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How to: stage a computer which network card does not support PXE

Article ID:
BW909637289
Last Review:
24. 03. 2005

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Summary

Some computers, mainly older models, which do not support PXE, cannot be staged from the Columbus console using network boot.

 

Most PCs sold before 2001 do not support PXE - PC99 guidelines from Intel and Microsoft, which among other things says that computers with Ethernet interfaces must implement two useful features: wake-on-LAN and network boot.

When the Network Interface card does not provide a PXE boot prom or PXE is not supported by the computers BIOS or when BIOS versions are simply not compatible with the newest PXE specifications, you will not be able to use the powerful Columbus feature to stage a machine using network boot.

More Information

Columbus OS Deployment offers you the possibility to stage computers using a boot floppy or bootable CD, which can be generated with FloppyMaker.

For computers not supporting PXE we can also offer a product from our partner PreWorX named PXE onDisk, which simply emulates PXE and provides full PXE functionality.

 

The PreWorX - PXE onDisk product is installed on a workstation and fully emulates an Intel PXE 2.1 session, including the Universal Network Driver Interface (UNDI) and the standard PXE boot protocol. The PXE onDisk installer is run from the workstation operating system and automatically detects the network adapter hardware installed in the system. The PXE onDisk installer (PSetup.exe) can be used to install PXE onDisk to the local hard drive or to a removable diskette. PXE onDisk supports FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS boot partitions.

 

Please contact Brainware for more information on this product.

 

 

PXEonDisk delivers

 

  • Support for the latest PXE specifications
  • A simple way for legacy PC systems to participate in the latest network managed environments
  • The ability to enable PXE on a remote system without having to go on-site and visit the workstation in order to:

Switch PXE on at a BIOS level

Open the PC and insert a PXE Boot Rom into the network adapter

Open the PC and install a new PXE enabled network adapter

  • Support for an extended range of network adapter types from virtually all leading network adapter vendors
  • Widespread compatibility with the worlds standard-based management initiatives

 

Applies to

Productgroups:

  • OSDeploy

Operating Systems:

  • NT, W2k, XP, W2k3

Keywords:

PXE, BootFloppy
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