Networking 2 pcs together, one with no o.s.?

[cnelson8611]

I've been reading here and online about how to network to pc's together, however nothing about one pc having no o.s.
Let me elaborate, I have an xp home desktop pc and bought a Windows 98 from a pawn shop. I couldn't get the 98 to boot up so out of desperation, I just erased the o.s. off altogether.
I would like to install linux on it instead, however it does not have a cd-rom drive. I've tryed to install a cd-rom but every drive I try isn't plug and play and I don't have drivers.

Can I network the two pc's together to install linux?
Each pc has an ethernet, usb, and parallel port. But when I tryed to boot up the 98 it would give warnings about the ethernet card.

 

[chevytrucknut]

I don't think you can, because technically, you have to have an OS to get to network it...if that makes sense

 

[SHAWN]

I don't think you can, because technically, you have to have an OS to get to network it...if that makes sense

Correct.

you should not need drivers for a cd-rom. when you install the drive, make sure that you have it on its own ide cable and set it to master. You should then be able to boot the unit into the bios and set it to boot from the CDROM drive first before c:\.

 

[jhunholz]

Here's another idea for you: pull out the hard drive and put it in your XP home machine. Then copy the contents of all CDs for your distro onto that drive. You can even make subfolders like "disk1, disk2", etc. Then put it back into your comptuer and boot up.

 

[jhunholz]

Correct.

you should not need drivers for a cd-rom. when you install the drive, make sure that you have it on its own ide cable and set it to master. You should then be able to boot the unit into the bios and set it to boot from the CDROM drive first before c:\.

Actually, you don't even have to set it to master. As long as you set the jumper the same as how you cable it, then it can be booted from just like a hard drive (assuming your bios supports booting from a cdrom...some older ones don't!).

 

[cnelson8611]

Okay, I've tryed to install different cd-rom drives, I go into bios.. set to boot from cd... restart, but then it has a warning and won't let me go any further. I haven't messed with it in awhile so I'm not quite sure what it says.
I thought you would need drivers, especially if the drive itself does not support plug in play... in which none of the drives I've tryed does. My bios is plug in play though.

I also thought about putting the hard drive into my xp and copying files to it, but someone told me not to??

 

[cnelson8611]

I've plugged it back in, checked the drive I have installed now, went into bios... the bios doesn't even recognize the cd-drive. I have it set to boot from cd-rom but it get stuck at "verifying pool data".
When I turn the pc on the lights for the cd blink, so I know it is plugged in.

 

[Amd64Boy]

wait wait dont tell me its a compaq right?i could never get anything to run on those damned things, if it is a compaq its not gona be as easy to do anything

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

If your PC has an Intel PXE compliant network card you can boot and install an OS from a network. If not, you need a card that supports the Intel PXE standard.

 

[cnelson8611]

This is growing into more of a computer hardware problem and not a networking problem. Should I ask my Q in a different section of the forums?