Boot Disks Creating A Boot Disk example essay topic

CREATING BOOT DISKS Creating a boot disk is a very easy and also important task. Everyone who owns a computer should have on of these handy. This is the only place to turn when your computer, try as it may, simply can! |t boot up. I! |m sure everyone has been there before: You have had a hard drive crash, or a virus attacks your boot records, or even an OS system file has become corrupted or deleted. Regardless of the cause, you are still set up for an uneasy day.

Next time your computer freezes during the boot sequence or just plain stops cold you will realize! SS Aha, I have a boot disk. !" after you read this. How To The steps on creating a boot disk are relatively simple. There is no hard labor involved and it is pretty quick. While you were installing your OS you probably already made one. If you! |re like most people who didn! |t install your OS you can borrow someone else's disk.

To create a boot disk: you will need a clean, nice, formatted disk and label it! SS Boot Disk. !" (If there are any files on the disk they will be will be erased during the process.) Slip the disk into the drive and your ready to begin. Open your Add / Remove Programs in your Control Panel. Click the Startup Disk tab, and then click Create Disk Follow the instructions on the screen.

After the process is complete it is important to slide the plastic tab in the locked position to prevent overwriting. After creating the boot disk you will want to test it. The bonus is you! |ll get a taste of the dos commands in case you ever have to use the disk. First, place the disk into the A: drive and restart your computer. The startup procedure will take a little while as your system recognizes all of your hardware before getting to you! |re A: drive.

Once the machine gets to the A: prompt your ready to go. You will need to make sure that your boot disk lets you access the CD-ROM drive in case you need to reinstall windows from the CD-ROM. Potential Problems Type D: at the A: prompt to see if you can hear your CD-ROM being accessed. If not try typing E: .

When you boot from the disk it might rename the drives so try a few until you find out where it is located. If this problem occurs and you don! |t know how to solve it might require some digging. Microsoft's generic SCSI and IDE drivers are not always enough, so you may have to go out and find the appropriate drivers to enable your CD-ROM to work in dos mode. To do this you will need to locate two files!

V the device driver that enables dos to recognize your hardware, and Microsoft's CD-ROM extension file Msc dex. eye, which gives the operating system access to the CD-ROM file system. Ofcourse creating the boot disk is only one step. If you ever needed to use it you need to find out what is wrong with your system. For that you! |ll need to know how to use some of the tools on the boot disk.

Here's a list of some of the most common tool to help you find out what's wrong with your computer". h Chk disk. eye: for basic disk diagnostics"h Fdisk. eye: for examining and modifying your hard drives partitions"h Format. eye: for reformatting your drive"h Scandisk. eye: a more comprehensive disk diagnosis program that can also perform fixes"h Uninstall. eye: to remove windows from your system When you system messes up, slip the disk into the A: drive and let it boot up. To check and see if you have experienced a hard drive failure or a Windows failure, type in the command dir c: at the A: prompt. Then press enter. If you get a list of the directories in your C: then you more than likely don! |t have a hard drive problem.

If your computer still won! |t run, you will need to reinstall windows, you will also need to reinstall all your software. Question Can you use a boot disk from windows 98 to boot up a system using windows ME or XP? a. Yes, because it doesn! |t matter the boot disks are used for the same thing. b. No, it doesn! |t matter because all boot disks do the same thing.