Ok .. Heres a weird one. I have a laptop and no floppy drive, I want to boot up to command prompt so i can manually use the format command (Vista RC1 would keep your old windows files as "windows.old" and occoupy that much of space).

Is there a way i could make a cd thats similar to a Start-up Disk ?

Regards
Dhanesh.

couldn't you just keep hitting F8 to get to the advanced boot options and select it to boot the at command prompt?

xboxrulz

Start > Programs > MS-DOS

Ya but the whole point is that he neds to format his harddrive not enter dos and get a restricted windows message. Alright, if you have a Windows XP cd then you can boot that run it, format the drive, and right before it starts copying files over shut of your computer. A second way is downloading BartPE and adding a DOS APP. You will be able to format your drive since you are not using it. Also, doesn't vista offer a format option when you boot of the CD? When i tried it, i booted my computer with it and wiped by drive. Sorry solving physics

If you just want to boot then format, grab a copy of bootdisk from


Win98se should do. Then use nero or your favourite cd burning burning software to create a bootable cd "CD-ROM (Boot)". Under the boot tab (refering to nero, other software might have different name, but should be similiar), select image file, that browse for the image you just download. Put in any other file you want to appear along in the cd. Then burn. That's it.

If you don't have a burner but have a spare thumbdrive, then you can try USB boot, provided if you laptop support it. You'll need winimage (or other free tools, to dump the image to your thumdrive), the same image and syslinux. This method works for me on my twinhead notebook with apacer 128MB thumbdrive or kingstone 1GB traveller, might or might not works in your case. But it's worth a try, you can always reformat you thumbdrive.

Get syslinux from here -> http://freshmeat.net/projects/syslinux/

First use winimage to create a backup of your thumbdrive. You'll need to do this cause when you dump the image, sometime you'll loose the full size of the thumbdrive, cause the partition table is overwritten. After backup, open the image file you downloaded, then write into your thumbdrive. After that, get to cmd or ms-dos prompt, run "syslinux F:" without the quote and subsitute "F:" with the drive letter of your thumdrive.
That's it, now reboot your laptop, it should boot into dos, and you thumbdrive will appear as A: or B: depending on the bios. If it doesn't work, or hang half way during bootup, try run syslinux with "-s"

Hope i didn't miss out anything. If you google, you should find a lot other similiar tutorial, i learned from there too. Anyway, the boot cd is less hassle comparing to usb boot. So, unless you're adventurous, try the boot cd method first

Good luck

From my experience you cannot format the system Drive if you from windows command prompt. You must boot from original DOS to format your Windows System Drive.

I think you can use NERO to create a bootable disk. But I forgot the step since I remove my NERO from my computer. The step is easy I think.

The second choice is by using a USB drive to boot to DOS. Right click your USB drive>Choose properties>Mark Create an MS-DOS System Disk>Click Format. Or Start>Run>cmd at command prompt type "format x: /s" (where x is your usb drive letter and off course without quote). Option /s is to make DOS system file. Then set your BIOS to boot from USB drive.

The third choice is using Linux LIVE CD. First mount your drive to some directory, then just type "sudo rm -dfr /your_windows_drive". I think the third choice is better way because you didn't need to format your hard drive. Formatting drive to often is not recommended.

Hope helps!

Hi masterio,



You're right bout this.



Just friendly reminder, the "/s" for format is no longer possible from ms-dos prompt since win2k. If you still have access to winme or win98, then formatting is as simple as boot up with F8 and skip the loading of windows to goto "pure" dos-prompt. Which i believe dhanesh doesn't have such option available.

No offense masterio.

boot from your regular XP cd and open a recovery console. there's your command prompt.

I think he can use Windows XP Installation CD and use the Recovery Console, that is the best and easiest way.Only problem is that you must have a Windows XP installation CD with you.

'Question, why does every single one of your repeat the same thing over and over again. Its really sounds like a broken record. Its true any of the solutions work above including mine which was mentioned up above.