No C dir in MSDOS

[wireball]

When I boot up in MSDOS from a Windows XP start up floppy I get an
"invalid drive" message when I type C: at the A prompt. I'm using
Windows XP sp1. Am I missing system files and how can I correct it? If
it helps when I plug in the D harddrive I get the files on the D drive
when I type C: after the A prompt. When I boot into Windows XP
everything shows up correctly in My Computer.TIA

 

[Bruce Chambers]

When I boot up in MSDOS from a Windows XP start up floppy I get an
"invalid drive" message when I type C: at the A prompt. I'm using
Windows XP sp1. Am I missing system files and how can I correct it? If
it helps when I plug in the D harddrive I get the files on the D drive
when I type C: after the A prompt. When I boot into Windows XP
everything shows up correctly in My Computer.TIA

If you are using the MS-DOS startup disk made from within WinXP, this
is perfectly normal. The diskette is created using MS-DOS version 5,
which cannot read either of WinXP's two native file systems, FAT32 and
NTFS. The capability of creating such a boot diskette is to provide one
a means of flashing the PC's BIOS, not to access the hard drives from
MS_DOS.

If you need to boot into WinXP's CLI (Command Line Interface) Recovery
Console, either boot from a WinXP installation CD and elect the Repair
options, or simply press <F8> while booting into WinXP and then
selecting the Command Prompt option.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

 

[Ron Sommer]

If you are using the MS-DOS startup disk made from within WinXP, this is
perfectly normal. The diskette is created using MS-DOS version 5, which
cannot read either of WinXP's two native file systems, FAT32 and NTFS.
The capability of creating such a boot diskette is to provide one a means
of flashing the PC's BIOS, not to access the hard drives from MS_DOS.

If you need to boot into WinXP's CLI (Command Line Interface) Recovery
Console, either boot from a WinXP installation CD and elect the Repair
options, or simply press <F8> while booting into WinXP and then selecting
the Command Prompt option.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

version 5?
The files on the boot floppy are June 8, 2000.
That is not version 5.
The floppy will also do a dir on a Fat 32 drive.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

version 5?
The files on the boot floppy are June 8, 2000.
That is not version 5.
The floppy will also do a dir on a Fat 32 drive.

Well, I guess I am wrong, after all. I could have sworn that the
version of DOS used was 5.0. I wonder if this was changed by one of the
service packs, and I'm remembering the way it was with the RTM edition?

--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

 

[CS]

When I boot up in MSDOS from a Windows XP start up floppy I get an
"invalid drive" message when I type C: at the A prompt. I'm using
Windows XP sp1. Am I missing system files and how can I correct it? If
it helps when I plug in the D harddrive I get the files on the D drive
when I type C: after the A prompt. When I boot into Windows XP
everything shows up correctly in My Computer.TIA

That's because MS DOS can not "see" a drive formatted to the NTFS file
system. You need to use the recovery console instead.

 

[NobodyMan]

If you are using the MS-DOS startup disk made from within WinXP, this
is perfectly normal. The diskette is created using MS-DOS version 5,
which cannot read either of WinXP's two native file systems, FAT32 and
NTFS. The capability of creating such a boot diskette is to provide one
a means of flashing the PC's BIOS, not to access the hard drives from
MS_DOS.

Wrong Bruce. It uses the DOS that ME rode on top of, which certainly
was NOT 5.0. It also will access FAT32 drives with no problem; it
just can't see NTFS drives.

 

[Ron Sommer]

Well, I guess I am wrong, after all. I could have sworn that the version
of DOS used was 5.0. I wonder if this was changed by one of the service
packs, and I'm remembering the way it was with the RTM edition?

--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

Boot disks since Windows 95 B have been able to read Fat 32.
I think the Dos version was 6.

 

[Alex Nichol]

When I boot up in MSDOS from a Windows XP start up floppy I get an
"invalid drive" message when I type C: at the A prompt. I'm using
Windows XP sp1.

Your XP is installed on a drive that uses the NTFS file system. MSDOS
does not handle NTFS

 

[Al Smith]

If you are using the MS-DOS startup disk made from within WinXP, this

Wrong Bruce. It uses the DOS that ME rode on top of, which certainly
was NOT 5.0. It also will access FAT32 drives with no problem; it
just can't see NTFS drives.

That's right. DOS just isn't down with that whole "super complex"
long file name thing that Microsoft borrowed from Apple ten or
fifteen years after Apple started using it. It sees FAT32 fine.