startup in MS-DOS

[bryan]

does anyone know how to start up in MS-DOS as opposed to
windows XP?? i have xp, but it wont boot and i just want
to get into dos before windows and transfer some files
and format the harddrive... but i cant get into windows
or dos to do it, so im up the creek w/out a paddle...
help?

bryan

 

[Matt Coy]

Hi Bryan,

Windows XP does not include the option to boot to DOS mode, as that's no
longer a feature of Windows. You can try pressing F8 just before Windows
starts to boot up and you can try the Last Known Good Configuration or
booting to Safe Mode and troubleshooting/transferring files from there.

You can also try a repair installation.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

The Windows XP Recovery Console is available to you to copy files if none of
the above works.
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_rec.htm

 

[Guest]

yeah, i've tried the F8 and safe mode and all that, it
just keeps restarting half-way through loading.. it gets
to one of the system files... i think MUP.sys is the one
and then it stops and restarts if i try safe mode and
then if i try to do last known good configuration it
starts to load windows and then flashes a bluescreen and
then restarts still.. i took a picture of the blue screen
and looked at it and it says stuff about a unmovable boot
volume and an error code of 0x000000ED which i looked up
and got some stuff on that from the knowledge base that
i'm going to try and i'll try your stuff as well, hope
something will work!!

thanks
bryan

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

"Unmountable Boot Volume," and it usually means your system is using a
40-wire cable but you need an 80-wire UDMA cable for your hard drive.

Please see the following Knowledge Base Article:
http://tinyurl.com/ezaj

Even though the system may have worked previously with a 40-wire cable, it's
borderline and ultimately, it will be pushed over the line as appears to be
the case here.

 

[Guest]

They only way I know of getting into dos would be to go
to RUN: Type ipconfig, it will open a dos window for you.
Or, have you tried to go into Log Off. If you log off,
you may be able to go into DOS, and log back on in DOS.

 

[Donald McDaniel]

They only way I know of getting into dos would be to go
to RUN: Type ipconfig, it will open a dos window for you.
Or, have you tried to go into Log Off. If you log off,
you may be able to go into DOS, and log back on in DOS.

It is not possible to get into DOS from Windows XP in any way, since Windows
XP is built on the NT code base, and has no MS-DOS layer. To get into
real-mode DOS, boot the computer using a Windows 9x startup floppy, or dual
boot with a version of MS-DOS or Windows 95/98.

With that said, you have a couple of options for command-line access to
Windows XP:
1) Boot using the XP install CD and choose "Repair" at the first
opportunity. This will leave you in the XP Recovery Console, where you will
be able to use several text-mode commands for file recovery.
2) From the Desktop, do "Start|Run" and enter the command "cmd" to enter the
XP console, which will allow you to use text-mode commands such as "copy",
"xcopy", or "delete". Or, enter "command" for a 16bit version of the
command interpreter.

****NOTE***
If you boot the computer using a Windows 95/98 startup floppy, and the HD is
formatted as NTFS, you will be unable to read from or write to the HD using
Microsoft-supplied tools, since NTFS is inaccessible from MS-DOS without
third-party tools.