bootable CD-ROM image to memstick image?

[Ian Smith]

On Mon, 30 Jun 2014 12:43:50, Warren Block wrote:
 > On Tue, 1 Jul 2014, Ian Smith wrote:
 > 
 > > You last said "Good luck!" and I thought I was all set, but alas .. it
 > > seemed to be loading ok, but then "Missing operating system" was all it
 > > said, a horror story long preceding the infamous BSoD to old DOS jocks.
 > 
 > Hm.  The image ought to have the boot blocks.  Maybe a geometry difference?
 > If Win95/98 is easily available, it could do a 'sys' on that USB drive (not
 > MS-DOS, because it can't see USB).  Or maybe FreeDOS would work, I have not
 > used it much.

I have an original Win2k on the T23 - I'd forgotten it was still there, 
only time ever booted was updating the T23's BIOS years ago :) - but the 
more I read the more it seemed imprudent to put DOS/Win system files on 
that PC DOS 6.0 disk.  FreeDOS' sys has switches for that and assorted 
other variants of DOS, so I grabbed a freedos .iso (they don't offer a 
memstick image either) and might install it sometime - as usual I left a 
4GB s1 for msdosfsy things on this - but persevered with the images ..

 > For that matter, the FreeBSD MBR bootcode might be enough ('fdisk -B').

You'll recall the original image made with geteltorito.pl - which worked 
for various people, albeit on X220 - as well as your more direct method, 
quit with "Missing operating system" which message is from its MBR, made 
with Nero.  After fdisk -B /dev/md0 a FreeBSD MBR also has that string, 
however when booted it actually handed off to the DOS 6 'boot loader' ok 
- which instead returns the equally familiar old "Non-system disk or 
disk error\n Replace and press any key when ready"!

I did check the MBR, start sector and count for s1 - even the CHS maths 
- which all tallied, geometry seemed right.  I'm totally bemused.  10 
years ago I'd have compulsively chased this rabbit down its hole, but it 
had cost far too much time already; I want to USE this machine! :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record /BIOS to MBR interface 
had me wondering whether the NERO MBR might have mangled the disk unit 
number for PC DOS' benefit, but nothing explains why the Linux people 
could get that X220 image to work - unless the X200 BIOS isn't handing 
off the right register setup or something, which seems rather dubious.

 > I have a 32M MS-DOS hard drive image on my PXE server just for this kind of
 > situation.  Mount the image, copy the firmware update files to it, umount and
 > PXE boot the target system from it.  A bit of a hassle, but often less than
 > the alternative.  Most systems work with it.  Although a few have complained
 > and refused to run the firmware update, no other problems (that is, no
 > bricks).

So I googled 'pxe boot freebsd' and what's the first cab off the rank?
http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/pxe.html :)

So I considered setting up the T23 as a PXE / DHCP etc server, but I'd 
probably never use it again.  So I waited till my son dropped of his 
external CDRW/DVD burner, burned the original .iso with cdrecord and it 
booted straight up.  So I have my BIOS/EC upgraded, learned some likely 
useful things along the way .. but my curiosity isn't at all sated!

And yes I retried those .img files with the new BIOS, ruling that out ..

Thanks again, Warren

cheers, Ian