How to make a floppy drive emulator from a flash drive. Bootable flash drive for blondes
Past articles have detailed how you can get into . But what is the purpose of this? In most situations, entering BIOS is required to change the default boot disk. AT this text understands how to boot from a disk or flash drive on several computer options. On the different devices the same principle applies. Moreover, its observance requires only a minimum of logic and attentiveness.
Two methods to boot from a disk or flash drive
In the first option, it is proposed to put in SETUP(aka BIOS) desired device to load by default. In practice, it will look like this: every time you turn on the computer, it will start from the specified hardware. In case the device is unavailable or not suitable for booting, the system will try to do it from the next one in the list, which can also be designated. If that doesn't work, the computer will move on to the third device, and so on.The following method is supported by almost all modern laptops or desktop solutions. It is enough to turn on the menu during the start of the computer to select the boot. Thus, the device is determined from which the system will start only once. This is a more convenient method in a situation where you need to boot the system from a USB flash drive once.
When using the first method to select a boot device in BIOS, you should go into it and see the available interface. If you are met by blue windows, then in front of you - Award, differs in gray AMI, and the graphic design indicates UEFI. There are others. To decide, just study the screenshots and compare with your interface.
If you have an Award
Enter SETUP, go to " Advanced BIOS Features". By default, this item is placed second or third, starting from the top.
Further, several options are possible. In one case, you need to find an item that is called similar to " Boot Seq & Floppy Setup».
In another situation, the required partitions can be seen immediately.
Now let's decide on the necessary items on the menu.
First boot device means the hardware from which the computer will start in the first place.
Second boot device is used by the system if the first device is not suitable for booting.
To Third Boot Device the computer will be transferred if the second equipment in the list also has problems.
Any item from such "X Boot Device" corresponds to a hard drive, flash drive, CD / DVD disc or other device for booting.
If none of the options fit and the Boot Other Device is set to Enabled, then the operating system will be searched for on other drives.
When you select opposite any "X Boot Device" Hard Drive, i.e. hard disk, the Hard Disk Boot Priority item allows you to specify in more detail which particular disk to use. This point also applies to flash drives, since this type of boot device is defined by the computer as an external type of hard drive.
Therefore, to start with DVD disc or CD is required in the "First Boot Device" item to assign "ATAPI CD" or "CDROM" and do not select anything else. However, to boot from a USB flash drive, you need to not only click on "Hard Drive", but also go to the "Hard Disk Boot Priority" section. There, using the "PageUp" and "PageDown" or "+" and "-" buttons, move the flash drive up to the very beginning of the list.
Please note! The flash drive connects to the computer until it is rebooted or turned on. Otherwise, it is far from certain that the BIOS will see it.
The name of the flash drive may look different. Usually it starts with "USB ...", "Generic USB ...", and sometimes "External Device". The result of all actions performed must be saved. All you have to do is press the " F10" (for clarification, look down the screen at the prompts: there should be the words "Save" and "Exit") or even return to the main menu and select " Save and Exit Setup". In the red window that appears, use the "Y" button to agree with "Yes" and press "Enter".
The reboot will start. When starting from a disk, the inscription “ Press any key to boot from CD or DVD…».
The literal translation of the phrase: "Press any key to load CD or DVD ...". This means that you can press any button and the computer starts from disks. If nothing is done, it will boot from the next equipment in the list.
Boot selection process in AMI BIOS
Such BIOSes have a completely different look compared to the Award option. To begin with, we get into SETUP and look for the section " Boot» button to the right. There are two necessary points here, they can be clearly seen in the screenshot.
To put a boot from a hard disk or flash drive, you need a tab Hard Disk Drives. We select it and in the line “First Drive” (sometimes called “1st Drive”) we put our flash drive (USB device). After that, you should return to the previous section. Let's press the "ESC" button.
Then we move on to Boot Device Priority. We select 1st Boot Device and again from the list - a USB flash drive.
Be careful, the selected devices must match! If a hard disk is assigned in the first step, then you need to put it in the list not a flash drive, but it.
