MS-DOS Boot Diskette

I have a blank drive and need a dos boot diskette so that I can run FDISK and then FORMAT the thing. I'm on an XP machine now but when I create a boot diskette from it it doesn't boot in the other machine. Is there someplace I can download something that will create the boot diskette? I'm going to install win/98 if that helps...

 

Wow! Now I have a boot diskette. Thanks a BUNCH!!!!

 

create a bootable floppy

you can create a bootable floppy in XP by inserting floppy right click on drive A and click format down at the bottom is a checkbox to create a MS-DOS startup disk

 

Yahbut. It's a pretty weak version of a boot disk you get from XP's format utility. What you want is a boot floppy that offers all of the right utilities and CD-ROM support as well. You can get that from Win98's Make a Startup Disk facility or from the bootdisk Website, but what XP makes isn't it.

Here's the full XP format utility disk:

Directory of A:\
AUTOEXEC.BAT 1 KB 30/11/2003 7:33:30 PM
COMMAND.COM 91 KB 08/06/2000 5:00:00 PM
CONFIG.SYS 1 KB 30/11/2003 7:33:30 PM
DISPLAY.SYS 17 KB 08/06/2000 5:00:00 PM
EGA.CPI 58 KB 08/06/2000 5:00:00 PM
EGA2.CPI 58 KB 08/06/2000 5:00:00 PM
EGA3.CPI 58 KB 08/06/2000 5:00:00 PM
IO.SYS 115 KB 15/05/2001 6:57:42 PM
KEYB.COM 22 KB 08/06/2000 5:00:00 PM
KEYBOARD.SYS 34 KB 08/06/2000 5:00:00 PM
KEYBRD2.SYS 32 KB 08/06/2000 5:00:00 PM
KEYBRD3.SYS 31 KB 08/06/2000 5:00:00 PM
KEYBRD4.SYS 13 KB 08/06/2000 5:00:00 PM
MODE.COM 29 KB 08/06/2000 5:00:00 PM
MSDOS.SYS 1 KB 07/04/2001 1:40:30 PM
15 file(s)
Total filesize 553 KB
************
Here's a standard Win98 boot floppy:

Directory of A:\
ASPI2DOS.SYS 35 KB 23/04/1999 10:22:00 PM
ASPI4DOS.SYS 15 KB 23/04/1999 10:22:00 PM
ASPI8DOS.SYS 37 KB 23/04/1999 10:22:00 PM
ASPI8U2.SYS 40 KB 23/04/1999 10:22:00 PM
ASPICD.SYS 29 KB 23/04/1999 10:22:00 PM
AUTOEXEC.BAT 2 KB 23/04/1999 10:22:00 PM
BTCDROM.SYS 22 KB 23/04/1999 10:22:00 PM
BTDOSM.SYS 31 KB 23/04/1999 10:22:00 PM
COMMAND.COM 92 KB 23/04/1999 10:22:00 PM
CONFIG.SYS 1 KB 23/04/1999 10:22:00 PM
DRVSPACE.BIN 68 KB 23/04/1999 10:22:00 PM
EBD.CAB 266 KB 23/04/1999 10:22:00 PM
EBD.SYS 1 KB 26/11/1999 3:38:26 PM
EXTRACT.EXE 92 KB 23/04/1999 10:22:00 PM
FDISK.EXE 63 KB 23/04/1999 10:22:00 PM
FINDRAMD.EXE 7 KB 23/04/1999 10:22:00 PM
FLASHPT.SYS 63 KB 23/04/1999 10:22:00 PM
HIMEM.SYS 33 KB 23/04/1999 10:22:00 PM
IO.SYS 218 KB 23/04/1999 10:22:00 PM
MSDOS.SYS 1 KB 26/11/1999 3:38:26 PM
OAKCDROM.SYS 41 KB 23/04/1999 10:22:00 PM
RAMDRIVE.SYS 13 KB 23/04/1999 10:22:00 PM
README.TXT 15 KB 23/04/1999 10:22:00 PM
SETRAMD.BAT 2 KB 23/04/1999 10:22:00 PM
24 file(s)
Total filesize 1174 KB
*************
They're different booters, with different uses.