Creating bootable zip disk

[Mikkel L. Ellertson]

Chong Yu Meng wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I'm trying to create a bootable 750MB Zip disk which I can use to test
> out different kickstart configurations. I downloaded the first CD ISO
> image for FC5 and transferred it to the zip disk using 'dd', like so:
> 
> dd if=FC5-xxx.iso of=/dev/hda
> 
> I confirmed that the files were all on the disk and then I set the BIOS
> to boot from the internal ATAPI Zip 750 drive, and restarted the
> computer. 
> 
> On boot, I could hear the Zip drive being accessed and the LED came on,
> however, it stopped after a while and continued booting from the HDD. 
> 
> I checked the Zip disk again, and the files that should be there are
> there.
> 
> Can someone help me out? Is there a special operation I have to do to
> make the Zip disk bootable?
> 
> Thanks in Advance!
> 
Somehow, I do not think the ISO9660 file system of a CD is what the
kernel expects on a ZIP disk. Every ZIP disk I have used has had a
partition table, and usually partition entry number 4 has a file
system defined on it. In order for the disk to boot, it needs a boot
loader on ether the MBR or the active partition. A lot of BIOS will
require that one partition be marked active, though they may not
require this for a removable drive.

As someone else pointed out, there is an image on the install CD/DVD
that is designed for pen drives, but should work just fine on a ZIP
disk. The main difference from the normal ZIP disk format is that
partition 1 is used instead of partition 4. (I have no idea why
Iomega  used partition 4 instead of partition 1.)

Just as a side note - the original Iomega Linux tools used partition
1 if the disk was ext2 formatted, and partition 4 if it was FAT
formatted. I guess this was to keep the DOS/Windows tools from
trying to read them.

Mikkel
-- 

  Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!