HELP! URGENT! I need help with boot floppy

[agent_js03]

I need to make a boot floppy that can be used to access both my hard drive and cd-rom drive. When I did it the standard way (I am using windows xp) all I could do was access the a: drive when I started up. I need to be able to have the drivers necessary to access the hd and cd. PLEASE HELP!!!

[mjc]

A few more details would be helpful...

A standard bootdisk will access any and all partitioned/formattted hard drives.

What exactly are you trying to do?

[Sylvander]

If you need to be able to browse the contents of an NTFS partition, why not use the "File Manager" on the free bootable "Emergency Boot CD" [EBCD]?
Use the "Smart Boot Manager" to choose to boot from the EBCD in the CD-drive, and choose item 2 ["File Manager"] on the menu that comes up, then once the file manager is loaded swap out the EBCD for any CD of your choice.
The EBCD File Manager will allow you to display the contents of two drives at once [one in the left pane, the other in the right (FDD, CD-drive, HDD)], and you can copy from one to the other [not able to burn to CD].
Post #4 on the EBCD thread below shows an example of that.

1. How to make a free “Smart Boot Manager” floppy
http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=41498
This makes it easier to boot a chosen drive [particularly the one holding the EBCD].

2. How to make a free EBCD bootable CD
http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=41485
This has a number of useful utilities included including "Image" [for DOS, by Terabyte] & "File Manager".

[agent_js03]

Thanks for the info, but whenever I try to boot into the file manager I get as far as this:

Loading boot sector... booting...

Then it just hangs on me. How can I get past this problem? Please help, I am desparate!

[Sylvander]

Try "File->Create CD from Disk Image..." using the the iso file I made.
Download it from HERE (http://www.verzend.be/v/2658082/Ebcd061p.iso.html) before June 1st [time limited access to large file downloads].

Hmmm, this thing isn't working for me; let me know how you get on with it. :(

[agent_js03]

Thanks for putting up the image, but it does the same thing. :( I can't boot into the winxp cd either - it gives me the same message saying that pci.sys is missing and installation cannot continue. What's up with that?! Does anyone know of any specific boot floppies that allow hard drive support, or does anyone know a way to load drivers or something in order to get the hard drive recognized from the boot floppy?

Thanks again for all the help!

[mjc]

Hard drives are automatically recognised...unless they are SCSI, by ALL boot disks...if the drives are formatted/partitioned (and even if they aren't formatted, but there isn't much you can do with them in that state, except format them, if your boot disk contains the formatting program). Drive recognition is a function of the BIOS not the OS (at least at boot time), and even some SCSI cards/BIOS combinations will automatically recognise the drives and they will be available without the need of added drivers. Optical drives, on the other hand, may be rcognised and used as a boot device but won't work without added drivers in DOS or othe operating systems.

You are not having a problem with the boot floppy but more likely a BIOS or drive problem with drive not being recognised.

Please give complete details on what the exact problem is and what you are attempting to do. Without that we are just stumbling around in the dark.

[agent_js03]

I have a problem with my computer. Every time I try to start up it says:

pci.sys is corrupted or missing.

I'd like to replace it with a good version of this file. I tried to make a windows xp boot disk. It CAN'T read cd or hard drive, just a: drive. I tried a win me boot floppy but it couldn't read ntfs partitions. I tried windows 2000 boot disk, and it could read the ntfs but I couldn't do anything with it. I tried the emergency disk but that only goes so far and then it hangs. I tried to boot from the windows xp install cd but it gives me a message saying pci.sys is missing and installation cannot continue. I don't know what to do next. Can anyone help?

[mjc]

Ok, here we go...

When you say the XP boot disk can read the CD or hard drive, just A: you have tried at the A:> just entering C:, right?

Not giving any other commands or anything, just switching drives?

Here is a procedure to restore that file, but it kind of depends on being able to use the Recovery Console... http://www.jsifaq.com/SUBK/tip5400/rh5410.htm

Also seeing some references to possible RAM problems being the cause, along with overclocking being a candidate.

So, if you have the beast OC'd try dropping back to default and see if you can boot.

Also run a memory test...or pull sticks of RAM.

[Sylvander]

My guess...

If a properly made EBCD won't boot, then there's something wrong with the hardware.
It tries to load the OS into RAM and set up the RAMdrive and fails.
Faulty RAM?
BIOS configuration settings incorrect?
Are the drive parameters correctly specified? [Set to Auto?]

[Paul Komski]

As far as I know the pci.sys is corrupted or missing message is coming from Windows on the Hard Drive and not from the CD. It seems you cant boot to either an EBCD or an Installation CD to try a full repair or a repair using the recovery console. This coupled with the fact that you cannot read a CDROM with a normal DOS Startup Boot Floppy (that has CDROM support enabled on it) point to a problem with your CDDrive not reading or not being able to to read the disk or not being available in the BIOS boot order.

Some troubleshooting hints at: http://www.iol.ie/~krakowangus/bootupcd.htm

[agent_js03]

I think you misunderstood me. Only the DOS floppy I made in windows xp won't read the cd-rom drive OR the hard drive. I've tried older dos floppies including a windows ME boot floppy that could read the cd-rom drive, but was unable to handle my ntfs hard drive. I made a windows 2000 boot cd that could read both my hard drive and my cd-rom drive but for some reason couldn't copy between them or otherwise change anything on any of the disks including the hard disk. BTW, my machine is not overclocked. Ram could be a possible issue. The computer is about 7 years old, and we've had many problems with it recently. I should mention that this whole problem came about after I tried to install multiple floppy drives. I don't know why that would have caused a problem, but with that old crapbox of a pc, you can never be sure.

Also, in case you're going to ask, I have already removed the floppy drive and put everything back to the way it was.

[Paul Komski]

If you were simply formatting a floppy from WinXP's My Computer and choosing the option to "Create an MS-DOS startup disk" then it is worth pointing-out that such a diskette has no CDROM support and so will not be capable of viewing CDs and since it is running DOS (in its very simplest form) it will only be able to see FAT partitions. You can add utilities such as fdisk, format, edit, mouse, etc, etc, and make your own emergency floppy diskette but a simply formatted diskette done that way has no added utilities on it. Nor would a WinME boot disk be able to see NTFS partitions since it is underneath it all a DOS-based operating system.

Windows NT OSes such as Win2K and WinXP can access ntfs partitions without any problem. Many linux distros can read and some can write to NTFS. You can also get NTFS reader utilities that will run on DOS or be incorporated in the EBCD mentioned by Sylvander.

Not being able to boot to a boot CD is a different problem as mentioned in my previous post.