Tech Forum

These are Family History Center (FHC) computers. I have the dvd from them (I am in the US) that will let me do clean install of OS (XP SP3) and the software. However it is on a DVD and none of those computers (about 3yrs old) have a DVD ROM drive.

I am hoping to do an install using a USB thumb drive. I can't seem to get that to work. The problem isn't the BIOS or computer being able to use the drive on start. That seems to work so I am pursuing this option. However I can't seem to find a way to use the church supplied DVD or an image of it to create a bootable USB.

Any suggestions or thoughts? Anyone try everything and no it can't be done (please don't say that is the case since it would mean taking off dirty/dusty cases one at a time to manually install a dvdrom drive to do this)? Thanks for any help or input!

Do you have access to a external DVD?

Yes. One that uses USB. I tried it but that didn't seem to show in the BIOS or boot menu list like the USB thumb drive did. I do have an external DVD drive though.

I recall being able to boot from USB DVD on older machines then yours. I think as long as you have it set to boot from USB first, it should work.

It doesn't seem to work. I have tried again, even making sure that XP, when completely booted, recognized and could use the drive. The option to boot to it doesn't show in the boot menu though. If a USB thumb drive is used I see a "Boot from USB Flash" option but I don't see that or a similar option when using the external DVD drive.

Any other thoughts? Do you know what is used to make the DVD we get? Is there a way to get it on a USB thumb drive and make that bootable? Thanks for the help!

Sorry, I don't know the answer to your question.

A couple of other thoughts: Move the hard drive to a "friendlier" unit for the initial load. Move it back before the first reboot.

Load one computer and use it to ghost the rest. Make sure to redo the SID and computer name on the copies. Also load LANDesk after the ghost.

Last but not least: Just load generic XP. IIRC, the DVD only saved me a few steps. Since our center has most church apps loaded on a server, I had to re-install them anyway.

Hi,

You're in Upland, I'm in Corona, and the machines in our FHC all have DVD drives. If you want to get with me on Saturday and play "swap the drives" perhaps that would be one solution. Another solution is a quick trip to Frys in Industry and pick up an internal DVD drive for about $25.00 and rotate that in the machines until they all get re-imaged.

I just re-imaged so I know how much fun that can be.

Regards,

lrawlins,

Thanks a lot for the offer. The FHC recently got a new computer for an imaging machine and that computer has a dvd rom drive. I have access to some others too. I was just really hoping to avoid the extra time and hassle and maybe even be able to do a couple of machines at a time. It seems that may be the method I have to use though. I have done some searching and asked at another site online but seem stuck making the bootable USB drive with the contents of the DVD from the church.

I posted here mainly hoping to find out some details about how that DVD "image" was made and maybe even be told how to get it on a bootable USB drive (details I hoped some "insider" would know and share).

"the machines in our FHC all have DVD drives"
<smiling> Now we now who the favorites are in this area. </smiling>

Thanks again for the offer and post!

scottb wrote:"the machines in our FHC all have DVD drives"
<smiling> Now we now who the favorites are in this area. </smiling>

Thanks again for the offer and post!

I'm trying to think - I think all of ours have DVD-ROMs in them as well. All received from the church to replace our older obsolete machines.

Something to be aware of, if you're running LANDesk on all the machines, that tells CHQ what your computers are like. As "re-purposed" machines become available, they'll send them out to FHCs to replace obsolete machines.

I think all of ours have DVD-ROMs in them as well.

Oh ... now your just rubbing salt in it. Seriously though, thanks for the facts and info. Things are good and we should get new machines in the next year or so. It is better than it use to be when they were always donated and we have it much better than others in the world. I can't complain much because I get to do something I love (or at least am very good at) and call it a calling. Makes it nice to serve.

Thanks again to both of you. Now if I can just get the virus and LANDesk to work/update on one of the MLS machines.