Making Memory Key Bootable

[Gary L. Hunt]

Using a Memorex 256 MB Thumb Drive in the USB of my notebook with Win XP
Pro, I would like to make it bootable with Win 98 Boot disk because my
notebook does not have a built in floppy. However The machine does not
recognize it as a hard drive in DOS and I do not have access to a desktop
computer that I can tell it that the memory key is the only hard drive on
the machine so I can do anything to it.

Is there any way I can make this memory key bootable by using my present
laptop to do it. I do have a USB floppy that I can use to help but I want
the key bootable because it is so easy to carry around.

Thanks for your help.

Gary Hunt

 

[CS]

Using a Memorex 256 MB Thumb Drive in the USB of my notebook with Win XP
Pro, I would like to make it bootable with Win 98 Boot disk because my
notebook does not have a built in floppy. However The machine does not
recognize it as a hard drive in DOS and I do not have access to a desktop
computer that I can tell it that the memory key is the only hard drive on
the machine so I can do anything to it.

Is there any way I can make this memory key bootable by using my present
laptop to do it. I do have a USB floppy that I can use to help but I want
the key bootable because it is so easy to carry around.

Thanks for your help.

Gary Hunt

Hi Gary:

Unless your laptop has a BIOS setting that enables removable devices
to be used to boot the machine, you will be unable to use the Thumb
Drive to boot. Why not use a bootable CDR or CDRW to boot your
machine instead?

My Toshiba notebook likewise has no floppy but I have built several
boot CDs that can be used for emergency recovery and booting into DOS.
Most good burning programs like Nero or EasyCD will make a CD
bootable. Just create any bootable image you desire and both
programs will copy it to a CD and make the CD bootable. Very easy to
do.

 

[Gary L. Hunt]

Thanks for all your help. I have Nero 5.5. Could you explain to me step
by step how I can put the Win 98 floppy on a CD and make it bootable? I
have burned many CD's but have not made a bootable CD like this.

Thanks a lot.

Gary Hunt

 

[CS]

On Tue, 9 Sep 2003 15:55:30 -0400, "Gary L. Hunt"

Hi Gary:

First, create a Win98 bootable floppy disk. Don't use a Win98 EBD
since that depends on using a RAM disk to access most utilities.
Just create a Win98 boot disk with whatever utilities you desire and
that will fit on the disk. Make whatever adjustments you wish to
autoexec.bat and config.sys (device drivers, etc.).

Next, open Nero. When Nero starts the wizard, select (under new
compilation) "CD ROM boot". Make sure you have placed the Win98
bootable floppy in the floppy drive first. Nero will than access the
floppy drive to "see" the floppy image. Next, select "new" and
follow directions. Select write.

Note: You can use a CDR or CDRW. I prefer a CDRW since if I make a
mistake or use some incorrect parameters, I can completely erase the
disk and start over. Nero will then write the CD and make it
bootable.

If you try to view the CD using Windows Explorer, you will be unable
to see a listing since Nero "hides" the boot information. Test your
bootable CD. It should boot the machine and take you right into
Win98 DOS. ( You might have to go into your laptop's CMOS setup to
select the CD drive as first boot device.) Remember, your laptop's
hard drive must be formatted to FAT-32 in order for the boot disk to
"see" the hard drive contents.

Regards.

 

[Gary L. Hunt]

Thanks. I guess you mean do not use the Win 98 boot disk with CD drivers
since I would be using the ones from my system or is this not right?

I will give this a try. Thanks again.

Gary Hunt

 

[CS]

On Tue, 9 Sep 2003 17:27:04 -0400, "Gary L. Hunt"

Yes, that's right. Since the CD itself boots the laptop from the BIOS
setting, you don't need CD drivers. Just place whatever you consider
essential on the 98 boot disk that you need from a DOS prompt.

 

[Gary L. Hunt]

Thanks Alex and CS. I did have success at doing this but I probably could
ass some good files besides the WIN98 files. Any suggestions on what else I
could add would be helpful.

Thanks again.

Gary Hunt

Thanks for all your help. I have Nero 5.5. Could you explain to me step
by step how I can put the Win 98 floppy on a CD and make it bootable?

You need a machine where you can read the Win98 floppy as well as burn
the CD, or else download an image of such a floppy (say from
www.bootdisk.com). Then in Nero, take CD Rom (boot) fairly well down
the icons on the left. This will then have a pane that you can point to
the floppy, or to the image file on HD, and on taking new you can set
up in the other Nero pane all the files you would like to be available
to that boot (which will see that section as if it were a regular CD)