WDS & ACRONIS network boot … :)

You can boot ACRONIS via network (using WDS).

First install ACRONIS (In my case it was Acronis.True.Image.Echo.Enterprise.Server.v9.7.8206 downloaded from isohunt.com) , now Open ACRONIS console, & click on CREATE BOOTABE RESUCE MEDIA , click next , and at BOOTABLE MEDIA SELECTION, select RIS SERVER, then next, and follow the on screen options. It will automatically put ACRONIS image to WDS SERVER.

NOTE: PLEASE REMEMBER THAT IF YOU ARE USING ACRONIS TO RESTORE WINDOWS IMAGE TO ANOTHER PC, MAKE SURE YOU TICK ‘CHANGE SID’ IN ACRONIS RESTORE WIZARD. Because I am sure you don’t want same SID living on more then one pc on your network.

Also If you have a domain environment, its better you take image of a windows that is not yet joined with DOMAIN. after restoring image with change sid option, change the pc name, reboot, and then simply joing the domain.
You can also use SYSPREP prior to take image from acronis so that after restoring image, when pc reboots, it will change the necessary sid and other things .

(====================================================)
ACRONIS SERVER :- PVJ8Z-BQB5H-K4PC9-PXLAW-ZBZVK
ACRONIS UNIVERSAL RESTORE :- GVGUL-Q9D25-X76AY-9LPWQ-D5VUM
(====================================================)

WDS: PXE Boot: File not found/TFPT Error – File not Found

Last year at my company (New Allied Eelctronics) , I configured RIS/WDS on my local LAN for XP base network intallation (As re installation of XP was on the rise, and we were short on XP CD) ,
I decided to setup my lan base installation server for XP.
After configuring WDS (in legacy mode) , I was getting a File not Found error when i attempted to PXE boot from any pc. This the error i was receiving.

PXE-T01: File not found
PXE-E3b: TFTP error – file not found
_________________________________________________________

Turns out that RIS/WDS was looking for pxeboot.com which didn’t exist in the remoteinstall\boot\x86 folder on my WDS Server.
So i simply reconfigured WDS to look for startrom.com and then i was able to PXE boot. startrom.com exists at D:\RemoteInstall\OSChooser\i386

For more info, please read this full article.
http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/cnackers/archive/2009/04/16/pxe-boot-file-not-found-tfpt-error-file-not-found.aspx