Cannot boot with boot disk floppy. 1

[JonMa]

Hi.
I am using Windows XP Pro SP2 with NTFS disks.
After making a bootable floppy and trying to boot, it starts but instead of coming to Boot.ini menu it halts in DOS A:\ so that I can only do DOS commands.

This is how I did.
1. Format a: floppy as a bootable floppy disk.
2. Copied NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM and BOOT.INI from c:\ over to floppy.
3. Tried to boot from floppy after changing BIOS.

What I am doing wrong here?
Should I not be able to boot Windows XP?
Please help.

 

[trollacious]

What is the boot order in the BIOS set to?

Lee

 

[JonMa]

Thanks for reply.
1. Floppy
2. Harddisk
3. CD rom.
Nothing wrong with that since it reads the floppy.

 

[wolluf]

JonMa,

One mistake - just format floppy, don't make it bootable. If you make it bootable, it creates a windows ME boot floppy - which is what you've got - so ntldr etc are then ignored, and it boots straight to dos.

 

[JonMa]

Thanks wolluf, it's working.
You’re a real genius.
Problem solved.