can you get around this with a usb thumbdrive or anything?

i am going to try to OC my vid card and was trying to follow the procedure at http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/827/unlocking_the_sapphire_x800gto_12_vs_16_pipe_adventure/ but i never had a reason to add a floppy drive to my computer

1/6/2006 12:37:29 AM

Whats a floppy drive?

1/6/2006 12:39:57 AM

3.5" disk drive

1/6/2006 12:41:43 AM

Haha...

Yes, if it's supported as a boot device in the BIOS, you can boot from it.

I've heard of motherboards that will boot from a USB key, and I imagine most newer motherboards will do it. Just add "usb-stick" or whatever to the boot order, before the hard drive...

1/6/2006 12:48:39 AM

boot from a cd... do a google search for boot cd

1/6/2006 1:47:59 AM

You need BIOS support to do it, and that's going to be a huge drawback on older systems. Of course, if the system doesn't come with a floppy with its default configuration, it most likely supports it. You can boot from a USB thumbdrive, but it also depends what you want to do with it afterwards. I've been having a hell of a time with getting Ghost to work properly booting off a USB Stick. Anyways, here's a starting point:

http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=370137&page=1#7954876

Quote :

"1) Download and Install the HP Flash Utility at http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/hpcpqdt/us/download/20306.html 2) Download WIN98 Non-Windows Based Image Files W/ImageApp: http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm, extract the .img file from the zip 3) Download Virtual Floppy Drive from http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html, put the extracted img file as the “A” drive 4) Run the HP Flash Utility, FAT file system, Create a DOS disk, use files on virtual A drive 5) Change your USB drive letter to the “B” drive *Note, A or B drive in HP Flash Utility will NOT work, as Windows has some funky write-protection on those two drive letters. 6) Run the Ghost Boot Wizard, Standard, LPT/USB support, Use MS-DOS, Get MS-DOS, (Will automatically get files from virtual A drive), Next, Next, B Drive, Do Not Format, Next, Next, OK, OK, Finish 7) Go into the autoexec.bat file, replace the “if %config% == FROMFLPY goto FLPYBOOT” With “if %config% == FROMFLPY goto GHOSTFND”"

1/6/2006 5:41:24 AM

Haha, when I got my new computer, i put a 5.25" floppy drive in there. it kicks ass. now all i need is a copy of Number Munchers

1/6/2006 9:33:46 AM

Quote :

"Whats a floppy drive?"

1/6/2006 10:10:36 AM

5.25" ? Damn! Dont' even tell me you got that double density shit either dog! Oh hell!

seriously though how come new systems dont come with 3.5" drives? I know CD's are cheap and easy to burn but damn...old 1.44MB joints are so easy

1/6/2006 10:19:36 AM

for the same reason you don't own an 8-track player

if some old person has a few text files & maybe one picture on a floppy disc & absolutely needs to access it - they sell external usb floppy drives, apple + iomega do. they also sell 7in1 drives ( usb, floppy, sd memory, etc. ) & i guarantee these cost about the same price as the sole floppy drives ( since demand for such is so low )

[Edited on January 6, 2006 at 10:27 AM. Reason : ez]

1/6/2006 10:26:30 AM

i hear what you're saying but 8-tracks werent standard 5 years ago like 3.5" drives were

1/6/2006 1:58:32 PM

flash drives are nice but you can lose them too easily
they need to come out with giant flash drives

1/6/2006 2:15:08 PM

Quote :

"i put a 5.25" floppy drive in there"

gg. i loled

1/6/2006 5:36:23 PM

Quote :

"i hear what you're saying but 8-tracks werent standard 5 years ago like 3.5" drives were"

more like 10 years ago atleast

1/6/2006 8:58:11 PM

booting off a usb drive can be a bitch (at least in my experience)

i tried all kinds of shit to make my usb drive a ghost network boot disk, after a couple hours i said fuck it and reverted to the two floppy solution.

Quote :

"I've been having a hell of a time with getting Ghost to work properly booting off a USB Stick"

haha just read this, sounds like we've had the same problems



[Edited on January 6, 2006 at 10:01 PM. Reason : add]

1/6/2006 10:00:18 PM