HOW TO CREATE A BOOTABLE FLOPPY DISK
WITH CD-ROM DRIVERS
A bootable floppy disk with CD-ROM drivers is an invaluable tool for any PC toolkit, allowing you to set up
an Operating System from CD-ROM media on a clean system. This is the recommended method for setting up any OS,
as it is the most stable configuration available and it avoids many of the problems commonly associated with upgrades.
To create such a disk on your own, use the following procedure:
1) Create a bootable floppy disk. To do so, insert a blank, formatted floppy disk and open My Computer. Right Click
the icon for the floppy disk drive and select Format from the pop out menu. Place a check by the "Copy system
files" option at the bottom of the window, and perform a quick format.
2) Obtain a DOS driver for your CD-ROM drive from the manufacturer (this driver will usually have the .sys extension,
eg., CPQIDECD.SYS). If your manufacturer does not supply a DOS driver, you can try the driver for a similar speed
unit from another manufacturer that uses the same controller type as your drive (eg., IDE or SCSI). If you do not
have a manufacturer supplied driver, click contact us to obtain a CD-ROM driver. Tell us the make and model of
the drive and we will send it to you.
NOTE: IF YOU ARE USING A SCSI CD-ROM DRIVE, YOU MUST ALSO OBTAIN AN ASPI DRIVER FOR DOS FROM
YOUR SCSI CONTROLLER MANUFACTURER (eg., ASPI4DOS.SYS). REFER TO THE MANUFACTURER'S INSTRUCTIONS FOR CONFIGURING
and LOADING THE ASPI DRIVERNOTE: IF YOUR CD-ROM DRIVE IS CONNECTED TO A CONTROLLER ON YOUR SOUND CARD, YOU WILL
NEED TO LOAD A DRIVER FOR THE SOUND CARD BEFORE YOU CAN LOAD THE CD-ROM DRIVER. REFER TO THE MANUFACTURER FOR INSTRUCTIONS
ON HOW TO DO THIS, AS THE PROCEDURE VARIES FROM MANUFACTURER TO MANUFACTURER
3) Obtain the Microsoft CD-ROM extensions for DOS (MSCDEX.EXE). These extensions are often included with the manufacturer
supplied DOS driver disk. They can also usually be downloaded wherever DOS CD-ROM drivers are available for download.
4) Copy the CD-ROM driver (and any other necessary drivers such as ASPI or sound card drivers - see notes above)
along with the MS DOS CD-ROM extensions (MSCDEX.EXE) to the floppy disk.
5) Using notepad, create two new text files on the desktop. For now, name them File1.txt and File2.txt. Open File1.txt
and type an entry that will load the DOS CD-ROM driver you obtained from your manufacturer. The entry should look
something like this:
DEVICE=\YOURDRIVER.SYS /D:CDROM1
where "YOURDRIVER" = the name of the DOS CD-ROM driver.
NOTE: IF YOU HAVE A SCSI CD-ROM DRIVE or a DRIVE THAT CONNECTS TO YOUR SOUND CARD, YOU MUST
LOAD THE DRIVER FOR THE SCSI OR SOUND CARD CONTROLLER BEFORE LOADING THE CD-ROM DRIVER. FOR A SCSI CONTROLLER,
THE DRIVER ENTRY MIGHT LOOK SOMETHING LIKE:
DEVICE=\ASPI8DOS.SYS /D
REFER TO MANUFACTURER'S INSTRUCTIONS AS DIFFERENT MANUFACTURERS REQUIRE DIFFERENT ENTRIES TO
LOAD A DRIVER.
6) Open File2.txt and create an entry which executes the DOS CD-ROM extensions (MSCDEX.EXE). The line should look
something like the following:
A:\MSCDEX.EXE /D:CDROM1
NOTE: THE INFORMATION THAT FOLLOWS THE /D: switch (here, "CDROM1") MUST BE THE SAME
FOR THE LINE IN FILE1.TXT and THE LINE in FILE2.TXT.
7) Rename File1.txt to CONFIG.SYS, and rename File2.txt to AUTOEXEC.BAT. Copy these file to the bootable floppy.
8) Move the write-protect tab of the floppy disk so that you can see through the small window. This will ensure
that a boot-sector virus will not transfer to the floppy disk and ultimately to your hard drive.
9) Reboot the system with the bootable floppy inserted in the disk drive. Insert a CD in the CD-ROM drive and try
reading the contents from a command prompt using the DIR command to test the floppy. If you cannot see the contents
of the drive or if you see any errors on boot, consult the manufacturer for any special configuration information
or for the correct driver for your CD-ROM device.