How to boot in DOS without a floppy drive?

[Tourguy]

I've got betterinternet parasite, I need to boot from DOS to get rid of it. My kid's laptop doesn't have a floppy drive and I can't boot from DOS. The CDs provided by HP looks like not booting from DOS as it shows one screen aftere another. I didn't have the gut to keep on clicking lest my data would be wiped out. Please help, TIA.

[satis]

what operating system are you using? If you're using win9x (win95, win98, winME) it's pretty easy. Just hit F8 (or for 98 and ME hold down ctrl) right after the post but before windows starts loading, and you should get a boot screen that'll allow you to boot to DOS mode.

However, if you're running an NT based system (NT4, win2000, winxp, win2003) it's not so easy. You'll need to find a pre-made, bootable CD-ROM image somewhere.

Here's one. http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/ripcord/beta8h01/

This is FREEDos, which is open source and probably fully DOS compatible, but you may need to do some research. However, if you're running an NT-based O/S, you're probably running NTFS as your filesystem. As such, getting DOS access may not be enough.

Original DOS does not read NTFS. So, you may get to a dos mode, but not be able to access any of your harddrives. If you can't access them, you can't very well clean them. So, if that's the case, you need to find a boot CD that can support the NTFS file system. :)

[IanS]

what operating system are you using? If you're using win9x (win95, win98, winME) it's pretty easy. Just hit F8 (or for 98 and ME hold down ctrl) right after the post but before windows starts loading, and you should get a boot screen that'll allow you to boot to DOS mode.

However, if you're running an NT based system (NT4, win2000, winxp, win2003) it's not so easy. You'll need to find a pre-made, bootable CD-ROM image somewhere.

Here's one. http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/ripcord/beta8h01/

This is FREEDos, which is open source and probably fully DOS compatible, but you may need to do some research. However, if you're running an NT-based O/S, you're probably running NTFS as your filesystem. As such, getting DOS access may not be enough.

Original DOS does not read NTFS. So, you may get to a dos mode, but not be able to access any of your harddrives. If you can't access them, you can't very well clean them. So, if that's the case, you need to find a boot CD that can support the NTFS file system. :)USB floppiy drives can now be picked up fairly cheaply so that might be an easier option to get to DOS - doesn't stop the problem of NTFS tho' you can get a flloppy to boot to NTFS for read-only operations.

[Tourguy]

I am running Windows XP Home SP1. I tried to download the startup program to usb memory stick and try to boot it from there to no avail.

[extras]

There are many bootable CD Linux distribution.
Some of them can read/write ntfs.
It may help you if you know a little about unix/linux
and if tools offered in these CD are enough for your needs.

Recently, I used knoppix CD for checking and
resizing ntfs partition alive (without formatting).
It worked well for me.

You can download CD img and burn it using
CD burner software of your choice.

http://www.knoppix.net/
http://www.knoppix-std.org/

There are many other live-CD distro with
different utilities packed in.

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=bootable+CD+distro



There is a FreeBSD, as well.
It should be great for doing local testing.
http://www.freesbie.org/

[Atomic-Design]

Try Satis's idea and make sure your BIOS boots from your CD-ROM in correct sequence.