Msg: Re: OT: Windows "brain transplant" redux

Another useful tool that might figure in here or in some

other scenarios is that you can get an ISO of FreeDOS

and burn a bootable CD of it. Or even use an ISO editor

to add some other key utilities of your choice to it, prior to burning. I had a disk like that but need to find it again.

It's probably even possible to include XyWrite, since I

recall that their have been fully portable implementations of

it. Where there is a need to write to something, a RamDisk

can be used for that. (We keep on hearing that the optical

disk is supposedly "dead" as standard equipment for modern

systems, but I consider that almost fatally wrong-headed.

I have computers I deal with that will boot most bootable

CDs or DVDs, yet won't boot from a flash drive -- no matter

what you set up in the BIOS, even though that is supposed

to be an option.) In my opinion, the well-equipped software
toolkit should include bootable "Swiss Army Knife" discs

like (the un-redacted) Hirens and regular-issue Strelec

ones. Links available if anyone has an interest.

Jordan

On Monday, February 10, 2020, 5:39:08 AM PST, Paul Breeze <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Dear Jordan

Thank link may be useful. I have used Virtual Floppy Drive in the past
but it does not seem to work with 64 bit windows, or at least I have not
been able to get it to work.

Regarding the boot disc, you need a real floppy disc drive and a real
floppy disc. I have used a usb floppy drive and that was fine. To key
to the trick is that you are overwriting the master boot record of the
system drive and this is protected if you boot from it. However if you
boot from a floppy you can carry out this operation. If you are running
a virtual pc with XP then you can simply boot from the image, but if you
want to rebuild a real system you need the real hardware. I used to do
this regularly when I ran a system based on XP.

Paul

On 09/02/2020 17:06, J R FOX wrote:
Hi Paul,

I still have an external (USB powered) floppy drive. Since we're all
about the by now fairly obscure here
on this List, for reference sake I will mention a diskette
imaging program that I used successfully, back in the
day, from a French software developer.

ARDI | VETUSWARE.COM - the biggest free abandonware collection in the
universe <https://vetusware.com/manufacturer/ARDI/?author=1176>



ARDI | VETUSWARE.COM - the biggest free abandonware collection in
the un...

VETUSWARE.COM - the biggest free abandonware collection in the universe

<https://vetusware.com/manufacturer/ARDI/?author=1176>

That's what I could still find for the older, legacy version. It moved
on to a later-Windows version

Diskette and flash drive tools par Daniel F Valot
<http://dvalot.free.fr/emtcopy.html>





Diskette and flash drive tools par Daniel F Valot

emtcopy ardi4usb cleandisk PC / Windows par Daniel F Valot

<http://dvalot.free.fr/emtcopy.html>

Does the boot disk you mentioned actually need to be
run from DOS ? What about with a DOS emulator ? Otherwise, one could
probably mount and run a
diskette image using something like Daemon Tools,
or the portable one I have liked, ISO Toolkit, in order
to avoid needing a floppy drive.

Jordan