Any way to install ROS on a HD without a CD/DVD?

[Bblaauw]

So what you mean is run through phase 1 in a VM, create (using Clonezilla) image of virtual disk (or partition?), then have a bootable USB drive that can restore this image (using CloneZilla) to physical harddrive?
Interesting indeed, provided you've got a system that can boot from USB at sufficient speed and got spare flash devices.

Still a harddisk setup like this would be pretty convenient:
\REACTOS
\ROSLIVE
\ROSSETUP

All that's then required is a bootloader which can start each of these options, but the trouble is all of above are hardcoded to \REACTOS unless making big changes ( I think the CLT ISO's had an undisclosed way of putting installation setup and LiveCD environment on same disk).

[MadWolf]

hi yes
if you have a computer that can not boot from usb then if you have a flopy drive then you can install Plop Boot Manager to a flopy and then use it to boot the usb drive or if test box can PXE boot then Clonezilla can pxe boot

Plop Boot Manager
http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html
Clonezilla Live on PXE Server
http://clonezilla.org/livepxe.php

[Bblaauw]

That works very shortly, I'm afraid. Modern operating systems do not (and cannot) use the BIOS USB Emulation, but instead use their own stack consisting of protected mode 32bit/64bit drivers. As ReactOS doesn't have a fully working USB stack and drivers, the bootloader (FreeLDR) might likely be loaded after which it can't find the rest of the files on the USB-connected storage device.

Besides, ReactOS is only able to cope with some kind of CD as installation source right now, not any other medium, or even ISO images or Memdisk-stored CD-ROM.
It would require changing source code, as that sourcecode is an implementation that has its own assumptions about what the installation medium will look like.

[MadWolf]

hi
you install reactos to a VM when you gat to the end of the fist staga of installation shutdown the vm then boot the vm using Clonezilla Live cd and crate a iamge of the hard drive and save the image to a usb drive

on the real hardware boot Clonezilla and restore the hard drive image

you can boot Clonezilla frome a cd/dvd or usb http://clonezilla.org/liveusb.php#windows-setup or PXE http://clonezilla.org/livepxe.php

[milon]

@MadWolf:

You actually don't want to shut down the VM at the end of stage 1. If you do, it will restart at the beginning of phase 1 when you power on. In other words, it won't go to phase 2.

More info:
http://www.reactos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=87171#p87171
http://www.reactos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=9939

[Bblaauw]

Correct, simply get ReactOS restarting and shut down the virtual machine once you see either BIOS or FreeLoader menu. Afterwards run the imaging program.