msdos boot disk cannot see any directories

[Richard]

Prior to my installation of SP2 I decided, as a belt and braces back up,
to make an MSDOS boot disk.

Just to make sure, I tried it.

Booted successfully but when I moved to C: and did a DIR it listed no
directories whatsoever. Thinking they might be hidden, for some obscure
reason, I tried cd windows. And then cd c:\windows. The error message
in both cases was invalid directory.

So how the flying fynn do I *actually* start from a boot disk?


[And for those of you now looking up how to make a boot disk - searching
on boot disk won't do it, not as a subject. But it *is* in the "text"
results.]

[Help doesn't recognise msdos either. Only ms-dos.]

 

[V Green]

Prior to my installation of SP2 I decided, as a belt and braces back up,
to make an MSDOS boot disk.

Just to make sure, I tried it.

Booted successfully but when I moved to C: and did a DIR it listed no
directories whatsoever. Thinking they might be hidden, for some obscure
reason, I tried cd windows. And then cd c:\windows. The error message
in both cases was invalid directory.

So how the flying fynn do I *actually* start from a boot disk?


[And for those of you now looking up how to make a boot disk - searching
on boot disk won't do it, not as a subject. But it *is* in the "text"
results.]

[Help doesn't recognise msdos either. Only ms-dos.]

Perhaps your boot disk can't "see" the NTFS filesystem?

I understand that there are those that can, but can't recall
the specifics..

 

[GTS]

If your hard drive is formatted NTFS, you will not be able to browse it from
a DOS boot. There is a free NTFS reader available that can be put on the
DOS diskette available at http://www.ntfs.com/products.htm

 

[Richard]

Some people said things, and then:-
V Green added

Perhaps your boot disk can't "see" the NTFS filesystem?

I understand that there are those that can, but can't recall the
specifics..

Quite possibly! But this is my *windowsXP* created boot disk which
*must* *know* it's on an NTFS file system?

Oh, silly me, this is windows we're talking about.

 

[Richard]

Some people said things, and then:-
GTS added

If your hard drive is formatted NTFS, you will not be able to browse it from
a DOS boot. There is a free NTFS reader available that can be put on the
DOS diskette available at http://www.ntfs.com/products.htm

Terrific! Thanks very much. I'll be right there shortly.

 

[Alex Nichol]

Prior to my installation of SP2 I decided, as a belt and braces back up,
to make an MSDOS boot disk.

Just to make sure, I tried it.

Booted successfully but when I moved to C: and did a DIR it listed no
directories whatsoever. Thinking they might be hidden, for some obscure
reason, I tried cd windows. And then cd c:\windows. The error message
in both cases was invalid directory.

So how the flying fynn do I *actually* start from a boot disk?

As the others say - you cannot access an NTFS hard disk from a DOS boot.
And additional software to provide proper write access is expensive

The floppy is not intended for starting or repairing XP. For that you
boot the XP CD directly. Its purpose is to allow you to add to it some
specific DOS program that you need to run in real mode - for example a
BIOS flash one

 

[rp]

What you don't realize is that boot disks created within XP are not NTFS.

 

[Richard]

Some people said things, and then:-
rp added

What you don't realize is that boot disks created within XP are not
NTFS.

I do now, thanks. Silly me.

 

[Richard]

Some people said things, and then:-
Alex Nichol added

As the others say - you cannot access an NTFS hard disk from a DOS
boot. And additional software to provide proper write access is
expensive

I caught up with the NTFS fiasco from earlier posts thanks.

The floppy is not intended for starting or repairing XP. For that you
boot the XP CD directly. Its purpose is to allow you to add to it some
specific DOS program that you need to run in real mode - for example a
BIOS flash one

My brain finally caught up with this and I realise that too now.

Oh well. Guess I'm still living in the age of dinosaurs where *I* was
in charge of what went on in my computer.

And yes, for better - or for worse.