PXE/network boot kit 1.0 based on Hiren's BootCD 9.5

The point-and-click network boot kit for Hiren's BootCD 9.5. I had a Dell Latitude C400 laptop that had a corrupted hard drive, no CD drive, no USB boot, and no floppy... just LAN boot. That was my only option. So what do I do? I Google. This is the combined result, packaged into a neatly digestable format. You need: 1) A computer with a bootable LAN card (many onboard adapters are bootable from LAN) and a USB port 2) A USB storage device of some kind, be it USB flash drive, USB hard drive, or USB CD-ROM. (This is also great for the Asus Eee PC series, although they can boot from USB) Optional: A removable hard drive and a way to slave it to another computer, for purposes of installing Windows. If you just want the BootCD, this is what you need. How to use it: 0) Extract it to a folder somewhere, dur. 1) Copy the contents of "(Place on USB Storage Device)" to a USB device of some kind (as mentioned in what-you-need). Plug it into the booting computer. Don't turn it on. 2) Configure your DHCP server to receive pxelinux.0 from your server PC's current IP. I cannot help you with this first step because every router is different - and all consumer-class routers I'm aware of don't, by default, allow a user to enter such an option. However, if you're using DD-WRT, follow these steps: 2a) Go to the Services tab of the WebUI. 2b)Scroll down to DNSMasq and make sure it's enabled. Under "Additional DNSMasq options", enter "dhcp-boot=pxelinux.0,,192.168.1.XXX" - where "192.168.1.XXX" is the IP of your server computer. 2c) Save, and make sure (on the Setup tab) that DNSMasq is used for DHCP. 3) Start tftpd32.exe. It should be preset to recognize the tftproot folder as its starting point, but if not, configure it as such. 4) Moment of truth: fire up the computer and tell it to boot from network, be sure it's configured for PXE boot. 5) Report bugs here! Optional: 6) After performing pre-maintenance on the drive with a Victoria "erase" pass (which re-zeroes the physical placement of the sectors, unlike a Windows "format" or writing zeroes), partition it with Partition Magic and set active, then remove the drive and slave it. 7) Grab nLite and your favorite XP source. nLiten it. 8) Grab the "Install Windows from USB" GUI project, http://www.msfn.org/board/-t120444.html . 9) Point the Install Windows from USB GUI at the slaved drive and the Windows source. Let it do its magic. 10) Put the drive back in the computer and boot from hard drive, which will start Setup. 11) ??? 12) Profit! If I can figure out how to get files transferred over the network instead of needing a USB stick, I'll do that in the next version depending on how popular this is. Thanks to Hiren for making such an excellent collection of tools and a mostly open framework ;)!

udp://tracker.openbittorrent.com:80
udp://open.demonii.com:1337
udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969
udp://exodus.desync.com:6969

asdasd123123 (2011-02-28)

Holy shit this actually worked, I did some of the work with another tftpd install, but this is definitely half way there.

aldicom3 (2011-04-17)

Falcon! 're great man! Super smart! deep waters are quiet! few admirers but I know how to appreciate the value!
I'm really good to see people shine at what they do!
I'm struggling to boot a live cd boot windows but fail! what you have works perfectly!
but I want to boot a Windows XP live CD in the network.
what to do? what has changed!
hirens.img boot instead I want to boot a Windows xp.img!
is that possible? Why and how do I change?

aldicom3 (2011-04-17)

ok! Falcon! 're great man! Super smart! deep waters are quiet! few admirers but I know how to appreciate the value!
I'm really good to see people shine at what they do!
I'm struggling to boot a live cd boot windows but fail! what you have works perfectly!
but I want to boot a Windows XP live CD in the network.
what to do? what has changed!
hirens.img boot instead I want to boot a Windows xp.img!
is that possible? Why and how do I change?