OT: Boot from CD with no Floppy

This Off Topic, but I've hunted everywhere and can't find any help on this.

For security reasons, I have removed the floppy drive from a couple of
oldish computers.
They will need to be re-imaged from time to time from bootable CDROMs.
The problem is the BIOS on these computers can't be flashed to enable them
to boot from CDROM, only 'A' or 'C'.

Other than going out and buying a couple of 'less old' computers that can
boot from CD, is there a way to put a command in AUTOEXEC.BAT for instance,
that will load the CD drivers and go and run the Norton Ghost exe - maybe
give me a choice at bootup;
Press 1 to load Windows (default)
Press 2 to Re-Image

Or some other way...

--

Regards,

Slarty Bartfast

Slarty Bartfast

can they boot to usb
>-----Original Message-----
>This Off Topic, but I've hunted everywhere and can't find
any help on this.
>
>For security reasons, I have removed the floppy drive
from a couple of
>oldish computers.
>They will need to be re-imaged from time to time from
bootable CDROMs.
>The problem is the BIOS on these computers can't be
flashed to enable them
>to boot from CDROM, only 'A' or 'C'.
>
>Other than going out and buying a couple of 'less old'
computers that can
>boot from CD, is there a way to put a command in
AUTOEXEC.BAT for instance,
>that will load the CD drivers and go and run the Norton
Ghost exe - maybe
>give me a choice at bootup;
>Press 1 to load Windows (default)
>Press 2 to Re-Image
>
>Or some other way...
>
>--
>
>Regards,
>
>Slarty Bartfast
>
>
>.
>

babbling on and on again "Slarty Bartfast" <> spewed in
news::

> Other than going out and buying a couple of 'less old' computers

anyway you cut it this is exactly what I would do...buy something made in
the last 5 years...

--
Neil MCNGP #30
Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.

When I die, I want to die like my grandfather-who died peacefully in
his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Neil

"Slarty Bartfast" <> wrote
> Other than going out and buying a couple of 'less old' computers that can
> boot from CD, is there a way to put a command in AUTOEXEC.BAT for
instance,
> that will load the CD drivers and go and run the Norton Ghost exe - maybe
> give me a choice at bootup;
> Press 1 to load Windows (default)
> Press 2 to Re-Image

I keep a Win95 boot disk with the Mitsumi CD-ROM driver (MTMCDAI.SYS). That
seems to get most CD-ROMs we have around here working.

Brian
The C is for Cynical

Brian

You can create a startup-menu (different methods depending on the OS).
Create multiple partitions and put the ghost image on one of them. During
bootup, select to load the OS from the partition with Ghost image. Automate
the ghost loader. One way would be like this:

1. Boot Partition with Ghost image on it.
2. Partition where you User OS and Apps reside.

You can reimage the 2nd partition anytime you want by choosing from a menu
on the first partition. You default choice on the menu will load OS from the
2nd partition.

HTH


"Slarty Bartfast" <> wrote in message
news:...
> This Off Topic, but I've hunted everywhere and can't find any help on
> this.
>
> For security reasons, I have removed the floppy drive from a couple of
> oldish computers.
> They will need to be re-imaged from time to time from bootable CDROMs.
> The problem is the BIOS on these computers can't be flashed to enable them
> to boot from CDROM, only 'A' or 'C'.
>
> Other than going out and buying a couple of 'less old' computers that can
> boot from CD, is there a way to put a command in AUTOEXEC.BAT for
> instance,
> that will load the CD drivers and go and run the Norton Ghost exe - maybe
> give me a choice at bootup;
> Press 1 to load Windows (default)
> Press 2 to Re-Image
>
> Or some other way...
>
> --
>
> Regards,
>
> Slarty Bartfast
>
>

Dragon

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 16:18:52 +1000, "Slarty Bartfast"
<> wrote:

>This Off Topic, but I've hunted everywhere and can't find any help on this.
>
>For security reasons, I have removed the floppy drive from a couple of
>oldish computers.
>They will need to be re-imaged from time to time from bootable CDROMs.
>The problem is the BIOS on these computers can't be flashed to enable them
>to boot from CDROM, only 'A' or 'C'.
>
>Other than going out and buying a couple of 'less old' computers that can
>boot from CD, is there a way to put a command in AUTOEXEC.BAT for instance,
>that will load the CD drivers and go and run the Norton Ghost exe - maybe
>give me a choice at bootup;
>Press 1 to load Windows (default)
>Press 2 to Re-Image
>
>Or some other way...


The contract I was working on for the US Army had a similar
requirement for all of the workstations. It was a classroom
environment that needed the student to have a "fresh" computer in
front of him every time he visited.

In a nutshell it was implemented using a small FAT partition on C:
that had the DOS TCP/IP stack that when booted connected to the
network and imagaged the disk from a file stored on the computer using
Imagecast. The new image had it's boot.ini file set to boot the
Windows partition. The windows login script overwrote boot.ini with a
version that booted the DOS partition. The user could do what he
wanted to the machine, but when he logged off, it rebooted and
reimaged.

It was pretty slick for what it was intended to accomplish. Maybe it
will give you an idea or two.

Also check out www.nu2.nu for some other ideas that might help. That
guy has been working on boot solutions for a long time.

....butch(adding value)

fygar

Thanks for your replies - I'll try these suggestions

Thanks,
Slarty Bartfast

Slarty Bartfast