Copying Boot Disk to Folder on Hard Drive

WannaGetFit · 26-09-2009 08:41AM #1

Hi, I would like to be able to copy a boot disk to a folder on Hard Drive so I can make a new boot disk in future from the folder when boot disk in lost or damaged.
Can anyone help me please? I have rawwrite to make boot disk from image but dont have the image obviously. It was suggested to me to use rawwrite to take the image from the boot disk but I don't know how to do that.

Cheers.

ozzirt · 26-09-2009 09:06AM

I can't see why not. I have a copy of a Windows98 Boot disk in my Downloads Folder.

WannaGetFit · 26-09-2009 09:35AM

do you know how to do it? I know drag and drop wont work because Boot sector of new floppy will not be properly setup.

waraf · 26-09-2009 09:38AM

Download ImgBurn here (it's free). It has the option to create an image from a disk

WannaGetFit · 26-09-2009 09:40AM

thanks, will give it a go

WannaGetFit · 26-09-2009 10:14AM

I don't see an option to create image from a floppy in imgburn.
Sorry, maybe I didn't make it clear I want take image from a floppy disk.
Cheers

waraf · 26-09-2009 11:08AM

WannaGetFit wrote: »

I don't see an option to create image from a floppy in imgburn.
Sorry, maybe I didn't make it clear I want take image from a floppy disk.
Cheers

It's a floppy disk.....jaysus that brings me back

In that case you should be able to just copy the contents into a folder or onto another floppy disk. You don't need to create an image file.

WannaGetFit · 26-09-2009 11:20AM

I've been told by our software expert in work that copying a boot disk (floppy) to a floder (drag and drop) and then copying from folder to another floppy wont work because Boot sector of new floppy will not be properly setup. Dont want to ask him how to do it as I've asked enough questions already and dont want to look like an idiot

ttm · 26-09-2009 11:34AM

afaik the drag and drop problem occurs because that won't format the floppy as a disk that is bootable.

I would guess you need to format the floppy as a DOS system disk first then copy or drag an drop the files.

If you google boot disk you should find a few sites that have downloads of boot disk images that are self extracting exe files that will copy to a floppy and provide the boot sector info that the format would otherwise apply.

http://www.bootdisk.com/ might have what you need

WannaGetFit · 26-09-2009 11:44AM

so are you saying there are 2 possible methods..........

(1) Format floppy as Dos system disk

or you could

(2) Use the self extracting exe files

But you wouldn't have to do both?

ttm · 26-09-2009 12:05PM

Yep TWO methods.

Vague I know but you havn't even mentioned the OS you are refering to?

WannaGetFit · 26-09-2009 12:31PM

maybe vague but its better than where I was a few hours ago.

windows nt

ttm · 26-09-2009 12:41PM

Wouldn't have guessed that

and you can forget anything I said about DOS :P.

But the setup disks are another issue? Set of 3 get from URL above

Have you made the ERD? Emergency repair disk?

WannaGetFit · 26-09-2009 12:55PM

man, this is getting confusing......why do I need 3 disks. I only have one right now and it works.
I can't make a repair disk. Its for a work machine that constantly runs and can't be acessed unless it needs repair.

I just want to copy a floppy boot disk to a folder. OR put it another way I just want to make a BackUP of a floppy boot disk. I want the BackUp to be ina folder.

ttm · 26-09-2009 01:03PM

Just throwing in a few random facts to check you are awake

To set up windows NT4 (if you can't boot from CD or arn't doing an upgrade from wingows 95 or similar) you need the 3 set up disks. Also needed if you want to make a parallel repair copy of NT, essentially another copy of the OS in another folder you can boot to if the orignal OS fails.

Just to boot off floppy you can make a single boot disk but can't see what use it is?

Suggest as this system sounds old but important you try and get it off line and make a full imaged copy to a new HDD (with ghost type software) then you have a complete workable backup (maybe with out of dat data) that can be swapped over WHEN you original HDD fails.

YOU NEED TO MAKE the ERD, forget how now just google the terms NT4 and ERD and you'l get the info, you can make the disk while the system is working no need to reboot. The ERD has saved me a couple of times long long ago.

ttm · 26-09-2009 01:06PM

btw you CAN do exactly what you originally said provided you format the floppy disk in a Windows NT4 system first.

1. Boot.ini
2. Ntldr
3. Ntdetect.com
4. Ntoskrnl.com

and you need the rdisk command from the cmd prompt to make the ERD

WannaGetFit · 26-09-2009 01:28PM

Thanks for your persistence and patience ttm

.........thats not to say i am done yet.

I already have an image of HDD on CD. And can get another one and another one and another one no problem so I dont need a repair disk. I have already used this ONE boot floppy along with this CD image to image HDD in past, so believe me I don't need 3 disks. :mad: LOL

"btw you CAN do exactly what you originally said provided you format the floppy disk in a Windows NT4 system first.

1. Boot.ini
2. Ntldr
3. Ntdetect.com
4. Ntoskrnl.com

and you need the rdisk command from the cmd prompt to make the ERD"

Eh that sounds promising..........what did i originally say? use rawwrite?
dont know how to

WannaGetFit · 26-09-2009 01:34PM

btw, the system IS old and the boot disk has ghost.exe on it, if that makes any difference. Are you saying I need repair disk to enable me to make copy of boot disk (i am sure you are not, but just in case), usually repair disk is if something wrong with your HDD, right?

waraf · 26-09-2009 01:37PM

WannaGetFit wrote: »

maybe vague but its better than where I was a few hours ago.

windows nt

Floppy disks and Windows NT.........is it 1994 all over again?

:)

dingding · 26-09-2009 01:41PM

Can you not use a diskcopy (DOS) and copy one floppy to a new floppy in DOS.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/diskcopy.mspx?mfr=true

You only need one floppy drive, and DOS will prompt you to change teh disk at the appropiate time.

Make sure you do it with the correct disk sequence otherwise you will copy a BLANK disk onto the DATA disk.

ttm · 26-09-2009 01:52PM

WannaGetFit wrote: »

btw, the system IS old and the boot disk has ghost.exe on it, if that makes any difference. Are you saying I need repair disk to enable me to make copy of boot disk (i am sure you are not, but just in case), usually repair disk is if something wrong with your HDD, right?

Again we are at cross purposes.

There are boot disks and then there are boots disks for a specific purpose.

We've now gone full circle as you don't actually need an NT4 bootdisk to run ghost if thats what you intend?

So your master plan (a good one) when this machines HDD dies is to pop in a new HDD boot from a floppy and copy the image from the CD back to the HDD, that would be a farely std proceedure.

IF that is correct all you are doing is providing a platform (often some flavour of DOS) that has the CDROM drivers installed to run the ghost software (CDROM drivers are to access the image on the CDROM)

So go back to the orignal ghost software and make the bootdisks there ;-)

If you can't do that get one of the bootdisks from bootdisk.com that has CDROM drivers (test of course it works)

You need one boot disk with the OS (DOS) on it and another disk with the ghost software.

Boot to DOS then swap floppies and run ghost.

ttm · 26-09-2009 02:08PM

dingding wrote: »

Can you not use a diskcopy (DOS) and copy one floppy to a new floppy in DOS.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/diskcopy.mspx?mfr=true

You only need one floppy drive, and DOS will prompt you to change teh disk at the appropiate time.

Make sure you do it with the correct disk sequence otherwise you will copy a BLANK disk onto the DATA disk.

That works fine in most cases and would work here but I think the OP wants to have a folder on his hard drive called something like Boot Disk and have all the files he needs in that rather than have a floppy ready to rock.

WannaGetFit · 26-09-2009 02:29PM

"So your master plan (a good one) when this machines HDD dies is to pop in a new HDD boot from a floppy and copy the image from the CD back to the HDD, that would be a farely std proceedure."

yaay !! finally! thats exactly it!
sorry it took so long to get it across. obviously iam not computer literate.

"So go back to the orignal ghost software and make the bootdisks there"

problem is i dont have the correct files to make the boot disk correctly first time. when i make the boot disk using rawwrite i have to edit the bat file on the floppy afterwards to make it look for the correct file on the image cd AND i have to copy a different ghost file onto the floppy beacuse the wrong version ends up on the floppy. I have done all this BUT in future if the boot disk is lost someone else (even less literate than me) might have to do it and i don't want that. so a copy of "boot disk" in folder is the way i want to go.

"If you can't do that get one of the bootdisks from bootdisk.com that has CDROM drivers (test of course it works)

You need one boot disk with the OS (DOS) on it and another disk with the ghost software.

Boot to DOS then swap floppies and run ghost. "

what does the above do?

ttm · 26-09-2009 04:11PM

"If you can't do that get one of the bootdisks from bootdisk.com that has CDROM drivers (test of course it works)

You need one boot disk with the OS (DOS) on it and another disk with the ghost software.

Boot to DOS then swap floppies and run ghost. "

what does the above do?

I am suggesting that if you go the route of making a boot disk from say bootdisk.com then you might run into the problem that there isn't room on it for the ghost.exe file. So use two floppies and swap disks once the boot disk has loaded and run ghost from the second floppy from the command line - just document it all for the next guy.

ttm · 26-09-2009 04:18PM

Create a working floppy (guess you already have one?) then download this

http://www.soft32.com/download_8889.html

it should allow you to create a self extracting exe from your original floppy that can be stored somewhere and all the next guy has to do is run it to create the required bootdisk with ghost all ready to rock :cool:

OK tried that but it doesn't do whats required will find another suitable program for you later.

ttm · 26-09-2009 06:44PM

OK I'll start again......

The program Floppy Image in the above post should work the way I suggested and be able to make a self extracting exe file you can store on a Hard Drive that can later be extracted directly to a floppy disk.

I tried to get it working missed one of the features and then discovered that my FDD isn't working anymore so can't test it anyway.

Anyway I read the documentation and found the bit about creating a self-exe which I missed the first time around. So try it and see

WannaGetFit · 27-09-2009 09:15AM

ok, will give that a go. might not be for a few days. thanks a lot

Copying Boot Disk to Folder on Hard Drive

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