Creating a Boot Disk Suitable for Hard Disk Preparation

You don't need a separate boot disk to prepare a hard disk for use if you're adding a hard disk to a computer that's already running Windows; you just use the features built into Windows to prepare the drive for use. However, if you're building a brand-new system or installing a replacement hard disk into a system, you might need to prepare a boot disk you can use in the hard disk preparation process. Here's why: If you can't start the computer with an operating system, you can't prepare the hard disk to use an operating system. No operating system, no useful computer!

The method for preparing a boot disk suitable for hard disk preparation on a new system varies with the operating system. Some operating system versions designed for installation on a new computer include a boot disk already designed to prepare a hard disk, but in many cases you will need to create one yourself on another computer.

Windows 9x/Me

With Windows 9x or Windows Me, you can create a suitable hard diskpreparation boot disk by creating an emergency startup disk ( ESD ) also called the emergency boot disk (EBD )on a computer that already has Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me installed. You will need to have one blank disk available. Windows also refers to this disk as the startup disk.

If you grabbed a box of Mac-format disks by mistake and can't return them, or dug up an old box of unformatted floppy disks, you will need to format them before you can use them. (Macs use a different disk format than PCs.) Also, you might want to reformat an old floppy disk you've already used if you're planning to store important information on it because the magnetic signals placed on the media by formatting can fade over time.

Follow these steps to create the emergency startup disk:

1. Open the Control Panel and select Add/Remove Programs.

2. Select the Startup Disk tab.

3. Click Create Disk and insert a blank formatted floppy disk into drive A: as prompted.

4. Insert the Windows CD-ROM if prompted; the ESD is created from operating system files that are stored on the CD-ROM (or, on some systems, in the \Windows\Options\Cabs folder).

5. Remove the disk when prompted and label it Windows Emergency Startup Disk. Be sure to indicate what release of Windows was used to create the ESD.

tip

Notice the word emergency in the name of this disk. Even if you don't plan to install a new hard disk anytime soon, take a couple of minutes to make this disk anyway. It can also help you install (or reinstall) Windows if things go bad.

If you made the startup disk with Windows 98 or Windows Me, it contains the Fdisk and Format programs needed to prepare the hard disk, as well as CD-ROM drivers for popular IDE and SCSI hard disk drives . Therefore, when you boot a computer with the Windows 98 or Windows Me ESD, you can Fdisk and Format the hard disk and immediately install Windows from CD.

Ideally, you should use a startup disk that matches your version of Windows. But, if you don't have one, you can use the Windows 98, Windows 98SE, or Windows Me startup disk to install Windows 95 OSR 2.x (the version shipped in 1996 and later with new hardware), Windows 98/98SE, or Windows Me. The Windows 95 retail upgrade supports hard disks up to 8GB in size, whereas Windows 95 OSR 2.x (95B or 95C) supports hard disks up to 32GB in size , so their boot disks should not be used with later Windows versions.

The disk you make with this process is the same ESD that Windows offers to make for you during Windows 9x/Me installation.

Adding CD-ROM Drive Support to the Windows 95 Startup Disk

The Windows 95 ESD disk also contains the Fdisk and Format programs. However, because Windows 95 was created at the very end of the "floppy disks are for software distribution" era (you could buy it in a floppy disk or CD-ROM version), its ESD doesn't include CD-ROM support. You must add the following files to the startup disk if you want to use it to start the computer with CD-ROM support:

• The MS-DOS CD-ROM device driver for your CD-ROM drive This was provided by the drive manufacturer on a disk (if you installed the drive in the field), or it might be on the system's hard disk. The filename will usually contain ATAPI or CD and will end in .sys.

• Mscdex.exe from the \Windows\Command folder This file is used to assign your CD-ROM device a drive letter.

These files must be referred to by the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat startup files you need to create on the Windows 95 startup disk. After you create the startup disk and copy these files to it, follow this procedure to create the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files:

1. Click Start, Programs, Accessories, Notepad.

2. Click New on the Notepad menu.

3. Type the following line into the text-editing window (use the actual name of your CD-ROM device driver in place of MYCDROM.SYS ):

     DEVICE=   MYCDROM.SYS   /D:CDROM01  

4. Click File, Save As.

5. Select A: drive from the Save In pull-down menu.

6. Type config.sys in the File Name window.

7. Click Save to save the file.

8. Click New to create a new file.

9. Type the following line into the text-editing window. (Add the /l:x switch and substitute the drive letter you want to specify for the CD-ROM drive for x ; otherwise , the next available letter will be used. The /m:10 switch specifies 10 disk buffers to improve data transfer rates from the CD.)

