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Create A Bootup Floppy Disk

What Is A Bootup Floppy Disk?


A bootup or startup floppy disk is the most common tool when comes to troubleshooting problems such as a system error or a bootup problem in hard disk due to a virus infection, damaged partition table, corrupted system files and other logical failures. With the bootup floppy, we could now bypass the corrupted operating system in hard disk and trouble shoot in the boot up environment from the floppy disk. Most system rescue will start from a bootup floppy.


Basically, a bootup floppy disk is just a floppy formatted with the minimal essence of an operating system. Commonly DOS is used as the start up operating system though there is an increasing trend to use linux OS. There are various way to create such boot up disk.


How To Create A Bootup Disk?


Creating a bootup disk is simple. It depends on what kind of operating system you are using. For illustration purpose, we just give some examples on how to do this in Windows 98 or Windows 2000.


Windows 98 bootup Floppy Disk


Method 1 : In Windows 98 Environment


  • On a Windows 98 computer, insert a diskette into the computer
  • Click Start, point to Settings, select Control Panel
  • Double click on Add/Remove Programs



  • Select the Startup Disk tab and click Create Disk


Method 2: In MS-DOS mode


  • If you are using Windows 98, restart the computer
  • Press and hold the CTRL button down
  • Select Command Prompt Only from the Windows 98 bootup menu
  • Insert a blank, formatted floppy disk into the floppy drive
  • Type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each command:

    cd windows\command

    smartdrv.exe

    bootdisk a

Windows 2000 Bootup Floppy Disk



Method 1 : In Windows 2000 Environment

  • Insert Windows 2000 CD into any computer
  • Double click on MY COMPUTER
  • Right click on the CDROM drive and select Explore
  • Open the BootDisk folder

    A directory called \Bootdisk resides in the root of the Windows 2000 Setup CD.
  • Double click on makeboot.exe and click OK
  • You will be prompted to insert 4 diskettes, one at a time. After the fourth disk is completed, you will receive the following message:

    The setup boot disks have been created successfully