Bootable Information

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Difference between Bootable files copying, making Bootable devices (CD,Floppy)

Here you have to know the basic difference between Bootable files and Bootable device, whether that is CD or Floppy or Hard Disk Drive.

Bootable files are

1. IO.SYS
2. MSDOS.SYS
3. COMMAND.COM

and etc.,

So copying these files to Hard Disk or Floppy Disk or CD-Rom does not make it as Bootable. But using the commands only it will make it as Bootable. So, You want to know why it is

Actually what happens when you started your system it will do all the POST (Power On Self Test) operation and at last it will wait for the bootable disk i.e when the operation completed it will access the address (specified) where the system bootable files are there.

For example think that in the system (ROM) the address specified for the system bootable files is 0x00000 address then it will try to access the device as mentioned in the order of setup i.e first boot device, second boot device, etc.,

The address mentioned above is nothing but the first sector of the first track of that device. so this address will be fetched from there and it will boot the system.

Note: when we are copying the bootable files according to the operating system those will be placed on the available address not the location of bootable address. So by using the

In the Windows9x we have SYS command. That will locate the bootable files at the address of boot location as mentioned above. If that is HardDisk then we say that location as MBR (Master Boot Record).

The command usage is

c:\>SYS (Destination drive as A:,C:,D:)

refer sys/? at command prompt

Making Startup Disk

If you want to make the Disk as bootable, tools for the system trouble shooting we need to prepare this Startup Disk. To make the Startup Disk the Steps are as followes

Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add Remove Programs -> at this position you will find three tabs. The last tab will contain the button to create "Startup Disk"

This will make the floppy as bootable and copy some important tools needed at the peak time.

In Windows NT you have some different method any how if you have doubt when you are not using that particular operating system and want to make the bootable disks, you have to download bootable floppy maker applications. These can be downloaded from the site www.bootdisk.com

When i find the above site i solved many problems years iam having that my desire to install the Windows 3.11 and DOS6.22. Actually what happend iam having the Windows3.11 setup files but it is asking for the older version os has to be installed to work correctly because, this will be installed on FAT16 where as my Operating systems are FAT32. So solved by loading the DOS6.22 floppy.