     mscdex /d:cdrom01 /m:10  

10. Click File, Save As.

11. Select A: drive from the Save In pull-down menu.

12. Type autoexec.bat in the File Name window.

13. Click Save to save the file.

14. Click File, Exit to leave Notepad.

tip

You can create a Windows 98/98SE startup disk from a Windows 98 CD, even if you don't have Windows 98 installed anymore. Open the \Tools\MTSutil\FAT32EBD folder on the Windows 98 or 98SE CD and run the program FAT32EBD.EXE. Insert a blank floppy disk when prompted.

If you're going to use a Windows 98 ESD to prepare a hard disk over 64GB up to 137GB in size, you should go to http://support.microsoft.com/ for the article 263044 "Fdisk Does Not Recognize Full Size of Hard Disks Larger than 64GB" to get a replacement copy of Fdisk.exe to copy to your boot disk. Otherwise, your ESD won't be able to cope properly with a large hard disk.

Test the disk by leaving it in drive A: and clicking Start, Shut Down, Restart. The system should start from the floppy disk and display the CD-ROM drive letter.

Windows NT 4.0

The Windows NT 4.0 CD contains the Winnt.exe program, which is used to start the Windows NT installation from a DOS prompt. It can also be used to create a set of installation boot floppy disks. To create a set to be used for installing from the Windows NT 4.0 CD

1. Boot a system running a 32-bit version of Windows (NT, 9x, or later).

2. Insert the Windows NT 4.0 CD.

3. Open a DOS prompt session and change to the /I386 folder on the CD.

   or

4. Run this command:

   Winnt.exe/o (on a system running Windows 9x/Me)

   Winnt32.exe /o (on a system running Windows NT/2000/XP)

   If you want to create floppy disks that can run an installation from either CD-ROM or floppy disk, use this command instead:

   Winnt.exe/ox or Winnt32.exe/ox

5. Insert blank, formatted floppy disks as prompted until the process is complete.

6. Label the disks.

Use Setup disk 1 to start the system when you want to install Windows NT 4.0. Watch the prompts for when to insert each additional disk and when to insert the Windows NT 4.0 CD.

Windows 2000

The Windows 2000 CD-ROM contains the disk images of four startup disks that might be needed to prepare the hard disk and install Windows 2000. These disks are used only if you cannot boot from the Windows 2000 CD-ROM to start the setup process. Follow these steps to create the setup disks needed to install Windows 2000:

1. Insert the Windows 2000 CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive on a computer running a 32-bit version of Windows (NT, 9x, 2000, Me, or XP).

2. View the contents of the CD-ROM in the Windows Explorer, or use the Browse option on the Windows 2000 CD-ROM splash screen. Find and open the folder called Bootdisk .

3. If you are viewing the CD-ROM from a computer with Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP, open the program (.exe) file called Makebt32 ; if you are viewing the CD-ROM from a computer using Windows 9x or Me, open the program file called Makeboot .

4. A program window opens onscreen, prompting you to insert the first of four blank, formatted floppy disks into drive A:. Follow the prompts to create the floppy disks, labeling them Setup x (replace x with numbers 14) for Windows 2000.

5. Close the window and remove the last floppy disk from drive A: when you are finished.

Use Setup disk 1 to start the system if you cannot boot from the Windows 2000 CD-ROM when you want to install Windows 2000 on a new system. You'll be prompted to insert disks 24 and then the Windows 2000 CD-ROM to prepare the hard disk for Windows 2000 and install it.

Windows XP

Like the Windows 2000 CD, the Windows XP CD is also bootable. Generally, any system that is compatible with Windows XP also supports booting from CD. You might need to fiddle around with the boot order in the system BIOS to put the optical (CD-ROM) drive before the hard disk. See Chapter 6, "BIOS and CMOS Configuration," for details.

You can't make the boot disks from the Windows XP CD, but you can download them from Microsoft's Web site. Search http://support.microsoft.com for article #310994, "Obtaining Windows XP Setup Boot Disks," for links to the downloadable files for XP Home, XP Professional, and Service Pack 1 versions of both.

Although almost any computer capable of handling Windows XP should be able to boot from the Windows XP CD-ROM, it's still a good idea to download the boot disk images from the Microsoft Web site. You never know when you might not be able to boot from the CD!