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Searching for Boot Record from CDROM..OK


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#1 Dobermann

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Posted 22 May 2008 - 09:26 AM

Hello,

I have a multi boot machine that boots just fine (W98SE & XPP). I am trying to boot to DOS using a CD (this box has no floppy). When I boot, I get the above message, then it just sits there and hangs. Like I said, normal booting works just fine.

I am using DOS6.2 from the old directory on my HD. I created the boot disk using my own image (command.com, io.sys, msdos.sys & drvspace.bin). Obviously I made the CD correctly, or else it would not have said OK when it searched for it.

Why did I make my own boot image? Well, the one from bootdisk.com did not work either. It did the same thing if memory serves me correctly (I have too many unlabeled CDs on my desk now) and could not tell which was which except this latest home rolled version.

This has been so frustrating, as even though the W98SE OS uses my USB KBD & Mouse, it does not recognize my USB FDD nor none of my card readers or "thumb" drives, forcing me to use CDROM as my only method. Even though I have it set to boot from USB FDD as the first boot source, it never attempts to do so. It is an older Imation USB FDD (whose drivers W98SE will not accept).

Anyhow, what might make it just hang on an otherwise perfectly booting system?

Thanks,
Dobermann

#2 was_jaclaz

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Posted 22 May 2008 - 04:30 PM

You omitted to post the actual important information, i.e. HOW (which program, which parameters, which kind of El_torito emulation, etc.) you actually used to create the CD-ROM.

From what you describe, the cause could be a "wrong" burning/iso making program, or the "right" program used with wrong parameters.

Or alternatively, you may want to describe what is the actual result you want to achieve, (i.e. a simple DOS boot, a particular DOS based floppy image, etc.) and we may suggest you a procedure.

jaclaz

#3 Dobermann

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Posted 22 May 2008 - 07:49 PM

My bad. I used Nero 7. Chose CD-Bootable. Under the Boot tab, I have used both my own iso of the 4 files listed and also tried the bootdisk.com image of 6.22. I am attaching screen shots of the two tabs showing my selections. I believe the "click to view full image" is readable.


boot.png iso.png

I am trying to create a simple dos boot so that I can actually use dos. I used to be a dos-aholic and I miss it. It's been a while since I had to edit my autoexec.bat and config.sys files, but I did edit them for current file structure now. I used to have some of the best available mem specs and performing systems with the setup of these two files, so I am pretty happy with how they are now. There is only one line I really edited in my config.sys file, and that is the last one.

config.sys

DEVICE=C:\DOS620\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\DOS620\EMM386.EXE RAM 31472
BUFFERS=40,0
FILES=50
DOS=HIGH,UMB
LASTDRIVE=Z
FCBS=4,0
DEVICEHIGH /L:1,12048 =C:\DOS620\SETVER.EXE
STACKS=9,256
SHELL=C:\DOS620\COMMAND.COM /C LH C:\DOS620\COMMAND.COM /E:512 /P


autoexec.bat

SET COMSPEC=C:\DOS620\COMMAND.COM
C:\DOS620\DOSKEY
LH C:\MOUSE\MOUSE.EXE /MEMA /MEMSA
PATH=C:\DOS620;C:\WIN98SE
SET TEMP=C:\TEMP
@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $P$G
VERIFY ON
CLS
C:\DOS620\MEM


Thanks for the help,
Dobermann

#4 was_jaclaz

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Posted 23 May 2008 - 05:28 PM

You appear to have chosen "NO EMULATION" and then used a Floppy image.

I would suggest you to use "Floppy emulation", if you want to use a floppy image. ;)

Maybe this helps:
There are THREE ways to make a bootable CD, let's call them three bootable formats.
#1 El-torito emulation boot
The data in the CD is divided in two parts, the first part is an image of a normal floppy (of course bootable), the second is the rest of the data. Only two floppy formats are allowed, the 1.44 Mb or the 2.88 Mb.
When you boot from this kind of CD, the floppy image is treated like a real floppy and gets a letter assigned. On a "common" PC where floppy drive is A:, hard disk C: and CD drive D:, the floppy image within the CD usually gets letter B: while the rest of data is accesible from D:.
Almost all DOS based CD's are of this kind.

#2 No emulation boot
The data in the CD is divided in two parts, the first part is a "no-emulation" boot sector (a piece of code that is specific to boot the machine), while the second part is the data. On the same PC described above, the bootsector is usually hidden and not accessible from the OS while the data is accessible from D:
All Microsoft Windows NT/2K/XP/2003 install CD's and all its derivations, like WinPE, BartPE, UBCD4WIN, WINBUILDER as well as VISTA DVD's and ViSTA derived ones use this second format.
The bootrecord is usually referred to as "Microsoft Corporation.img" or as "Arnes Boot Record.img" for the former ones and as "etfsboot.com" for the latter ones. There are other no-emulation bootrecords normally used, such as the bootloaders grub4dos or BCDW.

