How to Make a Pre-Boot DOS Disk into a Boot-Disk ?

[DH]

Hello,

I have CheckIt PE version 7 which consists of two floppy disks, an
application disk, and a documentation disk. The application disk does
not contain an autoexec.bat, a config.sys, nor a .exe file. Instead it
has a binary chldr.sys file that is said to load the main module, and
an ASCII chkcmd.sys that contains the single word checkit. The main
module is the binary file checkit.sys.

The manual calls this a "pre-boot" floppy version as opposed to a
16bit DOS boot version, yets talks about inserting the boot-disk and
starting from there. It does not explain how to get the pre-boot
version running. If I insert the application disk it is not recognised
as a boot-disk.

Is there a way to create a boot disk from the application disk ?

Thank you,

D.Hughes

 

[kony]

Hello,

I have CheckIt PE version 7 which consists of two floppy disks, an
application disk, and a documentation disk. The application disk does
not contain an autoexec.bat, a config.sys, nor a .exe file.

Ok, but it wouldn't need to necessarily. Have you tried to
boot it yet and if so what happened? Did the floppy light
come on for awhile to show the system was trying to acess
the floppy in the boot sequence?

Instead it
has a binary chldr.sys file that is said to load the main module, and
an ASCII chkcmd.sys that contains the single word checkit. The main
module is the binary file checkit.sys.

The manual calls this a "pre-boot" floppy version as opposed to a
16bit DOS boot version,

I think they should not make up new uses for standard terms.
It has to boot, period. There is no such thing as
"pre-boot", but perhaps they should have called it
standalone or bootimage or self-booting or whatever, opposed
to the other alternative which is just the portable EXE file
you'd put on another DOS disk.

If you have that EXE, put it on a DOS disk... if you
actually want to fully boot DOS, which doesn't seem so
useful UNLESS your goal is to make a multipurpose boot
CD/thumbdrive/whatever, with other utilities on it also and
perhaps larger capacity as required.

yets talks about inserting the boot-disk and
starting from there. It does not explain how to get the pre-boot
version running. If I insert the application disk it is not recognised
as a boot-disk.

Is there a way to create a boot disk from the application disk ?

Thank you,

D.Hughes

They might have done something odd and unuseful but for
practical purposes you should replace the word "Pre-boot"
with "special limited bootdisk" in the documentation.

 

[DH]

Yes, I tried booting with it and the floppy drive light does come on,
then goes off and the computer boots from the hardrive. It simply will
not boot (other boot disks work fine). I sent a message to the
supplier tech. support and they promptly sent me a .exe to create a
new floppy disk. I ran this and obtained exactly the same disk.

I too had never heard of a "pre-boot" disk before. The actual text in
the manual is,
"CheckIt PE is available in both pre-boot or DOS 16-bit executable
format"

It does sound like the "pre-boot" format is meant to be a boot-disk,
however it does not boot, and does not contain an autoexec.bat or
config.sys file.

The readme.txt file contains the following description,

File Description
a) Program components
README.TXT This file
CHECKIT.SYS Main CheckIt module
CHLDR.SYS CheckIt loader
b) Hardware database
PNPDEV.INI List of known PnP devices
PCIDEV.INI List of known PCI devices
PCIVEND.INI List of known PCI vendors
MONIDLST.INI List of known monitor vendors/models
JEDECID.INI List of known JEDEC ID
ETHERID.INI List of known IEEE Ethernet codes
CPU.INI List of known CPU types
USBDEV.INI List of non-standard USB devices
c) Customizable files
CUSTOM.INI Main Configuration file
UICUST.SCR User Interface script
CHKCMD.SYS CheckIt command line

The chkcmd.sys file contains the one word, checkit, and is accessed
by chldr.sys (CheckIt Loader) to start checkit.sys, howevr how is
chldr.sys started ? I have tried device=chldr.sys in an autoexec.bat
file, and driectly from the command line, to no avail. Tha manual
explains command line options that can be added to the chkcmd.sys
file.

 

[DH]

Yes, I tried booting with it and the floppy drive light does come on,
then goes off and the computer boots from the hardrive. It simply will
not boot (other boot disks work fine). I sent a message to the
supplier tech. support and they promptly sent me a .exe to create a
new floppy disk. I ran this and obtained exactly the same disk.

I too had never heard of a "pre-boot" disk before. The actual text in
the manual is,
"CheckIt PE is available in both pre-boot or DOS 16-bit executable
format"

It does sound like the "pre-boot" format is meant to be a boot-disk,
however it does not boot, and does not contain an autoexec.bat or
config.sys file.