When you need to boot from a CD / DVD, you should select "CDROM" (sometimes "ATAPI CD-ROM") in the same menu. And in this case, the “Hard Disk Drives” section is no longer needed. Save the settings with the " F10" or you can just go to the "Exit" item and press " Exit Saving Changes».
A prompt will appear, answer "OK".
On the different models laptops and computers are pretty similar. For example, on a standard laptop from Lenovo, the “Boot” section includes all the hardware at once, which is very convenient for users. Eliminated confusion with additional subsections and priority. To set the boot order of the equipment, you just need to use the keys " F5/F6". Therefore, to start from a flash drive, simply advance it to the very top.
Some users will need a detailed transcript.
- USB HDD means external hard disk or flash drive.
- How ATAPI CD is defined is CD or DVD-ROM.
- HDD (sometimes ATA HDD) is a hard drive.
- USB FDD - external device for diskettes.
- USB CD is an external drive.
- PCI LAN stands for LAN Boot.
Below you can clearly see the BIOS EFI (UEFI), which differs not only GUI, but also a working mouse. If you have a computer with EFI, then when you enter the BIOS, you will be greeted by such an image.
Menu at the bottom of the screen Boot Priority. Here you can directly drag and drop the mouse to make the required boot order. In addition, by pressing the "Exit/Advanced mode" button located in the upper right, you can go to the advanced version. To do this, select Advanced mode in the window that appears. Then find the “Boot” section and in the Boot Option Priorities tab, in the “Boot Option # 1” field, put the required boot device: DVD-ROM, flash drive, hard drive, or other available equipment.
But the owners of computers Hewlett Packard usually waiting for the next picture when going to the BIOS.
In the menu section “Storage –> Boot order” find the required device and press “Enter”. Move it up and when it is at the beginning, press "Enter" too. To save the settings, select "File -> Save and Exit".
Ways to boot from a disk or flash drive without entering BIOS
It has already been mentioned above that almost any modern laptops and computers are designed for a one-time boot from the required device and you do not need to go to BIOS for this. You only need to press a certain button when you start your computer. For example, in this BIOS Award it is proposed to select " F12» and bring up the boot menu.
Usually something like "Press F12 Boot Menu" is written. This means: press "F12" to select boot hardware. We do this and see the image, as in the screenshot below.
The list contains the found devices. Select a CD / DVD drive, USB flash drive or something else and press "Enter". However, other options are possible in the AMI BIOS.
The inscription "Press F8 for BBS POPUP" requires pressing "F8" for a menu with a choice to appear. On laptops, sometimes you need the F12 button to call it. The boot menu looks like in the screenshot.
It is enough to select the required one and wait for the download from a CD or USB flash drive.
Possible difficulties when booting from USB devices
Problems sometimes arise and the computer does not boot. Let's take a look at the common problems. First, make sure the USB controller is not disabled in the BIOS. In Award, this information is checked in the "Integrated Peripherals" or "Advanced Chipset Features" item. You need to see the function "USB Controller" and "USB Controller 2" their status should be "Enabled".
In the case of AMI, you need to find "USB 2.0 Controller" in the "Advanced" menu. The position should be "Enabled". The "USB 2.0 Controller Mode" option requires the "HiSpeed" status.
In addition, the reason may lie in the sockets located in front of the panel system block. It is worth trying to connect a USB flash drive to the rear inputs of the computer.
If your SETUP resembles this photo, then in the "Startup" section, change the "UEFI / Legacy Boot" parameter to the "Legacy Only" position.
In addition, the problem may be in the disk or flash drive. Bootloaders are required! You can check this on another working computer.
For fairly old computers in general. If there is no newer BIOS version, then the PLOP solution can help. Download the latest version, unzip the archive. You will see the files, of which plpbt.iso is the image for the CD, and plpbt.img is for the floppy disk.
It is clear that if there is a floppy disk, then the corresponding image is written to it, and the image for the disk is placed on the CD-R / RW disk. Just writing the file to the media will not work: there are special software. This topic was described in the instructions for installing the OS. Then you start from a CD or floppy disk, select the device in the window. The method helps to boot from flash drives on the most ancient computers.
