Boot Disks

[Worm]

I don't know how many times I've had to hunt through floppy after floppy to find a boot disk for different things.

I ran across this web site the other day, and thought some others may find it useful too.

www.bootdisk.com (http://www.bootdisk.com)

[TJ_Tigger]

PC Mag has posted links to that site before. A good one to have bookedmarked.

[Derek]

yeah, i downloaded all off em Jan 2003. You never know when you'll need one and thought you never would!

One thing that still astounds me is why the 2000/XP boot disk won't recognize NTFS. Make sense of that!

[Intrigued]

Yes I agree, bootdisk.com is a good place to get a variety of boot disks from.

I prefer to even go farther in helping to preempt the catastrophic computer problem from happening in the first place by using Norton Ghost.

Here's the gist...

When you have had enough with a (this example) Windows 98 install (BSOD - Ack!) then format the machine, putting Windows 98 back on the machine.

Now, I find that I can easily put the full install (and a couple applications like ZOC for my remote networking needs and some others) on a single CD-ROM!

So, the next time I need to format and install Win98 I have a game plan and one that takes (ready?) all of about 3 to 5 minutes!

Tip: Get the updates for Norton Ghost before you use such to make a backup. And this is so easy to do (both backups and the updates) you will be surprised!

ps. Windows XP (with a couple applications again) will fit on, or will need two to three CD-ROMS. (from my experience)

And just one more thing...

You can do network backups too!

[rhosk]

Speaking of back-ups (may be giving away my age here), I remember the days when I could back-up my hard drive (after hard drives were finally invented) with several floppies and be rest assured. Then came the days when the double-density disks helped a bit. (zip drives - never used 'em) On to maybe a CD-ROM will be better. OK, 5 or 6 CD-ROM's should do the trick.

Now, I can't even get my hard drive on 5 DVD's! Where do we go from here?...I ask you.

As for boots, I'm pretty sure with the latest BIOS', you can boot to your CD-ROM drives now (I also remember the day when you had to include the driver in the autoexec.bat/config.sys to even recognize the drive).

[Intrigued]

Now, I can't even get my hard drive on 5 DVD's! Where do we go from here?...I ask you.

Back up in my other post I noted that you can backup via network.

Another words... you could create (through Ghost) a floppy with the settings (easy wizard guides one through such) for the 'receiving' computer/server settings and then have a floppy with ghost.exe on it. When you're ready you then put the 'Network floppy' in and then once that goes through the bindings, etc. etc., you then put the ghost.exe floppy in and boot the system in question. Then the magic... you pick the image to restore and few minutes later you're back to an operation OS platform. Ghost works with Linux (Redhat for my example) too!

I did this for Windows XP.

I keep a WinXP Pro/Redhat Linux (old Kernel now) on hand for testing, etc.. etc.. (Which I used Partition Magic 8 to setup the partitions and thus the dual boot status).

As far as DVDs as a backup medium.. well I just got a DVD burner the other day and I will be trying that out.

I recommended and still do that you work on doing the backup after you format (less to backup) and then maybe add a hand full of applications (and 3rd party drivers if needed) at that point before burning your backup.

Good Luck for those that give it a shot!

Finally... I touched my first computer when I was 10. It was a 'mini' and it truly, with storage, filled an entire room! And a buddy of mine reminded me of the early Linux days... like 60 floppys to startup the OS (no wonder it was designed so you can change config files with OUT rebooting).

ps. Norton Ghost (least 2003 anyway) provides a nice video/audio tutorial to help get this going and an excellent Knowledge base for error messages, etc. etc.

[late addition]

Ghost 8.0 (Enterprise?) edition is suppose to (if I understood correctly) allow for the backing up of the image to the same H.D.!

Just like a lot of computer manufacturers are doing with their OEM installs (actually some OEM use Ghost as well!)

[Corey]

I also started young, 9, on an Apple ][+. A "mini", hmm, that's neat, never heard of those before. Is that UK? Sounds pretty cool.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[Intrigued]

No problem Corey... here is a link that has a cover of a magazine graphic of a Mark-8 'minicomputer'.

http://www.ciphersbyritter.com/MARK8/MARK8.HTM

See how it says 'minicomputer' on the magazines cover.

Here's a Webopedia definition too:

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/e/minicomputer.html

Ah... the Apple line of computers... I remember working on them in a 1984 programming class. Those were nice!

I remember an animation creation program (I long have forgotten the name of the software) that the teacher kept in the closet locked up. Very cool stuff!

[Corey]

Wow, that's quite the unit. Cool. Yes the Apple we got in 1978, it didn't do too much but it was still very cool for sure. Hard to believe how much things have changed. :)

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[AaronCooper]

I have 50 + classroom computers:

I have done this with 7.5, by having a 2nd partition with a 98 dos, boot image, with a batch file that reghost my machines once a week.

I use this method so not to put a load on our network for console ghosting.

It took some time to flush the method out but was able to do it.

I am looking at trying ver 8 soon

Ghost 8.0 (Enterprise?) edition is suppose to (if I understood correctly) allow for the backing up of the image to the same H.D.!

Just like a lot of computer manufacturers are doing with their OEM installs (actually some OEM use Ghost as well!) [/B][/QUOTE]

[Intrigued]

Nice arrangement!

Just think... soon we will be just walking by with a PDA and doing 'walk by installs'? (grin)

[TheProg]

I had my first home computer when I was 7, an old Acorn Electron, we still have it in the cupboard!

Oh, the joy of waiting at least 5 minutes to load a game or something from a tape, and all them annoying ?DATA, ?BLOCK & Rewind Tape errors!

Then it moved on to an Acorn Archimedes at school, and then the holy grail, Apple Mac's! (Now they ARE computers!!) I even had an old Apple Powerbook 180 a few years ago!

Then a **REALLY** old IBM AT pc, the real heavy 1's with only 640K memory, 5 & a quarter inch TRUELY floppy discs, a 10MB hard drive and DOS 3.3 was given to me by 1 of the old teachers at school.

And then when I was 18, I was working at a placement and they gave me my first decent PC, a 386 DX 66, 4MB ram & a 20MB hard drive with DOS 6.22 & WfW 3.11, it was on this I descovered for myself that 2 hard drives could be used at once and have always used 2 HD's in my machines!

[JXBURNS]

'fraid I didn't start so young in age as some of you but did buy my first computer in 1977 which was no more than a breadboard. In 1979 a Sharp MZ-80K came my way which still is in the loft (attic) & that I power up from time to time. A shopkeeper I knew had it on his counter because a salesman had just brought it into him to try out. He promptly asked me to 'have a look at it as he had no idea what it could be used for'. Took it home for a week and then spent 560 pounds on it which at the time was nearly twice my monthly salary. He thought I was mad. Then the MZ-80B came out. That plus the dual 5.25" 'flexible diskette' drive and dot matrix printer set me back over 1700 pounds. Good job I was at sea then not spending anything for months on end. They too are still in the loft.

I also bought "The Last One" - a program billed as the only program you would ever need. It worked extremely well though in building very compact code for business type applications. Little did the authors know it would never be the last program I bought. Ahh those were the days..

Now as for boot disks there was never something so satisfying as trying to load an OS off a tape (be it magnetic or paper) when the **** thing chewed it up halfway through. I do look back to 1975 and think about an old IBM System 7 that ran one of our old shipboard anti-collision systems. The tape would get chewed & we used to just cut out the bit that had got mangled not knowing anything about computers - we were simple sailors after all. We then reloaded it often successfully. I now just wonder what that bit of code did that we cut out and how important it may have been in avoiding other ships!!

John