Dell boot disk cannot access HD

[btclark]

Hello All!
Does Dells boot sector not allow access to a harddrive when booting from a floppy boot disk?
I have tried it on 3 Dells now and the same result. I cannot go to the c drive after booting with a floppy, even if I create it using the same computer using the format util in WinXp or Win2K.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Brian

 

[Ididmyc600]

Hello All!
Does Dells boot sector not allow access to a harddrive when booting from a floppy boot disk?
I have tried it on 3 Dells now and the same result. I cannot go to the c drive after booting with a floppy, even if I create it using the same computer using the format util in WinXp or Win2K.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Brian

Hi Brian

I hate to sound as though i'm pointing out the obvious, but if its XP or 2K then the file system is NTFS, this isnt readable using a DOS floppy, its a security thing designed to prevent information theft by booting from a floppy, you can however download a floppy from here that will allow you to read the NTFS file system and copy files to floppy or another HD if one is present.

Regards

 

[btclark]

Good point

I thought of that to, (and should have mentioned it in my first post), so I tried...
In Win2K I formated a 10g hd to Fat32 then I set it as Master and rebboted with a floppy boot disk and still could not get to the drive. The floppy disk has DOS 6.22 on it.

Should this have worked? Do I need to format it as Fat (using DOS Format) and not Fat32 (using Win2K GUI Format utility)?

 

[Ididmyc600]

I thought of that to, (and should have mentioned it in my first post), so I tried...
In Win2K I formated a 10g hd to Fat32 then I set it as Master and rebboted with a floppy boot disk and still could not get to the drive. The floppy disk has DOS 6.22 on it.

Should this have worked? Do I need to format it as Fat (using DOS Format) and not Fat32 (using Win2K GUI Format utility)?

Hi BT,

That should work OK and I dont understand why you cant access it, FAT or FAT32 should be accessible via a DOS floppy, what error do you get, try running the FDISK command from a DOS boot floppy and see if the drive shows up in that.

Try downloading a 98 boot floppy from www.bootdisk.com and format it using the command format /s, then set it as master and ensure it boots to a DOS prompt, then try accessing it via the floppy.



Regards