1. General
----------

This program is used to create Microsoft compatible boot records. It is able
to do the same as Microsoft "fdisk /mbr" to a hard disk. It is also able to
do the same as Microsoft "sys d:" to a floppy or FAT32 partition except that
it does not copy any system files, only the boot record is written. The
specifications of boot records is taken from
http://www.geocities.com/thestarman3/asm/mbr/MBR_in_detail.htm
and http://www.open.hr/~sbrbot/boot_sector_fat32.htm

The program is useful when using Linux to restore a backup of a reference
Microsoft Windows installation.

Author of this program is Henrik Carlqvist (henca@users.SourceForge.net), it
is available for download from http://ms-sys.sourceforge.net/

2. Installation
---------------

Step 1, unpack the archive:

tar -xzvf ms-sys*.tgz

Step 2, compile:

cd ms-sys
make

Step 3, become root and install

su (and give password)
make install

3. Examples
-----------

Please note that Windows ME is not useful for making standalone bootable
floppies. However, Win9x and DOS works fine with example 1 and example 3.

Example 1, creating a 1.68 MB bootable floppy:
This example assumes that you have your windows installation mounted at /dosc
and also have mtools and fdformat installed.

fdformat /dev/fd0u1680
mformat a:
ms-sys -w /dev/fd0
mcopy /dosc/io.sys a:
mcopy /dosc/msdos.sys a:
mcopy /dosc/command.com a:


Example 2, restoring a backup to a fresh hard disk:

Step 1, use GNU parted to create your FAT32 partition and file system:

parted (then create partition and file system)

Step 2, write the MBR:

ms-sys -w /dev/hda

Step 3, write the FAT32 partition boot record:

ms-sys -w /dev/hda1

Step 4, mount your new filesystem:

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt

Step 5, read your backup

cd /mnt; tar -xzvf /path/to/my_windows_backup_file.tgz


Example 3, creating a bootable 2.8 MB floppy image for use with an el-torito
bootable CD:

dd if=/dev/zero of=floppy288.img bs=1024 count=2880
/sbin/mkdosfs floppy288.img
ms-sys -1 -f floppy288.img
su
mount -o loop floppy288.img /mnt
cp msdos.sys /mnt/
cp io.sys /mnt/
cp command.com /mnt/
(it might also be a good idea to add a config.sys and autoexec.bat with
 CDROM support)
umount /mnt
exit
cp floppy288.img cd-files/eltorito.img
mkisofs -b eltorito.img -c eltorito.cat -o cdimage.iso cd-files
(burn the file cdimage.iso to a CD with cdrecord or another program)

4. Documentation
----------------

There are is a man-page for ms-sys, and you will get some help by typing:

ms-sys --help

5. Known problems
-----------------

Current version is not compatible with NT based version of Windows like
Windows 2000 or Windows XP. Only DOS based versions of Windows like Windows 98
or Windows ME will work with the FAT32 boot record.

There have been reports about unbootable FAT32 partitions created with
"mformat -F c:". The recomended workaround is to use gnu parted to create the
partition instead. To debug this problem I will need images of the boot record
at different times. If you get this problem please send me an email to
henca@users.SourceForge.net for instructions on how to send me the boot record.

