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Date:	Mon, 18 Aug 2003 11:04:07 PDT7
From:	Peter Skye <pskye@peterskye.com >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Partition Magic disks

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Dr. Jeffrey Race wrote:
>
> Here is the file list from the Partition Magic boot disk:
> ...
> Can I indeed just unhide the hidden files, zip, unzip, and recopy
> to a new floppy?

Yes, but the new floppy won't be bootable. You can run all the programs
if you first boot from a different diskette.

On a bootable floppy, the very first 512 byte sector contains a tiny
little program called the Master Boot Record. This is what your
motherboard BIOS reads into memory and then executes. The Master Boot
Record program decides what hard drive partition to boot to, then reads
a similar program from that partition and executes it.

Zip/Unzip will copy the floppy files but won't copy the Master Boot
Record.

Each different operating system has a different Master Boot Record; they
aren't interchangeable. Your Partition Magic files appear to be DOS
programs so you'll need a DOS Master Boot Record. You can write a DOS
512 byte Master Boot Record to a floppy with something like "FORMAT A:
/MBR" (it's been a long time since I've done this and I don't remember
the exact command).

- Peter

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