boot floppy is broken

**adamherb** · 01-05-2005, 11:07 PM

I installed Kanotix to my hardrive, and i put the bootloader on the partition, instead of the hardrive. I want it there so that the computer auto boots to windows when I want it to. When I made the boot floppy, there was an error that the floppy drive was busy, I assume because I stuck the floppy in, and then pushed the button too fast. The installer went on though, so i assumed that it worked. I tried the floppy, but it says non system disk take it out. So it must have gone into Windows. I checked the boot order, and the floppy drive is before the hardrive, so i assume that the problem is that the floppy is not good. Is there a way that I can get the floppy to work without reinstall|? Reinstall wouldn't be that big of adeal, though, so I guess its ok. Maybe there is another thing that you think caused the problem. At the start of the install, there was an error that said /dev/fd0 could not be accessed.

**adamherb** · 01-06-2005, 12:08 AM

I reinstalled to the hardrive, but when it got to the floppy part, it put it in, but it kept saying,
"I/O Error on dev/fd0, sector whatever"
I kept changing the sector that was the problem. Then I took out the disk, and then put it back in, but then it said
"Probing BIOS for drive something. This might take a while."
I rebooted with the floppy, and it went right into Windows, it dodnt even tell me to take it out. Usually it complains if there is a floppy in the drive.

**Harry Kuhman** · 01-06-2005, 12:09 AM

Originally Posted by adamherb

... I checked the boot order, and the floppy drive is before the hardrive, so i assume that the problem is that the floppy is not good. Is there a way that I can get the floppy to work without reinstall|?......

Rather than make a Knoppix Boot Floppy, you can get a program called Smart Boot Manager. SBM can be installed to the hard drive MBR or (and this sounds like what you want to do), it can be put on a floppy diskette and that diskette used to boot whenever you don't want to boot windows directly from the hard drive. Once SBM comes up you may need to have it scan the hard drive, then just pick the Linux partition from the menu.

Of course, if your floppy drive is bad then you couldn't boot that way. But even then you could installSBM to the hard drive MBR and boot either system (you would get a menu to select from each time you boot).

**adamherb** · 01-06-2005, 12:15 AM

How do you make one of those floppies, I have been to the webstie, but I couldnt find the place to download the thing. Do you donload the .exe file. I did that but then i pushed it and i didnt do anything, but bring uo and then close a DOS console. All i can read in that time is that there is no waranty, nothing else.

**Harry Kuhman** · 01-06-2005, 12:30 AM

Originally Posted by adamherb

How do you make one of those floppies, I have been to the webstie, but I couldnt find the place to download the thing. Do you donload the .exe file. I did that but then i pushed it and i didnt do anything, but bring uo and then close a DOS console. All i can read in that time is that there is no waranty, nothing else.

On the above link you follow the link labeled Download to get to the download page (doh). From there you should have a lot of available links, for different versions, Linux and DOS flavors, and so on. I downloaded the DOS flavor of the installer for the newest version, although DOS or Linux is up to you. From DOS just run it once with no arguments and it will print out a list of valid arguments. Then put a blank floppy in your floppy drive, run it again with the right arguments for the floppy, label the floppy, and you have a Smart Boot Disk floppy. QED.

**adamherb** · 01-06-2005, 12:38 AM

But when i open the file in Windows, it opens a DOS console, and then it goes away too fast for me to read anything. How can I make it stay up.

**Harry Kuhman** · 01-06-2005, 01:34 AM

Originally Posted by adamherb

But when i open the file in Windows, it opens a DOS console, and then it goes away too fast for me to read anything. How can I make it stay up.

You don't "open" it in Windows. You run a DOS window (called MS-DOS Prompt in Win98, may be called something slightly different, such as command prompt, in your version). Then you change to the directory where the sbm program is (or jump back to windows and move the sbm program to when the DOS prompt opened if you like doing things the hard way). Then you can run all the SOD commands you want, including the SBM prorgam. I'm not going to turn this into a complete tutorial on how to use DOS. Close the windows when your done with the command "exit".