCP to configure clients, you need to change
the TCP/IP settings to give your network adapter a static IP address.
Select Microsoft TCP/IP in the upper box, then toggle to the lower box and
select Change Settings. Press Enter. The resulting screen lets you specify
an IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway. To disable the DHCP
client, you also need to set Disable Automatic Configuration to 1.
Step 15
Press Enter as many times as necessary to reach the setup menu. On the
setup menu, select The listed options are correct, and press Enter. When
the setup program prompts you for an OEM driver disk, press Enter again.
Then, press F3 to finish setup without rebooting. Eject the boot disk, and
reboot to your main OS.
Step 16www.tartoos.com
To fit the C:\net folder and its contents onto the boot disk, you need to
remove all
nonessential files. Open the C:\net folder and delete
C:\net\setup.exe
C:\net\sockets.exe
C:\net\nwlink.exe
C:\net\expand.exe
C:\net\ping.exe
C:\net\ipconfig.exe
C:\net\addname.exe
C:\net\win_sock.dll
C:\net\winsock.dll
C:\net\wsockets.dll
C:\net\rascopy.bat
C:\net\vbapi.386
C:\net\vsockets.386
C:\net\readme.txt
C:\net\*.inf
Step 17www.tartoos.com
Copy C:\net to your boot disk, and use a text editor to replace C:\net
with A:\net in the
autoexec.bat, config.sys, and system.ini configuration files on the boot
disk. For example, change C:\net\autoexec.bat to A:\net\autoexec.bat.
Step 18
Open the A:\net\system.ini file, and find the [network] section. Within
that section, replace the workgroup=WORKGROUP line with
passwordcaching=no. The boot disk doesn't require the workgroup line, and
setting passwordcaching to no ensures that a file on your boot disk
doesn't cache your user account password; such a cache might create a
security problem in some organizations.
After you complete these 18 steps, you have a TCP/IP boot disk with about
200KB of space to spare. I've used this method successfully with Ethernet
and Token-Ring LAN adapters.
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If you need boot disks for more than one computer, use the diskcopy.exe
command to make copies of your new boot disk. To avoid an identity crisis
on your network, you need to change the computername entry in
A:\net\system.ini to make each disk unique. If you specified a fixed IP
address instead of using DHCP, you need to change the IP address in the
TCP/IP section of the A:\net\protocol.ini file to a unique address on each
disk you copy.
Your TCP/IP boot disk will let you boot clients to your TCP/IP network and
use the Netuse command to map network drives. I commonly use TCP/IP boot
disks to roll out a standard client image to multiple machines. When
client machines have different hardware, I can map a drive to a network
share that contains NT 4.0 installation media and use a boot disk to
perform a manual or unattended installation of NT 4.0 onto a machine that
doesn't have a CD-ROM drive. Putting all the files I need for booting on
one disk makes performing
these administrative tasks much easier.
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