How to get into dos A:/ without bootdisk

[mOeeOm]

My friend asked me to format his comp, I always used windows 98 SE to get into A:/ prompt...but his comp for some reason doesn't have a disk drive......is there a way to get into there without one?

 

[robtk3]

Do you mean no floppy disk drive? Can you get into the BIOS and boot from cd?

 

[Infohawk]

Isn't there an option in 98 to restart in dos mode?

 

[mOeeOm]

No no his OS right now is Windows XP Pro, I use windows 98SE to get into A:/ prompt, is there a way to do it when the comp is missing the disk drive?

 

[GTaudiophile]

F8 after the POST sequence perhaps...should let you into start-up options...

Edit: you want "Safe Mode with Command Prompt"

Edit 2: this will get you to a C: prompt. I don't think you can get to an A: prompt if a floppy does not exist.

 

[Insomniak]

Windows XP does not have a DOS base like Win98 and earlier. If you need to get to a command prompt, you can use the windows based one.

Why bother going to a DOS/Command prompt to format anyway? Just get his Windows XP install disk and use that.

EDIT: Audiophile's method will work for you too. I still say you're best off using the install disk.

 

[thraxes]

insert install XP disk, boot up from CD, during installation the machine will ask you if you want to reformat the destination drive.

If you are savy enough you can grab a win98 startup disk and make a bootable CD in Nero. Select that option and it will ask for a Disk image or the disk itself.

 

[Alex]

you can make bootable cds for stuff like that

 

[JimPhelpsMI]

Hi, I'm not running XP right now so I can't check it out, but I'm pretty sure that I was able to get into DOS from XP with "RUN Command.com". That's DOS under XP. F8 and comand mode is pure DOS, but I don't think XP has it. If the drive is NTFS the Win98 boot wont be able to read the HD. What is it that you want to do? Jim

 

[hopejr]

You can't format the drive windows is on from a command prompt window (btw, it's cmd.exe now). Just use the XP CD.