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Boot Virtual CEPC from Virtual Floppy Disk (Compact 7)

  • Article

3/12/2014

If you are using a custom VHD image that does not contain a boot loader, you can instead boot the virtual CEPC from an image on a virtual floppy disk. Because the steps for booting from virtual floppy disk for Windows Virtual PC (for computers running Windows 7) are different from those of Virtual PC 2007 (for computers running Windows Vista and Windows XP), choose the appropriate set of instructions for your host computer.

Windows Vista and Windows XP 

When you are running Virtual PC 2007, you can boot from a virtual floppy disk by using this procedure.

To boot Virtual PC 2007 from virtual floppy disk

  1. In the Virtual PC Console, click Start to boot the virtual CEPC.

  2. In the Virtual PC Console, on the virtual CEPC boot screen, click the Floppy menu, and then click Capture Floppy Disk Image.

  3. When the Select Floppy Image to Capture dialog box appears and prompts for the file name of the virtual floppy disk image, use the provided sample virtual floppy disk image Vpc_bootce.vfd, located at %_WINCEROOT%\Platform\VirtualPC\VM\vpc_bootce.vfd.

    This sample floppy disk image contains a boot loader that you can use to boot your virtual CEPC.

  4. After typing the virtual floppy disk location, click Open.

The virtual floppy disk image is now attached to the virtual CEPC for use on the next boot. To reboot the virtual CEPC by using the virtual floppy disk image, click the Action menu, and then click Ctrl+Alt+Del.

When the virtual CEPC boots from the floppy disk image, it displays messages about the boot loader version and the amount of memory available, followed by a series of prompts for entering the configuration menu as discussed in Modify Virtual CEPC Configuration Settings. You can enter the boot loader menu and select boot settings as you would when you boot from a VHD image.

Windows 7 

Windows Virtual PC does not provide UI support for virtual floppy disks, but you can boot from a virtual floppy disk by using scripting, as described in this procedure.

To boot Windows Virtual PC from virtual floppy disk

  1. Download Floppy Drive Scripts.zip from Using Floppy Disks with Windows Virtual PC.

  2. Extract FloppyDrive.ps1 and FloppyDrive.vbs from the .zip file and save them in the same folder as your virtual machine. These two scripts do the same thing, so you can use either of them to connect your virtual CEPC to a virtual floppy disk.

  3. Open a command prompt window, and then navigate to the folder where you saved the files.

  4. To use the Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) file, type the following at the command prompt, and then press Enter:

    cscript FloppyDrive.vbs /vm:"<virtual CEPC_Name>"/action:vfd /floppy:"<VFD location>"

    For the virtual floppy disk location, use the provided sample virtual floppy disk image, Vpc_bootce.vfd, located at %_WINCEROOT%\Platform\VirtualPC\VM\vpc_bootce.vfd.

    This sample floppy disk image contains a boot loader that you can use to boot your virtual CEPC.

    For example, if your virtual CEPC is named "VIRTUAL CEPC," the command would be

    cscript FloppyDrive.vbs /vm:"VIRTUAL CEPC" /action:vfd /floppy:"C:\WINCE700\platform\VirtualPC\VM\vpc_bootce.vfd"

    When the script runs successfully, a message appears similar to the following:

    Attaching C:\WINCE700\platform\VirtualPC\vm\vpc_bootcd.vfd to the floppy drive.

    The virtual floppy disk image is now attached to the virtual CEPC for use on the next boot.

  5. Start your virtual CEPC.

The virtual CEPC will boot from the virtual floppy disk and display messages about the boot loader version and the amount of memory available, followed by a series of prompts for entering the configuration menu as discussed in Modify Virtual CEPC Configuration Settings. You can enter the boot loader menu and select boot settings as you would when you boot from a VHD image.

See Also

Concepts

Develop with Virtual CEPC