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How do I
create a bootable floppy from XP?
Neither
Windows 2000 nor Windows (yuck) ME has
the ability to create a simple, basic,
DOS- based boot floppy (a "startup
disk"). In Windows XP however, the
floppy format option in My Computer an
offer to "Create MS-DOS Startup Disk" is
present.
If you try
to boot your computer with this floppy
you will be surprised: The DOS boot
message will show
Microsoft Windows Millennium
To confirm
this, you can "VER" to see what version
of DOS was running, and you'll see that
the screen will say:
Windows Millennium [Version
4.90.3000]
Although
it's very strange to see the Windows ME
startup message on an XP-created floppy,
all this means is that Microsoft cribbed
a few essential DOS boot files from
Windows ME, and made it so XP can drop
them onto a freshly- formatted floppy
for you. I'm glad they did: It's a very
good thing that Microsoft restored the
ability to make a simple boot disk.
However,
if the ME boot feature truly existed in
Windows ME, why did Microsoft hide this
feature from us Windows ME? Why did they
think that we didn't need that feature
anymore (yet it secretly existed within
ME's internals), and when XP arrived
they didn't even bother hiding their
tracks? You could have at least change
the VER information, couldn't you? |
