Batboard

I spent the last two days trying to make a dos boot disk for my laptop, and all I've ended up with is a stack of ruined cds. Ive tried everything from compiling my own .IMG files to using the DOS image file from bootdisk.com. Most of these disks just left a flashing underscore on the upper left hand corner of the laptop screen, and others gave me the "non-system disk error". I managed to get one of the disks to bring up a command prompt, but I couldn't access the FAT partition and none of the RSS loaded, so I don't think I was even in DOS.

Here are the specs on the laptop:
Dell Inspiron 2500
20 Gig HD
- 18 Gig NTFS partition (Shows as C:\ drive in windows)(For Win XP and other stuff)
- 1 Gig FAT partition (Shows as D:\ drive in windows)(Ill be putting the RSS in here)
CD drive E:\
DVD-CD Drive F:\

I think part of my problem might have something to do with the multiple drives....

I want to either use a boot disk or put the MS-DOS system files onto the D:\ partition of the hard drive and then maybe use the F8 key at startup to select DOS instead of Windows XP.

Is there anybody with a good knowledge of DOS that can help me?

If you download the image file from Bootdisk.com, it should be a self-building file. In Windows, put a blank, formatted floppy disk in your floppy drive, then double-click on the image file. Follow the prompts, and it should write the boot disk to the floppy. It should then be bootable. The presence of multiple drives shouldn't make any difference. In order to make a partition on your harddrive a bootable DOS partition, you would have to wipe the harddrive, install DOS first, then reinstall Windows. There are (sometimes) ways around this, but they are for more advanced computer users, as they can seriously mess things up.

The problem is that the laptop doesn't have a floppy drive. I tried taking the dos image from bootdisk.com and making a bootable CD with it in Roxio EZ CD creator, but that didn't work either. (Just get the blinking underscore)

If eventually get it to boot into DOS via a boot CD, will I still need to reformat my hard drive so my FAT partiton comes before the main NTFS partition? I think that only applies, like you said, if I wanted to boot FROM that partition but I'm not sure.

98 or me can't create a boot cd, you need to create a boot floppy and do it that way. as far as using some program to create a bootable cd? don't know if that will work? you need to get that program that lets you choose what partition or version of windows or dos to choose from to boot up to. i forgot what it's called but i know someone will post it. or run a search for it in the computer section

I can make boot floppies with the files from the bootdisk website, but I would need to somehow put those files on a CD because thats the only type of media that my laptop will accept.

On the Roxio EZ CD Creator, you go to "Make Bootable CD" and then select an image file, and it unpacks it into two files (I think one is a .bin) and puts them on a CD.

The flashing underscore makes me think that the DOS files are expecting to be in a CD drive D:\, and since the drive is actually E:\, it cant find what its looking for. But thats just a SWAG....

Motosynth, let me do some thinking. I've done this before, I just have to remember how. I'm pretty sure I used Nero Express to do it. That's what I use anyway, I'm not at all familiar with Roxio. If all else fails, I should be able to make you an image file that you can burn to CD with Roxio. IIRC, I had to make a DOS boot disk on a floppy, then use that disk to make a bootable CD from. With Nero, when you tell it to make a bootable CD, it asks you where to get the boot info from, and you simply tell it to use the floppy drive.

As for reformatting your harddrive, I think I misunderstood what you're trying to do. Am I correct in assuming that you want to make a FAT partition on your harddrive, and use the CD to boot the system then work off of the FAT partition on the harddrive? If so, that shouldn't be any problem at all. You are correct that you would only need to reformat if you wanted to boot DOS from the harddrive. To boot from a CD like I think you want to do, you only need to create a FAT partition and store whatever files you want to be able to access from DOS in it.

Give me your email addy, and I'll try to make an image for you and send it to you.

Yep, thats exactly what I was hoping to do. In fact, I have already created the FAT partition, so now we just need to get this boot CD figured out.

Oh, and they way you are describing that Nero works is very similar to the Roxio software.

If the problem is just making the boot floppy, you could try a USB floppy drive for your laptop. They're common as grass now. As to whether you can boot into DOS with them... that I'm not sure. I would be curious to know if anyone has done so.

Happy tweaking.

Bruce, you can indeed boot into DOS with a USB floppy drive. In fact, I've done a complete install of DOS with one on two different laptops. The really interesting thing is that, while it will install properly, as soon as the install is done, you can no longer access the floppy drive. I suspect you would have the same problem booting off of a boot disk; no access to the floppy drive once it has finished booting. There are a few different methods that are supposed to let you access a USB floppy drive under DOS, but I haven't been able to get any of them to work yet.

Oh, and BTW, the problem has already been solved. I was able to make him an image of a boot CD that he was able to burn and boot from.