XP Network install headache

[Baredor]

I'm trying to do a network install of XP to a Dell SX270 with a floppy but the CDROM has been "misplaced". I also don't have a USB CDROM available tonight.

I used a network boot disk and mapped out the CDROM from one of our servers. Tried setup.exe and of course "Cannot be run in DOS mode". I went to I386 and tried WINNT. I also used NTFSDOS and it is able to see the NTFS HDD currently on the machine. WINNT seems to see the HDD (because it doesn't bark at me about it after I load NTFSDOS) but the installation cannot even begin because it is out of memory (this is a 256 machine). I tried inserting himem.sys into config, but when that boots up it says that it has already loaded an extended memory module.

Any ideas on how to get around this and actually use the memory that is there? I need to get this machine up tonight.

 

[dbwillis]

I didnt think you need to use NTFSDOS to do a network XP install?

I thought there was a switch to run install using the winnt.exe file from the CD...

 

[nessus]

you need to make a FAT32 volume on the machine you want to install. You can convert the partition later. If their isn't any place to put the install, winnt.exe won't work.