Hello all,
I've been following this project with interest, and have had great fun
implementing Isolinux within the FreeDOS cdrom distribution.
Since I'm not that an expert at Linux, I would like to know how I can
*succesfully* generate a bootable image from a partition.
Situation is like this: (640MB RAM on system)
60GB IDE harddisk,
primary partition 1 win98 500MB
extended partition with 2 logical partitions about 50GB.
I cannot delete these.
The win98 primary partition is active and boots fine.
Now I plug in my SCSI disk into it's controller, so I can boot from SCSI
into Win2000.
There I image the Win98 partition on the IDE disk with WinImage (use E:,
read disk).
Finally,
I have a Win98.ima which I rename to win98.img
structure on disc (and in ISO):
root
isolinux
-isolinux.bin
-memdisk
-isolinux.cfg
-win98.img
The Win98 image gets loaded by Memdisk
label win98
kernel memdisk
append initrd=WIN98.IMG
but after a minute of 2 loading into RAM, it fails actually booting:
"Invalid BootDisk. Replace diskette and hit a key to continue"
So, what am I doing wrong?
Is there a Windows solution?
I've read of dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/dev/hda2/win98.img , but which action does
WinImage not do?
opening the win98.img in WinImage shows file contents, and bootsector
MSWIN4.0
Is there any decent Windows replacement software, or what are my
alternatives?
Syslinux docs easily talk about "1 partition, no guarantees to work",
but is
this exactly what I should expect if it does not work as intended (diskless
computer, with win98/office working in RAM)
regards,
Bernd Blaauw
The image you are trying to load is too large, 500Mb?
You will never be able to fully load a windows system from a read only
drive.
You can however load Windows NT from a read only drive. I have seen this.
But these are special versions of Windows, that mount a ramdrive that will
be used by windows to write stuff, namely swap.
But, what are you _exactly_ trying to do?
-----Original Message-----
From: Blaauw,Bernd B. [mailto:B.Blaauw at student.fontys.nl]
Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2003 3:01 AM
To: 'syslinux at zytor.com'
Subject: [syslinux] Windows harddisk images.
Hello all,
I've been following this project with interest, and have had great fun
implementing Isolinux within the FreeDOS cdrom distribution.
Since I'm not that an expert at Linux, I would like to know how I can
*succesfully* generate a bootable image from a partition.
Situation is like this: (640MB RAM on system)
60GB IDE harddisk,
primary partition 1 win98 500MB
extended partition with 2 logical partitions about 50GB.
I cannot delete these.
The win98 primary partition is active and boots fine.
Now I plug in my SCSI disk into it's controller, so I can boot from SCSI
into Win2000. There I image the Win98 partition on the IDE disk with
WinImage (use E:, read disk).
Finally,
I have a Win98.ima which I rename to win98.img
structure on disc (and in ISO):
root
isolinux
-isolinux.bin
-memdisk
-isolinux.cfg
-win98.img
The Win98 image gets loaded by Memdisk
label win98
kernel memdisk
append initrd=WIN98.IMG
but after a minute of 2 loading into RAM, it fails actually booting:
"Invalid BootDisk. Replace diskette and hit a key to continue"
So, what am I doing wrong?
Is there a Windows solution?
I've read of dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/dev/hda2/win98.img , but which action does
WinImage not do?
opening the win98.img in WinImage shows file contents, and bootsector
MSWIN4.0
Is there any decent Windows replacement software, or what are my
alternatives? Syslinux docs easily talk about "1 partition, no guarantees
to
work", but is this exactly what I should expect if it does not work as
intended (diskless computer, with win98/office working in RAM)
regards,
Bernd Blaauw
_______________________________________________
SYSLINUX mailing list
Submissions to SYSLINUX at zytor.com
Unsubscribe or set options at:
http://www.zytor.com/mailman/listinfo/syslinux
Please do not send private replies to mailing list traffic.
I have succeeded in obtaining a bootable Windows image. You people were correct in assuming the partition table was missing. How I solved this: www.nu2.nu has a win32/NT tool called MKBT which extracts bootsectors. I used it on my win98 (E:) partition and obtained bootsect.bin Next, I installed Ramdisk software (RamdiskXP, www.cenatek.com) and configured it to have the same size as my partition: 400MB bootsector was configured as DOS instead of NTFS. Next, I copied msdos.sys/io.sys/command.com to my H: (the Ramdisk), and used MKBT to insert the bootsect.bin into the Ramdrive. finally, I copied over the rest of E: to the Ramdisk. And then started the Ramdisk control panel software to get a disk-image of my H: ramdisk. Luckily this is a *complete* dump to a *.img file. The rest is easy: isolinux directory with isolinux.bin/memdisk/isolinux.cfg and this saved win98.img of 400MB finally MKISOFS with -N option (doesn't hurt anyway since I sometimes create win2000 install cd's), and then Nero to burn the resulting ISO image of 405MB or so. yes, it works. It does start in compatibility mode, complaining about the IDE-controller-drivers (remark-signs in device manager). FreeDOS is a lot simpler: SYS H: , and dump the Ramdisk into imagefile. Microsoft and their "incorrect DOS version" which prevents SYS working in NT... :( So now I also have found a way to update the Bochs FreeDOS harddisk image. Atto benchmarks show a read/write in the order of 300MB/s , so this is definately using system RAM. Now configuring SCSI drivers would allow me to use SCSI cdroms since unfunctional IDE-controller prevents me using cd-writer. now 98Lite and Win98 and Phoenix + network on DHCP, and you have a fine webbrowser which is compatible to programs. let's see if NT is possible.. thanks very much all. Bernd Blaauw PS: tell those knoppix guys to support localboot :) -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- Van: H. Peter Anvin Aan: Christian Marg CC: syslinux at zytor.com Verzonden: 24-1-03 2:26 Onderwerp: Re: [syslinux] Windows harddisk images. Christian Marg wrote: >> Who is talking about a readonly drive? Well, the writes are not > persistent over reboots, but that shouldn't bother Windows much if you> don't have changed configuration data... >Right. What's a bigger issue is if Windows starts trying to talk to the hardware directly, in which case things obviously fall flat on their face. You may want to try Safe Mode. -hpa _______________________________________________ SYSLINUX mailing list Submissions to SYSLINUX at zytor.com Unsubscribe or set options at: http://www.zytor.com/mailman/listinfo/syslinux Please do not send private replies to mailing list traffic.