I downloaded RedHat 7.1 from an FTP site, however the installation instructions suggest that some "instimage" file is required in the \RedHat directory, and I have no clue as to where to obtain it, or how to create one... What exactly this file is, and is it really necessary for successful installation? I tried to move along without it, but with no luck so far... Would people who managed to install RedHat 7.1 from a hard drive be so kind as to share their experience please?.. Thank you very much

For Redhat 7.1 all that is available to download are the iso images. Most people burn these images to CDrom because that is the easiest way to install. But it is possible to just leave these images on your harddrive. You will need to make a bootdisk first to start the installation. The image for the bootdisk and the utilities to write it are contained in the ISO file. I suppose you have windows installed now so you could use utilities like isobuster to get those files out of the iso to create a bootdisk. I don't know if you can download the utilities from redhat to make a bootdisk. But once you made the boot disk, you simply boot from it and follow the steps answering the questions you are asked. You would have to choose harddisk install method which gives you a screen in which you select the drive and which directory the iso files are located. After that it should be able to continue without any troubles. Mik

Hi, Mik Unfortunately I don't have a CD burner. Is it really possible to use a ISO image stored on a hard drive? The impression I carried out from reading the message boards like this one was that the ISO files are basically useless unless burnt to CD, but the information received here is not always reliable, of course. Perhaps I should give it a try once, just for the heck of it... Meanwhile... These are the installation instructions I'm trying to follow -- Installing Red Hat Linux from a hard drive: "If you need to do a hard drive installation due to some problem with your CD-ROM, you will need to follow these steps. You must have a DOS partition that is formatted in FAT16 or FAT32. Create a directory called \RedHat. From there you will need to copy the items from the CD-ROM to the hard drive. mkdir C:\RedHat mkdir C:\RedHat\base mkdir C:\RedHat\RPMS mkdir C:\RedHat\instimage copy E:\RedHat\base C:\RedHat\base copy E:\RedHat\RPMS C:\RedHat\RPMS copy E:\RedHat\instimage C:\RedHat\instimage If you do not have enough disk space to copy the entire RPMS directory tree to your hard drive, you will need to look in the file \RedHat\base\comps file for the RPMs that are needed in the base and any other sections you feel you might need. Once you have done this, you can start the installation. Choose the hard drive install." Except that instead of coping the files from the CD I downloaded them from RedHat's FTP server. The funny thing is that these instructions, technically, are for RedHat 7.0 and I have that CD and there's no "instimage" file on the CD either... So, what the heck they are talking about? And what are the FTP servers for if the files stored there cannot be used for installation? Of course, I created the install boot diskette prior to the install... Thank you once again, I appreciate your help

Mik Just stumbled accross this info: Installation Guide, it appears that you are correct and an ISO image is required for the installation, just coping the content of CD won't do! Those b---tards... :(