Bootable Floppy/ Bootable HDD

[chrismo16]

I have a floppy that boots a small version of linux. I have tried copying the floppy to my hard drive and booting it from there but it will not work. I have tried this with other bootable floppies like dos but they dont work either. Is there any way I can boot using my floppies info but with a hard drive?

Chris

[krusher]

to boot from the hard drive, the operating system on the floppy has to be able to install itself to the hard drive.

dos for example, has the utility sys.com, which transfers the system files and makes the hard drive bootable.
the syntax is: sys c:
or substitue c for an alternate hard drive or partition.

if you are formating the hard drive you would type:
format c: /s/u/q
for a list of all options type format /?
the parameters are optional:
/s tranfers the system files (makes it bootable)
/u will perform an unconditinal format (overwrites any previous data with hex F6h)
/q will perform a quick format (only applies to previously formatted dos drives)
again, substitute c with the appropriate hard drive letter or partition.

however, that would kill whatever operating system you have on the target hard drive or partition.

there is a version of linux that will run under windows.
http://www.cygwin.com/

most linux versions will install alongside windows if you want to be able to switch between the 2