LITTLEBLACKDOG.COM

Big Dog Joined: 20 Oct 2000 Posts: 3689 Location: USA

there's definitely something wrong there

have you checked the bios settings to see what your floppy drive settings are ?

that's really the only thing that comes to mind off hand

either that or the floppy is royally screwed and causing some sort of interference when you boot from CD

temporary replacement signature . . . please stand by

Mutt Joined: 21 Oct 2001 Posts: 78

Is there I can make a modified boot disk for win2k? It looks like this one is just for ME.
Thanks
Mike

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2002 2:38 am Post subject:

Find the Win2K CD-ROM

In the \BOOTDISK directory run the program MAKEBOOT.EXE

Et voila! A Win2K Boot Disk set.

However, that's probably not what you want.

DOS boot disks (like this one) cannot read NTFS partitions. Try http://www.sysinternals.com/ if you want to read NTFS from DOS.

My £0.02,
Demon
---=== ===---
Where do you want to be herded today?

Mutt Joined: 18 Jan 2002 Posts: 135 Location: India

need a little help plz

I want to make a bootable cd with win nt SERVER and WORKSTATION both on the same cd
for which I am trying to first make a bootable floppy

I am using a simple blank floppy I have SYS'ed (in windows explorer A: format+copy system files )
onto which I copied these few files
(found on a regular win98 bootable floppy or C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\EBD )

DOSKEY.COM
MOUSE.COM ( Logitech mouse driver for DOS )
MSCDEX.EXE
OAKCDROM.SYS

I created this working autoexec.bat and config.sys
where the TEST file to be executed is on the cdrom is ..\DCC\DC.EXE

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CONFIG.SYS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
[menu]
menuitem=NTSRV, Select 1 to install Windows NT SERVER v4.0.
menuitem=NTWRKSTN, Select 2 to install Windows NT WORKSTATION v4.0.
menuitem=MSDOS, Boot to MSDOS
menudefault=MSDOS,30
menucolor=7,0

[NTSRV]
device=himem.sys /testmem:off
device=oakcdrom.sys /D:mscd001

[NTWRKSTN]
device=himem.sys /testmem:off
device=oakcdrom.sys /D:mscd001

[MSDOS]
device=himem.sys /testmem:off

[COMMON]
files=10
buffers=10
dos=high,umb
stacks=9,256
lastdrive=z

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
AUTOEXEC.BAT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
@ECHO OFF
:BASIC
cls
LH MSCDEX.EXE /D:mscd001 /L:Z
cls
GOTO CHOICE

:CHOICE
IF "%config%"=="NTSRV" GOTO ISRV
IF "%config%"=="NTWRKSTN" GOTO IWRKSTN
IF "%config%"=="MSDOS" GOTO QUIT

:ISRV
echo **********************************************************
echo * *
echo * Starting Installation of Windows NT SERVER v4.0. *
echo * *
echo **********************************************************
LH MOUSE
LH DOSKEY
Z:\dcc\dc.exe
GOTO QUIT

:IWRKSTN
echo **********************************************************
echo * *
echo * Starting Installation of Windows NT WORKSTATION v4.0. *
echo * *
echo **********************************************************
LH MOUSE
LH DOSKEY
Z:\dcc\dc.exe
GOTO QUIT

:QUIT
cls
echo.
echo Exiting to MSDOS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

my stumbling block is

1) need to get next logical drive letter using FINDRAMD.EXE
( from WIN98 bootable floppy created from add - remove programs menu)
This program successfully designates the next logical drive letter to the ramdive drive letter
I want to get this drive letter (with all it error messages)

2) then use this letter in loading the MSCDEX for CDROM in dos

3) After this launch a bat file on the cd (now that I know the drive letter)

If have look at the above AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS which I am currently using
I am forced to designate CDROM drive letter as "Z"

but if u look at the files on the original win98 Bootable System Floppy ( created from add - remove programs menu)
AUTOEXEC.BAT
CONFIG.SYS
SETRAMD.BAT
u will understand what I am trying to do

if anyone can figure this out plz ..............................

