Windows Diskless?

[Beeko]

Ok, so I've been researching all throughout the internet for the last week and still haven't figured it out. I have 4 older P4 motherboards with power supplies and no HDDs. What I want to do is be able to connect them to my Netgear FS116 network switch to share the workload of my windows 7 pc when converting and burning movies. Please does anyone have any info or guides on this.

- Brian

[Shen]

It is not possible to connect motherboard to your networks switch without a working operating system on it. You can do here one thing. If possible you can install a operating system in a usb driver connected to the motherboard. But for that you will need atleast 8GB drive each. Then you can use a rj45 cable to connect to the switch. Anyhow you will need to build up a pc for each board.

[Beeko]

ok thanks for the help, i have hdds that i can connect and put w/e on it i just would love to be able to use these 4 outdated processors to help convert my movies for burning, is that possible and perhaps have u a guide?

[MrLeV]

Actually Windows diskless IS possible.
The OS would be loaded from a "virtual drive" on a "server".
The clients begin to diskless boot using PXE (they get an IP configuration with DHCP) and then use the virtual disk driver to access the remote/shared virtual disk (aka disk image, it's a file...)
You can use HP Image Manager to do so, they have a free trial software:
https://h20392.www2.hp.com/portal/sw...Number=IMTRIAL

There are other vendors of diskless solutions but none that I know that offer a free trial...

Of course, it is not a straightforward system, you have to learn or know few things, such as how to configure a DHCP service, to create a master (you will need to connect temporarily an HDD to one of your MB in order to build the HDD disk image).
You must read the user's manual (at least the parts related to installation and configuration)!
You will certainly go through some tries and errors, but when you have it working, it just rocks!

[Beeko]

ok well from what ive read i can pretty much just buy a router instead of using this switch and configure it so the dhcp is not automatic and then id be set after i configure TFTP?

[MrLeV]

No, it's a little more complex than that.

You need to create and configure your master, capture an HDD image, set up your virtual disk server etc.
I would say that for a skilled Windows/Network administrator, the learning curve is 2 days.
More if you have to learn some of the basics of Windows and Network administration.

The best is to download Image Manager trial, take a look at the quick start guide and the user's guide and see if you can figure it out.

[Beeko]

ok, i now have a router and a network switch anyone know how i can get this working...any guides?