I knwo there are all sorts of boot disks out there but would it be possible to boot the HD using a floppy disk rather than booting a copy fo MSDOS or linux off a disk?
I have an XP setup thats finished the MSDOS part but I cant boot it or any other setup I try to put on the hd yet booting from a floppy disk is fine.
Booting HD from floppy
Moderator: Moderators
-
Felix the Cat
- Posts: 2383
- Joined: 15 Jun 2005, 17:30
I've done that 7 times so far with XP, and several times trying to install Damn small linux to it from a usb drive using the install scripts. I've reformatted it in ubuntu, damn small linux, ms-dos and XP.
What about lilo/grub? Could I install one of those to a floppy disk and configure it to boot the harddrive?
I dont mind booting from a floppy, as long as I dont have to lug around a usb hub running portable linux distros so I can start using the stuff on my laptop like my wifi pcmia card and an OS with a compiler (no real development possible damn small linux with no compiler or IDE's). I'm tired of the longwinded process it currently takes me to load damn small linux, write a document, and save it having to go into terminal as root and mount sda1 then start my word processor in root mode, else it gives read write errors when I try to save, not being able to change things around effectively as the settings get reset back on reboot, and I never seem to be able to get it to save and load in the correct place.
What about lilo/grub? Could I install one of those to a floppy disk and configure it to boot the harddrive?
I dont mind booting from a floppy, as long as I dont have to lug around a usb hub running portable linux distros so I can start using the stuff on my laptop like my wifi pcmia card and an OS with a compiler (no real development possible damn small linux with no compiler or IDE's). I'm tired of the longwinded process it currently takes me to load damn small linux, write a document, and save it having to go into terminal as root and mount sda1 then start my word processor in root mode, else it gives read write errors when I try to save, not being able to change things around effectively as the settings get reset back on reboot, and I never seem to be able to get it to save and load in the correct place.
-
hollowsoul
- Posts: 665
- Joined: 06 Jun 2006, 19:49
Linux has never succesfully installed on that hardrive. And yes I'm aware XP overrwrites the MBR.
I've given up on being able to boot directly and am now relying on the grub boot floppy I made as you already know. I'm downloading ubuntu now and I am going to attempt to install it then boot from the grub floppy when i want to use it, which should be a lot better than relying on damn small linux.
I've given up on being able to boot directly and am now relying on the grub boot floppy I made as you already know. I'm downloading ubuntu now and I am going to attempt to install it then boot from the grub floppy when i want to use it, which should be a lot better than relying on damn small linux.
-
Felix the Cat
- Posts: 2383
- Joined: 15 Jun 2005, 17:30
Is this your laptop or a desktop?
If it's a desktop you might consider buying a small second hard drive and installing that as your primary; the boot sector on your current hard drive might have some corrupted areas or might have physical damage.
It used to be that Scandisk was included on all Windows boot discs, but that was back in the golden days of Windows 98, when you could actually fix broken things somewhat easily.
If it's a desktop you might consider buying a small second hard drive and installing that as your primary; the boot sector on your current hard drive might have some corrupted areas or might have physical damage.
It used to be that Scandisk was included on all Windows boot discs, but that was back in the golden days of Windows 98, when you could actually fix broken things somewhat easily.
if it where my desktop the problem would have vanished a long time ago.
Right nwo I've gotten through all the stages of an ubuntu presetup stage, now all i need todo is stop the ubuntu on my PC and the XP on ym stepdads comptuer from refusing tor ead the floppy despite the fact my computer rebooted to XP and my laptop both see the floppy disk as fine.
My mess about with grub and XP setup ended with NTDLR not found errors
Right nwo I've gotten through all the stages of an ubuntu presetup stage, now all i need todo is stop the ubuntu on my PC and the XP on ym stepdads comptuer from refusing tor ead the floppy despite the fact my computer rebooted to XP and my laptop both see the floppy disk as fine.
My mess about with grub and XP setup ended with NTDLR not found errors