Boot Disks help

[nymph4]

I am running Win XP PRO. and just maid my own Boot Disk.

I hand Copyed these Files from my Hard Drive to my Floppy Disk.
NTL.DR
Boot.ini
NTDETECT.com

Now I shut my whole computer off and turned it back on and left the Floppy Disk in. And I can here it accessing the Folppy Disk and I can here it Reading the Files from the Floppy Disk and it takes a MIN. and then it goes right to Desktop.

My gess is it looks on the Floppy Drive for the Operating System and System Files before moving to the Hard Drive or what ever Drive is in the Boot List.

And it finds the NTL.DR File on the Floppy and Loads that into Memory and then Loads Boot.ini and the NTDETECT.com

And my gess is that the Boot.ini File on the Floppy Disk tells the Computer to look on the Hard Drive for the Operating System and ware.

And this is how it gets to Desktop and that this Disk will Boot me to the Desktop and only work if my Core System Files are Cerrupt on the Hard Drive   am I right???

And should I have placed NTOSKRNL.EXE File on my Floppy Disk and what is this File For??

[Dusty]

I hand Copyed these Files from my Hard Drive to my Floppy Disk.
NTL.DR
Boot.ini
NTDETECT.com

And it finds the NTL.DR File on the Floppy and Loads that into Memory and then Loads Boot.ini and the NTDETECT.com

If you are getting into the boot sequence you best start by being precise.  AFAIK there is no such file as NTL.DR, the NT loader is named NTLDR.  If the file on your floppy is named NTL.DR then you are not booting from the floppy.

Otherwise your assumptions are correct, if all is in order the three files on your floppy will be used to load the operating system on your hard-drive.  You can really test this by renaming NTLDR on your hard drive then booting from the hard drive.  You should get an error message that "NTLDR missing" and the system will not boot.   Then insert your floppy and boot from it, when the system is loaded reinstate NTLDR in C:

And this is how it gets to Desktop and that this Disk will Boot me to the Desktop and only work if my Core System Files are Cerrupt on the Hard Drive   am I right?

No.  The three files on your floppy disk will allow you to load the operating system from your hard drive at any time provided you are booting from the floppy drive.  These are boot files.  If your core system files on the hard drive are corrupt the system will not load.

The boot process is shown here..

NTOSKRNL.EXE is described here..   There is no point in adding this to your floppy disk as the system looks for it on the hard drive only.

[nymph4]

Yes I ment NTLdr

And I thought that Win Xp Core Files ware
NTLdr
NTDETECT.com
Boot.ini

[BC_Programmer]

Yes I ment NTLdr

And I thought that Win Xp Core Files ware
NTLdr
NTDETECT.com
Boot.ini

he never said otherwise

[killerb255]

I guess the $50 question is:
What are you trying to do?

A floppy with NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, and boot.ini only helps in booting to a place that you can't get to otherwise. 

If, say, those three files on your hard drive were jacked up somehow, then the floppy would help you get back into Windows. 

[nymph4]

Well if  NTLdr and NTDETEC.con  and Boot.ini  are not system Files what are System Files.

And what if your System Files ware bad  can you put  just the Core System Files on a Floppy?

[JJ 3000]

I guess the $50 question is:
What are you trying to do?

If you are trying to ensure that you can recover your operating system files you can just install the recovery console on your hard drive. That way you wont have to worry about finding and booting to your boot disk.
When you install the recovery console onto your hard drive it will be one of your startup options and will not require the XP CD to run.

To do this: Log in as administrator and place your XP CD in your CD drive. If autorun starts up, just click no.
Now click start and then run and type the following:
d: \i386\winnt32 /cmdcons
If your CD drive uses another drive letter, substitute it for the D drive. Now just follow the instructions on the screen. If you are connected to the internet, allow the setup program to download updated files.

Now everytime you boot up the OS selection menu will show XP and the recovery console.

Hope that helps you.

[nymph4]

When you told me to type
d: \i386\winnt32 /cmdcons

Did you meen
d: \i386\winnt32 \cmdcons    ??

[JJ 3000]

no, that's the right command.
Are you getting an error?

remember if your CD drive letter is something other than D you substitute that letter.

You might try putting the command in quotes
like this:

"d:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons"

[nymph4]

No I am not getting an error I just saw that the last Slash was  /   and the other Slashes ware \

Why are they all not \
When you are telling the computer what Directory to look in they all should be \ Right???

[Bones92]

in "d:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons" d:\i386\winnt32.exe is the program and directory while /cmdcons is a command to that program, thus it has a different slash. I believe hyphens are also interchangable with the / aswell?

[BC_Programmer]

No I am not getting an error I just saw that the last Slash was  /   and the other Slashes ware \

Why are they all not \
When you are telling the computer what Directory to look in they all should be \ Right???

yes.

have you perhaps heard of a command-line SWITCH?

@Bones92

the hyphen was the original switch character- it depends on the program wether you can use both. Most (all the XP commands, AFAIK) do.

[Spoiler]

This may help you....

http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?familyid=55820EDB-5039-4955-BCB7-4FED408EA73F&displaylang=en

[nymph4]

I put y Win XP CD in y Drive and my Drive is D"

So I typed
D:\i386\winnt32/cmdons
And it says windows can't find D:\i386\winnt32/cmdons make sure that you typed the right??

[nymph4]

Anyone