Tutorial

How to add Partition Magic V8 rescue disks to Ultimate Boot CD

New! I created a batch file to automate this process using command-line tools such as bfi and extract. Please download the ZIP package, extract to any directory and follow the simple instructions in readme.txt.

I found an old copy of Partition Magic V8.02 lying around the office the other day, so I decided to write up a tutorial on how to add the PM8 rescue disks to the UBCD. It will walk you through the process of combining the two rescue disks (2 x 1.44MB) into a single 2.88MB disk image which can then be booted from UBCD. It will also serve as a quick introduction to modifying the custom.scn file under boot/menus.

Before embarking on this tutorial, you should familiarize yourself with the steps for customizing the UBCD, including how to modify the files on the UBCD, and how to create a customized UBCD ISO image using mkisofs.

First, if you do not already have the two PM8 rescue disks, you need to create them. You can either do so during the installation process, or if you already have PM8 installed on your machine, you can create them using "Create Rescue Disks". Note: if you do not have a physical floppy disk drive, you can use Virtual Floppy Drive and end up with two disk images instead. The rest of the steps are similar.

Next insert rescue disk 1, and modify AUTOEXEC.BAT to comment out a few lines that ask you to insert rescue disk 2. This step is actually optional, but it eliminates an extra action on the user's part when booting up the combined rescue disk.

@ECHO Off
PROMPT $P$G
...
REM ECHO.
REM ECHO Please Insert PartitionMagic Disk 2
REM ECHO.
REM ECHO.
REM ECHO *** Press Any Key to Continue ***
REM ECHO.
REM PAUSE >NUL
...
PQMAGIC

Now we are ready to combine the two rescue disks into one 2.88MB disk image. Fire up WinImage. Insert in the first rescue disk and click "Disk, Read disk". This will read the entire floppy disk into memory.

This is a 1.44MB disk, which we need to convert to 2.88MB so that we can copy the contents of rescue disk 2 over. WinImage has a very convenient function to do this. Select "Image, Change Format", then select "2.88MB".

Now, insert rescue disk 2 and fire up Windows Explorer to view its content. Make sure you configure it to show hidden files and folders, because there are a few hidden files in the root directory that you need to copy as well.

Drag all the files in rescue disk 2 (excluding AUTOEXEC.BAT and COMMAND.COM) into WinImage. You will be asked whether you wish to inject the files into the image. Click "Yes".

Now, create a subdirectory called custom under the UBCD root directory. Select "File, Save As", and save the 2.88MB disk image to pm8.img in this subdirectory. Make sure you select normal image file (IMA) instead of compressed image file (IMZ).

Fire up boot/menus/custom.scn in your favorite text editor, and edit it to look something like:

...
set textColor = color[white on red]
print "                              [User-defined Tools]                              "
set textColor = color[white on cyan]
print "                                                                                "
...
print " [F1] Partition Magic V8.0                                                      "
...
#
# Actions
#
getkey
clear
if ($lastKey == key[f1]); then memdisk /custom/pm8.img
if ($lastKey == key[esc]); then script main.scn
goto custom_menu

Make sure the number of rows and columns in the top menu part stays the same (23 rows and 80 columns), otherwise your custom menu may not look optimal.

Finally, make the customized UBCD ISO image using mkisofs, burn the ISO image to your CDR/W, and boot it! If everything goes well, pressing [F5] followed by [F1] will load Partition Magic 8 into your machine.

Note: This technique is not suitable for combining and booting the Windows setup disks! You should be looking at BartPE for this purpose.