Summarize
you studied detailed guide by loading from a disk or flash drive in the most different occasions. If you only need this once, then it is better to use a menu that does not require going to BIOS. With constant downloads or if there is simply no such selection menu, then just set the BIOS well. Don't forget to return everything later.Now the question of what it is - USB FDD, appears less and less on the Web. People stopped being interested in such devices, since disks first appeared, and later flash drives. But still, a floppy drive can be useful for those who have an outdated motherboard model.
Is it necessary?
Despite the fact that modern PCs no longer support floppy disks, special "adapters" can be purchased. Such floppy drives are connected to a PC via a USB interface. The question also arises whether it is realistic to put Windows on Raid if there is no floppy disk drive itself.
If suddenly the installation operating system requires special drivers from you, it requires a physical drive and a floppy disk. You can purchase either the drive itself, which is connected to the motherboard, or you can buy a USB drive.
Appearance
If you don't know what USB FDD is, chances are you've never seen a floppy disk. Previously, these storage media were often used instead of flash drives and disks, since those were not yet available.
The first floppy drive became known during its existence. It was five inches and used only one side. It fit on such a floppy disk 180 Kb. Later, double-sided floppy disks began to appear and doubled recording density appeared. The capacity of many reached 720 Kb.
It is interesting that at that time all this was enough, since an operating system like DOS or a second Windows versions used some space. The PC could only work with a floppy drive. He didn't need a Winchester.
Of course, a little later there was a need to create additional memory. Floppy disks have become even larger and have acquired 1.44 MB. 3.5-inch floppy disks immediately became known. Such drives got into the computer and were no different in general. Before there were operating systems on disks, they were placed on a floppy disk.
Inside
Before there was an external FDD USB, the use of an internal floppy drive was available. Older motherboards still support its connection. He joins through a special loop. Power is connected through the power supply. Most likely, if in principle you do not have the use of a floppy drive, you will have to activate its operation in the BIOS.
BIOS
Enabling the internal drive will depend on the BIOS version. Anyway, look for the Integrated Peripherals section. The menu will have a line with Onboard FDD Controller. Here you need to activate this controller by selecting Enabled.
Maybe there will be such a problem that everything is on, but the drive itself is not displayed anywhere in the system. To do this, in the first paragraph of the BIOS, we are looking for Standard CMOS Features. For Drive A, you will need to select the floppy drive options.
If you have more a new version BIOS, then you need to go to the second tab, find the Devices Configuration line there and turn on the controller using it. The drive is also activated on the first tab.
External device
Here we are directly close to understanding USB FDD: what it is and how to work with it. If you do not have a drive itself, and the motherboard does not support connecting an internal device, then you can purchase it. There is a line in BIOS where you can optionally connect FDD as a USB device.
In the USB settings, this item is specified in different ways. Look for a combination of the words Legacy and USB. It will indicate whether the option is enabled or disabled next to it. Can be set to automatic. The outer floppy should work. But do not forget to immediately check that all existing controllers with USB interface were connected, and the mode for them is set from 2.0.
Replacement
But to answer the question of what it is - USB FDD, it is possible in a slightly different way. It turns out that in the BIOS settings you can configure the floppy emulator. If you go to the USB Mass Storage menu, you can see the Emulation Type item there. In it you will find the Forced FDD parameter. In this case, you will be able to create a floppy drive emulation.
You will not need to purchase a floppy drive. They can be a simple flash drive. The only thing is that it will need to be used a little differently. If you need to put the Raid driver on the drive, then a simple format may not be enough.
Installation
This is due to the fact that the flash memory itself is somewhat unprepared for what USB FDD drives could do right away. For it to work correctly, you will have to install an additional program. You will need to download FlashBoot with the antivirus turned off and with administrator rights.
It must be said right away that paid program, but for one time you will be enough demo version. Select the floppy to USB conversion. After you need to select a floppy image. But remember that you will have to download it from the official website of the board manufacturer.
