Hi all -

I have a PC here which is unable to boot from the CD drive. I've checked the BIOS settings, boot sequence etc and they seem to be ok.

So - I saw a small article in "Linux Format" magazine which says that you can use "Smart Boot Manager" to boot from a floppy.

Only problem is - to create the floppy image of SmartBootManager, you need to use "dd" ( if you're running Linux - I'm using Mepis Linux).

I looked at the dd man pages, and was still totally lost. I've poked around with Linux for a while, but have never used dd (which seems to be a very obscure utility .... )

So - can someone let me know (in step-by-step fashion) how I can use dd with SmartBootManager to create a floppy disk from which I can use SmartBootManager?

Very many thanks in advance!
- mooseman

Ok, you have an image called sbootmgr.dsk saved in your home directory i am assuming.

open a console and type the following:

dd if=/home/your_user_name/sbootmgr.dsk of=/dev/fd0

you do not need to mount the floppy or anything the above command will take care of everything.

Just in case you don't have an image laying around, here is how I make a Smart Boot Manager disk while in Linux.

1. I downloaded btmgr-3.7-1.tar.gz and sbminst ( not the .exe ) from
http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...lease_id=25481

2. I unpacked the file with the command:
tar xzvf btmgr-3.7-1.tar.gz

3. I changed into the directory called btmgr-3.7-1 which was created by tar

4. The install file said that nasm is needed so I used synaptic to install that.

5. While in the /btmgr-3.7-1 directoy, type the commands:
make
make install
Note: that was supposed to create a file called sbminst but there were a bunch of errors which I don't feel a need to chase down. That's why I also downloaded the sbminst file.

6. Put the sbminst file into /btmgr-3.7-1/installer and make it executable with the command:
chmod +x sbminst

7. Change into the installer directory which now has the sbminst file.

8. format a floppy disk with the command: fdformat /dev/fd0

9. Put the program onto the floppy with the command:
./sbminst -t us -d /dev/fd0

Hi, Homey and J!
Thanks very much for your very helpful (and quick! ) replies!
I'll give this a go - sounds good :-)
Thanks again - bye for now
mooseman