Thread: Fdisk on a bootable CD?

  1. #1
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    Question Fdisk on a bootable CD?

    The title says it all.

    How do I get fdisk onto a CD I can boot from?

    [my floppy drive is ..........ed]

  2. #2
    5|-|1+|-|34|) ober's Avatar
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    you're going to have to find something that loads your cd-rom drivers first, i believe...

    and then just put fdisk on the cd and change your BIOS options to use the cd to boot first..

    what OS are you using? and why can't you just boot to windows and then use the OS option to boot to DOS... considering you have a DOS based Windows...

    UNLESS... you have Linux... then you'd need something else entirely...

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    Originally posted by ober5861
    you're going to have to find something that loads your cd-rom drivers first, i believe...
    No, I won't.

    I can boot from my CD by starting the BIOS setup and choosing CD-ROM.

  4. #4
    5|-|1+|-|34|) ober's Avatar
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    well then why can't you just make a boot disk with a cd just like a floppy then? I've never done it, but in principle, it should work, right?

    just get your msdos.sys, io.sys, config.sys, autoexec.bat, etc.. and dump them onto a cd...

  5. #5
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    I need this because I am trying to install windows 98 SE on a computer with Linux. It's floppy drive has a broken floppy disk jammed in it, and the windows 98 installer can't format the drive. Oh and I'll be using Windows 2k to make this boot CD.

  6. #6
    5|-|1+|-|34|) ober's Avatar
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    umm... do you have a windows partition setup?

    Otherwise, I THINK you're going to have to repartition with Linux... using diskdrake or some equiv depending on your distro.. I don't think fdisk will recognize your Linux partitions...

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    Originally posted by ober5861
    umm... do you have a windows partition setup?
    NO, otherwise I wouldn't need to use fdisk

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    well..you use fdisk do delete all partions currently on the drive then you create a fat32 and everything is peachy. I think you need to do a low level format to get ride of the lilo boot loader.

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    fdisk will recognise the Linux partition as unknown and be able to remove it. These sites should get you on your way: http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/ and http://www.startdisk.com
    Allegro precompiled Installer for Dev-C++, MSVC, and Borland: http://galileo.spaceports.com/~springs/

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    (Depending upon FDISK version) fdisk /mbr or fdisk /fixmbr or just fixmbr (2K, if I recall) will remove lilo bootloader.
    Allegro precompiled Installer for Dev-C++, MSVC, and Borland: http://galileo.spaceports.com/~springs/

  11. #11
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    Oh yeah, most CD burning software have an option to make a boot CD out of a boot floppy too, in case you want to go with that (which may very well be the easiest). Usually it is a tad hidden option, but generally something like: NEW CD -> Bootable will assume you mean with a floppy disk that is bootable.
    Allegro precompiled Installer for Dev-C++, MSVC, and Borland: http://galileo.spaceports.com/~springs/

  12. #12
    $null
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    Originally posted by ober5861
    well, mr. smarty pants... if you're so freakin quick, you'd realize fdisk doesn't recognize linux partitions...
    excuse me? have you ever installed linux before? you have no idea what you are talking about...

  13. #13
    5|-|1+|-|34|) ober's Avatar
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    Originally posted by $null


    excuse me? have you ever installed linux before? you have no idea what you are talking about...
    well pardon my ignorance... i've never used fdisk in conjunction with Linux... i've always used the partitioner that came with my linux distro... i just figured that something that was designed to deal with fat32/fat16 partitions would not recognize something like an ext2 format or something similar...

    *edited for being a dumbass*
    Last edited by ober; 03-06-2002 at 01:03 PM.

  14. #14
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    He was just making a valid point, ober...

  15. #15
    5|-|1+|-|34|) ober's Avatar
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    i know... long morning... short temper... fast fingers on the keyboard...

    apologies to you and $Null...

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