XP Home Booting In Dos

[carlingman]

Gone slightly brain dead here.

Can some kind person remind how to get XP Home to boot in DOS Mode.

Thanks

[Xaccers]

Shirley you mean recovery console and not dos?

[Sociable]

XP as such can't boot to Dos although you can run in safe mode with command prompt only which is pretty much the same thing. (Hold down Ctrl key or hit F8 on boot up then select from list)

If you need to boot to Dos directly easiest way is to use a win98 or ME boot floppy but if the HD is NTFS you wont be able to manipulate files.

Another solution which also applies if you dont have a floppy is to grab a copy of a suitable boot disc from bootdisc.com as this would allow booting to a version that can see NTFS partitions.

EDIT: Or boot to the XP install CD would provide basic functions too.

[carlingman]

Originally Posted by Xaccers

Shirley you mean recovery console and not dos?

Basically need to format c on an XP Home machine rather quickly for a family member without stopping up all ight and just just the quick over write option.

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by carlingman

Basically need to format c on an XP Home machine rather quickly for a family member without stopping up all ight and just just the quick over write option.

hmm, and what will you be doing with this formatted C: eventually?

[Sociable]

Originally Posted by carlingman

Basically need to format c on an XP Home machine rather quickly for a family member without stopping up all ight and just just the quick over write option.

OK if this what you are after boot to the XP cd and use the tools in that.

You could still use the win98/ME boot floppy but would need to delete the NTFS partition using fdisk before being able to set up a new partition and format that. (Check you can boot to the XP cd though as an install can be tricky from DOS.)

If you have Partition Magic pro that will also let you carry out a format by using the floppy version of that too.

Hope that helps

[carlingman]

Cheers people.

Too many

Have now sorted the problem using the 98 boot disk and then reinstalling XP over the top.

Thanks