"butter"

Boot Disk Creation Revealed
with Proper Fdisk and Format Methods

Based on tips by, and in collaboration with Jaak T. Doom

Introduction

Some time ago, these techniques were nicknamed "butter", a fitting euphemism in many ways. Not the least of which is the slippery slope one can encounter when trying to find a boot disk to fit ones needs.

For now, we will concentrate on the Windows 98 family of operating systems. Many of the thoughts and techniques discussed here will carry over to the other platforms. Specific differences may arise and it is our plan to update as necessary.

Setup Disk

Let's get to the matter at hand. As you've probably heard, there are times when your computer will need help getting a start or 'boot'. Microsoft is well aware of this, and thoughtfully prompts everyone to make a Startup Disk when Windows is loaded onto the hard drive for it's first setup. They also generally include a copy of the same diskette in the retail box version of their software.

Despite all this, a good many people don't have that disk. Microsoft is aware of this also, since they include the means to create a setup disk with Windows. The most widely known way is quite simple. You travel to Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs, and select the Startup Disk tab, from there you can normally create one at anytime. All you need is a floppy, and a machine with the operating system accessible.

Before you create this diskette, please run a thorough Anti Virus Scan. After all, an infected boot disk is to be avoided at all cost.

Now, let me suggest a few simple improvements to this default Startup Disk. Before you stash it in the sock drawer for safekeeping, add the following four files:

smartdrv.exe

scanreg.ini

scanreg.exe

diskcopy.com

You can Copy these from inside Explorer. Both smartdrv.exe and scanreg.ini will be found in C:\Windows, and the other two will be in C:\Windows\Command. Slide the Write protector tab on the floppy, and label it "Setup Disk", because that is how it will be referred to, from here on out.

In most cases, this may be the only boot disk you'll ever need. The rest of this article will deal with those times the Setup Disk is not up to the task, or you just decided to put off creating one for too long.

The EBD

There is also the possibility that Windows may fail to make the above disk when asked. Don't just close Control Panel and check your e-mail, try this method to create an "Emergency Boot Disk" or EBD. Actually, I really prefer this method. It contains a nice selection of handy tools, and we will add a few more. We will be making it from the Original Windows 98 CD, so we know that the media is virus free. It's still a good idea to scan the machine with your Virus Protection program before we do this exercise, so that nothing nasty gets added to the floppy.

To create the EBD, pop the Full Version Windows CD in your reader, hold down the Shift key so it won't AutoRun, and open Explorer. Now, navigate the CD's directories to:

Place a fresh floppy in your A: drive and Run fat32ebd.exe. While this booter has a lot going for it, let's tweak it just a bit and add:

smartdrv.exe

scanreg.ini

scanreg.exe

scandisk.ini

chkdsk.exe

diskcopy.com

As before, smartdrv.exe and scanreg.ini will be found in the Windows directory, while scanreg.exe , scandisk.ini and chkdsk.exe live in the same directory that diskcopy.com does, C:\Windows\Command\. Just highlight the files in Explorer, click copy and paste them to the A: drive.

Pull the floppy from the drive, write protect it and label it "EBD".

One of the primary purposes of a boot disk is to start the computer, so a new Hard Drive can be prepared to accept an Operating System, or to return a Hard Drive to factory specs, so the Operating System can be Reinstalled cleanly. Both of the aforementioned Boot Disks should be up to those tasks. However, there is a special case we must consider.

If you look at the files contained on the Booters we have made so far you will see oakcdrom and mscdex, those files are driver files that will run most CD-Roms. Put another way, those are the files that allow for CD-Rom support. You will need to have that support, to be able to access your CD reader, when you wish to install the Operating System. So, what's the problem?

While most CD readers use the included drivers, some suppliers feel that they have a better mousetrap. Or, you may be working on an older system that defied convention. In those cases, you have to create a Boot Disk that contains the proprietary drivers for your CD-Rom.

I think you're ahead of me. Why not shutdown the system, place your boot disk in Drive A: and press the Power button to Restart and test our Booters.

