From : Denis Boyles Number : 3156 To : All Ref.# : 0 Subj. : Boot Sector Program Conf : 80xxx Date : 07-03-96 Time : 10:23 [1455/1475] A while ago there was discussion about adding a program to your boot sector. So for fun I came up with the following debug scripts: BOOT50.DBG -The boot patch SAVEBOOT.DBG -Save your current boot code to disk for backup. LOADBOOT.DBG -Restores the saved boot code. The program simply call BIOS to change the active character set to an 8x8 matrix giving you 43/50 lines. When you bootup, boing, the switch will take place and you'll be able to see more on screen when the PC boots. You'll need an EGA/VGA BIOS for function to work. For safety, the program will only patch a boot disk in drive A:, this allows you play around with out risking your hard drive. If it works ok on the disk you can try it on your hard drive at your discretion. So the first thing is to make a bootable floppy disk. This program asumes A: is your boot drive, but if it isn't just change the second number in the L & W lines as follows: A: = 0 B: = 1 C: = 2, etc.. The main program, this patches your boot code by installing the program into the memory that contains the 'not a boot disk..' messages. It updates the original JMP to jump to the new code, then it sets up a stack, calls BIOS and JMPs back to the original starting poit to boot the computer. I have tested this on my computer, running MS-DOS 6.22, and it seems to work fine. Cut 'N' Save (BOOT50.DBG) ___-------------------------------------------------------------------------- L 0 0 0 1 A 0 JMP 1A0 A 1A0 CLI XOR AX,AX MOV SS,AX MOV SP,FFFF STI MOV AX,1112 XOR BL,BL INT 10 JMP 3E W 0 0 0 1 Q ___-------------------------------------------------------------------------- To run the program, just type: DEBUG < BOOT50.DBG from DOS and your disk will be updated. Now try booting and see if it works. The next two programs are the SAVE / LOAD scripts, make sure you run the saveboot script first before trying the main program. This makes a backup copy of your boot code and saves it for later recall. To run them, just type DEBUG < SAVEBOOT.DBG to make your boot backup or type DEBUG < LOADBOOT.DBG to restore it. Cut 'N' Save (SAVEBOOT.DBG) ___-------------------------------------------------------------------------- L 100 0 0 1 N BOOTCODE.BIN RCX 200 W 100 Q ___-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cut 'N' Save (LOADBOOT.DBG) ___-------------------------------------------------------------------------- N BOOTCODE.BIN L 100 W 100 0 0 1 Q ___-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Again when playing around with the boot sector, be careful, the programs use the disk only, so your hard drive will be safe. You should use a blank scratch disk rather than a an important one. If you aren't sure what you are doing then best not to try. You have been WARNED... Ok enough scaring you, have fun!... ___ X OLX 2.1 X --T-A+G-L-I+N-E--+M-E-A+S-U-R+I-N-G+--G-A+U-G-E-- --- Maximus/2 3.01 * Origin: (1:153/255)