To get a floppy disk image, you can go to official resource. The resolution of the document will be ".img". Each of them contains a 1.44 MB floppy disk. If you yourself want to make an image from an existing floppy disk, you will need the Floppyimage utility
So let's continue. We select Wrap, and then we indicate on which flash drive all data will be written. Next, in the line indicating the file system, you need to select FAT12, and then click on formatting. Everything is ready, you can work with the emulator.
In general, as practice shows, there are too many troubles in this case. It is much easier to buy a 3.5 FDD USB drive. Although many believe that such a device will lie idle for a long time, and are wondering if it makes sense to spend an extra $ 20 on it.
Programs
Of course, all the methods described are now less relevant than they were in 2012-2013. or even earlier. But the Internet can still ask similar questions. This is due to the fact that some programs find it difficult to work without a CD-drive or floppy disk drive. Such applications can store a small amount of data on the media. In this case, you need to “deceive” the system conditionally. This is done during emulation.
There are many programs for this business. For example, ImDisk can be considered a good option. You can simply download it additional installations. Once you have found the file with the ".exe" extension, it will be enough just to run it. In the program, you need to select a floppy disk image. As in the case of setting up the BIOS, it will be enough to select drive "A", which used to be responsible for the floppy drive.
Ready device
Of course, there is an option for the laziest. You can try to purchase a 3.5 FDD USB drive emulator. It easily translates a system that specifically asks for 3.5-inch floppy disks. In general, this option is needed for all sorts of technological equipment. For example, machine tools, medical devices, etc.
Such an emulator is connected to a PC via a standard interface, but at the same time, not a floppy disk, but a flash drive is installed in it.
boot drive
If you have worked with a bootable flash drive, then most likely you would like to know what USB FDD is in BIOS. You understand that if you simply throw all the files of the operating system onto a USB flash drive, then nothing good will come of it. Therefore, you need to make a bootable version of the drive. To do this, you will have to not only work with programs on the desktop, but also go to the BIOS.
Depending on what goals you are pursuing or what capabilities your PC has, you should choose the download option. When you get into BIOS, you will see that there is a whole list of options. If we talk about simulating boot from other devices, then there is the already familiar USB FDD, USB HDD, USB CDROM.
variability
The first option is needed to simulate a floppy disk (by the way, there is also a USB ZIP with it). The second option is to download from hard drive, and the latter helps install the OS from an optical CD.
The choice of one of them will depend on the possibilities. For example, many programs that prepare a flash drive only work in USB HDD format. But this option does not support all BIOS versions. This situation can create a problem in which you simply cannot start the USB flash drive. WinSetupFromUSB program works with floppy drives, hard drives and regular disks, so this utility is suitable for absolutely everyone.
How it works?
Regardless of which option you choose, you will need to check that all controllers are working and enabled. After that, you will need to set the download order. For all PCs, loading starts from the hard drive. To select a flash drive, you need to move it up in turn. Then it is from her that the download will begin first.
But remember that if you are using a flash drive as a USB FDD imitation, then you will need to select a floppy drive from the list. In the First Boot Device line, specify the FDD USB option. Let the hard drive remain the second in the boot sequence.
One of the problems that can overtake you in this process is when the BIOS does not support booting from a flash drive. Then either use all the options described above (create an emulator, buy a floppy drive), or just try updating the BIOS version.
Floppy drives steadily continue to leave modern systems. The small capacity and low reliability of floppy disks should have long forced users and manufacturers to abandon floppy disks, but the widespread use (PC standard) made this method of transferring small amounts of information simple and convenient for a long time, and new standards (LS-100, CD, USB) did not spread so globally. But today the USB standard has become widespread not only in almost all computers, but also in many electronic devices. USB storage media are large in volume and prices are dropping rapidly. In addition, compared to CD/DVD, they are more convenient to write/change data, protected from damage, and convenient for daily transportation. Absence in many laptop computers FDD/CD/DVD drives make it necessary to create bootable USB devices to install the operating system. Installing a system with a USB FlashDrive will be discussed in this article.
Instructive case from life
The reason for writing this article was the case with the IBM ThinkPad X41 subnotebook. It was necessary to install the operating system on the computer in the minimum basic configuration (without a docking station and CD and FDD drives). Of the available ports were USB (fortunately, the BIOS was with support for booting from USB drives), IrDA, as well as a port replicator with COM ports and LPT. From the equipment there was only a computer with USB ports and installed OS Windows 98SE, Windows XP and Imation USB flash drive.
