Patrick R Shuff

US Patent:

57581657, May 26, 1998

Filed:

Jul 7, 1995

Appl. No.:

8/499228

Inventors:

Patrick R. Shuff - Houston TX

Assignee:

Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Mountain View CA

International Classification:

G06F 9445

US Classification:

395712

Abstract:

Unattended initialization of client disks according to foreign operating systems is supported. The data written on the client disk is provided from a server disk across a local area network (LAN), rather than from floppy disks. The client system is booked over the LAN with a first, network-oriented operating system, such as the UNIX-based Solaris. TM. operating system developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. Solaris. TM. is then used to format the client disk. This formatting is done according to the file access table (FAT) file system. Then Solaris. TM. copies a disk image to the client disk from the server disk via the LAN. The disk image copied includes a second, client-oriented operating system, such as Windows. TM. that uses the FAT file system. Then the client system is rebooted with Windows. TM.