multiple floppy .ima files for multi boot cd.

[ciscokid454]

Ok..
here's the story:
I have to carry around two bootable cd's and 4 floppys.
One floppy is for flashing sysboard firmware.
The other three are a proprietary three disk set for hdd imaging.
I understand how to make an .ima file and how to make a bootable cd, but i'm having some issues getting all of these working together on one disk.
The cd's are as follows.
One is a hdd firmware checker and flasher.
The other is a duplicate of the single sysboard floppy.
I've tried making the three disk set a single IMA file, but that doesn't seem to wanna work.
I've tried keeping them as seperate ima's, but then I run into issues getting the cd to boot and load all of them seperately.
Then there's the cdroms..
I'm just totally lost here..
I've read through a couple of articles from "bart" and a couple more from msfn...
they all look great for making bootable cd's for multi booting os's...which isn't what i'm doing..
What i'd like to do is have the cd boot to a simple menu.
4 options total, really only need 3, but i'll take what I can get.
Each option pointing to the seperate boot images, then going to the seperate directorys, and booting normally.
I don't need them to be able to reload back to the menu or load another app after it's done.
The hdd image floppys contain files as follows:
disk one:
bootwiz.cfg
splash.run
bootwiz.sys
ramdisk.exe
cloneez1.bin
Disk two:
cloneez2.bin
Disk three:
cloneez3.bin
I cannot view the contents of the bin files, except in a hex editor, and none of them have info leading to the next .bin file.
Any thoughts, idea's or help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance, cisco

[ameoba]

If we're talking about some HDD vendor's tools, have you looked to see if they have an ISO? I remember, from a while back, that the diagnostic tools from some major HDD vendor took 3 floppies, but they were also available as a single ISO.



What happens if you copy the contents of the floppies into a single directory on a CD and then try running them from there? If the program can find it's other parts you're set; just make a boot disk that runs the files from a directory on the CD in its autoexec.bat

There's not really much you can do if the program is hardwired to load its data from a:.

[ciscokid454]

I'm not sure if it's hardcoded or not..I've tried copying the files to a cd and making the cd bootable, but still nothing..it hangs after post.

[ciscokid454]

err..the app itself (hdd imaging tool) is called cloneez (which I found on the web to be ez gig II.
I've emailed the company asking about it..but the app is given to us I believe by the oem we're contracted by, so actually getting ahold of the cd itself would be a no.

[rhy7s]

http://cowww.epfl.ch/~swalter/mbcd/ ?

http://www.cdshell.org/ ?

I was planning on getting 'round to a similiar issue later (multiple floppy image set on CD), but haven't yet - bit of a puzzler.

[ciscokid454]

Originally posted by rhy7s
http://cowww.epfl.ch/~swalter/mbcd/ ?

http://www.cdshell.org/ ?

I was planning on getting 'round to a similiar issue later (multiple floppy image set on CD), but haven't yet - bit of a puzzler.
I've been to both pages..
doesn't help me much..
as far as being a bit of a puzzler, yeah, that's an understatement.
It's insane..
unless i'm missing something, it shouldn't be this difficult.

[rhy7s]

What are your imaging needs? Are you deploying an existing image or creating one? g4u could possibly be an alternative - albeit a slow one if you are dealing with many differing images. Is replacement of the tool an option? If the OEM has some huge number of EZGIG licenses you'd think no-one would be averse to getting you a CD to facilitate the job.

[ciscokid454]

well, easiest thing is for me to go into detail abit more.
I (we) walk up to a machine, stick the hdd firmware cd into the drive, it tells us if the drive needs firmware and can also tell us what type of drive it is.
So if it's X drive from Y manu, then it get's replaced with a Y drive from X manu..
At that point in time, we shut the machine off.
Disconnect cdrom, hook up the new hdd on secondary controller.
Boot up with cloneez disk one in A:.
It takes all of two minutes to clone the old drive to the new drive.
Honestly, as cheap as clone ez/ezgig II is..i'm tempted to buy it myself, the company I consult for has plenty of licenses for it..so it would be legal..but that doesn't solve the issue at hand.