Of course, the easiest and fastest option would be to connect a laptop hard drive to a desktop computer via an HDD3.5 "-> 2.5" adapter, but problems arose here. The disk was large (which did not allow it to be recognized by the BIOS of our motherboard even with latest update firmware). We managed to get around this limitation by transferring Windows disk recognition. To do this, it was logical to set “None” instead of “Auto” in the CMOS Setup settings, but the computer still hung when detecting drives on the IDE bus. Then auto-detection was turned on (“Auto”), and at the moment of detection it was pressed (Skip), after which Windows already correctly recognized this disk, which allowed it to work with it. The disk was partitioned and formatted, made bootable, but when it was installed in a laptop, it turned out that the IBM ThinkPad has its own disk access features, which makes its layout on another system incorrect.
So the only option left was to make the USB Flash Drive bootable, partition it, and transfer the distributions from the desktop computer.
How to make a flash drive bootable
To ensure booting from the disk, you must have a primary (Primary) active (Active) partition with correctly placed system files (so that the BIOS can find them and transfer OS boot control to them). To successfully boot MS-DOS, you need the location of IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS at the very beginning of the partition (which the SYS.COM or FORMAT.COM utility allows you to do when formatting a partition with the “/S” key). DOS partitions allow you to make both FDISK.COM (DOS, Windows 95/98) and the management console Windows disks NT/2000/XP. But none of them can make the primary USB FlashDisk partition active (FDISK.COM states that only one partition can be active in the system). A number of both disk utilities (for example, PowerQuest (Symantec) Partition Magic) and specialized utilities for managing USB flash drives (often bundled with the devices themselves) allow you to do the "impossible".
The widest possibilities for working with disks are in real DOS mode, in which we can directly access devices, and most system utilities(like Partition Magic, Symantec Ghost, etc.) work in this mode (under the shell in Windows, only the program is configured before launch). For USB devices, workable universal drivers for DOS have appeared relatively recently. Information about them is available on The Inquirer website (http://theinquirer.net/?article=10215). To work with USB FlashDrive, drivers are required, which are included in two sets. The first is the ASPI HDD driver (DI1000DD.SYS) from the Motto Hairu USB1.1 mode ASPI Manager kit, which includes support for USB-FDD (RAMFD.SYS, designed to copy the floppy disk image to memory, if necessary, free the USB port to which drive is connected). This file is available at http://www.stefan2000.com/darkehorse/PC/DOS/Drivers/USB/mhairu.zip . The second USBASPI.SYS driver is from the Matsushita/Panasonic set of utilities and drivers for working with USB CD drives (http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/cdrrw/kxlrw40an/driver/kxlrw40an.exe).
To install the driver, you will need to register it in the configuration files of the boot DOS disk/floppy CONFIG.SYS:
DEVICEHIGH=USBASPI.SYS /V
DEVICEHIGH=DI1000DD.SYS
Some keys of the usbaspi.sys driver:
/ w (Wait - wait) - a message is displayed when changing or connecting a device;
/v (Verbose - disable) - displays a status message (recommended);
/l[=n] – defines the maximum logical unit number (LUN), the default is "0";
To speed up device detection on USB controllers, you can enable only those present in this system:
/e – enable EHCI (USB 2.0) specification-only controllers;
/o – enable OHCI specification-only controllers (new version of USB 1.x);
/u - enable UHCI specification-only controllers ( old version USB 1.x).
Without these keys, all controllers will be checked (recommended).
To support USB-CDD, you also need the USBCD.SYS file from the same set of utilities, and you also need to add the following lines to CONFIG.SYS:
DEVICEHIGH=USBCD.SYS /D:USBCD001
In AUTOEXEC.BAT:
LHMSCDEX /d:USBCD001
Perhaps the most annoying limitation in working under MS-DOS is not so much 16-bit access, but problems with long file names (which are cut when copying). Therefore, it is preferable to use 32(64)-bit operating systems for working with files.
