Installing CF-29 OS w/o CD/DVD/floppy

I have a CF-29 CTKGZDM. No CD/DVD, no floppy, not even a hard drive at the moment but I will fix that soon.

There is no USB boot option in the BIOS. My goal is to install some Linux distro on this CF-29. I read the FAQ, searched around and can't find a good answer on this challenge. I'd rather not buy a DVD (don't even have a caddy for it).

What about boot and install over LAN? I have Debian, Ubuntu and XP x64 available on the potential server side. I've only flashed firmwares over LAN, have no idea if it's possible to install OS this way on CF-29.

Any tips or additional options are greatly appreciated.

 

Some usb external dvd/cd work for booting (i have a cheap samsung working for that, it even worked on an old cf-m34 mk6)

If you try this, you have to get external power to the cd (split cable and a 5v adapter)

 

Hit F2 while booting and go look on the boot options menu

Boot to Lan boot is common
Optical caddy's are fairly inexpensive used, as low as $35 to about $80

Alex

 

I've booted on my CF-29 to an external USB DVD drive (a $20 drive in a $10 enclosure...)

 

I use the network to load mine up, but then again I have a big expensive server and network setup ... the simple route would be to get a powered USB enclosure and get an internal DVD drive and use that...

 

Or you can use an old laptop WITH an IDE optical drive AND Floppy: (or a similarly equipped desktop with a 3.5"IDE to 2.5" IDE adapter)

Pop the desired HDD in the machine.

Boot from any Windows Floppy with Fdisk , Format, smartdrv.exe & Xcopy on it.

FDisk your HDD to create a new partition for Windows.

Format the HDD. (It will format in FAT32; you'll fix that later)

MKDIR a directory on the newly-formatted HDD; I usually name it i386.

Launch smartdrv.exe.

Using Xcopy, copy the ENTIRE i386 directory from your Windoze Install CD to that directory, including subdirectories:

To do this, type the following lines at the command prompt where cd-rom is the drive letter of the CD-ROM drive, and drive is the drive letter of the hard disk, and then press ENTER after you type each line:

smartdrv
xcopy cd-rom:\i386 drive:\i386 /e

Go make a bite to eat; even with smartdrv this is going to take a while, you're copying around 5,800 files in DOS mode.

Depending on your Windows CD, there should be approx 4-7 subdirectories in the new i386 directory; check to make sure they got there and appear the same as the i386 directory in the Windows CD.

If it's all there, navigate to the i386 folder and type winnt. Hit Enter.

This will launch the Windows Command-line installer; from there, let the install progress normally. Do NOT allow it to CONVERT the partition to NTFS from within Setup; if anything goes wrong, it will NOT be able to boot and this can cause all sorts of annoying crap later.

Install any drivers you need to be able to have video, optical drive, and network. Once you have confirmed these things, and that you can get on the internet to download any other drivers you may need, STOP.

Activate Windows at this time; might as well get it over with.

Initiate a CONVERT to NTFS operation as outlined here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb456984.aspx

(Or you can search for CONVERT NTFS in Windows Help & Support)

At this point you have a fully functional Windows 2000 or XP build that's ready for fine tuning; if you have the space, forget about the half a gig that i386 folder takes up; it's a good place to direct the OS for driver cabs.

Good luck!

mnem<~~~ Installating Dwagon ~~~<<<

 

This seems the least hassle method and reasonably priced. Thanks guys.

 

ive 2 external DVD drives, ive used on dozens of times to install eveything from winPE xp, vista, 7, but my CF-29C will not boot from them... is there a bios update to enable that?

 

Mnmenth, do you walways do things the way they did it back in the late 80's?!?!?!?!?!? You're crazy!

The sick thing is... I didn't even have to read every step to know how to do this because I've done it so many times it's stuck in my head LOL

 

Naaah, JB - just when I have a machine where I CANNOT boot from CDROM.

There's a LOT of legacy equipment out there like that; my CF-28s when I first got 'em... CDROM caddies were OBSCENELY overpriced cuz EVERYBODY was dumping BAZILLIONS of CF-28s just off-lease on the market.

Right now I have a couple old Viewsonic Viewpads I'm puttering on (They're P3/800MHZ with 10" 600x800 screen); I want to resurrect them for use as picture frames.

They have a nifty built-in prop that lends itself to such use, and with XP on 'em they'll support 32-bit color, and the displays are still pretty bright. I'll set 'em up with a 30-min timer on the screen saver set to full power-down & hibernate; then leave them running the SlideShow program all the time. Tap the screen, boom - it powers up and starts the slide show for half an hour.

I've upgraded the WiFi with a couple old Broadcom Wireless G mini-PCI cards I had growing dust; if they'll come out of hibernate and reconnect reliably, I'll keep the pix in a folder on my server & NEVER need to touch the Viewpad for management.

Anyways; that's why the process was fresh in my head; for what these things are, it's just not worth spending even $50 on the docking station with CDROM in it.

If you have the stuff to do it (I installed a pair of $12 removeable hard drive bays on my print server for when I need to work with this legacy cr@p; one of my caddies has the 2.5" adapter) it's really pretty easy; just start it rollin', then flip the KVM over to my main machine & keep right on workin'. This setup is super fine for Ghosting HDDs; just pop 'em in the caddies, boot Ghost from floppy or CDROM and let it work by itself. Either way, I can usually have the copy process started in 5 minutes or less once I have the subject hard drive(s) in hand. Sometimes I'll just use some old laptop I have lyin' around... whatever cramps my workspace the least.

Knowing HOW to do this stuff really IS what I call a basic survival skill in the IT industry; though I know several sysadmins who can't even set up to deploy over their own network, and that's what this functionality was designed into XP for.

mnem <~~~ Big fan of Old School ~~~<<<

 

Me too! For many folks if the "Wizard" don't work, it can be done!