After the system Posts, you should be at an A:\> prompt. You will also see the drive letter that the CD-Rom had been assigned. Normally it will be one letter down the alphabet from where it was, because the virtual RamDrive has taken a letter. Take a CD, any one will do, and place it in your reader. If your CD-Rom was called D, it is probably now E. So, type DIR E: , and hit <Enter>. If you can read the contents of the CD, you're gonna rock.

CD-Rom Boot Disk

If you now find you need a boot disk with the proprietary drivers, it is time to build the third Boot Disk.

For now, let's assume you have the installation floppy that was shipped with your CD-Rom. Get that installation floppy, one of the above Boot Disks, and a fresh floppy and let's go to work.

We can do this from Windows. As always, when working on a Boot Disk, make sure your machine is virus free. Now, place the Boot Disk into the A: Drive, and open Explorer. Highlight the A: drive in the left hand pane and Select Copy Disk. Follow the directions on your screen to generate the basis for our CD-Rom Boot Disk. Next, with the copied Boot Disk still in the A: drive, we will delete two files.

In Windows Explorer, you will select A, and in the right hand pane look for Config.sys and Autoexec.bat, highlight them and delete them.

We are now going to recreate these files for our needs. Open Notepad or the text editor of your choice, and copy and paste the following text to it:

LH smartdrv rem echo for help on scandisk, type scandisk /? rem echo IF drive was locked by previous unsuccessful echo scandisk, type unlock [driveletter]:

Now, Save this with the name Autoexec.bat, make sure the file type in the Save Box states "all file types", and Save it to A:\ .

While in Notepad we will go ahead and build our new Config.sys. Copy and paste the following to a New file page:

device=himem.sys /testmem:off DEVICE=EMM386.EXE NOEMS files=10 buffers=10 dos=high,umb stacks=9,256 lastdrive=z

Save this file with the name Config.sys, again make sure you have selected the "all file types" option, and Save it to A:\ .

At this point, label this boot floppy CD-Rom Booter, and keep it with the floppy containing your CD-Rom drivers. Yeah, the sock drawer is still good.

I assumed earlier, that you had a copy of your special CD-Rom drivers. Naturally that is not always the case. If you are looking around for them here are some links that may help:

Of course, don't overlook using the model number of your CD reader, to search the web, and the original manufacturers site for current drivers.

The Classic Boot Disk

I don't want to muddy the waters, but it is only fair to mention an old classic. By looking at the files contained on the various disks we're creating, the overall point should become clear.

The boot floppies to this point, have been easy to execute, but also contain files that may be of little use. That's fine, unless you need the space on the floppy for other tools. In the past, it was common to create a boot floppy in the following manner:

Place a fresh floppy in the A drive. Make your way to Explorer and Highlight A: in the left hand pane. Right click it. Choose Format. Then select Format Type: Full and Copy system files. If you look at the right hand pane when you are finished you will see the three files that enable a boot to A:. Command.com, Io.sys, Msdos.sys and also drivespace.bin.

The Classic Boot Disk, now in the floppy drive, is a good basis for a variety of utility disks.

As an example, let's make one with useful, if not essential, DOS files. Just Copy and Paste the following files from their respective directories:

From  C:\Windows\

emm386.exe himem.sys smartdrv.exe

From  C:\Windows\Command\

attrib.exe chkdsk.exe deltree.exe edit.com edit.hlp fdisk.exe find.exe format.com label.exe more.com move.exe scandisk.exe scandisk.ini sys.com xcopy.exe

Once again, Open Notepad or the text editor of your choice, and copy and paste the following text to it:

LH smartdrv rem echo for help on scandisk, type scandisk /? rem echo IF drive was locked by previous unsuccessful echo scandisk, type unlock [driveletter]:

Now, Save this with the name Autoexec.bat, make sure the file type in the Save Box states "all file types", and Save it to A:\ .

