Abstract: A technique, specifically apparatus and accompanying methods, for use in a client-server environment for booting an operating system (O/S), such as a 32-bit personal computer (PC) O/S, on a client computer through a networked connection to a server. Specifically, the server stores an image of a client hard disk including the client O/S and desired applications. During a boot process, a procedure, which is compliant with both an interrupt handler in the client and a network driver kernel in the client O/S, is installed in the client. Based on client O/S resources then available when, during the boot process, the client requests a local hard disk access to a particular sector, the procedure will re-direct that request, to the network file server, through a network driver kernel in the client O/S rather than through a client interrupt handler.