Creating a Boot Disk



By Stacee Barcelata

Computers crash all the time, and when you reboot after a crash,
 your PC may not recognize its CD-ROM drive. That Start Up disk
 you created in Windows 95 does not include CD drivers. So how
 are you supposed to reboot your computer from the Windows 95 CD
 if your computer won't recognize the CD-ROM? You've got to have
 CD drivers on your floppy. Just as you would backup your files,
 you should have a boot disk available and tested for
 emergency situations. 

Here's how to create a boot disk that will allow you to reboot
 the system without even accessing the hard drive. Leo Laporte
 and Bob O'Donnell, columnist and radio host, walk you through
 the steps. Take a look at the video attached. The basics are: 

1. Create a Start Up disk. Go to the Control Panel under
 Settings. Select Add/Remove programs. Select the StartUp disk
 tab. Put a blank floppy in your A drive and hit OK. 

1a. If you're using Windows 98, you're done. Windows 98 creates a
 true startup disk - that is, a disk that you can start the
 machine from and still access your CD-ROM. If you're using
 Windows 95, read on. 

2. Copy mscdex.exe, Microsoft CD Extensions, from the Commands
 Directory within the Windows Folder
 ("c:\windows\commands\mscdex.exe" in most cases)
 onto the boot floppy. 

3. Open up Notepad, type in the following and save it as
 a:\autoexec.bat.: 

a:\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001 /M:15 

4. Now comes the hard part. You'll need to locate. the specific
 driver for your CD-ROM drive and copy it to the floppy. You may
 already have an entry that refers to the driver in the
 CONFIG.SYS file on your C: drive. Look for a line that looks
 something like this: "DEVICE=sonycd.sys". If you have such an
 entry, you'll need only to copy the file named (sonycd.sys, for
 example) to the a:\ drive. Otherwise you'll have to find the
 driver on the original install disks that came with your drive.
 Don't have the disks? You may be able to find the driver at
 http://www.windrivers.com. You'll need to know the name of the
 drive's manufacturer and the specific model number. That
 information will probably be written on the drive itself if you
 can't find it elsewhere. You need the DOS drivers (sometimes
 called the "real mode drivers.") Once you've got the right
 driver, copy it to the floppy. 

5. Start a new file in Notepad, and type in the following: 

DEVICE=A:(your cd driver) /D:MSCD001 

For example, device=a:atapi_cd.sys /d:mscd001 

Save this file as a:config.sys. 

6. Now all you have to do is test the floppy. Reboot your system
 with the floppy in the drive and a loaded CD. At the prompt,
 type in the drive letter for your CD (D: in most cases) and hit
 return. If you can see the drive, type DIR and return. See a
 list of files? Then all is well. You have successfully created a
 boot disk!

