Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!rutgers!bpa!sjuphil!brunette From: brunette@sjuphil.uucp (Glenn M. Brunette) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.programmer Subject: Re: Networked PC (without hard disc) Message-ID: <1990Mar9.042114.23753@sjuphil.uucp> Date: 9 Mar 90 04:21:14 GMT References: <1990Mar6.180320.28421@axion.bt.co.uk> <1990Mar7.214649.17250@me.toronto.edu> Reply-To: brunette@sjuphil.UUCP (Glenn M. Brunette) Organization: Saint Joseph's University Lines: 69 In article <1990Mar7.214649.17250@me.toronto.edu> sun@me.utoronto.ca (Andy Sun Anu-guest) writes: >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 >-- The system that we are using allows us to network PC's without hardrives to our network servers via PC-NFS. Each PC has a copy of PC-NFS assigned to it. Once booted, the PC looks to the "I:" drive (our network drive) for all of the software. This system of doing things works out fine for PC's with or without hard drives. Glenn ************************************************ ! Glenn Brunette, Academic Computing Consultant ! ! brunette%sjuphil.sju.edu@bpa.bell-atl.com ! ! Saint Joseph's University, Philadelphia, PA ! ################################################# -- *************************************************************************** ! Glenn Brunette, Academic Computing Consultant ! This space is reserved for! ! brunette%sjuphil.sju.edu@bpa.bell-atl.com ! any and all standard ! ! Saint Joseph's University, Philadelphia, PA ! disclaimers and the like. ! ############################################################################# ! Just as no man ever died who did not in some condition live on earth, !