[Novalug] boot trick??

Nick Danger nick@hackermonkey.com
Fri Dec 11 17:34:09 EST 2009


Beartooth wrote:

>  	Isn't there some way I can simply copy the DVD onto one 
> of the hard drives, if I get it in the right place, and then boot 
> from there?

The end result is you are trying to boot the F12 DVD so you can install
it? I take it the bios in the hardware wont see the USB DVD to boot from it?

You can create a boot floopy or a bood CD that will then force the
machine to boot off the USB drive. Check

http://www.megaleecher.net/Boot_USB_Without_Motherboard_Support
or
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/category/usb-boot-cds/

Or, open the server, and hang a DVD rom off the cable. If I remember
correctly those old servers used regular IDE CDroms, so you can just
hang a DVDrom off that cable for the purpose of installing the OS. Then
put the cdrom back when you are done. I do this alot with many of the 1U
cheapo systems I buy. They come without any cd/dvd drive, so I take the
cover off and just hang one out the top. Once the OS is done I take it
out and put it back together. A little hardware hacking, but it works
and is quick/easy.

I THINK those hard drives are SCSI, otherwise you could move one of the
drives, install the F12 elsewhere then move that back too. But I believe
those are hot swap scsi and you probably dont have another system with
that. I don't know Dell model numbers well.

Nick



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