For Windows 2000/XP users, at first glance, it's easier - flash drives are usually detected automatically and do not require drivers. There are many programs for formatting and managing drives: for example, HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool (ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/softpaq/sp27001-27500/SP27213.exe) and Microsoft USB Flash Drive Manager (http:/ /www.microsoft.com/windows/partnerpack/desc/ufd.htm). Despite their "universality", none of the listed programs could make our Imation FlashDrive bootable. All three necessary conditions(the main partition is formatted in FAT16, made active, placed on it system files) were executed, but the computer could not boot from this flash drive ("Operating System not found"), I had to look for other ways. Since the storage capacity is very limited, the file system is usually FAT and the boot OS is usually DOS (although there are various compact LINUX-like systems, but those who work with them are unlikely to have such difficulties). Accordingly, there are problems with finding DOS files and creating a bootable DOS image. But even these questions are quite well explained on the Web, and there are various simple ways get DOS files (for example, [ftp://ftp.roverbook.com/.bios/System_w98.zip] or [http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm] . Also, HP USB Disk Storage The Format Tool can transfer system files not only from the system floppy disk (or its image), but also from any folder on the disk that contains the necessary DOS files (IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS, COMMAND.COM). or copy manually.
Users of Windows 98SE are out of luck at first glance. But this is only at first glance! Universal driver for USB drives exists, and its name is NUSB - Maximus Decim Native USB Driver for Windows 98SE (http://lemnews.com/drivers/).
After installing the nusb22r.exe driver (here r is the “Russian version”; according to the developer, it is impossible to use the Russian version for the English version of Windows and vice versa) all our drives began to be detected and installed by the system without problems.
Create a boot partition
Now we need to create a boot partition on the flash drive. It was not possible to get access to USB devices from under DOS on our system, so we are looking for an opportunity to create a boot partition from under Windows. By running FDISK, we can easily make the main partition on the disk, but according to FDISK, only one partition on the boot HDD can be active. Not true! There is such a utility Partition Magic from PowerQuest, which is part of Symantec (http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/products/system_performance/pm80/index.html), which allows you not only to create, split, merge and hide different file systems, make active any sections, but also many other "perversions". Will it cope with working with a USB drive under Windows? After all, when we reboot into real mode, we will lose the USB drive. Trying to run PQMagic 8.0 for DOS under Windows... No, it's too smart, it doesn't allow. And the earlier one? Version 4.0 (http://www.mvps.org/dts/WinME_DOS/partition_magic.htm) "says" that it will work, but will not make changes from under Windows. Let's try to cheat the program! In the properties of the pqmagic.exe file, disable detection Windows program(at one's own risk). We launch the utility - it works! Let's try to carry out the necessary operations: if you wish, you can delete the original partition and create a main FAT and an additional one instead. Be sure to make the main boot partition active. Now you can apply all actions.
After performing the operations, PQMagic decided to restart the computer, for which it was quite neatly terminated by the system. In order to see the changes and continue working with the subject, you need to “stop” the drive (using the icon in the system tray), remove it from the USB connector and insert it back.
Filling and configuring
So, the section is created. Now you need to make the disk bootable. To do this, copy the system files with the SYS F: command (where F: is the boot partition of the USB drive). You can use standard utility Windows formatting on this section by checking the items "Quick Format" and "Copy system files". After the performed operations, the system files necessary for loading will appear on the disk, but they are not enough to work with the system - you need to create or edit the system configuration files (MSDOS.SYS, CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT) and copy the necessary drivers and utilities.
The main configuration parameters are listed below:
Paths to system Windows files marked, disabled access to ScanDisk, DoubleSpace, DriveSpace, DBLBUFF.SYS, system registry, booting of the Windows interface (BootGUI) is prohibited, displaying the logo, waiting for commands at system startup is reduced to zero.
