**if** the NIC has a boot PROM installed it will boot from the card instead of from a disk. A boot PROM is a complete bootstrap O/S that will connect the PC to the network so that the PC can finish downloading and boot the O/S from the network. This technique allows the MIS department to purchase cheap PCs because no hard drive or floppy drives are needed. It is also a form of security, since without a floppy drive, no one can copy data/programs to disk and "steal" them. Since you have both floppy and hard drive, you probably do not have a PROM on the NIC, but it never hurts to look. Jim Meagher ===== Micro Solutions Consulting Member of The HTML Writers Guild http://www.ezy.net/~microsol International Webmasters Association 410-543-8996 MS Site Builder Network - Level 2 member ===== -----Original Message----- From: Jun Qian <[log in to unmask]> >Could you give me a bit more info about why the NIC affect boot? (I thought >the computer should load OS first then the NIC, I'm not Novell expert, does >Novell NOT need a OS to load NIC?) >Thanks > >J Qian > >Jim Meagher wrote: > >> >> The only other reason it will not boot from A is: the network interface >> card has a boot prom installed. Remove the NIC from the system and it >> will boot to drive A > > PCBUILD only works if you contribute. Send your messages > to be posted to: [log in to unmask] > PCBUILD only works if you contribute. Send your messages to be posted to: [log in to unmask]