Windows 2008 and Windows 2008 R2 can not be installed on a system without a DVD drive, at least the way you typically get the install media. For most, that's probably not a problem; what computers these days don't come with DVD drives?
Umm, well; sometimes: servers.
Of course, you may have an easy solution if this is your situation. I'll list the various options quickly here, first, then go into the "Hard, but Not That Hard" route I took:
- Copy the files or mount an ISO image on an existing Windows install on the server, and run setup from there. (this might limit some of your install options)
- Borrow a DVD drive just for installation. (if installing from a DVD+/-R from downloaded media, be sure your drive can read those - one I had could not)
- Create a bootable image on a USB drive, and boot from it to install. (my server in this case did not seem to have any options to boot from USB)
- Create a bootable image on a hard drive, boot from that drive to install. (this might limit some of your options, and you may not want to be shifting drives around physically or logically)
- Create a Windows PE (Preinstallation Environment) boot disk, boot the system from it, then use the NET USE command to mount a network location that has the DVD source, and install from there. (I almost did this option, until I realized the next option would be faster)
- Create a Windows PE boot disk, boot the system from it, then simply plug in a USB drive with the DVD source on it, and install from that.
The last option is what I ended up doing, and what I describe here. I think it's the easiest way that does not involve playing musical hardware. My instructions will help if you want to use WinPE to install over a network too, though.
What Is Windows PE?
WinPE is a very lightweight version of Windows which can boot up a system with basic tools for preinstallation tasks. It can be used to partition, format and mount media locally, over USB/Firewire, or the network. It comes as part of the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK - link), which is a free download from Microsoft, and has a broader range of tools for assisting especially in OEM/bulk installation of Windows.
When I first found out about WinPE, I thought, "Excellent! This will be easy; boot up to a CD-Rom, do a NET USE, and I'll be installing in minutes!". Not so fast...
Getting and Installing WAIK
You can not simply download a WinPE boot disk. Rather, you should not do so. (no doubt, there are some available on torrents and the like). You need the correct version of WinPE to run the installer you plan. The WAIK comes in versions based on each version of Windows; you should get (at least) the version for what you are installing; so the Vista/Win2008 version for Windows Server 2008, or the Windows 7 version for Win7/Win2k8R2. Note that the computer you are installing the WAIK on (your 'technician' computer) must separately meet the requirements for the WAIK version you are installing, which is not the same as what version of Windows that WAIK is for; I originally installed the WAIK for Windows Vista on a Windows XP machine, for instance.
I found the WAIK for Windows 7 here. Once you download it though, you must install it; you can't simply unzip it somewhere. It comes as an ISO with an installer. Once you have it installed, you would then be ready to use the tools it contains to create a bootable WinPE media.
Creating Your WinPE Boot Disk
I used this walk-through on TechNet (link) to produce my WinPE disk, but I'll detail the instructions as I followed them here;
First, find the WAIK in your Start Menu, and run the Deployment Tools Command Prompt (or it may be called "Windows PE Tools Command Prompt"), and run it.
You will then run the copype.cmd script, with two arguments:
- Architecture: x86, amd64 or ia64 for 32-bit, 64-bit (amd/Intel) or Itanium-64 respectively.
- Destination Path: must not already exist.
I used copype.cmd amd64 c:\winpe64 myself, for example. This created that directory and a couple under it, with some files contained therein. The ISO directory contains what will be rolled into the ISO itself, and you could add your own files there if you wished. I did not need anything from the optional steps 2 and 3 in the TechNet article myself, but you can look those options over.
Next is the command which actually builds the ISO file, which you will then burn to a CD-Rom to make it bootable to WinPE. The command is oscdimg and I ran it with these arguments:
oscdimg -n -bc:\winpe64\etfsboot.com c:\winpe64\ISO c:\winpe64\winpe.iso
The -b option should have eftsboot.com replaced with efisys.bin if you are using the Itanium architecture. The next argument is the ISO source directory, and last is the destination ISO file name.
Once that is complete, you can close the Tools Command Prompt, and use your favorite disk burning software to burn the resulting ISO, and boot the server from it.
Prepare Your Installation Source
I want to be clear about these options; The easiest way to install from a WinPE environment from USB or network is to have the files from the Windows installation disk copied into an accessible directory. For network installation, this could mean simply having the DVD-Rom mounted and shared. For USB, simply copy all the files from the DVD/ISO into a directory on the USB drive.
Installing Windows From WinPE
This was the easiest part of all; The CD-Rom boots into a bare Windows environment with a command prompt. You can browse through the drives which may be present; note that the method here actually uses a RAMDISK to run from, so that will be one drive available at minimum, plus the CD-Rom. You can partition and format your drives as needed (though the Windows installation lets you do that, as well).
At this point, you are ready to gain access to your Windows installation media. If you have the installation files copied to a USB drive and your motherboard had USB ports built-in, it is as simple as plugging in the USB drive and wait a second for it to be mounted. There will be no indication that this has happened; simply navigate among the drive letters and examine the contents until you find the one. (remember that the WinPE itself will be in a RAMDISK, if you find a drive with contents that appear strange to you.
If your media is on a network share, you can execute NET USE to mount it.
From there, execute setup.exe, and you are on your way!