DEVICE=BOOT\DRIVERS\HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:OFF
DEVICEHIGH=BOOT\DRIVERS\VIDE_CDD.SYS /D:CDDRIVER
COUNTRY=007,866,_BOOT\DRIVERS\COUNTRY.SYS
SWITCHES keys slightly speed up the system startup, the COUNTRY driver is required to work with files with Russian names. VIDE_CDD.SYS- CD-ROM driver. HIMEM.SYS, COUNTRY.SYS and CDROMDRV.SYS are located in our BOOT\DRIVERS folder.
LH BOOT\DRIVERS\SMARTDRV.EXE
LH BOOT\DRIVERS\KEYRUS.COM
LH BOOT\DRIVERS\MOUSE.COM
LH BOOT\DRIVERS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:CDDRIVER
SET SHELL=COMMAND.COM
Here, the display of “extra” information on the screen during the boot process is disabled, the drivers for buffering writes to the disk SMARTDRV.EXE (mandatory when working with large volumes), Russification KEYRUS.COM, mouse MOUSE.COM, CD-drive driver MSCDEX.EXE are loaded. At the end of the download, the DOS Navigator 1.51 (DN.COM) shell is launched and, if the DN is exited, the COMMAND.COM command interpreter will be launched. Instead of DN, you can use Norton Commander, Volkov Commander, even MS-DOS Shell. Naturally, all these drivers and programs must be located in the specified paths.
In the TOOLS folder, we placed Partition Magic, the SYS.COM file, programs for testing equipment, communications between computers via the LPT port, and others. Bootable Flash Drive is ready!
Making a bootable HDD
To install the system, we need to partition the computer's hard drive, make it active, copy the base system files and the system distribution, then reboot from it. In CMOS Setup, we set the boot order from the USB Flash Drive, boot the computer, start PartitionMagic.
If you plan to install Windows 2000/XP, then it makes sense to partition the disk as follows: create a 1-5 GB Primary Unformatted partition, 2-8 GB Primary FAT16(32), and the rest into Extended FAT32 (after installing the system, you can convert it to NTFS), then Primary Unformatted - delete, and make Primary FAT active. The empty space at the beginning of the disk will be formatted from under Windows in NTFS format assigning the letter “Z” to it and placing the SWAPFILE.SYS caching file on it (“Control Panel” -> “System” -> “Performance”). If you leave the boot partition in FAT format, then after installing the system it will be possible to boot in DOS mode.
Having made the hard disk a system one (SYS A: C and copying the files from the USB drive to it, we can start transferring the distribution.
Transferring a Windows distribution
It is most convenient to pack with WinRAR (but not into an SFX archive!) the i386 folder of the distribution kit, divided into volumes equal in size to the volume free space on a flash disk, and transfer it in parts, dropping it onto the Extended partition of the hard disk, then copy RAR.EXE there and unpack the archive (RAR E I386.RAR -A). This technique is also necessary when transferring a distribution kit from a CD under DOS. Due to the difference between ISO 9660 Level1 (DOS) and ISO 9660 Joliet (Windows) standards for CDFS, long filenames displayed under DOS in 8.3 format with a tilde in the name are displayed without a tilde when copied from a CD, which causes a discrepancy between real short and copied names (which will cause errors during system installation). But we acted differently: we connected the computers using a PLIP cable (LPT-LPT) and launched INTERLNK.EXE from Microsoft on a laptop (by placing a link to it in CONFIG.SYS), and on a desktop computer we launched INTERSVR.EXE under Windows, which allowed transfer data through the LPT port. You can also use Norton Commander, remembering to truncate long file names (which is solved by downloading files in the archive).
Now that the distribution has been migrated, you can run Windows installation 2000/XP from DOS. To do this, we enter the i386 folder and execute the WINNT command. Further - according to the instructions.
In conclusion, we note that this method was useful to us in case of problems with booting from a computer CD-ROM (Toshiba Satellite), and not only.
