boot disk

[Tobmello]

One of the basic pieces of info that I'm missing is how to create a boot disk for a system. Can someone explain what all the basic components are and what they do? (i know there is a boot disk i can download from this site but i want to understand the why's.... My questions are:

1) What are the basic components of any boot disk and what do they accomplish (autoexec, command, config.sys)

2) What does the sys c: command do and when would you use it, ditto with the fdisk /mbr cmd)

3) How does one load CD rom drivers or even find ones that work with your cd rom, is there a generic driver that works with all of them?

4) How do you enable booting from your CD rom drive? I have never had any luck with this! I have set the CMOS to boot from my cd rom drive and it never works. I always have to create those damn setup floppies via NT. Does the CD itself have to be "bootable" or is that a function of the CD rom? And how would you make a CD bootable if the former is true?


(dhcp, wins, dns, sms, subnetting etc I can understand and would be happy to contribute to this board with, its the BASIC stuff that kills me :mad: )

[Junky]

I use the "Startup Disk" that you can create in Windows 98. It has everything you need, even CD drive drivers so you can access the CD drive from DOS.

Or you can get a bootup disk right here on CTH: http://www.cybertechhelp.com/

If you need more help, let me know. :)

[Tobmello]

Will that bootdisk work as a boot disk for any windows system or only something like win95 or '98? Next time I have to reinstall NT or 2000 I'd like to be able to do with without going thru those setup floppies. Also, when I boot to the bootdisk, how do the CD rom drivers get loaded? is it automatic thru a command in one of the files on the boot disk? Thanks!

[Junky]

That boot disk will work for win95 and 98. I don't know about Win ME and W2K.

When you boot with that boot disk it will give you the option to use the CD drivers or not.

Boot with it and you'll see what I mean. :)

If you want to know if that boot disk works in Win ME and W2K, post in those forums and ask them. Have a good one.