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I need to use this utility to change one of the parameters of my new WD hard drive: http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=609&sid=113&lang=en

It has truly unreadable instructions:

  • Extract wdidle3.exe onto a bootable medium (floppy, CD-RW, network drive, etc.).
  • Boot the system with the hard drive to be updated to the medium where the update file was extracted to.
  • Run the file by typing wdidle3.exe at the command prompt and press enter.

I understand that this bootable medium should be some version of DOS? How can I make my USB stick a bootable medium compatible with this utility (I don't have a diskette drive)? I have Windows 7 and Debian Linux installed.

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Translation: Extract update file, boot from DOS, run update file. – Hello71 Jun 20 '10 at 2:54
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3 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

Here's instructions for putting a bootable FreeDOS image on a USB flash drive. A similar post detailing other methods is at the FreeDOS wiki. A modified form of the first link's instructions:

  1. Download FreeDOS. The fdbasecd.iso is probably all you need (direct link).
  2. Download the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool.
  3. Extract the ISO contents to a directory. (7zip will do this if you don't have another tool. You can also mount the ISO and copy the files from the virtual drive.)
  4. Run the HP tool. Format your flash drive in FAT format, and make sure to tell it you want to make a boot disk. Point it at the directory containing the FreeDOS files.

Now you can follow the instructions your WD tool gave: extract the files to your now-bootable flash drive, boot to the flash drive, and run the utility.

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So FAT32 doesn't work? Maybe that's what I was doing wrong so far... – Grzenio Jun 19 '10 at 17:46
@grzenio: honestly, i don't know. i wondered about that too; the info i found didn't specify. – quack quixote Jun 19 '10 at 18:07
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up vote 0 down vote

Why not just extract it to a CD (I mean, burn it ...) and boot it ?

I don't understand from where you got the "some version of DOS" part.

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Hi, I am not sure where to get this cd from + I need to add this utility to the cdrom (or make sure the DOS on the cd supports my usb stick) – Grzenio Jun 18 '10 at 21:38
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up vote 0 down vote
  1. ActiveBootDisk
  2. BartPE
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