Hi Bernd,
OK, in that case the whole thing is much more complicated than I
realized. The only way this could ever work is if FreeDOS SYS or FORMAT
could emulate the MS boot sector _and_ geometry behavior. As you say,
WinImage does seem to manage this.
In terms of copyright, the end user would have to supply a boilerplate
MS bootsector (if such a thing exists for hard drives) and FreeDOS SYS
or Format would be able to read that bootsector into memory and add the
geometry information on the fly.
yes, but you can backup on each individual system. If disk partitioning
is exactly the same, then saving/restoring bootsector might work on
multiple systems.
It would have to be done on the fly. Systems keep changing all the time...
Can you tell me where the /DUMPBS and /RESTORBS switches are
documented?
In sourcecode, SYS v3.6 is still under development :)
Ah OK!
I wish Eric would build in an option into FORMAT for 'save a copy of
bootsector into memory, then restore it to disk after formatting'
This would let FD FORMAT function as a true MS FORMAT replacement when
used under the MSDOS operating system.
But it wouldn't help in the context of this post, where we're trying to
do everything in pure FreeDOS?
I think I'll have to give up with this, because booting into MS-DOS half
way through a build is totally impractical and would defeat the object
of moving to FreeDOS in the first place.
The advantages of FreeDOS still outweigh the annoyance of the dual boot
behavior, so I'll still use FreeDOS and just learn to live with the
BOOT.INI problem.
Anyway, I have to test PC set up and available for at least a week so if
you want me to run any more tests just let me know.
--
Gerry Hickman (London UK)
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