While in Notepad we will go ahead and build our new Config.sys. Copy and paste the following to a New file page:

device=himem.sys /testmem:off DEVICE=EMM386.EXE NOEMS files=10 buffers=10 dos=high,umb stacks=9,256 lastdrive=z

Save this file with the name Config.sys, again make sure you have selected the "all file types" option, and Save it to A:\ .

As always, secure the write protection tab, then label this floppy "Classic Boot Disk".

Please bear in mind, that this Bootable Utility Disk does not have CD-Rom support. A Utility Disk like this, can hold files you do not have on your other Boot Disks. Consider it an addition to, rather than a replacement for, those other Boot Disks. You configured the memory manager by editing config.sys and autoexec.bat. Doing so has enabled you to run a great variety of DOS utilities, and you should not get that pesky "insufficient memory" error from those utilities that need extended memory.

At this point, we are about to leave the friendly confines of Windows and start on our journey to the world of Fdisk and Formatting. Before we do a few final thoughts on Boot Disk creation.

It is very important to build your Booters on a machine with the same Operating System that you intend to use. Especially when it is your intention to make C: bootable. You see, sometimes the file Io.sys is not properly refreshed as explained in this article:

I'll also mention it again, do everything you can to keep your work virus free.

Fdisk , Format and Other Resources for Partitioning or Repartitioning

While Fdisk and Format are valuable tools to prepare our Hard Drives for the installation of the operating system, each Drive manufacturer offers a nice set of Utilities to accomplish this goal. Due to their efficiency and ease of use, you may want to consider these resources for:

If you're not sure what Hard Drive is in your system, Doug Merrett's utility will be helpful. We have it here:

Microsoft has provided the official Knowledge Base Article on the Fdisk and Format tools here:

One last thing before we begin our Repartitioning scenario. With the advent of drives over 64.8 gigabytes, a new issue has risen. You must make sure that your version of Fdisk.exe supports drives of that size, if you are going to install one. Again Microsoft has the details here:

Please note that the Microsoft fix will add the new Fdisk.exe to the C:\Windows\Command and C:\Windows\Options directories. So if you are going to be using an existing boot floppy, realize you need to copy the new version of Fdisk.exe to it. Similarly, if you create a Setup Disk, it must still be copied to the floppy, since the M$ fix does not update the directory at C:\Windows\Command\EBD, where the files reside from which setup disk is created.

These are your warnings:

Fdisk and Format are destructive processes. By that I mean, anything on a drive letter they run on will be gone, kaput, nada mas. Yes, it is true that you can view the Status of a drive with Fdisk and no harm will come, however if you go any further Data will be destroyed.

In light of that, if you have more than one physical hard drive connected to the Motherboard, please feel free to disconnect the one you are not working on, when you run Fdisk. If it's not on the controller, nothing bad can happen. Since you may well have two Hard Drives, because you want to transfer data. Just install the one with your data after you prepare the target drive with Fdisk and Format. You probably see why we use the floppy Boot Disks, everything we need is on the 1.44 meg floppy. We don't even need our good stuff in the system.

Also, the conventional wisdom seems to think that your system drive, Drive C: will always be the Master on IDE channel 1, or what you hear referred to as the Primary Master. This is not always the case. You must verify what physical disk has your Active Primary partition. Because Windows is going to "Setup" in the first active partition it finds.

Now that I have you absolutely terrified, grab a pencil and notebloc and let's take a walk on the dark side. It's time to enter that foreboding black screen of DOS and get some real work done. Trust me, in a few minutes, you'll never hear the word newbie no more.

Place your Boot Disk in Drive A: and ReBoot.

At the A:\> prompt, type Fdisk /status and hit <Enter> . This is a Non-Destructive look at All drives, but it does not show all the details of any drive.

So, next type Fdisk and then hit <Enter> . You are now running in Fdisk and mistakes can be costly.

The first screen will be a paragraph asking if you want Large Disk Support, this will also give you FAT 32 by default.

So, choose Y and hit <Enter>

After this, you will be given a list of 4 options. Unless there are multiple Hard Drives installed, then there will be 5 options to the list.

