MS-DOS STARTUP DISK

[R.L. Barnhart]

Using the "Format" command, I have created and MS-DOS startup disk; however,
it does not work. When I boot from it I receive and "I/O Error" message.
Why - What is wrong?

 

[Mike Lowery]

Using the "Format" command, I have created and MS-DOS startup disk; however,
it does not work. When I boot from it I receive and "I/O Error" message. Why -
What is wrong?

That error usually indicates a faulty disk. Try a different one. You should
also format it on the same computer you plan to use it on.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Using the "Format" command, I have created and MS-DOS startup disk; however,
it does not work. When I boot from it I receive and "I/O Error" message.
Why - What is wrong?

Assuming that your BIOS is properly set to boot from the diskette
drive, there are only three possibilities for why it won't boot from
it:

1. You created the diskette wrong.

2. The diskette drive is bad.

3. The diskette itself is faulty.

What do you intend to do with this diskette? Most people running
Windows XP have NTFS hard drives. Do you? If so, are you aware that if
you do succeed in booting from the diskette, it won't be able to see
you hard drive?

Or did you mean that you *do* successfully boot from it, but then get
the I/O error message when you try to access the hard drive, for
example, by typing c:? If so, that's for the reason above--because
your hard drive is NTFS, MS-DOS can't see it.

 

[M. Kilgore]

Using the "Format" command, I have created and MS-DOS startup disk;
however, it does not work. When I boot from it I receive and "I/O Error"
message. Why - What is wrong?

You might check to see if there are any "dust bunnies" in the floppy drive.
If there are, then a puff of air should move them out of the way.

mark

 

[Al Dykes]

That error usually indicates a faulty disk. Try a different one. You should
also format it on the same computer you plan to use it on.

If you've formatted the disk under any MS OS since NT, a "bootable"
disk doesn't have an OS on it and, at best, it will load an OS from
the hard disk, the same one as a hard disk boot would when the floppy
disk was made.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

If you've formatted the disk under any MS OS since NT, a "bootable"
disk doesn't have an OS on it and, at best, it will load an OS from
the hard disk, the same one as a hard disk boot would when the floppy
disk was made.

No, this is *not* correct. I just formatted and created a bootable DOS
disk here, and then looked at its contents to verify it. It *does*
contain the DOS boot files.

 

[R.L. Barnhart]

Assuming that your BIOS is properly set to boot from the diskette
drive, there are only three possibilities for why it won't boot from
it:

1. You created the diskette wrong.

2. The diskette drive is bad.

3. The diskette itself is faulty.

What do you intend to do with this diskette? Most people running
Windows XP have NTFS hard drives. Do you? If so, are you aware that if
you do succeed in booting from the diskette, it won't be able to see
you hard drive?

Or did you mean that you *do* successfully boot from it, but then get
the I/O error message when you try to access the hard drive, for
example, by typing c:? If so, that's for the reason above--because
your hard drive is NTFS, MS-DOS can't see it.

I created the disk to boot into a clean "DOS" environment so that I can
flash my BIOS which I was able to do under WIN98. However under WINXP, a
clean DOS environment isn't readily available.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I created the disk to boot into a clean "DOS" environment so that I can
flash my BIOS which I was able to do under WIN98. However under WINXP, a
clean DOS environment isn't readily available.

You should be able to create a simple bootable floppy for this purpose, but
there are other boot disks you can download. Try here:
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

However, the I/O error indicates some sort of hardware failure, possibly
that diskette or the drive, possibly the cabling. You definitely want
the diskette to be created stably, in case the BIOS files get corrupted..
which would give you a whole other set of problems.

HTH
-pk

 

[Vanguard]

in message

Using the "Format" command, I have created and MS-DOS startup disk;
however, it does not work. When I boot from it I receive and "I/O
Error" message.

http://www.bootdisk.com/

I even remember seeing a Microsoft KB article that mentioned this
site.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I created the disk to boot into a clean "DOS" environment so that I can
flash my BIOS

OK, if you need to flash your BIOS, that's a good reason.

which I was able to do under WIN98.
However under WINXP, a
clean DOS environment isn't readily available.

There is no DOS environment, clean or otherwise, under Windows XP, nor
do you need or want one. You simply boot to the DOS diskette you
create. When you do so, you are running DOS, and what operating system
is installed on the hard drive is irrelevant.

 

[Black Baptist]

Mike Lowery rambled on in microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

That error usually indicates a faulty disk. Try a different one. You
should also format it on the same computer you plan to use it on.

use a bootable xp cd