Running a HDDless computer?

Motoxrdude

Motoxrdude

Active Member
Hey, i am wondering if i can run a computer without a hdd but still have it load an OS? I am thinking of something like starting up over a network or something? Like having it boat up over the network to my main computer, possible?
 
yeah thats defiently possible, my school does it with about 400 desktops and lappys lol, not sure how to do it but I know its possible:)
 
You might be able to work that kinda thing out...

or you could look into "Live CD's" which are OS's on cd-roms.

Heres a good one...search google for more if interested.

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/


Im pretty sure the network boot is do-able..but im not sure how...i dont know how the drives for some network cards and other kinds of settings would work with no means to store anything...
 
Bootup05 said:
yeah thats defiently possible, my school does it with about 400 desktops and lappys lol, not sure how to do it but I know its possible:)
Click to expand...
you amy eb mistaken, most schools and workplaces with this kind of setup have the basic OS components installed on a small-ish harddrive, you then set up that PC to log into a DOMAIN, instead of a workgroup, the DOMAIN server on your network, then sends all the other required nfo to that PC. I know this because i built and set up around 200 of them with a group of 7 of us...

as for your question, yes, the LiveCD's are the thing you are after, it uses RAM to store temp data in, obviously nothing can be saved when you turn the PC off, but hey, you dont have a HDD, lol.... it runs and boots everything from the CD. Knoppix Live is IMO the best i have used in a long while. Be warned, you need at least 86Mb RAM for most of these LiveCD's to work, so if you trying this out on your old system with 64Mb RAM, think again.

dragon
 
how about setting up terminals/terminal server, i don't know anything about these, but a think you basically run one computer with everything installed, then the terminals connect to it over the network, i tihnk it's something like remote desktop, but i am really nto sure at all what it is, sounds like it could possibly be kind of what you are after

Lee :D
 
Yea i think ill go with the live Cd's, thanks guys. I have 512mb ram for my computer so i should be safe. I think ill just go with ubuntu because it comes with programs preinstalled. Thanks guys

EDIT: screw ubuntu, il just go with knoppiz, that one is the best for my situation.
Thanks again!
 
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The LiveCDs are a great choice for this task. You can also use USB flash drives, which gives you the bonus of being able to transfer data from the PC as well.
 
Yea, i am using knoppix now which is awesome! On my main comp i set up a network so that i can run a gateway through my "main" comp to my "alt" comp. I enabled file sharing so now my main computers hdd is showing up on my alt computer. Thanks guys.
 
I've got this neat program called BartPE that allows you to use a copy of windows and make a bootable CD out of it. Just goes to show how freakin bloated windows really is, considering it can easily fit in less than 400M :P Anyway, full featured OS used to test out your system. Great if it's got viruses or something...
 
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