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Boot floppy disk/CDROM

Table of contents

  1- Preface
  2- Bootdisk/CD creation
     a) From binary
     b) From image
  3- Bootdisk usage
     a) Boot menu
     b) Disk content
  4- Bootdisk problems
     a) No mouse
     b) No CD
     c) No C: or C: is not the same than in Windows
     d) No USB
  5- Others bootdisks
  6- Evolutions
     a) V1.01
     b) V1.02
     c) V1.03
     d) V1.04
     e) V1.05
     f) V1.06
     g) V1.07
     h) V1.08
     i) V1.09
     j) V1.10
     k) V1.11
     l) V1.12
     m) V1.13


1- Preface

This document describes how to create and use the bootdisk that contains Partition-Saving.
This bootdisk is based on FreeDOS. It does not contain the whole FreeDOS distribution, but only a set of tools that can be useful with Partition-Saving. It also includes a DOS USB driver from Panasonic and Novac companies.
In case you have a Windows 9x bootable floppy disk, you have rather to use it and copy the Partition-Saving program (savepart.exe) on it, because it offers several options more than this disk and a better compatibility in case you want to modify something in Windows installation or boot.


2- Bootdisk/CD creation

The bootdisk is provided into two formats:

a) From binary
The binary is a Windows or Linux program that automatically creates the floppy disk. You have to launch it, click "Ok" once you have put a 1.44 MB formatted floppy disk in drive, choose the drive where you want the creation to be done (in case you have several floppy drives), confirm the disk creation and wait for the execution end (when "Ok" button becomes active).

Notes:

b) From image
The image file is a raw image of the floppy disk. It can be used with various utilities to create floppy disk back as dd or rawwrite. To know how to use these programs, you have to refer to their manual. Basically they are launched with two parameters: the image file and where to restore it.

This image file can be used also with a CD burner program to create a bootable CD/DVD. To know how to perform this, you have to refer to your CD burner program manual. Basically, you have to choose somewhere to create a bootable CD and in associated options to select the floppy image file to use it as floppy emulation.

Notes:


3- Bootdisk usage

a) Boot menu
Once the bootdisk is created, you have to boot your computer with the floppy disk in drive (check in your BIOS that it tries to boot from floppy first).
You get a menu that allows you choosing between four options: In all cases, the CD drive is mounted as R: (and following drive letters if you have several CD drives).
Once you get the prompt (A:\>), you can type savepart to launch Partition-Saving.

Note:
If your BIOS has an option to manage USB disk (in most cases, this option is named "Legacy USB mode"), it is better to use it than using the USB driver included on floppy disk (so you do not need to use second or fourth option).

a) Disk content
Here is a list with a short description of bootdisk content:


4- Bootdisk problems

This chapter describes some problems that can happen when using the bootdisk.