The readme.txt file contains the following description,

File Description
a) Program components
README.TXT This file
CHECKIT.SYS Main CheckIt module
CHLDR.SYS CheckIt loader
b) Hardware database
PNPDEV.INI List of known PnP devices
PCIDEV.INI List of known PCI devices
PCIVEND.INI List of known PCI vendors
MONIDLST.INI List of known monitor vendors/models
JEDECID.INI List of known JEDEC ID
ETHERID.INI List of known IEEE Ethernet codes
CPU.INI List of known CPU types
USBDEV.INI List of non-standard USB devices
c) Customizable files
CUSTOM.INI Main Configuration file
UICUST.SCR User Interface script
CHKCMD.SYS CheckIt command line

The chkcmd.sys file contains the one word, checkit, and is accessed
by chldr.sys (CheckIt Loader) to start checkit.sys, howevr how is
chldr.sys started ? I have tried device=chldr.sys in an autoexec.bat
file, and directly from the command line, to no avail. The manual
explains command line options that can be added to the chkcmd.sys
file.

 

[DH]

Tech. Support for eSupport.com gave much of the answer. This is a
boot disk however it does not boot into DOS and so does not need
autoexec.bat, config.sys etc. It automatically boots its own operating
system.

This disk did work before on an earlier computer. The disk is not
know recognized as a system disk on the Soyo KT880 Dragon 2 V2.0
computer and will not boot. I created a bootable CD version from the
floppy disk however this gives the same error, so I do not think that
the floppy drive is at fault.

 

[kony]

Tech. Support for eSupport.com gave much of the answer. This is a
boot disk however it does not boot into DOS and so does not need
autoexec.bat, config.sys etc. It automatically boots its own operating
system.

This disk did work before on an earlier computer. The disk is not
know recognized as a system disk on the Soyo KT880 Dragon 2 V2.0
computer and will not boot. I created a bootable CD version from the
floppy disk however this gives the same error, so I do not think that
the floppy drive is at fault.

The only ideas I have are to try a different floppy drive,
see if that motherboard has a bios update that might addess
this, recheck the bios settings for boot devices and boot
order, or instead use a DOS bootdisk and the EXE version.
If the EXE version won't fit on the DOS bootdisk put it on
an second disk, make a bootable DOS CD or USB device with
enough capacity to hold all the files.

 

[DH]

The only ideas I have are to try a different floppy drive,
see if that motherboard has a bios update that might addess
this, recheck the bios settings for boot devices and boot
order, or instead use a DOS bootdisk and the EXE version.
If the EXE version won't fit on the DOS bootdisk put it on
an second disk, make a bootable DOS CD or USB device with
enough capacity to hold all the files.

I have found some more detail. I downloaded the QView DOS 16bit Hex
editor (very useful) and made floppy boot sector dumps of the
"original" CheckIt PE application disk and the one that I created with
the program supplied by Esupport.com .

I found that the boot sector for the "original disk" was that of a
Win98SE DOS complete with referennce to the hidden files IO.SYYS and
MSDOS.SYS which are not part of the application. It looks as though at
some stage I backed up the application disk files, re-formatted the
disk as a Win98SE boot disk, and then replaced the Win98SE files with
those of the backed up files (why I would have done this I do not
know, however this is what the boot sector seems to report). This disk
cannot work as the correct CHKLDR.sys system file is not referenced in
the boot sector amd the boot process looks for non-existent IO.SYS and
MSDOS.SYS .

I then formatted a new floppy disk, non-boot, using the WinXP command
line, and examined its first sector, which showed that it was not a
boot sector, and the DOS label in this sector was MSDOS5.0 . I next
ran the CheckIt PE floppy creation program using this disk (it
requires a blank formatted disk to start with), and then re-examined
the first sector.

The creation program had edited the sector and it was now a boot
sector, still with the MSDOS5.0 label (starting at the fourth Hex
character), however little else was the same (different non-DOS boot
loader program) , and the referenced system file was CHKLDR.SYS as it
should be. The creation program also places the appropriate files onto
the floppy disk.

I attempted to re-boot using this disk, however the floppy light
comes on briefly while the disk is examined, and then Win-XP proceeds
to load from the harddrive.

The floppy drive is working since other boot disks work (e.g.,
Win98SE and WinME DOS boot disks). The CheckIt PE floppy boot sector
contains error messages (similar to those of a Win98SE boot sector)
however no error messages are reported during the attempted boot.

The creation program requires a long S/N that I have from the
original disk label, and this works (changing one digit results in an
incorrect serial number being detected).

I do not have the DOS .exe version (it did not come with the
application) and this is no longer supported.

I will next look for other computers to test the this boot disk.