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Rad

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Test Bootable Floppy
Apr 29^th, 2005 at 3:43pm

I've been getting mail that ppl are having trouble booting form Chris (Sirhc's) bootbale floppy, which he designed specifically for WXP Pro SP2.

Posted here:

http://radified.com/Files/

.. labeled "Ghost boot floppy" .. 3rd file down on left-hand side.

.. background info contained in this thread:

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=11106...

One poster there thinks it might be due to IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS staying hidden (no matter what he does in the properties).

Can someone try to reproduce? Offer suggestion?

Muchos gracias.
R.

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Re: Test Bootable Floppy
Reply #1 - May 1^st, 2005 at 3:09am

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The outline and files work as indicated, but it has to be done 'exactly' as outlined...

Quote:

1. The (floppy) disk must be formatted and created using Windows 98.

and:

Quote:

PS. I found that if the files are copied to a blank floppy that was formatted by Windows ME, the disk works ... but if they are copied to a floppy that was formatted by Windows XP Pro SP2, it doesn't.

If you simply copy the files from the zipped download to a

new blank floppy disk

--it will not work.

You must format the floppy using Win98 or ME first, then add the files, and then everything works!

Here's an 'Easter Egg'--if you don't happen to have Win98 or ME to work with, you can put a floppy in the drive (you will be formating it and erasing everything that's on it so make sure you want to use that one!),

--in WinXP, start Windows Explorer, left click on the A:\ drive and select 'Format...',

--in the dialog box that opens--at the bottom it says 'Create an MS-DOS startup disk'--put a check in that check box and click 'start'.

After it's done, 'close' the 'Format 3 1/2 Floppy ( A: ) dialog box, and now right click on the A:\ drive in Windows Explorer.

Delete all the files that were copied to that floppy, and then add the files from the zipped file, add the Ghost.exe file to the subdirectory 'Ghost', and it works fine!

Having said all the above, I'm not sure what the advantage of following Sirhc's outline is...unless it's to create a boot disk without ever installing Ghost 2003 onto your WinXP system (in which case you will have to 'grab' Ghost.exe from the DOS sub-directory on the CD--but, unless it's a recent CD--the version on the CD may not be the most recent one--you will have to check this--you will not have 'live-update' available to get the most recent version if not installed on your system).

If you download the WinME boot disk creation file from the Radified Download page, or a Win98se boot disk file from BootDisk.com, and use one of those to create a boot disk--you can use that boot disk to supply MS-DOS boot files to the Ghost Boot Wizard if you have installed Ghost on your WinXP system.

When you use the Ghost Boot Wizard, choose to create a Standard Ghost Boot disk, do not add any extra USB, firewire, or SCSI drivers (unless you want these), and when it asks if you want to supply MS-DOS files, pop the Win98se or ME boot disk in the floppy drive, and tell the Wizard to get the files. Now you can choose MS-DOS files or PC-DOS files as the boot files. You will end up, after completing the wizard, with essentially the same boot disk as outlined by Sishc.

No question is stupid...but, possibly the answers are Wink

!
(This is an old *NightOwl* user account--not in current use. Current account is NightOwl without a dash at the end.)

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Rad

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	Re: Test Bootable Floppy Reply #2 - May 1^st, 2005 at 2:20pm So, if someone doesn't have W98 or WMe, if won't work? It sounds like the files come from a system formatted with/from W98. What is the difference? I mean, I wonder why it won't work if formatted by WXP. Oh, and thanks for the test, and the Easter egg.
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Re: Test Bootable Floppy
Reply #3 - May 1^st, 2005 at 2:38pm

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Quote:

So, if someone doesn't have W98 or WMe, if won't work?

If you use the 'Easter Egg' procedure under WinXP--that floppy will work--so you don't have to have W98 or WMe.

Quote:

What is the difference? I mean, I wonder why it won't work if formatted by WXP.

I checked with a disk editor program--WinXP's floppy using the standard format command has a pointer in Absolute Sector 0 to NTLDR--the NT based boot file.

The floppies created with the 'Easter Egg' procedure above or the Win98 or WinME formated floppies have 'io.sys and MSDOS.sys pointed to in Absolute Sector 0 instead of NTLDR.

No question is stupid...but, possibly the answers are Wink

!
(This is an old *NightOwl* user account--not in current use. Current account is NightOwl without a dash at the end.)

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Rad

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	Re: Test Bootable Floppy Reply #4 - May 1^st, 2005 at 3:39pm Okay. Thanks for the insightful info. I will unsticky this thread & link to it on the 'Files' page & in the guide where I mention these files. R.
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Newbie_steven

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	Re: Test Bootable Floppy Reply #5 - May 18^th, 2005 at 11:02pm Hie all, I have 2 questions here, please help ... 1 - Can this bootable disk be used in Windows Xp Pro Service Pack 1 instead of Service Pack 2 ? 2 - Where can i download the Ghost.exe executable file ? Thanks for replying Newbie_steven
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Ricardo

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	Re: Test Bootable Floppy Reply #6 - May 18^th, 2005 at 11:20pm 1. It is make for SP2, but you can try it and see if it works for SP1. 2. Symantec's "Live Update" is where you download the latest Ghost executable.
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	Re: Test Bootable Floppy Reply #7 - May 19^th, 2005 at 2:11am Newbie_steven 1. The floppy boot disk boots the system to DOS--WinXP SP1 or SP2 is irrelavant. 2. Ghost.exe is found on the Symantec CD that you purchase. You have to supply that by copying it to the boot floppy.
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blu.sockz

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	Re: Test Bootable Floppy Reply #8 - May 24^th, 2005 at 1:23am Thanks for the replies I've successfully ghost my C partition. But actually I used Nero to create boot 'disk' and not boot diskette because I'm using a notebook which doesnt have a Floppy Drive.
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	Re: Test Bootable Floppy Reply #9 - Jul 13^th, 2005 at 3:10pm Good thing I noticed this thread. I downloaded the Ghost Xp SP2 boot zip formatted the floppy in XP slid the files over from the zip and autoexec.bat, command.cpm, and config.sys are hidden files. I had to click view and uncheck hide system files. The boot didn't work so i'll do it again as mentioned above.
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Rad

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	Re: Test Bootable Floppy Reply #10 - Jul 13^th, 2005 at 4:09pm If your system doesn't have a floppy drive, see NightOwl's guide here: http://nightowl.radified.com/bootcd/bootcdintro.html
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	Re: Test Bootable Floppy Reply #11 - Jul 13^th, 2005 at 4:26pm I got the floppy to work, I used the "easter egg" approach.
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H

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	Re: Test Bootable Floppy Reply #12 - Oct 29^th, 2005 at 1:45pm When I tried the Easter Egg approach, not all the files get copied to the floppy.
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	Re: Test Bootable Floppy Reply #13 - Oct 30^th, 2005 at 5:50pm A friend suggested to use a boot disk that you would use with Windows 98 and to download a copy from Bootdisks.com. Well, the disk worked and I was able to use Ghost! How simple! Woohoo!
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Re: Test Bootable Floppy
Reply #14 - Oct 30^th, 2005 at 10:15pm

ok, i managed to get a working floppy (2 really, one boot the other containing ghost.exe) using the easter egg method.

I then could see the usb external harddrive i wanted to save the image to when booting into dos-ghost. woohoo

i made the image, seemingly no probs, but when i booted back into the win environment and tried to check the integrity, i got an error saying that the file was stored on an unrecognised drive. even though the ext. hdd is still usable in windows explorer?

any advice?

the image is my C_drive (xp sp2) and i saved it onto an ntfs logical partition on the ext. hdd

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