How can i boot into MS-DOS

[maddave]

I need to flash my DVD drive firmware and so need to do this form a comman prompt. I cannot do it from a command prompt in windows - it needs to be a clean boot. So how can I get a command prompt. Using XP by the way. by pressing F8 i can choose to boot up in safe mode command prompt but it stil loads up windows. I have made a ms-dos boot disk but this doesn't allow me to cd into my hard disk. Can I mount it from here? how?

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers
David.

hmm I just realised I could put the firmware flash onto the floppy disk couldn't I! hmm I am a dick, - but if you can tell me how to get into dos anyway that would be cool.

 

[WidowMaker]

You have to install a small DOS partition before installing XP, and the install XP on a new partition. Then you will get a Menu at Boot.

The way I do it, is a DOS-Boot Disk with CD drivers, NIC-drivers and NTFSDOS for accessing my harddrive (see

http://www.bootdisk.com)

 

[cdogg]

OR...

Get your hands on a Win98 startup disk (floppy), which will take you to an MS-DOS prompt regardless of the OS you have installed.

~cdogg

 

[Snickle]

I use a Win98 boot floppy for CD support, just enough to boot the computer. I put the downloaded flash program and the data file on a floppy. The hard drive is not an issue, can't be seen by Win98 if it is NTFS. Once the computer is booted and has CD support, put the 2nd floppy in and run the flash program.

 

[Masterpjz9]

Just go to my computer and right-click on 3 1/2 floppy a: and click on format. Then check the box to create an ms-dos startup disk. you will not be able to access any NTFS hard drives but you will be able to flash the firmware.