by Greg
Fri, June 04 2010 17:04
Because who has a 3.5” floppy disk anymore, really? For many years as a system builder and tech it was handy to have those red disks that could be used to bypass any operating system and solve lots of problems. That capability is still around with just a little extra effort and the right software.
First, of course, you need a USB drive. Depending on what you want to use it for (say, loading an OS or just running a BIOS update) will determine how big you go.
Second, you need the right software, and that’s UNetbootin. For just about any time of lightweight OS distribution, this open-source freeware app does what it takes to turn your USB thumb drive into one of those magic floppy drives.
I had to reinstall the BIOS of my Acer Aspire netbook, down to version 3005 from 3009. The later version spiked the CPU temp which caused shutdowns during boot where I thought I lost the machine. I found this utility, created a 1GB “floppy” with the BIOS flash software, and sure enough it ran.
Once again, open source to the rescue!