Programming Forums - View Single Post - How to make a disk FAT and add EXE compability?

_James_ · Sep 6th, 2006, 5:47 PM

Firstly you need to understand the boot process for PC's. Then you will need to add FAT12/16 capability to your kernel(I assume you have one). To do this you will need to read a FAT specification(such as the ones linked to above). This will give you the information needed on how to read and write to FAT volumes.

I dont really know what you mean by adding EXE capacity. EXE is just a file name extension to a DOS/Windows executable file. There are different types of executable formats. DOS Executables(also know as MZ) are less complex than more modern than the 32-bit PE executable format used in Windows. If you want your OS to run binaries made for DOS or windows then you will have to make a DOS or windows compatible OS. This would be quite complex.

I dont want to come across as rude but making an OS is not a walk in the park. I think you are going about it completly the wrong way. Learning how to do it from online tutorials is probably not the best way to do it. There are some books on the subject which would give you a better understanding of how to implement an OS. Studying an OS like minix would be a good start. I even think there is a book that uses minix as a study. I know this is what the university I attend does in the OS design module.

Sep 6th, 2006, 5:47 PM	#3
_James_ Newbie Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: UK Posts: 20 Rep Power: 0	Firstly you need to understand the boot process for PC's. Then you will need to add FAT12/16 capability to your kernel(I assume you have one). To do this you will need to read a FAT specification(such as the ones linked to above). This will give you the information needed on how to read and write to FAT volumes. I dont really know what you mean by adding EXE capacity. EXE is just a file name extension to a DOS/Windows executable file. There are different types of executable formats. DOS Executables(also know as MZ) are less complex than more modern than the 32-bit PE executable format used in Windows. If you want your OS to run binaries made for DOS or windows then you will have to make a DOS or windows compatible OS. This would be quite complex. I dont want to come across as rude but making an OS is not a walk in the park. I think you are going about it completly the wrong way. Learning how to do it from online tutorials is probably not the best way to do it. There are some books on the subject which would give you a better understanding of how to implement an OS. Studying an OS like minix would be a good start. I even think there is a book that uses minix as a study. I know this is what the university I attend does in the OS design module.