Setting Up WFWG on a Novell Workstation Without a Hard Disk

ID: Q96567

The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows for Workgroups version 3.1
The following article contains information on the use of Windows for Workgroups with third-party products or configurations that have not been tested and are not supported by Microsoft.

If the steps or procedures described in this article do not function properly, contact the manufacturer of the third-party product for more information or use a supported configuration.

SUMMARY

Running Microsoft Windows for Workgroups on a computer with one 5.25-inch or 3.5-inch high-density disk drive and a hard disk with 9.5 megabytes (MB) available memory is fully supported. (We recommend that you have a hard disk with 14.5 MB available memory). Windows for Workgroups is not designed to be installed on workstations without hard disks (computers without hard disks that are connected to a network), and Microsoft does not support running Windows for Workgroups with any type of diskless workstation. However, a workaround to set up Windows for Workgroups on Novell workstations that do not have hard disks is available.

This article contains information that you can use to install Windows for Workgroups on a Novell NetWare workstation that does not have a hard disk.

NOTE: A true diskless workstation (one with no floppy disk drive or hard disk drive) using a network adapter with a boot ROM does not work with Windows for Workgroups. This is because the boot ROM establishes a network connection and does not allow the Windows for Workgroups network drivers to coexist with the boot ROM.


MORE INFORMATION

To set up Windows for Workgroups on a diskless workstation on a Novell network, use the following procedure:

  1. Start the computer with a network boot disk and log on as supervisor.

    NOTE: If you upgraded from Windows 3.1 by using the SETUP /A command should remove the Windows 3.1 shared directory before continuing. For more information on upgrading a shared networked Windows directory, query on the following words in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
    and attrib and flag


  2. Run SETUP /A from the Windows for Workgroups Disk 1. This process expands the Windows for Workgroups files and places them in a shared network directory.


  3. Have each user start his or her computer with a network boot disk and log on. Run SETUP or SETUP /N (recommended) from the shared directory created in step 2. When prompted for the directory name, enter the network user's home directory.

    (A network boot disk contains the MS-DOS operating system and necessary files to establish network connection, that is, IPX and NETX. The boot disk must have approximately 1 MB of free disk space. The free disk space needed varies depending on which NDIS network card driver is installed.)

    NOTE: Windows 3.1 directories created with SETUP /N can only be upgraded to Windows for Workgroups with SETUP /N. Windows 3.1 installations created with SETUP must be upgraded by SETUP.


  4. After selecting the network adapter type and settings, the Compatible Networks dialog box appears. Select Novell NetWare and choose the Add button.

    During the setup process the following message appears:
    Setup cannot find or cannot update your system files on drive A:. If you started your system from a floppy disk, be sure to remove write-protection from your system startup (boot) disk. Then insert the disk into drive A and choose Retry.
    To copy system files to your Windows directory choose Cancel.
    This is normal. If your bootable floppy boot contains approximately 1 MB of free disk space, select Retry.


When the setup process is finished, the boot disk will contain the following files: 

Filename        Size  Date      Time    Function
---------------------------------------------------------------------

COMMAND  COM     47845 04-09-91   5:00a  MS-DOS Command Interpreter
IPX      COM     26207 01-02-92   4:06p  Novell IPX (Not used by WFWG)
NET      MSG     70629 10-01-92   3:11a  Message help file for net.exe
CONFIG   OLD        22 02-18-93  12:24p  Old CONFIG.SYS before setup
AUTOEXEC OLD        24 02-18-93  12:29p  Old AUTOEXEC.BAT before setup
EMM386   EXE    110174 10-01-92   3:11a  386 Expanded Memory Manager
HIMEM    SYS     13824 10-01-92   3:11a  Manages the use of ext. memory
RAMDRIVE SYS      5873 10-01-92   3:11a  RAM disk device driver
SMARTDRV EXE     43609 10-01-92   3:11a  Disk cache
PROTOCOL INI       636 02-18-93   2:34p  Protocol initialization file
NETX     COM     52443 10-01-92   3:11a  Novell NETX (Updated by WFWG)
NETH     MSG    104570 10-01-92   3:11a  Message help file for net.exe
WORKGRP  SYS      7268 10-01-92   3:11a  WFWG real mode device driver
NET      EXE    415252 10-01-92   3:11a  WFWG redirector
PROTMAN  DOS     21680 10-01-92   3:11a  Protocol manager
PROTMAN  EXE     13760 10-01-92   3:11a  Protocol manager accessory
NDISDRVR DOS     24666 10-01-92   3:11a  NDIS network adapter driver
                                         (name depends on adapter)
MSIPX    COM     27130 10-01-92   3:11a  IPX to NDIS driver
MSIPX    SYS      4301 10-01-92   3:11a  IPX to NDIS shim
ROUTE    COM      4262 10-01-92   3.11a  Novell TR source routing drvr
PROTOCOL 000         0 02-18-93   2:34p  Old PROTOCOL.INI
CONFIG   SYS       204 02-18-93   2:38p  New CONFIG.SYS
AUTOEXEC BAT       117 02-18-93   2:38p  New AUTOEXEC.BAT
       23 file(s)     994496 bytes
                   141146 bytes free
The following lines are added/modified in the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files: 

AUTOEXEC.BAT                      CONFIG.SYS
--------------------------------------------------------------

A:\SMARTDRV.EXE                   device=A:\protman.DOS /i:A:\ 
A:\net start                      device=A:\workgrp.sys
A:\msipx                          device=A:\ndisdrvr.DOS
A:\route (Token ring users only)  device=A:\msipx.sys
A:\netx                           LASTDRIVE=P
PATH=U:\WFWUSER;y:\wfwshare;a:\   DEVICE=A:\HIMEM.SYS
SET TEMP=U:\WFWUSER\TEMP          STACKS=9,256

Notes on Using Workstations Without Hard Disks

  • A workstation without a hard disk has the same system requirements for running Windows for Workgroups 3.1 as a workstation with a hard disk drive. (The RAM requirement may be greater if you are using a RAM drive).


  • Running Windows for Workgroups in standard mode (the highest mode on an 80286 computer) makes it necessary to log on to the Windows for Workgroups network before you run Windows. Network commands such as Net Start and Net Logon Username will require information from the SYSTEM.INI file in the Windows user directory. Copy this file from the Windows for Workgroups user directory to the network boot disk. Note that changes made in the Networks dialog box in Control Panel will not update the SYSTEM.INI file on the boot disk. If you make changes in Control Panel, you must recopy the SYSTEM.INI file to the boot floppy disk before the changes can take effect.


  • To share local workstation resources (such as floppy disk drives, printers, and CD-ROM drives), you must create a RAM drive and set your SET TEMP environment variable to its location. The RAM drive needs to be of considerable size (2048K or larger) if you are planning to share a local printer because Print Manager will queue jobs into the RAM drive. To set up a 2 MB RAM drive, add the following line to your CONFIG.SYS file:
    DEVICE=A:\RAMDRIVE.SYS 2048 /E


Additional query words: 3.10 3rdparty disk less

Keywords :
Version : WINDOWS:3.1
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type :


Last Reviewed: September 22, 1999
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