Remote Installation Services boot disk

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Remote Installation Services boot disk

The Remote Installation Services (RIS) boot disk is used with client computers that do not have a remote boot-enabled ROM. The boot disk simulates the Pre-Boot eXecution Environment (PXE) boot process for computers that lack a formal remote boot ROM. For more information about the PXE boot process, see PXE architecture.

The boot disk is analogous to a boot ROM, which uses the floppy drive to install the operating system from the RIS server. The remote boot disk-generating utility (Rbfg.exe) is located in the following folder:

\\Server_name\REMINST\Admin\I386\Rbfg.exe

The boot disk must be placed before the hard disk in the boot sequence in order for the boot disk to work.

To use the remote boot disk on a client computer that does not have a remote boot-enabled ROM, insert the disk into the disk drive and start the client computer. The client computer must have a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)-based network adapter from the list of specific adapters supported. To determine which network adapters RIS supports, use the boot disk-generating utility. For more information, see Create a remote boot disk.

For more information about performing a client installation, see Perform a network installation using RIS.

Note

  • This topic does not apply to Windows Server 2003, Web Edition.