Choose option 4, it will read "Display Partition Information" and hit <Enter> .

Now take notes of the information you see. This is a cautionary step that will reward you. It will come in handy when you are asked to make choices, about your partitions.

When you are confident you understand what you have on this Hard Drive, hit the Esc key. That will return you to the screen with 4 or 5 options. If you have a number 5, choose it now, and hit <Enter> .

A list of options to choose a Hard Drive will appear on your screen. Select the next drive (2) and hit <Enter>. Choose option 4, as before, and hit <Enter> .

You know the drill; record the information so you can make better decisions. You certainly don't want to partition, repartition or format any drive by mistake, so any time spent here is time well spent.

If you have the luxury of three or four Hard Drives repeat the process. Of course if you have that many drives, you probably know this by heart.

If you develop the habit of ALWAYS looking at which partitions you have, which letter is assigned to the partition and which partition shows an A, most of the confusion associated with Fdisk will be avoided.

You will also be able to determine if a non-DOS partition exists. If you find a non-DOS partition, and you don't know why it exists, you must find out why it is there. This begs the question, what can it be there for?

Actually there are a number of reasons. Let's take a look at some of them.

With that in mind, if a non-DOS partition exists and is NOT Active, and you want to REPARTITION that hard disk, then you may have to make this non-DOS partition Active. Later, choose to set the Primary DOS partition to Active.

You must NOT leave the non-DOS Active, if it wasn't that way when you started.

Finally, the reason we are checking the status of the drives, is because you cannot delete an Active partition while there are other partitions still present on a drive.

When you're finished reviewing all the information on all the drives, hit Esc, we are back to the main menu of Fdisk and our 4 or 5 options.

Time to begin. We will assume there are multiple partitions on the drive, and that you want to repartition a similar configuration.

So, you have either previously disconnected any additional Hard Drives or you are sure which one you want to work on.

Choose option 3, "Delete Partition or Logical DOS Drives" , hit <Enter>

Remembering that you cannot delete the Active partition on a Hard Drive until its other partitions are deleted. It may be necessary to De-Activate a partition in order to delete it. To De-Activate a partition, simply make another partition Active. Usually, this won't be required.

In addition, you won't be able to delete a Primary DOS partition while extended and logical partitions exist on the drive.

So, you will start to delete from the highest Drive letter and work your way back down the alphabet. We will assume you have 3 drives.

Choose E: on this screen, if it is not active, and hit <Enter> Now hit Esc , you will return to the Main Menu screen. Choose option 3, hit <Enter> Choose D: on this screen, if it is not active, and hit <Enter> Now hit Esc , you will return to the Main Menu screen. Choose option 3, hit <Enter> Choose the Extended Partiton, and hit <Enter> Now hit Esc , you will return to the Main Menu screen. Choose option 3, hit <Enter> Choose the Primary DOS Partiton, and hit <Enter> Now hit Esc , you will return to the Main Menu screen.

Now ReBoot, remember one of our Boot Disks is in the A: Drive.

At the prompt, type Fdisk and hit <Enter> Again answer Y to the paragraph and question, and hit <Enter> Choose 4 from the main menu, and hit <Enter>

There should be no information here now. Perfect. If you do have a non-DOS partition showing and you know why it is there, of course leave it.

Hit Esc , you are back at our the Main Menu of Fdisk, it is time to configure our Drive. Choose 1, Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive, hit <Enter> Choose 1, Create Primary DOS Partition, hit <Enter>

You will now be faced with the message:

Since you want multiple drives, type N and then hit <Enter>

In the dialog box that appears, type in the size of the Primary Partition you want. You can use Megabytes or Percent of Hard Drive space.

Then hit <Enter> Now hit Esc , to return to the Options menu. Choose 1, so that you can assign Drive letters to the remaining space, hit <Enter> Choose 2, Create Extended DOS Partition, hit <Enter>

The dialog box that appears will display the maximum space available for the extended partition. In this case, use the default maximum size. Type the size, and hit <Enter>, then Esc.

