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Thread ID: 44366	2004-04-16 21:47:00	Booting to MSDOS in Win ME	Curly (487)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
229904	2004-04-16 21:47:00	Bugger - nothing I do will allow me to boot into DOS on this Win ME machine. I have looked at the help files and while it mentions DOS, holding down Control or pressing F8 certainly does not take it into DOS as the help files would suggest, the best it will do is start safe mode, boot logged or normal. I have been to start/settings/control panel/addremove programs and from there checked to find a setting which would allow DOS - but nothing :-) A DOS window seems to be not good enough, as a diagnostic program from WWW.MAXTOR.COM called powermax which I want to run on a faulty maxtor drive, simply detects windows running and will not open. I have been into the properties of powermax and ticked "prevent MS DOS based programs from detecting windows (words to effect) but it makes no difference. Have I got an oddball version of ME? Can ME run DOS? WinME,350 odd ram, 40 gig HDD (the faulty one), 1000 Mhz.	Curly (487)
229905	2004-04-16 21:59:00	look here boot (www.geocities.com) [url=http://www.google.com/search?q=boot%20into%20DOS%20on%20this%20Win%20ME]here]/url]	johnboy (217)
229906	2004-04-16 22:02:00	oops here (www.google.com)	johnboy (217)
229907	2004-04-17 00:59:00	The second item of Johnboys Google link is the one to go for. Ever since Win95, MS were determined to hide MS-DOS and pretend it didnt exist. I just bought a Win2k recovery CD from IBM, and guess what? It uses Win98 DOS 7.1 in order to start things up, format HDD etc and load the OS.	Terry Porritt (14)
229908	2004-04-17 02:28:00	You don't say why you need to boot into DOS but as far as I know you can perform some DOS commands after booting from a startup disk. A startup disk can be made from Add/Remove Programs>Startup disk.	Susan B (19)
229909	2004-04-17 03:38:00	Hi Susan B, the HDD utility Powermax I want to use to check out the faulty HDD is DOS based, i.e. it won't run in anything except pure DOS, no DOS window is satisfactory. :-) However both Terry and Johnboy have found a way to achieve it About to do it and see if the HDD is truly had it - hope not as the HDD is only a few months old - but cannot find the purchase receipt as proof of purchase :-( Fingers etc crossed :-)	Curly (487)
229910	2004-04-17 03:55:00	I ran that same utility Powermax on my Linux box (no DOS or Windows at all present) from the floppy that you create (had to create the floppy on a Windows OS though). You don't need to access your OS's DOS at all for the process. Just boot off the floppy and following the menu that opens up. Have a read the user instructions given on Maxtor's site.	Jen C (20)
229911	2004-04-17 10:16:00	Hello Jen C, yeah found that out. My origional boot disk did not work so made another - no further probs in that area. Thanks. Thanks to all for the replies - just to wrap up - Maxtor's HDD utility, powermax, confirmed what I probably already guessed - the drive is stuffed, geez even a low level format failed instantly, as a last resort test. :-( Now where did I put that purchase receipt - no idea really :-( Got till the 25 Aug 04 to find it!! Oh well, a lesson to be learned here - backup backup backup :-) I'll be back :-) :-)	Curly (487)
229912	2004-04-22 12:58:00	It is possible to patch ME to start up in Dos like 98, but it takes ages to boot to Windows as the drives will run in unprotected mode. The Maxtor disk is a boot floppy. You can also boot into Dos with your ME Start up Floppy. I have made a bootable CD with all my Dos utilities, Partition Magic, Norton Ghost, Boot Magic Install, Boot Magic Rescue, Xdos. It will include scandisk, fdisc etc. Use a Windows 98 floppy to make the bootable CD as it has a better range of Dos than the ME one.	Mzee (158)
229913	2004-04-22 21:38:00	Thanks Mzee, it turned out that my floppy boot disk was faulty since the day it was made, but I never knew it :-) All fixed now - thanks for intput though.	Curly (487)
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