Install Reactos despite CDROM not bootable in BIOS?

[steveh]

I want to install REACTOS on an elder PC which cannot boot from a CDROM.

What possibilities do I have?
Can I create a boot diskette to install from CD?
(a procedure similar to Linux-distro-installs on elder Pc's...)
Is there a special program in the Reactos package, or a proven manual procedure, to create such a diskette?

Or can I work with some tricks to copy the "freeldr" from the CD-ISO to a diskette?

[GvG]

You can use the "binaries" package (just extract the .zip on your harddisk) and a freeldr boot floppy

[steveh]

Thanks for the advice. I will try.

But one other question:
Why are new freeldr images generated at each Reactos snapshot build? Is every freeldr image only compatible to the binary core of that build? Or is a freeldr image compatible to any binary? For instance to one of the stables like 0.2.4?

[GvG]

Sometimes it will work to mix different FreeLdr and ReactOS build but as a general rule, you shouldn't do that. For example, some time ago ext2 partitions were added as recognized partitions. That's a change that affects both FreeLdr and ReactOS.

[Monster_user]

Although not recommended. You can run ReactOS from inside DOS using the binaries. At the C: prompt, type "cd reactos" (cd is change directory, "cd.." to go back.).

The load the file boot.bat.

From Windows98 it should be like this.

C:\MYDOCU~1>cd..
C:\>cd reactos
C:\ReactOS>boot

[w3seek]

just for the record, using loadros and boot.bat is depreciated and will cause severe problems. If you use it successfully, don't report *any* bugs to us. However, the next release doesn't include it anymore, the only recommended way to boot reactos is freeldr!

[Denzil]

There is also smart boot manager. You can install it to floppy and boot CD from it.