is it possible to put a CDROM boot record on a USB key? Bo..

hi

i was wondering if it was possible to put a CDROM boot record onto a
usb key.. For example,

it is possible to get a CDROM to boot like a floppy disk.. You can
take a Dos floppy boot disk, and pass that or the boot sector from
that, to a program like Nero, which can do it. And thus one can make a
bootable dos cd.

How about the other way though.. How about making a hard drive, or how
about making a usb key, Boot like a CDROM does.. So for example..
One could install windows from a usb key, since one can install it
from a win9x/dos7 boot disk (HP make a tool - HPUSBFW.EXE - to
format a usb key like a dos boot disk - with that boot record)
But that would then involve getting to DOS and running something like
\WINNT\SETUP.EXE
How about getting the USB key to actually boot like a win xp setup cd
does?

I know, CDROMs use some El Torito standard. and it is different. But
they can emulate floppy disks. So It should not be too much to ask for
[usb] disks to be able to emulate hoow they boot. To convert the boot
record into usb disk form.

-
On a different note. Roadkil sector editor , used on floppy disks,
that was good! could actually see and identify whether a disk was
formatted with "msdos boot disk" checked or not.. Without booting.

magiciso or a simple CLI program called BootExtract.exe can extract
the boot record from a cdrom, it is 2048KB instead of a floppy one
that is 512KB. The CDROM boot record can be used by nero to make
other bootable CDs like it - write that boot record to the CDROM.

One thing i cannot find, though i don`t think it is that necessary.. A
program to format a usb key with whatever boot record you specify.
Is that possible? Or at least something more flexible than the HP
tool, for formatting or writing a boot record to usb keys.

By "usb keys" I take it you mean Data Pen, Flash drive, USB drive?
getting so many names now for THAT little item. What exactly are you
trying to acheive here? You got boot probs.......on what?? Kinda
rambling a bit from dos to CDROM boot record? Are you asking or
telling? Can't quite tell here. Sorry.

jameshanley39 RemoveThis @yahoo.co.uk wrote:
> hi
>
> i was wondering if it was possible to put a CDROM boot record onto a
> usb key.. For example,
>
> it is possible to get a CDROM to boot like a floppy disk.. You can
> take a Dos floppy boot disk, and pass that or the boot sector from
> that, to a program like Nero, which can do it. And thus one can make a
> bootable dos cd.
>
> How about the other way though.. How about making a hard drive, or how
> about making a usb key, Boot like a CDROM does.. So for example..
> One could install windows from a usb key, since one can install it
> from a win9x/dos7 boot disk (HP make a tool - HPUSBFW.EXE - to
> format a usb key like a dos boot disk - with that boot record)
> But that would then involve getting to DOS and running something like
> \WINNT\SETUP.EXE
> How about getting the USB key to actually boot like a win xp setup cd
> does?
>
> I know, CDROMs use some El Torito standard. and it is different. But
> they can emulate floppy disks. So It should not be too much to ask for
> [usb] disks to be able to emulate hoow they boot. To convert the boot
> record into usb disk form.
>
> -
> On a different note. Roadkil sector editor , used on floppy disks,
> that was good! could actually see and identify whether a disk was
> formatted with "msdos boot disk" checked or not.. Without booting.
>
> magiciso or a simple CLI program called BootExtract.exe can extract
> the boot record from a cdrom, it is 2048KB instead of a floppy one
> that is 512KB. The CDROM boot record can be used by nero to make
> other bootable CDs like it - write that boot record to the CDROM.
>
> One thing i cannot find, though i don`t think it is that necessary.. A
> program to format a usb key with whatever boot record you specify.
> Is that possible? Or at least something more flexible than the HP
> tool, for formatting or writing a boot record to usb keys.