Cannot Make System Disk from File Manager

Last reviewed: June 8, 1995
Article ID: Q131276

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows operating system versions 3.0, 3.1, 3.11
Microsoft Windows for Workgroups versions 3.1, 3.11

SYMPTOMS

When you use File Manager to make a system disk, the process may fail and you may receive the following error message:

   System Disk Error: Cannot add system files to this disk. Make
   sure a formatted disk is present in the drive and that the drive
   door is closed.

In Windows 3.0, the error message is:

   System Disk Error: The current drive does not contain
   system files.

CAUSE

This error can occur if you try to use the Make System Disk option with a floppy disk that contains files.

RESOLUTION

To work around this behavior, use either of the following methods:

Remove all the files from the disk before you make it a system disk.
Use the MS-DOS SYS command to transfer the system files to the disk. This method works on disks that already contain files. To use this method, type the following line at an MS-DOS prompt:
```
      sys a:
```

KBCategory: kbtool kbusage kberrmsg
KBSubcategory: wfw wfwg win30 win31
Additional reference words: 3.00 3.10 3.11 winfile

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Last reviewed: June 8, 1995
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