Now you will see: " Create Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition ".

Now you can assign the remaining hard disk space to the drive letters you have assigned. Simply type the amount of space next to the drive letter in the " Enter logical drive size in Mbytes or percent of disk space (%)" box, and hit <Enter>

You will repeat this procedure until all of your drives have been allocated space and there is no longer any free space on the Hard Drive. Finally, this message will be displayed:

Now hit Esc, and you will return to the options menu.

It is now time to make the boot partition Active. That is usually C:.

Choose 2, for the Set Active Partition Menu, then hit <Enter> Choose 1, and then hit <Enter> Shutdown and take a cold Boot.

Formatting the New Partitions

If you are using the Setup Boot Disk, choose the option " Start computer without CD-Rom Support ".

As a safety measure, we will make sure that our Drive is empty. So at the command prompt type:

DIR C: /w /p , then hit <Enter> . You should receive an error. Now type Format C: /s and hit <Enter> . The /s is to copy the system files to the active partition. So, it will usually only be used on C:

Continue this procedure with your remaining drives. For example:

DIR D: /w /p , then hit <Enter> . You should receive an error, if empty.

However, if it finds data you have another drive. That is why it is advised to take this precaution.

When you're sure it's empty, type Format D: and hit <Enter> Continue this procedure as necessary. When Formatting is complete, reboot.

Installing New Windows

You're now ready to run Windows Setup.

Place the Win98 CD in the CD-Rom tray and let's finish this up.

First we will copy the Windows Cabinet files to our drive and install from there. This will be a godsend down the road, when files need to be replaced, due to corruption or deletion. For our example, we will place the Cabs at the end of the Hard Drive in E:

At the A: prompt, type E: and hit . At the E: prompt, type md win98 , and hit <Enter> . Type cd win98, and hit <Enter> . Now type copy [cdromdriveletter]:\win98\*.* , and hit <Enter> .

In a few moments, the necessary setup files will be copied to the E: drive.

Your screen will show that you are in the win98 directory of E .

Type setup , hit <Enter> and follow the on screen prompts as your new, clean installation of the operating system begins.

For those of you who are a bit perplexed, because your machine didn't read the CD-Rom when you tried to copy the Windows files to it. Remember that third Boot Disk we made, the one labeled CD-Rom Boot Disk. It's time to insert that into drive A: and reboot.

At the A:\> prompt type C: and hit <Enter> Now type cd\ and hit <Enter> , to get you at Root of C: Then type md dos and hit <Enter> , to make a new directory. Type cd DOS and hit <Enter> , to change to the new DOS directory. Now type copy a:\ and hit <Enter> , to copy the floppies files to C:\dos Then type cd\ and hit <Enter> , to get to the root directory. Now type copy C:\dos\ and hit <Enter> ,to copy the files to the Root directory. Type A: and hit <Enter> , to return to the floppy. Type sys C: and hit <Enter> , to make the drive bootable.

Now grab your floppy with the CD-Rom drivers, and replace the floppy in the A: drive with it. We have to install those drivers. Usually the file we are looking for on the floppy is called install.exe, or it may be called setup.exe. We may have to navigate to the folder it lives in.

At the A:\> prompt type DIR install /s and hit <Enter>. If that doesn't work, type DIR setup /s and hit <Enter>.

Once the file is located we will change to that directory. For example, it may be in a directory called FORDOS.

So, type cd FORDOS and hit <Enter>. Now type install and hit<Enter>.

Wait for it to finish, remove the floppy from the A: drive, and let that puppy reboot from C: .

If you see a letter assigned to CDROM, put the Windows CD in the tray, and Bob's your Uncle. If It did not find your CDROM at boot, you again use the cdrom install floppy and run that install all over again, to configure the adresses. The defaults it offered the first time may have been wrong, you see. This problem may occur when your CDROM is connected to a controller on sound card.

lives in the East Flanders in Belgium. When he wrote Booter, he thought of butter. And it stuck. Yes, it's caused by his Flemishness...