Bart's Network Boot Disk

...People tell me my network bootdisk is by far the best found on the web...

Version 2.7
Last updated on Mar 30, 2004

Important notice: the development and maintenance for this page has stopped. Please don't contact me about this page! I'm leaving the page as it is, for reference...

Table of contents

:: Introduction :: Auto-create the boot disk [NEW] :: Manually create the boot disk :: Screen shots :: Building a driver plug-in :: Frequent asked questions :: Credit :: History

Frequent asked questions

1. Can I connect to a Netware server using Bart's Network boot disk?
   No, you cannot. You should checkout NwDsk: Netware Boot Disk by Erwin Veermans.
   
   
2. When I use the network boot disk and map a drive, it only shows 2GB of free space. When in actuality there is like 40GB.
   This is normal, there's nothing wrong, it's just that dos does not see over 2GB, which is the maximum filesize for dos. You can still use the entire 40GB but you cannot create a file greater than 2GB, so if you are using ghost images, you must split them around 2GB.
   
   
3. Is it possible to combine the network boot disk and the CD-Rom boot disk onto one floppy disk?
   
   Yes! Modboot is designed to do just that. Put all .cab files for network and cdrom boot disk into their default target directories. After this move the cdrom.cab and msnet.cab into \level0, so they only expand but not execute... Put menu.cab (1KB) into \level0. Put cdormenu.cab (1KB) into \level3. This will provide you with a timeout based option to boot the CD-Rom (default) or to start the menu where you can select "msnet".
   
   If you are planning to use this boot disk on a bootable CD, you can use winimageto change the format of this disk into 2.88MB and add even more stuff.
   
   
4. How do I check what network adapter is in my PC?
   
   Download http://members.datafast.net.au/dft0802/downloads/pci.zip. Boot from a DOS boot disk and run pci.exe.
   
   
5. My PCMCIA card is not working, what could be wrong?
   
   Note from Bart: PCMCIA (ISA-based) is always troubling, I say every notebook should have an onboard PCI network adapter...
   
   Some PCMCIA nic card driver/laptop combinations are bound not to work if the machine is restarted from Windows, and only a cold boot makes them work.
   
   Try to boot without emm386.exe
   
   
6. I've loaded the network drivers (tcp), all OK. When I use "net use f: \\192.168.10.15\c$" I get "Error 53: The computer name specified in the network path cannot be located".
   
   You cannot use IP-based machine names when using Microsoft client. You need to enter the real machine name: "net use f: \\servername\c$".
   
   
7. I cannot connect to a server called "fileserver100".
   The name is to long, in Dos it's 8 characters max.
   
   
8. If I try the connect to a resource with "net use \\server\share" I get an error message "Error 3652: This command is only available on enhanced workstations".
   You cannot connect without using a drive letter in dos, so you must use "net use f: \\server\share".
   
   
9. Does Bart's network boot disk work with VMware?
   
   YES! VMware emulates a AMD PCNet PCI Adapter, use the pcntnd.cab driver file.
   
   
10. You may observe a long delay when you copy a file from an MS-DOS client to a Microsoft Windows 2000-based computer using the TCP/IP protocol. This behavior does not occur when you copy a file from an MS-DOS client to a computer running Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 or Microsoft Windows 95 or Microsoft Windows 98, or when you copy a file from Windows 2000-based computer to an MS-DOS-based computer.
    
    Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 244826.
    
    
11. Some people report back that they have problems using a 3Com 905B (3c905b) network adapter.
    
    A solution was found by Eric Schwarz: disable Plug and Play in the BIOS.
    
    
12. Jeff Taylor reported having a problem with a 3Com 905TX (not "b" anywhere on the card).
    Error message:
    

    Network adapter not found or not responding
    Try using slotenable in protocol.ini
    initialization error. Driver will not be installed

    
    He found the solution in the BIOS, Plug and Play = NO
    
    
13. Using a 3Com 509 (ISA) network adapter (ELNK3) after Network initializing it says:
    run-time error M6111: MATH
    - floating-point error: stack underflow
    
    Update your elnk3.cab file to v1.1 (or higher).
    
    
14. Using a 3Com 509 (ISA) network adapter (ELNK3) and Netbeui, after Starting network services it says:
    Error 7361: IPX or NetBios must be running in order to load the network services.
    
    I have (Bart) the same problem, use another protocol, like IPX or TCP/IP.
    
    
15. The bootdisk is hanging after displaying "initialising dhcp...".
    The DHCP server isn't a microsoft one.
    
    Set renewal time and rebind time parameters to 300.
    
    
16. See also: Modboot FAQ.
    
    

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