I've moved this question from the Linux Hardware forum as i believe the problem is not going to be solved from within linux. It has been moved following LQ forum rules -previous question mentions mswindows, but problem still involves linux.
here is the link to the previous thread
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=396705
This is still mainly a hardware problem, but my question has evolved because Hewlett Packard will not give support for the problem while windows is not present on this computer.
While chatting with the online help desk i was supplied with a windows patch which may fix the issue (cdrom is not properly detected.. unable to mount, or boot from the device) but i cannot install anything from cd.
So, my question is: Does anybody have experience installing windows over a network from a linux (ubuntu, or slackware) machine without having a bootable cdrom drive? the computer does have a working install of ubuntu.
If there is a fix for this problem within linux, posts in either thread will be greatly appreciated.
If you can't / don't want to read the other thread here is some more information not mentioned above:
cdrom was manually ejected with a paper clip without being unmounted (i know this is not the proper procedure)
all BIOS settings have been reset.
for more info see the previously mentioned thread.
Thank you for your time.
Josh