Partitioning Features of FlashDrive
As mentioned above, to enable downloading from FlashDrive, you must have the main active partition. But there can be several partitions on a disk. Our test subject was split into two partitions (primary FAT16 and secondary FAT16), and displayed in Windows 98 as "drive FG:". But under Windows 2000/XP, only one main partition was visible on our drive. When trying with Partition Magic to create a second primary partition, one of the two partitions becomes Hidden and is not assigned a letter. It is possible to create a second partition in Windows 2000/XP, but a letter is not assigned to it, and it cannot be mounted. To partition flash disks into partitions, there are special utilities supplied with these devices. It is possible that partitioning into logical disks in other ways will also work with these devices. Disks can be partitioned into FAT16 partitions up to 2 GB in size - for larger sizes you will have to use FAT32 or other systems (NTFS, HPFS, ext2, ext3, etc., subject to OS compatibility). Support for FAT16 is implemented in almost all operating systems by default. For NTFS, you can apply compression, which may be more convenient than archiving when transferring and storing large amounts of text and other easily compressible information.
Flash Drive Features
As far as DOS bootable USB capabilities are concerned, there are many useful and indispensable utilities that only work under DOS. This is a set of utilities from Symantec - Norton Utilities (SystemWorks) and Ghost DOS files. For example, UNERASE under DOS (unlike UE32 for Windows) is able to restore and partially corrupted files, and UNFORMAT under Windows does not exist at all. Symantec Ghost is a great utility for creating and unpacking images hard drives, as well as their recordings on CD / DVD, is available as a distribution kit on the site http://www.symantec.com/region/ru/product/ng_index.html , but for full operation it only needs one small GHOST.EXE file, which is easy to find through http://www.filesearch.ru. Moreover, this miracle can be launched at any time from under DOS, it allows without additional drivers make images of both FAT and NTFS partitions, split them into several CD/DVDs, burn discs (creating bootable ones if you have a system floppy disk), unpack partition images from both CD/DVD and from an image file on any partition ( even NTFS!). There are small and simple programs to analyze and test the system (for example, SPEEDSYS.EXE - http://user.dol.ru/~dxover/), as well as MHDD (http://www.hddguru.com/ru/ , section "Software") - a powerful program for restoring and editing the service information of hard drives, which allows you to replace the entire PC-3000 hardware and software system. So DOS is rather alive, and with the wholesale disposal of floppy drives, it takes on a second life on new types of media.
Emulation Type
Possible values:
Auto, Floppy, Forced FDD, hard drive, CDROM
Description:
This option determines how the external drives with USB interface (Flash key fobs, external hard drives, drives optical discs, other similar devices). The best option will set the value Auto, when desired type emulation is selected depending on the type and volume of the drive. If necessary, you can force floppy emulation ( Forced FDD), optical disc drives ( CDROM) or conventional hard drives ( hard drive). Meaning Floppy intended for removable media.
What is the danger of choosing the wrong value? Depending on the type of emulation, the search for the main boot record(Master Boot Records), read partition information. So if you specified the wrong type or there was an error in it automatic detection, you will not be able to boot from this drive and may not be able to access the information stored on it. In general, nothing irreparable. If you still need to manually specify the type of emulation, it is quite clear from the given option names which type to use in a particular case. For Flash drives, the type of emulation depends on how you formatted and created them. boot sector: Hard disk emulation is usually used, occasionally it is necessary to present the drive as a floppy disk.
For many less experienced users personal computers It's no secret that in order to reinstall the operating system, you need to BIOS settings depending on the device from which the OS will be installed.
So, in some models today are already outdated motherboards when setting the device boot priority in the BIOS, you can come across such names as USB FDD and USB HDD.
In this article, we will tell you what these devices are and which one you need to install first to boot from a USB flash drive.
What are these devices?
USB HDD refers to bootable devices such as USB flash drives and external USB hard drives are in widespread use.
External hard drive, aka USB HDD, inside of which there is a regular 2.5 hard drive
And USB FDD is an external drive, also connected via USB, but for floppy disks. Yes, yes, those same magnetic 3.5 floppy disks that modern youth found only from pictures in textbooks. That is why in modern BIOS this item is not in the boot options. After all, floppy disks have long since died out.
USB floppy diskette drive 1.44 MB
What to choose to boot from a USB flash drive?
The answer is obvious - USB HDD. Usually, if the flash drive is bootable and is inserted into the working USB port, then opposite the USB HDD will be its name:
Name bootable flash drive opposite USB HDD
In even older BIOSes, there are no names:
