I have done a total hard drive copy/backup for the hard drive of a 486 system runing Dos 6.22 Win 3.1 486 100 Mhz. How ever, i wish to put the boot floppy files on the CD as a subdirectory. Then if the Boot floppy is needed copy the files to a floppy and go from there. But I just tried that and the boot floppy I made from the CD is not bootable. How can I make a floppy that has system files on it bootable after I have copied those files from a CD? I think the system files are placed on a certain track or location on the floppy, can you force a CD to floppy copy to put those files on those tracks/ locations. I know that I can keep a boot floppy with the CD but if it all was on the CD it would easier. And the computer is do old that it does not have a CD present. If if did have a cd present could I burn a bootable CD? Another idea to "chew on." Thanks Tom

You're not going to be able to boot a 486 from a CD drive - that option must be supported in the BIOS (and it won't be) Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is not more a science than a heap of stones is a home

... kind of a confusing post - ok, floppies are made bootable by employing the sys command: Copies MS-DOS system files and command interpreter to a disk you specify. SYS [drive1:][path] drive2: [drive1:][path] Specifies the location of the system files. drive2: Specifies the drive the files are to be copied to. Typically you would transfer files from the hard drive to the floppy, but I suppose it could work from a CD as well Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is not more a science than a heap of stones is a home

Here's how I'd do that, and I have Assuming you have a working system that you are trying to back up, actually make a boot floppy and configure it exactly as you want Be sure to put a CDROM driver on the floppy so you can boot your target system and read a CD Be sure to put the diskcopy command, or at least format, or the "sys" command on there. Once you get the floppy made and tested, boot the machine with the new floppy and make sure it boots OK, and drives the CDROM. Last, (I use Nero) Make a "bootable" CD and use the floppy you just made for the boot section. Easy.

Well, for that matter, you can get a 622 ISO here - with the right software you can customize it to your liking. Still not gonna boot a 486 with one though... Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is not more a science than a heap of stones is a home

You're right jboy, and I forgot to "finish" my post. What I MEANT to say was that now that you've made this CD, you can use it to boot up A DIFFERENT machine with the CD, and use the A: sector of the "booted" CD to "sys" a floppy, copy the files from the A: sector onto the floppy, and therefore "create" a good boot floppy from your CD

All seems very roundabout, given the machine in question There's no real need to copy the system files to CD if the machine has to start from a diskette - just 'sys' from the floppy and then copy the backup over. Otherwise, just image the entire drive to CD Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is not more a science than a heap of stones is a home