Windows XP startup (floppy) disk ?

Hey folks - looks like I'm forced to reinstall Windows XP pro from the beginning (again - only sure way to kill virus stuff !)

That we can do - but before we get started, I got a question:

Remember those Windows 95, 98 and ME startup disks (floppy)
that we could make when installing. They sure came in handy to do F-Disk and Formats etc.

Now I've installed Windows XP a couple of times and have yet to see that offered.

Am I missing something - or is that a thing of the past ?

**************************************************
There is a good reason for asking - here it is:

I get a good 40 gig hard drive and made it a slave.
Works fine.
However, when we querry "my computer" and click on the slave drive letter - we get a choice to "format ".

Windows XP Pro won't do it - says we got to shut down stuff but doesn't say what. There is nothing that I got that is even accessing the slave drive (except for the "my computer querry).

That is why I want a simple boot disk - to format that sucker.
Or am I being too compliated - just shut down - slap in a Windows 98 startup floppy and f-disk/format from that?

Thanks

 

Right click on My Computer and select manage, then Disk Management. Right click your slave drive in lower right. If choice to initialize is there, select it. Then you can right click again and delete partitions or format.

 

You might try running a chkdsk and dismounting the disk. This will terminate all handles to the disk and may allow you to format it from My Computer. You may get a dismount option from Disk Management, too.

chkdsk drive: /x

 

Tried both ways and got the options:

Then "did" #1 and format OK.

Thanks

 

HUH?

Glad it worked for you.

 

You can certainly start an XP install from floppies though. Problem is, it takes 6 of them I think. If the PC will boot from the CD, that's your best option by far.

 

You can start setup from a single Win98/ME startup disk. Then, you use D:\i386\winnt.exe to start setup.

But it is a good idea to get one that loads smartdrv.exe in the autoexec.bat so that a disk cache is created. Otherwise, the DOS portion of setup runs very slowly.

This WinImage executable creates such a disk:

http://www.freepctech.com/files/wxpboot.exe

It also contains some extras, like aefdisk, xxcopy, delpart, and zerofill.