making emergency boot diskette??

I would like to have a diskette that I can use to boot my Dell Dim. 2400 in
an emergency.

PC WORLD had an article that said how to do it:


To make one, insert a blank floppy disk into drive A:, select Start, All
Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt, type format a:, and press Enter. When
asked if you want to format another disk, type n and press Enter. Type the
following commands, pressing Enter after each one.

xcopy c:\boot.ini a: /h
xcopy c:\ntdetect.com a: /h
xcopy c:\ntldr a: /h





Well, I did this but it doesn't work. When I try and boot from it, it says
non-system diskette.



Any ideas?



Mel

On Mon, 27 Sep 2004 00:01:17 -0400, "MB"
wrote:

I would like to have a diskette that I can use to boot my Dell Dim. 2400 in
an emergency.

PC WORLD had an article that said how to do it:


To make one, insert a blank floppy disk into drive A:, select Start, All
Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt, type format a:, and press Enter. When
asked if you want to format another disk, type n and press Enter. Type the
following commands, pressing Enter after each one.

xcopy c:\boot.ini a: /h
xcopy c:\ntdetect.com a: /h
xcopy c:\ntldr a: /h





Well, I did this but it doesn't work. When I try and boot from it, it says
non-system diskette.

To get a DOS startup disk, in Windows Explorer right click on the A:
drive, choose Format and check the box for "Create an MS-DOS startup
disk". This is useful for installing BIOS updates and other stuff where
you don't want Windows running.

You also can boot from your Windows XP installation CD. You may have to
enter the BIOS setup mode and change the boot priority so that it tries
to boot from the CD before it boots from the hard disk. Booting this
way is useful for doing a repair installation of Windows XP, or for
reinstalling Windows from scratch.

The instructions you gave above seem to be missing a step. You need to
get a master boot record (MBR) onto the floppy. I'm not sure how you
would go about doing that. Nor do I think the result will be terribly
useful since you will be missing the driver that allows you to access
the hard disk.

Jeff Bean

MB wrote:
I would like to have a diskette that I can use to boot my Dell Dim. 2400 in
an emergency.

PC WORLD had an article that said how to do it:


To make one, insert a blank floppy disk into drive A:, select Start, All
Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt, type format a:, and press Enter. When
asked if you want to format another disk, type n and press Enter. Type the
following commands, pressing Enter after each one.

xcopy c:\boot.ini a: /h
xcopy c:\ntdetect.com a: /h
xcopy c:\ntldr a: /h

Well, I did this but it doesn't work. When I try and boot from it, it says
non-system diskette.



Any ideas?

Mel


The floppy diskette must first be formatted (or
re-formatted) by the computer in which the specific
Windows NT, 2000 or XP OS resides. Or, IOW, using
a diskette that had been pre-formatted or formatted
for MS-DOS or Windows 9X will not work in this case.

www.bootdisk.com




"MB" wrote in message
...
I would like to have a diskette that I can use to boot my Dell Dim. 2400
in
an emergency.

PC WORLD had an article that said how to do it:


To make one, insert a blank floppy disk into drive A:, select Start, All
Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt, type format a:, and press Enter.
When
asked if you want to format another disk, type n and press Enter. Type the
following commands, pressing Enter after each one.

xcopy c:\boot.ini a: /h
xcopy c:\ntdetect.com a: /h
xcopy c:\ntldr a: /h





Well, I did this but it doesn't work. When I try and boot from it, it says
non-system diskette.



Any ideas?



Mel

That did it!!! Thanks.

Mel
"Mistoffolees" wrote in message
...

MB wrote:
I would like to have a diskette that I can use to boot my Dell Dim. 2400
in an emergency.

PC WORLD had an article that said how to do it:


To make one, insert a blank floppy disk into drive A:, select Start, All
Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt, type format a:, and press Enter.
When asked if you want to format another disk, type n and press Enter.
Type the following commands, pressing Enter after each one.

xcopy c:\boot.ini a: /h
xcopy c:\ntdetect.com a: /h
xcopy c:\ntldr a: /h

Well, I did this but it doesn't work. When I try and boot from it, it
says non-system diskette.



Any ideas?

Mel


The floppy diskette must first be formatted (or
re-formatted) by the computer in which the specific
Windows NT, 2000 or XP OS resides. Or, IOW, using
a diskette that had been pre-formatted or formatted
for MS-DOS or Windows 9X will not work in this case.