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Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 12:43:50 -0600 (MDT)
From: Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com>
To: Ian Smith <smithi@nimnet.asn.au>
Subject: Re: bootable CD-ROM image to memstick image?
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On Tue, 1 Jul 2014, Ian Smith wrote:

> You last said "Good luck!" and I thought I was all set, but alas .. it
> seemed to be loading ok, but then "Missing operating system" was all it
> said, a horror story long preceding the infamous BSoD to old DOS jocks.

Hm.  The image ought to have the boot blocks.  Maybe a geometry 
difference?  If Win95/98 is easily available, it could do a 'sys' on 
that USB drive (not MS-DOS, because it can't see USB).  Or maybe 
FreeDOS would work, I have not used it much.

For that matter, the FreeBSD MBR bootcode might be enough ('fdisk -B').

I have a 32M MS-DOS hard drive image on my PXE server just for this kind 
of situation.  Mount the image, copy the firmware update files to it, 
umount and PXE boot the target system from it.  A bit of a hassle, but 
often less than the alternative.  Most systems work with it.  Although a 
few have complained and refused to run the firmware update, no other 
problems (that is, no bricks).