 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Creating a Windows 95 Startup or "Rescue" disk George Skarbek gskarbek@melbpc.org.au |
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I very strongly recommend that everyone have a verified boot disk for two reasons. One is in case your computer is infected with a computer virus. To clean out a virus you must boot from a clean disk, otherwise the virus still will be in memory and will immediately re-infect any program or the hard disk.
The other reason is that the corruption or accidental deletion of one or more critical files will prevent the computer from starting and therefore you cannot access any applications or your data that may be undamaged on the inaccessible disk.
You should create a Startup or rescue disk using the Add/Remove Programs option in Control Panel, after you have scanned you computer with recent virus-scanning software. To create this Startup disk, Windows 95 formats the floppy disk in drive A, and then copies many necessary files onto it.
Be aware that usually this Startup disk does not provide access to CD-ROM drives nor to the network. It means that you would not be able to re-install some or all of Windows from the CD-ROM if Windows stopped working, because you can't access your CD-ROM without Windows.
To fix this problem, your Startup disk requires a real-mode CD-ROM driver that you must manually copy onto the floppy. You must also create the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files on the Startup disk. These files are not automatically created for you. You will probably need at least one line in CONFIG.SYS and one line in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
The minimum entry for AUTOEXEC.BAT is
MSCDEX /D:MSCD001
You must copy MSCDEX.EXE from the \Windows\Command folder onto your Startup floppy.
To install and configure the real-mode CD-ROM driver you will have to read the documentation that should have been included with the CD-ROM drive.
If you have upgraded from Windows 3.1 you may have the file CONFIG.DOS in your root directory. If it exists, copy the lines for the CD-ROM driver to CONFIG.SYS on the floppy. It is also possible that these lines exist, but have REM in front of them, making them comments rather than commands. If so, just delete the REM. You must change any reference to C: to read A:, if cutting and pasting. Otherwise, when you perform your test all will appear to be well, but this is because the files are being read from the hard disk while booting from the floppy. You must ensure that the floppy will work without having to rely on the hard disk.
It is possible that a generic device driver, GSCDROM.SYS, which is used by many dealers, may work in your case and your dealer may be able to give you a copy. If not, then in most cases the most difficult part will be finding the required device driver for CONFIG.SYS. Your computer dealer should be able to help for the driver for CONFIG.SYS. You can also download drivers for most CD-ROM drives from: http://www.driverupdate.com/drivers/windows95/cdrom/index.html
A typical minimum entry for CONFIG.SYS is
DEVICE=GSCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD001
Both the files MSCDEX.EXE and GSCDROM.SYS, or an equivalent file that most likely ends in .SYS, must be in the root directory on the floppy disk for the above entries to work.
Note also that by booting on the Startup disk you may be unable to access a compressed drive. This is because the Startup disk may not contain the correct version of the real-mode DriveSpace compression driver. This must be added manually, also.
It is also possible that with an older computer that has a large hard disk installed, you may not be able to access the hard disk when booting from the floppy. This will be because your disk requires a software device driver to perform translation of heads, tracks and cylinders to overcome an old BIOS limitation. This device driver is not automatically copied by the creation of the Startup disk and must be done manually.
In the latter two cases, examine your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files for the appropriate lines and use an editor such as Notepad to copy the relevant line(s) into the corresponding file on the floppy. Then you must change any reference to C: to read A: and finally copy the actual programs onto the floppy disk.
I would encourage all readers who have Windows 95 with a CD-ROM to boot from the emergency Startup disk and verify that you can access the CD-ROM. If you cannot boot from the floppy then look at the BIOS setting as you most likely were booting from drive C: without looking at the floppy. Pressing a key during the booting process (usually the Delete key) will enable you to access the BIOS settings and then you should alter only one setting. After verifying the floppy disk, write-protect it and reset the BIOS to boot from drive C:.
Reprinted from the May 1998 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
