Bootable Usb To Floppy Emulation, Bootable USB to floppy emulation Options

[bbengs]

I was able to create a bootable USB drive on a Dell x260. Now I am trying to get it to boot on a Compaq Evo D500 CMT. The Compaq only supports booting to USB via floppy emulation. I need some help in creating a USB bootable device that is in floppy emulation. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[jaclaz]

There are two kinds of "floppy emulation":
1) "real" floppy emulation that expects ONLY a 1.44 Mb sized filesystem with bootrecord as first sector
2) "super floppy emulation" that expects ANY sized filesystem with bootrecord as first sector

If your Compaq only supports 1) above, it might be a problem, if, as most PC's do, it supports 2) it's easy.

Simply connect your stick to a Win2K/XP/2003 system, use a hex disk editor to zero any entry in first sector of the stick, to be certain that it works you should write F6 hex to the first sector (512 bytes).

Now take the stick out and re-insert it, try double clicking on it and you will be prompted to format it, do so, and if the stick is seen as a "removable" device, as ususally sticks by default are, you are done.

If you need a stick that works BOTH as a "hard disk" and as "superfloppy" you will need a "special" code written in the first sector, that is half-way between a MBR and a bootsector, please find in these posts of mine some details about the makebootfat utility:
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...0806&st=134
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...13784&st=44

jaclaz

[RvdH]

nevermind...

[jaclaz]

I just got the following via e-mail by "wm raim", who said he tried registering, got the confirmation, but wasn't able to post on this thread.

Maybe some strange side-effect of the board crash?

However, just to keep the discussion public until he is allowed in, or however is able to re-register with an alternate e-mail, here it is:

i registered on 911cd and tried to post to
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=18804
But did not have permission.
Here was my text.

I need help to make a pendrive FDD bootable.
My 3480ct laptop does not have the traditional floppy drive instead it uses a USB
floppy and the bios has an option to boot from USB FDD.

I would like to use a usb pendrive to boot (a Lexar Jumpdrive 32mb and GXT 1gb), in
place of the floppy.

I have tried the usual suspects, the HP boot loader, makebootfat, and mkbt20.
I tried the demo version of the commercial product Flashboot.
I imaged a Dos 5.0 system diskette onto the pendrive using the demo of AI-Setup.
All failed including the specific option in makebootfat that images for FDD option and
3 different options of Flashboot.

I learned that Trasncend has a specific option that creates a bootable 1.44 mb floppy
image on their pendrive.

Do you know how I can do this on one of my pendrives?

Here is what I have gathered, corrections and suggestions are welcome.

USB protocol

USB interface specifications
bInterfaceSubClass field specifies protocol
01 Reduced Block Command (RBC) a flash device
04 UFI a FDD floppy drive
05 SFF-8070i FDD using SFF-8070i command blocks however a FFD can be in another
subclass eg RBC

bInterfaceProtocol field specifies transport protocol
00 Control/Bulk/Interrupt (CBI) with completion interrupt for FFD only
01 CBI without completion interrupt for FDD only
50h Bulk-only transport including bootability

I don't know if the pendrive controller must mimic the FDD protocol.

I know the boot record for a floppy does not contain the MBR record used for
harddrives.
I imagine that the flash memory controller mimics a ramdrive to translate cluster
sector specifications to sequential memory.
One of my formating problems is that the drives are bigger than 1.44 Mb.
To use a floppy boot record means the FAT table must conform to 1.44 Mb of sectors of
512 bytes. How do I get the flash memory controller to do that?

I used the utility usbview to tell me that my vendor on the GXT is 1516h and product is
8628h and usbview printed the name Lexar 05DCh.
I don't know if it gives the controller manufacturer.
I'm willing to try low level formaters but of the ones I tried are manufacturer
specific and don't work on my pendrives.

For your infomation, i was unable to use Roadkil's Diskimage to write to the pendrives,
with message imagewrite failed. When i first used it I was uncomfortable that the device names were not specific Disk0, Disk1, Disk2 but it was fine. After using the commercial prograim AI-Setup Diskimage was unable to create a copy.

Hmmm, lots of questions, it will take some time to (hopefully) answer to them.

Let's start from the few ones I already have an answer to:

One of my formating problems is that the drives are bigger than 1.44 Mb.
To use a floppy boot record means the FAT table must conform to 1.44 Mb of sectors of
512 bytes. How do I get the flash memory controller to do that?

Actually floppy disks are 512 bytes as well, example a 1.44 floppy is exactly 1,474,560 bytes, i.e. 2,880 sectors by 512, and the FAT table, being writable can be wahtever you want it to be.
I presume that the problem lies instead in the geometry of the drive as seen by BIOS.

For your infomation, i was unable to use Roadkil's Diskimage to write to the pendrives,
with message imagewrite failed. When i first used it I was uncomfortable that the device names were not specific Disk0, Disk1, Disk2 but it was fine. After using the commercial prograim AI-Setup Diskimage was unable to create a copy.

Interesting, you are the first one to report a failure of Diskimage.
You can try as an alternative, the command line only DSFOK:
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/freezip/freeware/
be careful, though, make sure you read the docs and you select the right Physical disk.

But I don't think that AI-Setup can have done something to the stick that prevents Diskimage to work, but you never know.

I'll see if I can find any info on your specific key and its controller.

jaclaz

This post has been edited by jaclaz: Jan 18 2007, 07:29 PM

[Ed_P]

I just got the following via e-mail by "wm raim", who said he tried registering, got the confirmation, but wasn't able to post on this thread.

Maybe some strange side-effect of the board crash?

I see no reference to an id resembling "wm raim" in either the member list or the validating list. If his chosen id doesn't resemble his name I can't help you at this point. At best I suggest he retry registering, it might be the quickest solution.

Sorry.

[jaclaz]

I see no reference to an id resembling "wm raim" in either the member list or the validating list. If his chosen id doesn't resemble his name I can't help you at this point. At best I suggest he retry registering, it might be the quickest solution.

I e-mailed him the information that I posted on his behalf in this thread, so he should be able to see your reply and try again, or, in case something still does not work, he can still contact me with details.

Thanks, Ed_P

jaclaz

This post has been edited by jaclaz: Jan 19 2007, 04:07 AM

[jaclaz]

The maker of the GXT appears to be this:
www.valgear.com

(pretty nice site, huh?)

There is no listing here (usually a good source):
http://listing.driveragent.com/usb/

For 1516.

However, by having a look at the Win98 driver on their page, it uses the string

Skymedi USB Mass Storage Drive

so it seems like the chip is this one:
http://www.skymedi.com.tw/eng-index.html
http://www.skymedi.com.tw/products/sk6201.htm


The 05dc is obviously lexar, but I need the PID of it:
http://listing.driveragent.com/usb/05dc/

jaclaz

This post has been edited by jaclaz: Jan 20 2007, 03:17 PM