My winxp PC will boot to a DOS floppy but not run (e.g. if I need to install new partition image, Acronis requies reboot to DOS). I can read floppy files from within XP and even create a DOS start up floppy but when I reboot the system just hangs. Is there something missing from 'C' root that is stopping me running a DOS floppy? Everything else on the PC is fine (four separate wnxp partitons).
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Winxp will not boot to DOS
- Thread starter Quarkrad
- Start date
dos 6.21 can't read Fat32, you need a win98se or Me boot disk. I had a boot disk for Norton Rescue that I keep the Dat files up dated on and had Partition major 7 on it. I used win98se and later Me dos. I also had NTFS DOS on it so I could also read a NTFS HD. I switched over to using Bert Pe a couple year back.
JFYI:
source:
so judging from that, a W95b or later boot floppy would suffice to use to access a HDD with FAT32... but I would go to a later DOS version as mentioned by several other members...
Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
source:
so judging from that, a W95b or later boot floppy would suffice to use to access a HDD with FAT32... but I would go to a later DOS version as mentioned by several other members...
Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
- Thread starter
- #25
I have done the following tests with formatted floppy's. The DOS 7 and 8 files were obtained from oldfiles.org.uk/powerload/bootdisk.htm
DOS 5 DOS 6 DOS 7 DOS 8 Win98se WinME
boot to a:\ Y Y X* X* X** X**
Read a:\ files Y Y X X X X
Read c:\ X X X X X X
X* The floppy drive fired up and then died after about 1 sec - all I had was a flashing cursor top left of screen
X** The following text was displayed almost instantly ..... Remove disk or other media Press any key to restart
Hitting any key just repeated the message, removing the media (floppy) and pressing any key just booted to windows.
Hope this helps.
DOS 5 DOS 6 DOS 7 DOS 8 Win98se WinME
boot to a:\ Y Y X* X* X** X**
Read a:\ files Y Y X X X X
Read c:\ X X X X X X
X* The floppy drive fired up and then died after about 1 sec - all I had was a flashing cursor top left of screen
X** The following text was displayed almost instantly ..... Remove disk or other media Press any key to restart
Hitting any key just repeated the message, removing the media (floppy) and pressing any key just booted to windows.
Hope this helps.
- Thread starter
- #27
I do have another PC - although all partitions are NTFS. FDISK shows this PC as having two partitons:
1. Ext DOS
2. NTFS
I put in my seagate tools floppy and it booted all the way through and I had the DOS'y seagate utlilty on the screen. I exited and put the same floppy in my other PC that is having the trouble. When I booted the problem PC it booted to the A drive but hung with the message.... Starting Caldrea DR-DOS.
I put my Partition Magic floppies into the wifes PC and booted all the way through. When I put it into my PC the first disk (with Caldera DR-DOS 7.02) on it booted and asked for the 2nd floppy. When I put that in up came the following message:
Disk Manager has been detected on drive 1, but disk manager is not running. If you are booting from a floppy remove the disk and reboot. Press the <space bar> as your computer restarts. When prompted insert your boot floppy and continue booting.
I did this but the PC just booted to windows. The seagate tools floppy was interesting as it fully loaded on my wifes total NTFS PC but not mine. I am interested why you think it problem may be the floppy drive - the problem is not only booting to floppy's but alos when no floppy is involved. E.G. Acronis asked to reboot the PC from within windows the reload an image and the PC just hangs.
1. Ext DOS
2. NTFS
I put in my seagate tools floppy and it booted all the way through and I had the DOS'y seagate utlilty on the screen. I exited and put the same floppy in my other PC that is having the trouble. When I booted the problem PC it booted to the A drive but hung with the message.... Starting Caldrea DR-DOS.
I put my Partition Magic floppies into the wifes PC and booted all the way through. When I put it into my PC the first disk (with Caldera DR-DOS 7.02) on it booted and asked for the 2nd floppy. When I put that in up came the following message:
Disk Manager has been detected on drive 1, but disk manager is not running. If you are booting from a floppy remove the disk and reboot. Press the <space bar> as your computer restarts. When prompted insert your boot floppy and continue booting.
I did this but the PC just booted to windows. The seagate tools floppy was interesting as it fully loaded on my wifes total NTFS PC but not mine. I am interested why you think it problem may be the floppy drive - the problem is not only booting to floppy's but alos when no floppy is involved. E.G. Acronis asked to reboot the PC from within windows the reload an image and the PC just hangs.
I must have misread something. I had thought you were trying to boot from Acronis generated recovery diskettes. Since most other diskettes seem to hang, it seemed reasonable to suspect the diskette drive.
