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Floppy to boot OS on hard disk


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#1 miles__ahead

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Posted 19 April 2009 - 10:52 PM

This is similar to something I was curious about. I haven't run Linux in awhile but I remember you could create a boot floppy that had the exact location of the Linux kernel on the HD installation. If your MBR or boot loader got hosed, you could pop in the floppy and it would boot Linux off the HD(assuming nothing else was corrupted.) I always wondered why it seemed like nobody attempted(that I'm aware of anyway) to do this with Windows.

Seems like it should be possible to just skip over the boot loader on the HD if the boot CD knows exactly where the Windows boot files are. I figure there must be something about it that's a real pita or somebody would have done it by now. But I'm not sure. :)

#2 was_jaclaz

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Posted 20 April 2009 - 08:34 AM

Post splitted from here:
http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=7153
(it has nothing to do with Winbuilder and VistaPE)

This is similar to something I was curious about. I haven't run Linux in awhile but I remember you could create a boot floppy that had the exact location of the Linux kernel on the HD installation. If your MBR or boot loader got hosed, you could pop in the floppy and it would boot Linux off the HD(assuming nothing else was corrupted.) I always wondered why it seemed like nobody attempted(that I'm aware of anyway) to do this with Windows.

Seems like it should be possible to just skip over the boot loader on the HD if the boot CD knows exactly where the Windows boot files are. I figure there must be something about it that's a real pita or somebody would have done it by now. But I'm not sure. :)


You joking? :)

It has of course been done for Windows. :)

Read these:
http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy33.htm
http://www.multiboot....uk/floppy.html

Making a CD with one of them it's trivial, and you can use grub4dos to load different floppy images or multiboot the different loaders.
http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=5973
http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=3963
http://www.boot-land...hp?showforum=66

:)

jaclaz

#3 miles__ahead

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Posted 20 April 2009 - 04:48 PM

Thanks for the info. On my Vista64 system I'm stuck with software RAID, so I'd need some method to add a 221KB raid driver to the image before burning to CD. If not it won't even see the HD.

#4 miles__ahead

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Posted 20 April 2009 - 08:29 PM

Post splitted from here:
http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=7153
(it has nothing to do with Winbuilder and VistaPE)



You joking? :)

It has of course been done for Windows. :)

Read these:

http://www.multiboot....uk/floppy.html


Thanks for this link. It was wicked easy. I just made a USB Key drive boot gizmo for W7 32 bit following the instructions. Guess a lot of the old Stupid Floppy Tricks work with USB. I'm buying more keys now. Good stuff. :)




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