Firstly, if you aren't interested in learning how to make a boot disk and
just need one then your best bet is to download one.
Good boot disks are available from the following locations:
Boot Disk Project
Bootdisk.com
If you really want to make your own then there are several ways you can
go about it. You'll obviously need a disk, preferably in good working
order. Then you just transfer the system files, using one of the methods
described below, followed by any other external commands you like then
finish by creating/editing config.sys and autoexec.bat.
The first step is to transfer the system files, this can be done in a
number of ways, I have detailed the main ones here so you can chose.
Method 1: Using SYS
This is probably the best way to go about it.
It doesn't matter if your disk has files on it that you want providing
you have enough free space for the system files, the amount of space
required varies.
All you have to do is type "sys a:" and hit enter, providing that
your disk is in drive A. You obviously don't include the quotation marks.
If sys returns an error message then referring to the
Error Messages section of this FAQ may
explain it.
Method 2: Using format
Using this method you will lose all the files currently on the disk
(if there are any). This method has the advantage that it will always write
a boot sector to the disk as well as the system files. Most versions of
sys do this as well but early ones don't.
Simply type "format a: /s" and hit enter, again assuming that
your disk is in drive A. As before you should omit the quotation marks.
Just follow the onscreen instructions, when it asks you for a label
hit enter and press "n" when asked if you want to format another disk.
Method 3: Just copying the files.
I'm not quite sure why people would use this method generally, there are
times when it's necessary but these are the exception. I recommend you use
one of the above procedures instead but for the record here's how to
copy the files across (just type the following):
format a: /q
c:
cd\
attrib io.sys -s -h -r
attrib msdos.sys -s -h -r
copy io.sys a:
copy msdos.sys a:
copy command.com a:
attrib io.sys +s +h +r
attrib msdos.sys +s +h +r
a:
attrib io.sys +s +h +r
attrib msdos.sys +s +h +r
For DOS versions other than MS-DOS, you will have to change io.sys and
msdos.sys to something else (to be honest I've only ever verified
that the above works with MS-DOS). Try using ibmbio.com instead of io.sys
and ibmdos.com instead of msdos.sys since these are the most commonly used.
Chances are that if you are using this method then you are trying to
restore a boot disk from a zipped copy. Usually this won't work because
the boot sector on the disk you are transferring to is not correct.
If you have the technical knowledge to write a boot sector to disk then
a copy can be obtained from sys.com or format.exe (from the correct version).
Transferring some external commands
So far you have all the system files on your boot disk so it will work
as such now. However you will find that it has limited functionality, you
won't be able to use format for example. To rectify this situation you
need to transfer some more files.
I'd recommend at least the following:
ATTRIB.EXE
COUNTRY.SYS
DELTREE.EXE
EDIT.COM
FDISK.EXE
FORMAT.EXE
LABEL.EXE
MOVE.EXE
SCANDISK.EXE
SYS.COM
XCOPY.EXE
Plus these if you want extended and expanded memory to be available:
EMM386.EXE
HIMEM.SYS
If you have room left over include these:
DEBUG.EXE
DEFRAG.EXE
EXPAND.EXE
MODE.COM
MEM.EXE
These files should all be in the DOS directory but please note that
depending on which DOS you are using some of the above
files may not be present or use different names.
Well that's pretty much it, all that's left to do is create the config.sys
and autoexec.bat files. To do this just start edit, open a new file then
save it as config.sys once that has been done save it again as autoexec.bat.
The other areas of this FAQ detail some of the things which should be added
to these files.