If it is not the floppy drive, then it probably is the Acronis Boot Manager you tried to load awhile ago.
What was the name of this Acronis program? OS Selector is the only one from Acronis I recall. I urge caution before removal if you find this is still installed. Backup any important data to another physical drive.
If it is not the floppy drive, then it probably is the Acronis Boot Manager you tried to load awhile ago.
Perhaps this loader has affected your hard drive's boot sector and the partition table. Without its support loaded, DOS disks haven't a clue how to communicate with the hard drive and may account for your problems. I am surprised that the Acronis has a problem upon reboot.
What was the name of this Acronis program? OS Selector is the only one from Acronis I recall. I urge caution before removal if you find this is still installed. Backup any important data to another physical drive.
Floppies are particularly bad about read issues of speed, tracking, and signal level. And phase of the moon, sunspot cycles, and how you hold your tongue.
It can also be the fault of the floppy controller portion of the "do everything" chip on the motherboard, the ribbon cable, corrosion on the connectors, the power supply, or any one of several other possibilities.
And it just may be that you and the drive are just not meant for each other.
I'm not trying to be funny. These things were originally conceived by a pretty smart guy but they run using some properties that are somewhat like "pixie dust". Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. At least now we get to swap them out as the first step. It used to be that we had to worry about changing the tracking, the speed, and 2 or 3 pots on the controller before we could say they were bad.
It can also be the fault of the floppy controller portion of the "do everything" chip on the motherboard, the ribbon cable, corrosion on the connectors, the power supply, or any one of several other possibilities.
And it just may be that you and the drive are just not meant for each other.
I'm not trying to be funny. These things were originally conceived by a pretty smart guy but they run using some properties that are somewhat like "pixie dust". Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. At least now we get to swap them out as the first step. It used to be that we had to worry about changing the tracking, the speed, and 2 or 3 pots on the controller before we could say they were bad.
- Thread starter
- #30
Sorry if I have not been clear. Historically:
1. Set up PC with 4 winxp partitions and wanted boot menu better than windows in built plain txt screen.
2. Loaded Acronis Disk Director Suite 10 as it contained OS selector. Could not get it work as PC just hung on re boot with Starting Acronis Loader.... on screen.
3. Tried many times and rebuilt partition (inc format) but could not get it to work. Rebiult again without Acronis Disk D Suite.
4. Some time after noticed that when Acronis True Image re-required re boot to install image to the PC would hang. (Similar to Director Suite all I got was Starting Acronis Loader....).
(In both cases there was no floppy involved - Acronis wanted to boot to a DOS type environment to carry its actions).
5. Due to other problems on PC (90% of time partitions would not boot to windows cleanly - I would have to go through Safe Mode in order to boot to windows. At 90% this was tiresome so many times I have started PC via the winXP CD - gone into recovery mode and fixboot, fixmbr and even bootcfg to try and sort things out).
6. I have recently rebuilt C drive (my son exclusively uses C drive) from a basic clean winXP Acronis image having reformatted the partition. (Acronis reinstalled from within windows - did not ask to reboot).
7. Last week I wanted to check my HD’s and downloaded the Seagate tools floppy set from their web site. Made a floppy and discovered the PC would not read the floppy. Nor a start up floppy create within XP.
So here I am. My PC will read (shows a:\ and read files after typing dir/w) DOS 5 & 6 floppy’s but not the Seagate tools floppy, Paretiton Magic recovery floppy's or a DOS Start Up floppy created/formatted on my PC. If I put either of the Seagate or PMagic floppy or the Start Up floppy in my wife’s PC it reads them perfectly.
So it cannot be the floppy’s themselves because my wife’s PC reads them. Would not have thought it was my floppy disc drive as I get a:\ on a DOS 5 or 6 disk. I do know that FDISK shows that my wife’s PC has an EXT DOS partition whereas mine does not.
1. Set up PC with 4 winxp partitions and wanted boot menu better than windows in built plain txt screen.
2. Loaded Acronis Disk Director Suite 10 as it contained OS selector. Could not get it work as PC just hung on re boot with Starting Acronis Loader.... on screen.
3. Tried many times and rebuilt partition (inc format) but could not get it to work. Rebiult again without Acronis Disk D Suite.
4. Some time after noticed that when Acronis True Image re-required re boot to install image to the PC would hang. (Similar to Director Suite all I got was Starting Acronis Loader....).
(In both cases there was no floppy involved - Acronis wanted to boot to a DOS type environment to carry its actions).
5. Due to other problems on PC (90% of time partitions would not boot to windows cleanly - I would have to go through Safe Mode in order to boot to windows. At 90% this was tiresome so many times I have started PC via the winXP CD - gone into recovery mode and fixboot, fixmbr and even bootcfg to try and sort things out).
