XP dos prompt

[Frank]

Have Win XP Home.
Formated a floppy as MS-DOS startup disk, which does take me to the A:
prompt.
But unable to change from A: to C: drives. It keeps telling me "Invalid
Drive Specification".
How can I change to the C: drive when at the DOS prompt.? It just keeps me
at the A:.
I want to be able to do Directory commands and see what files are under the
various folders on my C drive.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

If your drive is formatted in NTFS, then a dos boot floppy cannot read/write
to it. They are only useful for a FA32 drive. Check properties of the drive
in Windows Explorer.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[Matt Coy]

You will only be able to go to c: if c: is formatted as FAT32. It sounds
like your volume is NTFS, and therefore cannot be accessed by your startup
disk.

 

[Frank]

Yes, my C drive is formated as NTFS. Guess I'm out of luck.

 

[Jim Macklin]

Not out of luck, you can get programs that allow reading
NTFS from a boot floppy (you won't be able to write to the
NTFS drive).

But you can get a command prompt and use most of the DOS
commands by doing Start/run "cmd" to open the command
window. XP is based on NT and does not have DOS at all.
You can create a shortcut to cmd, with this string
"%SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe"

To see all the command line functions use the help function.

Most DOS type commands do work, some are not supported.


| Yes, my C drive is formated as NTFS. Guess I'm out of
luck.
|
| | > You will only be able to go to c: if c: is formatted as
FAT32. It sounds
| > like your volume is NTFS, and therefore cannot be
accessed by your startup
| > disk.
| >
| > --
| > Matt Coy, MCSE
| >
| > | > > Have Win XP Home.
| > > Formated a floppy as MS-DOS startup disk, which does
take me to the A:
| > > prompt.
| > > But unable to change from A: to C: drives. It keeps
telling me
| "Invalid
| > > Drive Specification".
| > > How can I change to the C: drive when at the DOS
prompt.? It just
| keeps
| > me
| > > at the A:.
| > > I want to be able to do Directory commands and see
what files are under
| > the
| > > various folders on my C drive.
| > >
| > >
| >
| >
|
|

 

[The Answerguy]

You could also boot from the XP cd and load the recovery
console.

 

[Frank]

Can you suggest a program that I may buy to experiment with.?

 

[Jim Macklin]

Google for "NTFS + floppy"



| Can you suggest a program that I may buy to experiment
with.?
|
|
in message
| | > Not out of luck, you can get programs that allow reading
| > NTFS from a boot floppy (you won't be able to write to
the
| > NTFS drive).
| >
| >
|
|

 

[Ken Blake]

In

Can you suggest a program that I may buy to experiment with.?

There's a freeware program called NTFSDOS. Find it on Google.