Mike M wrote:
Shane,

Did you see my comment that you can boot a virtual PC from either a
floppy or CD? All that you need to do is configure the VPC to
capture the device and then it works as if the device is part of the
virtual system rather than the host.

That's going to take some getting my head round.


BING. I assume it must have some form of DOS but that is somewhat
academic when booting from either a floppy or CD since neither use any
files on the hard disk and only accesses it when you enter maintenance
mode. Incidentally since I use BING as my boot manager I install it
to the hard drive and place it in its own 8MB partition which is the
remainder of the first cylinder after the MBR etc. When I boot into
my OS I don't load the BING volume into the partition table so it
just appears as unallocated free space on the hard drive to the OS.


Well I've been assuming DOS wouldn't boot because an interrupt is no longer
available in the BIOS. Int.13? (30? 30,013?). Never got *that* far into
interrupts - though have one utilised on the bootable DOS cd for retrieving
the time! So I've thought no true DOS system would work. Because my DOS cd -
one I assembled and wrote the batches for myself - is a self-contained
MS-DOS 8.00 OS, which works perfectly well on 9x desktops but isn't
recognised by the laptop BIOS, while an NT-based cd boots no problem.

There I go, assuming again! I think I'm going to have to do some studying.
Including running BING on the laptop.

Sorry to read about the nosebleed. I just hope it isn't a sign of
anything too serious as I'm now relying on you to get some photos for
me from Milleau. g I hope it stops soon and that you're OK and
don't have to run up and down the lane.

I'm off now to count sheep, or at least to read a book.

Yeah, excellent idea! I'm reading (was going to say two) three books atm.
One is Aircraft Recognition, from the war? I expect you know about it - and
I wouldn't be surprised if you had it in the house. Fascinating. I find
myself wishing it was wartime again in my less realistic moments. I keep
finding myself wondering why he doesn't mention any jets!

Night, Mike!

Shane



Mike M wrote:
But I want to be able to boot up with a DOS cd.

That's no problem with a VM. You can boot it from a CD if required.

As for your problems with a laptop I'd probably have used BING to
sort out the partitions. No need to install, boot from either a
BING floppy or CD and enter Maintenance mode.


Don't recall if I had that available. If so I didn't use it because I
was hoping to get into the volume(s) and repair it/them.

Or maybe I did try it. My memory is poor these days. Hopefully it's
just the drugs now. I think I made it academic by accidentally
installing Linux on the wrong volume - because at that point I didn't
realise two were being seen as one.

Yes, that's what happened.

Still don't recall if I had BING available. I might have assumed that
it wouldn't boot anyway, though hopefully I'd have tried it - I
really don't want to make assumptions! So BING doesn't use any
flavour of DOS? I'd better drum that into my head!

As soon as I typed that, I felt something damp on the end of my nose.
I have a nosebleed. If this gets any wierder I may run off down the
lane in my dressing gown!