1. I made a bootup floppy with mkbootdisk `uname -r` in a fat16 format floppy and tested it - it works fine. 2. I copied all the files in this floppy into my data partition(Fat32) with cp /mnt/floppy/* /mnt/f32_data/ , used ls -l /mnt/f32_data and can see them all in new place; boot.msg initrd.img ldlinux.sys syslinux.cfg vmlinuz 3. And then I used another new floppy which formatted in f16 and copied all files from data partition into it by cp /mnt/f32_data/* /mnt/floppy (This is the second new floppy), used ls -l can seen them all (5 files) in the floppy. 4. I used this second floppy ( all 5 files I copied from /mnt/f32_data/ ) to boot FC1 and I saw the message; "Non-System disk or disk error. Replace and press any key when ready" - This floppy simply just can't boot! 5. I used this same floppy and boot up into FC1, issued commad mkbootdisk `uname -r`, and then I used it to boot, it works - This indicated that the floppy itself physically is useable. 6. I compared files in the bootable floppy and contents in my f32_data folder that has the files boot.msg, initrd.img, ldlinux.sys, syslinux.cfg, vmlinuz, both file names and file size are absolutely the same. The result tells one thing; Only the floppy made by FC1 with bootdisk `uname -r' is bootable, if you transfer or copy files in this floppy into another floppy even the files are there afterwards, the new floppy is not bootable. I want copy all contents in the bootable floppy into my data storage partition, and copy them back into a blank floppy in case I need - I had bad experience in open a blend new box of floppy and 3 consecutive floppy even not workable at all! I must prepare if the current boot floppy one day is gone. Moreever, I really want to know above copy process what have I missed that caused the new floppy not bootable even with correct contents in it (At least I can't see what I had missed). Thanks for helping.
The easiest way to make a usable (and bootable) image of a boot floppy is with dd. Use "dd if=/dev/fd0 of=boot.img bs=512 count=2440" to create the file boot.img that is an exact copy of the floppy.
That will create a bootable image of the floppy that then can be put back onto another floppy using rawrite from dos/windows, or dd on linux.
Barry Yu wrote:
- I made a bootup floppy with mkbootdisk `uname -r` in a fat16 format floppy and tested it - it works fine.
- I copied all the files in this floppy into my data partition(Fat32) with cp /mnt/floppy/* /mnt/f32_data/ , used ls -l /mnt/f32_data and can see them all in new place; boot.msg initrd.img ldlinux.sys syslinux.cfg vmlinuz
- And then I used another new floppy which formatted in f16 and copied all files from data partition into it by cp /mnt/f32_data/* /mnt/floppy (This is the second new floppy), used ls -l can seen them all (5 files) in the floppy.
- I used this second floppy ( all 5 files I copied from /mnt/f32_data/ ) to boot FC1 and I saw the message; "Non-System disk or disk error. Replace and press any key when ready" - This floppy simply just can't boot!
- I used this same floppy and boot up into FC1, issued commad mkbootdisk `uname -r`, and then I used it to boot, it works - This indicated that the floppy itself physically is useable.
- I compared files in the bootable floppy and contents in my f32_data folder that has the files boot.msg, initrd.img, ldlinux.sys, syslinux.cfg, vmlinuz, both file names and file size are absolutely the same. The result tells one thing; Only the floppy made by FC1 with bootdisk `uname -r' is bootable, if you transfer or copy files in this floppy into another floppy even the files are there afterwards, the new floppy is not bootable.
I want copy all contents in the bootable floppy into my data storage partition, and copy them back into a blank floppy in case I need - I had bad experience in open a blend new box of floppy and 3 consecutive floppy even not workable at all! I must prepare if the current boot floppy one day is gone. Moreever, I really want to know above copy process what have I missed that caused the new floppy not bootable even with correct contents in it (At least I can't see what I had missed). Thanks for helping.
The boot sector must be written for booting from linux, and a floppy that is bootable from linux is not readable from windows.
What you did wrong was writing the files onto a dos diskette instead of making a bootable disk. Even a dos diskette is not bootable if the sys command has not been used to make it bootable.
On Sun, 2004-03-28 at 18:42, Jeff Vian wrote:
The easiest way to make a usable (and bootable) image of a boot floppy is with dd. Use "dd if=/dev/fd0 of=boot.img bs=512 count=2440" to create the file boot.img that is an exact copy of the floppy.
That will create a bootable image of the floppy that then can be put back onto another floppy using rawrite from dos/windows, or dd on linux.
Of course... for rescuing a failed/broken Fedora installation, the CD is actually quite good. It holds a lot more handy software than a boot floppy. I consider floppies to be 'single use' devices... at least for critical uses. After being burned (badly) by some "rescue" disks that couldn't several years back, I have never depended on them again. CDs all the way!
Barry Yu wrote:
I want copy all contents in the bootable floppy into my data storage partition, and copy them back into a blank floppy in case I need - I had bad experience in open a blend new box of floppy and 3 consecutive floppy even not workable at all! I must prepare if the current boot floppy one day is gone. Moreever, I really want to know above copy process what have I missed that caused the new floppy not bootable even with correct contents in it (At least I can't see what I had missed). Thanks for helping.
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Barry Yu -
Ben Steeves -
Jeff Vian