Re: Help with copying a Windows98 partition?

From: Joe (joe_at_jretrading.com)
Date: 09/02/05 

Date: Fri, 02 Sep 2005 17:45:40 +0000

mechdan@yahoo.com wrote:
> First, my questions:
>
> 1. Is there a way to do a surface scan and/or a low level
> format on a FAT32 partition within Linux (preferably
> within Knoppix)?
>
> 2. Is there something other than just copying the files
> over and setting hda1 active to make a Windows98
> partition bootable?
>
> 3. Is there anything in Linux (preferably Knoppix) which
> can copy a FAT32 partition the way "Ghost" does it?
> In the past, I've used Ghost to copy Windows 98 partitions
> and it "just worked". But I no longer have access to
> a (legitimate) copy of Ghost.
>

dd is the bit-for-bit imaging program, and more besides.
Try man dd.

I don't think there's a native Linux way to format a FAT
partition. See man fdisk for details of 'magic numbers'
placed in partitions by Microsoft fdisk. The rule of thumb
is to create and format a partition using the OS that will
live on it.

A bootable DOS or Win9x partition must have the 'system'
files installed. 'Format /sys X:' is the command, I think.

Do you have a Win98 boot floppy? If not, I think you can get
an image somewhere on the net and dd it to a floppy. If your
old HD is still bootable, you can create one from it. It
will have the format and fdisk commands as well as the system
files.

If you can format the new partition with the Win98 fdisk
and format, and add the system files at the same time, you
can probably do a straight file copy for everything else.
Probably. I did this once and it worked for a few days,
then died completely. Reformat time. Good luck.

Relevant Pages

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