How do I boot a bootable CD from a floppy?

[laserhawk64]

Hi all... got me a problem here.

I am working on a Compaq Presario 5170. The blasted heap won't boot from CD (no option for it in BIOS, really, WTF people?!) and my trusty "Win98" DOS boot floppy refuses to run a Linux install CD from a prompt.

Is there something out there that I can put on a floppy, from a Win7 box, to make this holy crunk tin can of a boat-anchor boot from CD? Better yet, is there a "hidden option" in the BIOS that I don't know about that would enable boot-from-CD?

Grrr, aaargh this thing's really got me ticked off.

NOTE: put this here 'cuz the floppy's got to boot a Linux install CD... mods move if I did something stupid.

 

[MrColin]

Is there an option to boot over LAN? Maybe check for a newer BIOS?

 

[laserhawk64]

The computer currently has no OS on it... and I'm too n00bish to do a BIOS update.

All I want is to boot from a floppy and then hand it over to the CD.

 

[Steltek]

Will it boot from a flash drive?

To check, plug in a flash drive, reboot the machine, and press F10 when the Compaq screen comes up at boot. If the boot sequence menu includes the flash drive, you ought to be able to use the menu to boot from the flash drive (create a bootable flash drive for your linux install ISO with a tool like Unetbootin).

The same boot sequence menu might also allow you to boot your CD (i.e. press F10 at boot and select the CD drive).

The only thing I'm not sure of is whether it has the boot sequence menu given that it is a Win98 (and hence older) computer.

 

[laserhawk64]

No boot sequence in BIOS. It's an old clunker...

I also don't know what it'd think of a USB stick... probably not much. It has two ports for USB, on the front panel, and that's it.

 

[laserhawk64]

*Finally* making some progress... sorta kinda maybe...

I have it running SBM from a floppy.

Two CD-ROM drives show up, one as CD0 and one as CDF. When I try to boot from CD, I get a consistent error message, but it's different with each drive.

CD0 gives me 0xAA.
CDF gives me 0x80.

I don't know what this means, nor do I know how to fix it. Anyone able to help?

EDIT: drive in this thing is a 24x CD-ROM drive. I burned the linux installer CD at 4x, so that it would be compatible with the old s--t drive... but it isn't behaving.

EDIT2: I can't switch out the drive, either. I have four drives. Two don't turn on at all, one doesn't eject properly, and the remaining drive is the one in there now. Pathetic as cr*p, I know.

EDIT3: Sherp derpa derp. Had the error codes swapped.

 

[laserhawk64]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah cr*p. Switched out the CD drive for the one that doesn't eject right (yay paperclips) and rebooted. Inserted a CD-R this time, rather than an -RW, and it fired right up.

Sherpa derpa sherp derp derp da derp.

I are stupids. Hear me dumb.

Mods, ya'll can close this thread... I'll just have to go get me a completely working CD drive at some point.

 

[Colt45]

Haha, way it goes some days.

A while back I was trying to install on an older 1U server... Don't think it would boot to USB. Tried a few different discs, no dice. The computer I was burning on and the one that wouldn't boot were on different floors, so it was a big pain and took a long time running up and down stairs over and over...

Then it dawned on me.. that's a CD drive! FFS. (All I had was blank DVD's..). I kinda forgot they made drives that didn't read DVDs in the not so distant past. :awe: