To Create Windows Vista/7 Boot Floppy

Windows Vista and Windows 7 are overly complicated pieces of software, and thus bring a bunch of boot problems with them. In preparation for such problems, it is wise to create a boot floppy for Windows Vista or Windows 7. Floppy drives are hard to find in new computers, and are being phased out in favor of USB thumb drives. If your computer doesn't have a built-in floppy drive, you can get a USB floppy drive and use it to create a boot floppy. If you don't have a floppy drive, download a floppy image from the links below and use it with a bootloader, such as GRUB.

To create a Windows Vista/7 boot floppy, follow these steps:

1. Insert a blank floppy diskette into your floppy drive. If your floppy drive is a USB type, connect it to your computer.
   
2. Click Computer in the Start menu. This opens Computer in Windows Explorer.
   
3. Right-click on Floppy Disk Drive (A:) and choose Format... from the menu.
   
4. Click Start in the Format window.
   
5. Copy C:\bootmgr to A:\. The file bootmgr is also located on Windows Vista/7 installer CD. You may have to unhide bootmgr before copying it if it is hidden.
   
6. Create a new folder A:\BOOT.
   
7. Open a Command Prompt and run the following commands to copy C:\BOOT\BCD.
   
   

   bcdedit /export A:\BOOT\BCD

   
   
8. Reboot your computer with the boot floppy. You'll be able to get back to Windows Vista/7.
   

For those who can't create their own boot floppy for lack of a floppy drive, here's my boot floppy image:

• vstaboot.bin 720KB
  
• win7boot.bin 720KB
  

You can use it with GRUB like this:

kernel (hd0,4)/boot/grub/memdisk bigraw
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/grub/vstaboot.bin
boot

memdisk is a part of Loadlin package. Note that this image is specific to my Vista installation. You must edit it with bcdedit before using it:

bcdedit /enum /store A:\Boot\BCD
bcdedit /store A:\Boot\BCD /set {bootmgr} device partition=C:
bcdedit /store A:\Boot\BCD /set {default} device partition=C:
bcdedit /store A:\Boot\BCD /set {default} osdevice partition=C: