Andrew McLaren

"PvdG42" <pvdg@toadstool.edu> wrote...
> "Daarrheel" <Daarrheel@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote...
>>I want to make a Boot Disk for Vista... what are the Boot files needed for
>> this ?
>
> Type "create boot disk" into your Windows Explorer Help search window and
> read the first article in the list, entitled: "Create a Boot Disk (Startup
> Disk)". That will tell you what you need to know.

That's totally correct. In Explorer, just right-click on a floppy, choose
Format, and check the "create boot disk" checkbox. Be aware however, this
will actually create an MS-DOS boot disk - it won't boot up Vista, as such.

DOS Boot disks are pretty handy for flashing BIOS, etc. But you won't be
able to access any NTFS drives, run the Vista GUI, etc.

Like XP, Vista is not designed to be booted from removable media - it is
meant to boot from a hard disk permanently installed in a machine. Given
Microsoft's commercial desire to tightly "bond" software to a specific
hardware device via Activation, etc, they haven't put much effort into
supporting the boot disk scenario. The Embedded version of XP can certainly
boot from removeable media, so there's no major technical impediment - just
some fine-tuning. But as I say, Microsoft don't seem very interested in
making that effort.

There were a number of unofficial hacks which tried to create boot disks for
Windows XP. None of them are supported by Microsoft (of course) and they
would make your system totally unsupported, in the official sense. But some
seem to work okay, like Nu2, aka Bart. They may have been updated for
Vista - try Google.

You can also boot up into Vista from the Vista installation DVD. Choose the
"repair" option and then select "Command Prompt". You don't get the full
GUI, but you can lauch many GUI apps (like Notepad etc) from the command
line; plus you can see all your NTFS drives, printers and stuff. This is a
*huge* improvement in Vista over XP.

Hope it helps,
Andrew