6. I have recently rebuilt C drive (my son exclusively uses C drive) from a basic clean winXP Acronis image having reformatted the partition. (Acronis reinstalled from within windows - did not ask to reboot).
7. Last week I wanted to check my HD’s and downloaded the Seagate tools floppy set from their web site. Made a floppy and discovered the PC would not read the floppy. Nor a start up floppy create within XP.
So here I am. My PC will read (shows a:\ and read files after typing dir/w) DOS 5 & 6 floppy’s but not the Seagate tools floppy, Paretiton Magic recovery floppy's or a DOS Start Up floppy created/formatted on my PC. If I put either of the Seagate or PMagic floppy or the Start Up floppy in my wife’s PC it reads them perfectly.
So it cannot be the floppy’s themselves because my wife’s PC reads them. Would not have thought it was my floppy disc drive as I get a:\ on a DOS 5 or 6 disk. I do know that FDISK shows that my wife’s PC has an EXT DOS partition whereas mine does not.
Thank you for the detailed list.
At anytime AFTER number 2, loading Acronis OS Selector, did you zero out the drive in question? Once the OS Selector hooks are in place in the MBR, they stay in place.
Does loading Acronis Disk Director 10 show anything concerning OS Selector being installed? Is there an uninstall?
At anytime AFTER number 2, loading Acronis OS Selector, did you zero out the drive in question? Once the OS Selector hooks are in place in the MBR, they stay in place.
Does loading Acronis Disk Director 10 show anything concerning OS Selector being installed? Is there an uninstall?
- Thread starter
- #32
No - never zero'd out the drive. Although understand this is the best method for clean rebuild. I used the uninstaller to uninstall A Disk Director at the time although, as stated, after that I have reformatted and rebuilt winXP without Disk Director. The only Acronis app I have is True Image.
Appreciate what you are saying about old hooks being present - assume then that if one uses fixMBR in Recovery Consol mode and rebiulds MBR is it not entirely new/rebuilt. Why could this stop me reading the Seagate floppy though?
Appreciate what you are saying about old hooks being present - assume then that if one uses fixMBR in Recovery Consol mode and rebiulds MBR is it not entirely new/rebuilt. Why could this stop me reading the Seagate floppy though?
What would happen if you were to move away from the floppies and create a bootable CD ( of the floppy image)instead to run at boot?
I want to copy a bootable program from floppy to cd
thread779-1114211
This tool is handy if you suspect MBR problems.
The following are notes from the late Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
"Go to look for MBRWORK in the free tolls and download it, put it on a DOS floppy (one made by formatting in XP and taking the MSDOS Startup disk option will do).
Boot that and run MBRWORK
Use options
1 (to back up the current state, so it could be restored with 2)
3 then 4 to delete the current code and tables
there will then be a possibility of using A
which will scan the disk for 'signatures' of partitions and rebuilt the partition table then 5
to install standard MBR code so the disk could be booted"
I want to copy a bootable program from floppy to cd
thread779-1114211
This tool is handy if you suspect MBR problems.
The following are notes from the late Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
"Go to look for MBRWORK in the free tolls and download it, put it on a DOS floppy (one made by formatting in XP and taking the MSDOS Startup disk option will do).
Boot that and run MBRWORK
Use options
1 (to back up the current state, so it could be restored with 2)
3 then 4 to delete the current code and tables
there will then be a possibility of using A
which will scan the disk for 'signatures' of partitions and rebuilt the partition table then 5
to install standard MBR code so the disk could be booted"
- Thread starter
- #34
Linney - thanks. Downloaded MBRWORK and followed your instructions. No change - still cannot read DOS floppy's. Interestingly Partition Magic recovery (2) floppy is OK with disk1 (loads a version Caldera DOS) but disk 2 hungs with message about error 91, disk manager running. (Details in post above).
Regardless of the Acronis boot issue and the ability of your wife's PC to read your diskettes, I am still not convinced your floppy drive is not one of the issues. If you don't have a spare diskette drive to try, then create the Seagate diskette and/or any other trouble diskettes on your wife's PC then try booting them on your PC. Alternatively try creating the Windows ME boot CD from here and try it:
I created it using the supplied winmebootcd.img and Nero, and it boots fine.
I created it using the supplied winmebootcd.img and Nero, and it boots fine.
I think Quarkrad has 2 problems here.
1) The floppy drive itself is having a problem. I would add here to 1) double check the floppy cable. Make sure both ends are securely seated in place. 2) Try swapping the floppy drive from the wife's pc, if possible. This should tell you if the floppy drive from your pc is bad, or if you have a bad cable or a bad floppy controller (YES, the controller can go bad).
