loading dos from lilo without boot disk
 

hi
i use mandrake linux 9.1 and windows millenium with lilo. i generally dont use windows.i put my write protected win me startup disk in the drive always(i have very little use for the 3 1/2" drive).whenever i want to load into dos i just select floppy from the lilo menu.i use dos to play games. is there a way to copy all the files from the startup disk onto a folder in either windows or linux partition and then boot from that folder. how do i do this. i have only one partition for windows.

thanks in advance.
chetan

It would need to be a dos partition on your hard drive. Dos cannot read from your other partitions as it does not understand the filesystems.

thanks for replying
i have i dos partition(FAT32) windows millenium is installed on it. will a subdirectory in c:\ work. also please tell me what i have to do after i copy all the files from the startup disk into say c:\DOS.
warm regards
chetan.

forgot to put this in the above posting.
i want to have a dos option in my lilo menu. where the dos boots not frooom a floppy but a ditectory in windows partition into which all files from the startup disk have been copied.

That's not actually dos, it's windows. If I understood correctly

The boot loader only loads the system, I don't think you can use it to load a dos prompt in windows, however you can setup windows to boot up that way if you would like, ie without gui

http://www.mydesktophelp.com/tips/misc25.htm

Good Luck.

I think what you want is the option to boot to windows or DOS prompt.

this can be done by adding this to the msdos.sys file

BootMenu=1

as opposed to this..

BootMenu=0

that way when you choose to boot windows from lilo you will get the boot menu

from there you can choose the boot option you need


you may want these also

BootMenuDelay=??
BootKeys=1

no that works only in windows 98. we can get dos in win me but for that you have to do this.
http://www.geocities.com/mfd4life_2000/

in lilo there is an option to boot from a floppy.if i put in the win me startup disk and then choose 'floppy' option i boot into dos.i want lilo to read these files from a local directory and not from the floppy drive.
warm regards
chetan

I still think you can bring up the boot menu in ME using the msdos.sys file (maybe after some reg edits)

However, this applies to any os.
It needs to be on a partition, then you need to setup the partition on a boot loader.


You are likely to need to modify the bootup files on the floppy.

yes, you are most probably right. i am going to create a new FAT partition and copy the files into it. But could you give me little more specific information on what to do after i create the partition.
like what i should put in the /etc/lilo.conf files to get the DOS option in the lilo menu and tosuccesfully load into dos.

chetan

this should do it

other=/dev/hda1
label=dos