How do I make A DOS boot partition?

I have a notebook which has no floppy drive, it has no CD drive as it recently burned out. Here is what I would like to do.



Place DOS Boot files on first partition (size 3GB)

Place Win98 Folder (ripped from my 98 disc) into this 3GB Partition



format the rest of the drive to FAT32



I would like to boot into MS-DOS from the 3GB partition, Change directory to Win98 and use Setup.exe to install 98 to the second partition.



This is not happening for some reason, I do not know why. Here is what I have done:



I connect the notebook hard disk to my PC via hard drive adapter,



Downloaded Win98 boot floppy image from bootdisk.com, extracted then mounted the image file and copied all the files onto the 3GB partition. I put the notebook's hard drive back into the notebook and reboot, this should have booted off these files but instead it said hard disk has invalid boot sectors.



I then figured I would use a HEX editor (HXD) and copy the sectors from the floppy boot image to the first partition, after doing so the first partition was decreased in size to the size of a floppy, it contained the boot files and yet, still would not boot.



All of these things should work, but do not. I do not understand, how do i get this to work without floppy or cd?



Please do not say, buy a new *hardware name here* I do not have the money. It would be the best option no doubt, but in these circumstances I must do with what I have.



Please let me know why these sectors are not working and how to make them work. Thanks!!How do I make A DOS boot partition?
You should not have to fiddle around with a Hex editor - that will likely just get you into trouble. The main thing is, to make sure you have a bootable DOS partition and your BIOS directs the computer to boot from that partition. For more information on the boot process, check http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/r

Chances are, you simply didn't have a bootable DOS partition or the BIOS was not set to boot from that partition. Otherwise your process (copying the boot floppy image) appears to be sound. Another topic to investigate later: Google ';virtual Floppy'; That might not be of use now but could help later. Check

http://www.freewarereview.info/2006-03/v

Another option: borrow a USB stick / thumb drive from a friend, load your boot floppy on the USB stick and boot from that.