2) The fact that you have non FAT16 partitions, regular DOS 6.22 and below will NEVER see an non-FAT16 partition. Wasn't made to.
What I would do is complete destroy all your partitions. Use partition magic or whatever you like. Reformat the drive when you re-install your OS.
In order to install DOS 6.22 you will need a FAT16 partition. Use Partition Magic to create this. Don't make it any larger than you need to, as FAT16 partitions are not secure, therefore a waste of space.
3) At this point I wouldn't worry about having anything more than a plain boot manager. After all, you want to boot into an OS and do whatever it is you need. Boot managers don't need to be pretty they just have to work. In fact I've seen them cause more problems than good.
Good luck!
1) The floppy drive itself is having a problem. I would add here to 1) double check the floppy cable. Make sure both ends are securely seated in place. 2) Try swapping the floppy drive from the wife's pc, if possible. This should tell you if the floppy drive from your pc is bad, or if you have a bad cable or a bad floppy controller (YES, the controller can go bad).
2) The fact that you have non FAT16 partitions, regular DOS 6.22 and below will NEVER see an non-FAT16 partition. Wasn't made to.
What I would do is complete destroy all your partitions. Use partition magic or whatever you like. Reformat the drive when you re-install your OS.
In order to install DOS 6.22 you will need a FAT16 partition. Use Partition Magic to create this. Don't make it any larger than you need to, as FAT16 partitions are not secure, therefore a waste of space.
3) At this point I wouldn't worry about having anything more than a plain boot manager. After all, you want to boot into an OS and do whatever it is you need. Boot managers don't need to be pretty they just have to work. In fact I've seen them cause more problems than good.
Good luck!
- Thread starter
- #37
Just created new winxp HD from sratch - formated HD as NTFS. All that is on there is basic XP with SP2. Can create start up disk (ms dos) but on reboot pc hangs. When I put in dos 6.21 floppy screen reads Remove disk or other media. Press and key to start. (PC will read somw other dos floppies). Wifes PC will reas floppies that mine will not - strange!
have you listed the specs of your PC and how old it is, aswell as that of your wife's PC...
have you already tried the FDD from your wife's PC in your PC?
My notion is that your PC is way newer than your wife's, and that there is a BIOS setting (ASUS comes to mind P5VM) that puts the mobo into a compatibility mode for OLDER OSs...
Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
have you already tried the FDD from your wife's PC in your PC?
My notion is that your PC is way newer than your wife's, and that there is a BIOS setting (ASUS comes to mind P5VM) that puts the mobo into a compatibility mode for OLDER OSs...
Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
Floppy Disk is Not Accessible, Not Formatted, or Not Recognized by Windows
It does sound like the floppy drive has just died and needs replacing.
Does the device manager show the floppy drive as working properly ?
If not it has troubleshooting and driver options.
Try going into the Device Manager and remove the floppy drive controller there. Reboot and let the system detect/reinstall the controller.
266402 - Contents of the Disk Drive Are Not Displayed on the Computer Screen
It does sound like the floppy drive has just died and needs replacing.
Does the device manager show the floppy drive as working properly ?
If not it has troubleshooting and driver options.
Try going into the Device Manager and remove the floppy drive controller there. Reboot and let the system detect/reinstall the controller.
266402 - Contents of the Disk Drive Are Not Displayed on the Computer Screen
- Thread starter
- #40
Thanks for suggestions. My PC is about 3 years old - American Megatrends mboard but, unfortunately, sold as HP with OEM so difficult to upgrage. The BIOS on HP has not changed since original. (2G Pentium with 1G RAM - do a lot of video editing. 2 HD, 1 x 200G 1 x 500G). Built wifes PC about 2 years ago 1.8 Pentium, 1G RAM, winfast mothboard.
A pain keep installing XP so plain is to load basic OS (slipstreamed SP2 into boot CD) and take image so I do not have to keep re loading. Problem is PC will not boot to 'DOS' environment to complete imaging. I will swap floppy h/w tomorrow but I'm a little confused because it will read some DOS disk but not others. It certainly will not read a start up floppy created within its own OS - but wifes read same floppy.
A pain keep installing XP so plain is to load basic OS (slipstreamed SP2 into boot CD) and take image so I do not have to keep re loading. Problem is PC will not boot to 'DOS' environment to complete imaging. I will swap floppy h/w tomorrow but I'm a little confused because it will read some DOS disk but not others. It certainly will not read a start up floppy created within its own OS - but wifes read same floppy.
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