MS-DOS Bootable Floppy Disk (x86-based Computers)

An MS-DOS bootable floppy disk is most useful if you have FAT partitions on your startup disk (the disk that contains the system partition that you use to start Windows NT).

Your MS-DOS bootable floppy disk contains the files that you need to start MS-DOS from the floppy disk. It also should contain utilities for examining the contents of disks, copying files, and creating and formatting partitions.

Note

You must start the MS-DOS operating system to format the floppy disk that you will be using for your MS-DOS bootable floppy disk. Running format from the command prompt does not copy the correct Partition Boot Sector to the floppy disk.

To create an MS-DOS bootable floppy disk

1. Start MS-DOS. Put a blank floppy disk in drive A. Type format a: /s and press enter. You must specify the /s switch to make the floppy disk bootable. This switch causes the format program to copy the file Command.com to the floppy disk.

2. Copy other MS-DOS-based utilities that you might want to use to the floppy disk. At a minimum, you should copy these files:

Attrib

Copy

Format

Fdisk

Mem

Sys.com

a text editor

DiskSave