Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!me!sun
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.programmer
From: sun@me.utoronto.ca (Andy Sun Anu-guest)
Subject: Re: Networked PC (without hard disc)
Message-ID: <1990Mar7.214649.17250@me.toronto.edu>
Organization: University of Toronto, Department of Mechanical Engineering
References: <1990Mar6.180320.28421@axion.bt.co.uk>
Date: 8 Mar 90 02:46:50 GMT

In article <1990Mar6.180320.28421@axion.bt.co.uk> iwarner@axion.bt.co.uk writes:
>
>	I am trying out a PC configuration whereby the PC has no hard disc,
>but gets all of its stuff from a networked disc. The floppy drive is used to
>boot up MS-DOS & PC-NFS initially, and then (it is hoped), the network drive(s)
>should take over. I am using Sun PC-NFS for this purpose - this allows the
>PC to be served by Unix NFS servers.
>

I have seen similar setup, where a PC has a Ethernet card and running SUN 
PC-NFS and connects to a SUN 3/60 workstation. That machine has a hard disk
but I don't see why you cannot do it with a floppy. You better make sure 
that your have a 1.2 MB or 1.44 MB floppy to house all the device drivers
and NFS programs though.

>	If anybody has tried a similar thing, I'd appreciate tales of woe, or
>words of wisdom, etc.
>
>	I also have encountered one problem: when exiting from MicroSoft Word,
>the beast insists on reading COMMAND.COM from the floppy drive (A:) from whence
>it was booted. I need to tell it to look on the network drive, but NOT when
>first booting up. When powering up command.com, autoexec & config.sys are
>all read from a system floppy. This also contains code to boot up & log in to
>PC-NFS. Once this has been done, all interaction should be with the networked
>drives.

If you type 'set' in DOS, you will see an entry called COMSPEC=A:\COMMAND.COM
in your case. COMSPEC specifies which drive you boot up your machine from.
At the end of your autoexec.bat, if you put a line

	set comspec=e:\command.com (or whatever the network drive letter is)

I think MS Word will use that instead.

>
>	Any help or advice appreciated.
>
>	Ivan Warner
>	British Telecom Research Labs
>	Martlesham Heath
>	Ipswich
>	UK

Andy
-- 

_______________________________________________________________________________
Andy Sun                        | Internet: sun@me.utoronto.ca
University of Toronto, Canada   | UUCP    : csri.toronto.edu!me.utoronto.ca!sun
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering | BITNET  : sun@me.utoronto.BITNET