Use HDD instead of bootable CD

[TheMajor]

I created a primary active partition (FAT32).
Now I want to put a bootable CD on it and it should boot if I select that hard disk as primary boot device. But how?
Any way to copy the CD's boot sectors to that hard disk?

 

[Inaris]

This is a complicated process. First the machine needs to support usb(I'm assuming) boot. Then you have to an environment to the drive. ie, Dos, windows, linux. Then you have to force the system to use the optional boot device. This should work as long as there is a boot sector on the device. for things like OS installs, you have to go to dos, then run the install from there. WinPE comes to mind, but I don't think you can use that as the boot sector data is different from a CD to a hdd, so it wouldn't know how to deal with it.
There are several things out in the linux world for making it work. This is something I have only just started playing with, but seems pretty cool...

 

[TheMajor]

I spent hours googling yesterday. I installed DOS on a FAT32 partition on my external hdd. But I didn't find a way to write the CD bootsector to the hdd, and didn't find any program capable of emulating it under DOS. I found some Grub ISO loading stuff, but I don't think it was what I am looking for. I want to get rid of CD-rom's, but it seems too complicated.

I flashed my BIOS yesterday, fried it. So I am using my old mobo now. Don't think it supports USB boot, the other mobo did. Now I'm screwed.

 

[Inaris]

That sucks, sorry man. I found some more information about this that might help you...
I'll post more in a few minutes... Just got in to work, so I have to take care of some business first...


EDIT:

a link on the subject...
http://support.gateway.com/s/USB/5502664/5502664faq18.shtml

From http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/WinXP/Q_21274499.html
Recommendations for Booting Windows from USB Storage Devices

The USB Mass Storage Working Group is preparing a specification on booting USB devices to enable booting from USB within the industry. Boot from USB has become a highly requested feature. Both USB flash drive (UFD) and USB CD-ROM drives are in a position to pave the way of new booting features on USB. Enabling users to boot from UFD and USB CD-ROM requires industry-wide cooperation to ensure good user experiences with these devices.

The most interesting applications for booting from a USB device focus on operating system deployment, system recovery, and system maintenance. Key scenarios, listed below, are explored later in this document:

• Operating system installation/deployment scenario

• Floppy disk drive replacement

• System diagnostics tools

• Disk duplication/manipulation (for example, partitioning and formatting utilities)


Current versions of Windows should not be installed to USB hard disk drives because Windows does not support USB hard disk drives as the primary boot device. This paper introduces the expected industry participation related to the following:

More detail here from the source link:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/usb-boot.mspx

 

[TheMajor]

Only paid 25 bucks for it. But still a huge downgrade. No more USB2.0, no more FSB333, no more AGPx8 (my gfx doesn't support it anyways)....

Another reason why I would prefer booting from HDD instead of bootable CD's is because I can't boot from my CD-ROM drives if they are connected to the PCI IDE controller. I get CDBOOT: NTLDR not found errors that way.
I have to connect the CD-ROM drive to the onboard IDE controller first. Any thoughts on that?

 

[RicoDirenzo]

Man O Man O man!!!! Major, go on Ebay and buy a used board ( the same one you fried) and make life easier!! I have done that before myself 2 times so now I have 3 of the same mobos and only one is usable!