#3 Hard disk emulation boot
This is the least used format, for which there is VERY scarce information available. Basically, the data can be divided in two parts (but can be even be kept in just the first part), the first part is expanded from the 1..44 Mb or 2.88 Mb of the El-torito emulation to the whole size of a hard disk image.

You won't be able to access the "rest" of the CD if the DOS floppy image is not configured for MSCDEX (deprecated) or SHSUCDX (strongly suggested).

A more "modern" way to create a DOS CD is to use the grldr of grub4dos as no-emulation image and then map and chainload any number of DOS based floppy images.

Using mkisofs.exe is generally preferrable to using Nero or other GUI programs as it leaves to you some more control on the built .iso.

Some ideas:
http://www.911cd.net...o...18045&st=25
http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=3963

The "normal" way for DOS images:
http://paulski.com/zpages.php?id=1814

Two tutorials that include Nero:
http://www.bay-wolf.com/bootcd.htm
http://www.infocella.../CD/Boot-CD.htm


Just post if you need further help.

jaclaz

#5 Dobermann

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Posted 24 May 2008 - 09:28 AM

Lots of reading and great links. I appreciate all your help, and hopefully when I post back in a couple of days, it will be to say "success!"

Dobermann

#6 wendy

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Posted 04 June 2008 - 07:07 AM

Proggies worth the collecting (all are small)

VFD (virtual floppy drive) You can use image files as floppy disks

BFI allows you to create floppy disk images of assorted sizes, boot sectors, and c

eg bfi -f:pcdos.ima -o:ibmbio.com -o.ibmdos.com -b:pcdos.bin dos63\ diskdrv\

where dos63 and diskdrv are both copied to the root directory of the cdrom.

Winimage is a gui that will create assorted boot disks, esp in pro mode.

#7 kcom

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Posted 05 June 2008 - 04:43 PM

I recommend the following:
- learn how to use VirtualFloppy (very easy)
- learn how to use a virtualizer with support for virtual floppys
- create your virtual boot floppy
- test your virtual boot floppy in your virtual machine
- learn how to use syslinux (isolinux) or even better grub4dos
- then use the floppy emulation feature of grub4dos, it works great I really can recommend it
- create an bootable iso with grub4dos and test that iso in a virtual machine
- if it`s working burn it to CD or DVD RW (in order not to waste to much) and test it on real hardware, it should work

That`s how I would do it. (Ok, I prefer booting from USB.)

Sounds much but it isn`t. It`s also really worth to learn because you can create then something like Ultimate Boot CD with lot`s of different boot floppys for any purpose.

#8 Aquateen_Shake

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Posted 29 March 2012 - 04:23 AM

I'm sorry for reviving a 4 year old thread but I looked for hours on how to do something similar and could not find an easy way to do so.

Goal:
Create a bootable Ghost CD to use with YUMI USB multiboot utility.
Since I would be booting from USB I could not use a DOS cdrom driver to access the rest of the data on the CD (e.g. ghost.exe)
Solution: Easyboot http://www.ezbsystems.com/easyboot/download.htm

After installing it I went to tools > options > create new image

Change the size to 8640 and selected dos98.img as the seed image (included with easyboot)
Clicked create and then opened the new image named 8640.img in WinImage and copied the all of the files that were on my bootable ghost thumb drive.

Saved the image

Modified the ezboot menu to only show ghost as an option and to only point to my 8640.img and clicked Make ISO.
Copied my new ISO to my multiboot USB drive using YUMI.
Since my USB drive is formatted with NTFS I can save images without having to span them.

Easier solution, purchase newer version of Ghost which includes Ghost32.exe and add that to a WinPE image... but the organization I work at still uses this older verison. I'm in the process of migrating them to WIM format now.

References:

http://www.ezbsystem...t=ST;f=2;t=1240

http://www.ezbsystem...t=ST;f=2;t=1238

Edited by Aquateen_Shake, 29 March 2012 - 04:24 AM.


#9 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 29 March 2012 - 09:20 AM

Good. :thumbsup:
Just for the record, the use of bigger than 2.88 Mb images as El-Torito Floppy emulation images (without the need of using *any* bootloader/bootmanager) has been documented recently:
http://www.msfn.org/...oppy-emulation/
New limits are as follows:
  • 0x03: 1024*2*36 * 512 = 37,748,736
  • 0x02: 1024*2*18 * 512 = 18,874,368
  • 0x01: 1024*2*15 * 512 = 15,728,640

:cheers:
Wonko




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