Creating a boot diskette

An extremely useful tool for a service technician is a boot diskette. The disc is sometimes referred to as a Startup Disc as it is used to boot, (Start up), the machine and bring it to a prompt. Once at the prompt commands can be input to run diagnostic routines, or programs, and to carry out formatting or maintenance on the hard disc.

The startup disc can be created from most operating systems. Some examples are given below.

The DOS boot diskette can be created by running the FORMAT.COM command from a DOS prompt.

The /S parameter will make the disc in drive A: a bootable disc by adding the correct boot sector, the files MSDOS.SYS¹ , IO.SYS and COMMAND.COM. The first two files are the DOS system files and are hidden, while COMMAND.COM contains internal commands like DIR, PAUSE, ECHO etc. Once the machine has booted to a DOS prompt a diagnostic disc can be placed in the floppy disc drive and the diagnostic routines run. Alternatively software maintenance can be carried out on a local hard disc. Sometimes the diagnostic disks are also made bootable.
If network drivers are also copied to the disc the machine can contact other machines on a network. AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS can be added to the floppy disc to load drivers and run programs. These programs could be situated on the hard drive if required. A bootable floppy disc with network drivers could also be used if an operating system is being installed from a network server.

Operating systems like Windows 95, 98 and ME include an option to create a startup diskette by selecting the Add/Remove Programs utility from the Control Panel and using the Startup Disc tab click on the Create Disc button. The startup disc creation utility will start and ask for the operating system CD-ROM, if it is not in the drive. It will also ask for a floppy disc and issue a warning that all data on it will be destroyed. The Windows 95, 98, 98SE and ME operating systems create the boot sector and add the necessary system files to boot up.

Windows 95 boots up to an A: prompt and has its utilities, shown in the table on the next page, on the disc Windows 98 has utilities, such as EDIT.COM and FORMAT.COM contained in a file called EBD.CAB, which are extracted to a RAMdrive when the machine is booted from the startup disc. There are several other files on the Windows 98 startup disc, including AUTOEXEC.BAT, FDISK.EXE, EXTRACT.EXE and a README.TXT. Ensure that you read the README,TXT before using the disc if possible. When the machine has booted from a Windows 98 startup disc a menu is given that looks similar to the one shown below: Choosing Option number 1 will start the computer, detect the CD-ROM drive and load drivers for it. It then creates the RAMDRIVE and loads the utilities on to it. Option 2 just starts the computer, then creates the RAMDRIVE and loads the utilities on to it. Option 3 displays the README.TXT file. Some of these options are available on the CD-ROM if the system is capable of being booted from the CD-ROM.

The following files and utilities are available from the floppy disc in Windows 95 or the RAMdrive² in Windows 98 when the prompt is given:

File	Win 95	Win 98	Function
ATTRIB.EXE			Changes attributes on files.
CHKDSK.EXE			Checks the disc.
COMMAND.COM			The internal commands.
DEBUG.EXE			A program for looking at memory etc.
DRIVESPACE.BIN			The compressed disc driver.
EDIT.COM			A text editor.
EXT.EXE			A simple file extraction utility.
EXTRACT.EXE			Extracts files from the .CAB file on the disc.
FDISK.EXE.			Disc partitioning utility.
FORMAT.COM			Disc formatting utility.
HELP.BAT			Runs the README.TXT file.
MSCDEX.EXE			The MSDOS CD-ROM extensions, allows a CD-ROM drive to be accessed.
README.TXT			Instructions for use.
RESTART.COM			Restart the machine.
SCANDISK.EXE			Scans disks for problems.
SCANDISK.INI			The initialisation file for SCANDISK.EXE.
SYS.COM			Places the system files on a disc.
REGEDIT.EXE			A utility to copy, create and move the registry
UNINSTAL.EXE			Uninstalls and removes Windows 95.

The Windows ME Startup disc has a few extra CD-ROM drivers but works in the same way as the Windows 98 startup disc. It has an extra menu option -Minimal Boot - which gives you the option to start the computer and come to a prompt without loading any CD-ROM drivers, creating the RAMdrive or loading the diagnostic tools.

Windows NT, 2000 and XP can have a floppy disc that will start the machine, but needs the rest of the operating system to actually boot up. The disc must be formatted under Windows NT, 200o or XP prompt and have the following files copied to it:

This disc is only used if the hard disc that is being used to boot the operating system becomes faulty or the files on it become corrupted. A recovery console prompt is available in Windows 2000 and XP by pressing [F8] when it is booting up.

[1] These files may have different names in different versions of DOS. Whatever they are called they normally have a hidden attribute and cannot be seen by using a simple directory listing.

[2] RAMdrive - A section of memory that can act like a disc drive. It has a drive pointer which can be used in the same way as any other drive. It is usually created by commands in the CONFIG.SYS file.