Here is the easiest way unless you prefer installing 15 floppies.  Go to
this site
http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/network/
and make a network boot disk.  You'll need to find the driver on this site.
Then setup another computer on the network with the desired OS's files as a
share.  Once you boot to the floppy, you can enter the info needed to
connect to the host sharing the files.  It can be a little tricky at first
but it works great.  You will need to copy the files from the host to your
harddrive once the network disk connects you to the host.  Good luck with
this as a network install is not the easiest way to install an OS.
Tim  

-----Original Message-----
From: Personal Computer Hardware discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Russ Cox
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 10:29 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [PCBUILD] No OS on Compaq

I have acquired several Compaq Deskpro computers that were used in a
corporation. These are very compact computers w/ hard disk and floppy but no
CDROM and no space for one and no OS. I think they would work just fine for
limited use, internet and word processing etc. if I could figure out how to
load an OS on them.  They have USB and ethernet ports, but they wouldn't be
usable until drivers were loaded. There is a secondary IDE connector on the
mother board, but I'd have to jury rig a power connection for an IDE CDROM
since there's only one power cable from the power supply to the hard disk.
The boot options are limited to floppy, hard disk and Compaq Ethernet
controller. So if I could temporarily connect a CDROM, I could boot from a
floppy, then load from the CDROM, 
Any ideas of how I could boot the computer up and load an OS from a CD? What
would I have to do to boot from the ethernet connection?

                         PCBUILD's List Owners:
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                         PCBUILD's List Owners:
                      Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
                       Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>