a) No mouse
In case your mouse does not use a standard interface, it can be incorrectly detected, resulting in no mouse available or hang of program when using mouse. In such a case, if a DOS driver is delivered with this mouse, you can replace the MOUSE.EXE program with your driver and change the "mouse" line into AUTOEXEC.BAT file in case your driver is not called mouse.exe or mouse.com.
In case you have an USB mouse, check if your BIOS has an option to emulate a PS2 mouse from USB one such as the driver can be used, or use an USB to PS2 adapter.
In case no solution above work, you have better to remove the "mouse" line from AUTOEXEC.BAT file or use the "-nm" Partition-Saving option.
b) No CD
In case your CD drive can not be used (or generate some errors that do not appear in Windows), that can be because the CD drive is wrongly recognised. If you get a driver with your CD drive, you have to use it by replacing "XCDROM.SYS" with the name of your CD driver into FDCONFIG.SYS file and removing the "/UX" option at end of this line. In case you do not get a driver with your CD drive, you can try with some generic ones (as the ones provided with Windows 9x or the VIDE-CDD one).
If your CD drive is an USB one, please read chapter 4.d.
c) No C: or C: is not the same than in Windows
This can be the standard behaviour because DOS is only able to access FAT drives. So if you have some NTFS drives, DOS will not see them and drive letters do not correspond to the Windows one. You will be able to access the NTFS drives from Partition-Saving with using the mount option (see chapter 25 of Partition-Saving manual) but you will only be able to modify size of existing files, not to create new ones (see chapter 17 of Partition-Saving manual).
d) No USB
In case you can not access your USB drives despite you select the option to load USB driver, this can be because your USB interface is not recognised. In this case you can first check if there is an option in your BIOS to enable USB disk/CD access. In this case choosing option to load USB driver is no more needed (but USB disk must be plugged before boot).
In case your BIOS does not have such an option, you can try with some others USB drivers (see http://www.stefan2000.com/darkehorse/PC/DOS/Drivers/USB/).
In case you can see your USB disk but cannot create a file on it from Partition-Saving, it can be because of file writing check. You have to launch Partition-Saving with "-nvf" flag to disable this check (and "-nvd" if you restore a partition to an USB disk).
As default the USB driver to access CD is not loaded. If you need it, you have to add a "DEVICE=A:\USBCD.SYS /D:USBCD001" line into FDCONFIG.SYS file and modify the "ShsuCDX" line into AUTOEXEC.BAT file to add "/D:USBCD001" at end.


5- Others bootdisks

Some others bootdisks can be used in case this one does not work. Some of them already incorporate Partition-Saving (not necessarily last version). Some of them are using MS-DOS so you must have a valid MS-DOS/Windows license to use them.


6- Evolutions

a) V1.01
Update to use last programs version (Partition-Saving 3.50, diskinfo 1.05, partinfo 1.07, fileinfo 1.16).
b) V1.02
Update to use last programs version (Partition-Saving 3.60, diskinfo 1.06, partinfo 1.08, fileinfo 1.17), add of drivinfo 1.00.
c) V1.03
Update to use last programs version (Partition-Saving 3.70, diskinfo 1.07, partinfo 1.09, drivinfo 1.01, fileinfo 1.18).
Creation of a Linux version.
d) V1.04
Update to use last Partition-Saving version (3.71).
e) V1.05
Update to use last programs version (Partition-Saving 3.80, diskinfo 1.08, partinfo 1.10, drivinfo 1.02, fileinfo 1.19).
f) V1.06
Use of CuteMouse 2.1b4 in place of version 1.9.
Update to use last programs version (Partition-Saving 3.90, diskinfo 1.09, partinfo 1.11, drivinfo 1.03, fileinfo 1.20).
g) V1.07
Update to use last programs version (Partition-Saving 4.00, diskinfo 1.10, partinfo 1.12, drivinfo 1.04, fileinfo 1.21).
h) V1.08
Update to use last programs version (Partition-Saving 4.10, diskinfo 1.11, partinfo 1.13, drivinfo 1.05, fileinfo 1.22). Creation of 64 bits version.
i) V1.09
Update to use last programs version (Partition-Saving 4.20, diskinfo 1.12, partinfo 1.14, drivinfo 1.06, fileinfo 1.23).
j) V1.10
Update to use last programs version (Partition-Saving 4.30, diskinfo 1.13, partinfo 1.15, fileinfo 1.24). Remove of drivinfo program as there is no more enough free space on disk. If you need it, you can copy it in place of another program or you can use the CD image that still has it.
k) V1.11
Update to use last programs version (Partition-Saving 4.40, diskinfo 1.14, partinfo 1.16, fileinfo 1.25).
l) V1.12
Update to use last programs version (Partition-Saving 4.50, diskinfo 1.15, partinfo 1.17, fileinfo 1.26).
m) V1.13
Update to use last programs version (Partition-Saving 4.60, diskinfo 1.16, partinfo 1.18, fileinfo 1.27).


D. Guibouret <>

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