Big Dog Joined: 20 Oct 2000 Posts: 3689 Location: USA

uh ?

can you explain why you need a ramdisk ?

i don't really see any reason you need a ramdisk or ehy you are saying you are forced to set your cd-rom to z:

or why the heck it would even matter if it's drive z ?

temporary replacement signature . . . please stand by

Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2002 3:09 am Post subject:

Quote:

uh ?

can you explain why you need a ramdisk ?

i don't really see any reason you need a ramdisk or ehy you are saying you are forced to set your cd-rom to z:

or why the heck it would even matter if it's drive z ?

temporary replacement signature . . . please stand by

The chap sent me an e-mail a few days ago with a bit more information.

Turns out what he really needs to do (regardless of what he's asking to do) is just copy the source files (i386 directory) from the CD to a directory on the hard disk before install. Then the CD letter won't matter in the slightest and he won't have to scramble around for the CD every time NT asks for it.

My £0.02,
Demon
---=== ===---
Where do you want to be herded today?

Edited by - Demon on 02/10/2002 06:10:48

Big Dog Joined: 20 Oct 2000 Posts: 3689 Location: USA

i was gonna ask him about that . . . i couldn't tell if he was trying to rebuild from image with his boot floppy, or if he was trying to do a scripted clean install

temporary replacement signature . . . please stand by

Mutt Joined: 18 Jan 2002 Posts: 135 Location: India

Thank u ppl for ur input on the matter

i'm sorry for confusing question

i have solved the problem and shall post a link for same shortly

HyPeR_DrEaMz

Mutt Joined: 18 Jan 2002 Posts: 135 Location: India

The problem solved

ur comments plz..........

http://www.geocities.com/hyperdreamz2000/temp/bootable/boot.htm

HyPeR_DrEaMz
----------------------------------

Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2002 6:33 am Post subject:

Quote:

The problem solved

ur comments plz..........

http://www.geocities.com/hyperdreamz2000/temp/bootable/boot.htm

HyPeR_DrEaMz
----------------------------------

I might have misread something. It seems as if one needs to copy the entire contents of the NT Server / NT Workstation CDs. If this is the case, then how did you manage to get all of that onto one CD? What compression method did you use?

My £0.02,
Demon
---=== ===---
I put the fun in dysfunctional.

Mutt Joined: 18 Jan 2002 Posts: 135 Location: India

the complete dump of both cd tops out at 678 mb

if drop the un necessary stuff like docs...... etc

u get a fully functional cd in under 600 mb

and if u use 700mb cdrs like i im sure u could add sp6 and additional important stuff in 100 mb

check it out if u dont believe me

and u did read correctly

HyPer_Dreamz

PS i'm in the process of uplaoding various self extracting images to make ur bootable floppies for various OS combinations

any know of a free webspace provider that alos ZIP file uploads with no hassel........

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2002 4:48 am Post subject:

Quote:

the complete dump of both cd tops out at 678 mb

if drop the un necessary stuff like docs...... etc

It might be worth explaining exactly what stuff can be dropped, in case people aren't familiar with the PPC/Alpha/i386/etc directories and their contents. I just checked my NT Server CD - it's 611MB, and the NT Workstation CD is a similar size. That's a hell of a lot of stuff to drop to get them both to fit into 650/700MB.

My £0.02,
Demon
---=== ===---
I put the fun in dysfunctional.

Mutt Joined: 18 Jan 2002 Posts: 135 Location: India

any idea why my above setup would not work with MSDOS6.22 bootable disk ???

cannot find c:

Big Dog Joined: 20 Oct 2000 Posts: 3689 Location: USA

without a better explanation . . I'm going to guess because DOS 6.22 doesn't have large disk support

temporary replacement signature . . . please stand by

Stray Dog Joined: 01 Apr 2002 Posts: 1 Location: USA

Excellent article. This is so much better than that dumb thing from M$.

One peculiarity--I get an error message Bad Command for the a:\mscdex.exe /D.....
but then everything works.

Getting rid of /S was so dumb, but then every M$ "upgrade," from the DOS series and on, usually had inexplicable omissions.

Thanks for the article--one boot disc is better than two--and room, besides for our favourite DOS commands (that still exist or can be adapted from earlier versions)!