I am having problems installing an operating system. Basically what i want to know is how can i boot into dos without a disk (i am having drive troubles as well). Is there a keystroke that i can use when the system is first booting up? For example I hit delete to get into my BIOS. I need a key that i can hit to go directly into DOS and not to an operating system.

try holding down f5

Till the break of dawn

Alright, just settle down and tell us the WHOLE story.

"am having problems installing an operating system."

Why are installing one? Did your operating system stop working, did you decide to format the hd, are you trying to build your first computer, or just what?

"how can i boot into dos without a disk"

Well, you can't. The only way to boot a stand alone machine like yours is 1-boot from a floppy, 2-boot from a cdrom, or 3- boot from a hard drive. The fact is, if you do not have a BOOTABLE disc of one of the three above, you CANNOT boot "to DOS" and "DOS" IS IN FACT an "operating system."

(DOS stands for DISK OPERATING SYSTEM)

"i am having drive troubles as well"

Tell us about this. hard drive? CDROM? floppy? what did you or do or what do you think it's related to? Again, did it just "stop" or did you format the thing, or what?

"need a key that i can hit to go directly into DOS and not to an operating system."

Well, DOS IS an operating system. I suppose you mean that you want to boot to a "DOS PROMPT" and not Whindows? is that what this is about?

Pleas tell us more about what you have done and what you are trying to do.

The hardrive failed. So I replaced the hardrive just like I have on many systems. I have these OS to use: Winxp, Winxp sp1, and Win2k. I want to put win2k on the sys. I know that you can boot from the CD-ROM and I have my BIOS set up to do so, but it would not boot from my 2k disk. I thought it was bootable, but maybe not. So I had my winxp disk handy so I tried that and it booted from it and I went on with the intall. But i have always had trouble with this disk and it hangs once it gets into the windows portion of the install. But when I crank up the system it goes directly to the install screen and says there is an error. I want to go back into DOS and format the hardrive and start over with another OS; winxp sp1 or 2k. However; the way that I have done this in the past is to through a startup disk into the floppy drive to kick it into DOS so that I can do what I need. (and i have set the floppy drive back as the first boot device in my bios). Here is my problem, the system will not recognize that I have a disk in the floppy. In fact I do not even see the light come on to it when the computer first powers up like it used to. I thought at first that I had a bad floppy drive. So I took one out of another system that I use and know that works and I get the same issue. I have also changed power connectors going to the drive and I have changed power supplies. So now all I want to do is get into DOS and format my drive so that I can throw my Win2k disk into my cd rom and load that OS.
And I know what DOS stands for and that it is an OS (not trying to be a smarta**) its just that usually when I talk to people, they act like DOS is like some sort of magical thing that is impossible to use when it is actually not that bad.

Probably what you need to do is set the boot order in the CMOS so that the CD drive is first.

Your question would be better addressed in the forum devoted to the Operating System you're trying to install.

Putting "DOS" as your OS is both incorrect and misleading - all that you're attempting to do can be accomplished using the installation CD.

Yes, DOS has its advantages, but the newer OS's are capable of performing the necessary tasks to install themselves (naturally)

Bleat at me no longer.

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I can not boot from the cd because it just goes back to the windows install screen and then i get an error messege. It will continue to do this automatically untill i can get into dos to format the hardrive. the WINXP boot disk will not go to the point that i can format or partition. It jumps directly to the last point of install that it craps out on me. This is why I want to get into DOS. If there is a way to get to DOS without a floppy disk I would love to know.

You may have hardware issues.

Your question would be better addressed in the XP forum.

If you're unable to boot from either a CD or a diskette, I'm not sure just what solution you're expecting from this forum.

Bleat at me no longer.

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How tiresome:

MSDOS et al
NT4
W2K
XP
Linux / Unix
etcetc

These are all operating systems in there own right and either have Floppy boot or CD boot functionality, if you can not get one of these mediums to boot you have a hardware problem. Please go post elsewhere and stop argueing the toss. THERE IS NO DOS IN XP, IT IS AN EMULATION WITHIN THE O/S, THOUGH YOU DO HAVE COMMAND LINE AVAILABLE WHICH LOOKS LIKE DOS, UNIX et al

""want to put win2k on the sys. I know that you can boot from the CD-ROM and I have my BIOS set up to do so, but it would not boot from my 2k disk. I thought it was bootable, but maybe not.""

This is easy to check, just boot the damn CD in another computer. As far as I know all Win2k cd's should be bootable, except for maybe the upgrade cd's I dont have one.

""But i have always had trouble with this disk and it hangs once it gets into the windows portion of the install""

Well, there is no reason to "have trouble with this disk." Either you have a pirate copy, or else you have a legit disk that is scratched. If legit, you can call Microshafting and order a replacement. You may also be able to burn a copy of the disk and solve the problem. I've done this, and don't know why it sometimes works. If you have a pirate copy, I can't help you.

""want to go back into DOS and format the hardrive and start over with another OS; winxp sp1 or 2k""

using ANY version of DOS to do this is not the way to do it. If you have some wierd partition, or Linux, or somesuch that you need to remove, there are utilities to do this.

""Here is my problem, the system will not recognize that I have a disk in the floppy. In fact I do not even see the light come on to it when the computer first powers up like it used to.""

This may be the whole root of the problem. If this motherboard that you are targeting for install is the same one on which the hd "failed" you may have a corrupted bios, or other hardware/firmware problems with this motherboard. I ABSOLUTELY WOULD

Reset the bios

change the floppy/ hd / cdrom cables with known good ones.

Temporarily use a known good cdrom

Remove ALL uneeded hardware, including net cards, modems, extra cdrw, whatever. Just try the instal FROM A CLEAN BOOTABLE CD with minimal hardware hooked to the motherboard.

""So now all I want to do is get into DOS and format my drive so that I can throw my Win2k disk into my cd rom and load that OS.""

There is no good reason why this should work any better than booting from a NT/2k/xp cdrom

""can not boot from the cd because it just goes back to the windows install screen and then i get an error messege""

Well, if the damn thing is "goes back to the windows install screen," then it IS booting from SOMETHING

""It will continue to do this automatically untill i""

I have NO clue other than what's been said.

"""""""""""You may have hardware issues."""""""""

Pretty much the understatement of the year, I'd say.

and flimflam, you're absolutely correct.

Sounds to me like you need to backup a bit. Remove the hard drive from the system, and see if the floppy disk will work. If there is a short in this other hdd, then motherboards have been known to do all sorts of weird things.

If you can't get the floppy to work by itself, then check power to the floppy, check the ribbon cable, check that you have the controller enabled in the bios, and that it's set properly.

If the floppy does work, then move up to adding the hard drive. Does it work now? If not, then you know that you've got a problem with the hard drive, the disk controller, disk cable, or power to the drive.

If floppy works with the hard drive, then move up to installing an OS. If you have access to a win9x machine, then make a boot disk with cdrom support. That way you can fall back to that if you cannot boot from the cdrom itself.

There are a few reasons (some I can recall) that will cause failed installation of windoze. A boot sector virus on the hard drive, a corrupt MBR, or an invalid partition come to mind. In either of these cases, you may benefit from a data scrub using the utility disk from the OEM of the disk drive though a virus should be taken care of first.

Failing all of that, you can take the drive (if it's good) and place it into a working PC, create a temp folder, and use XCOPY (don't use winexplorer) to transfer the contents of the cdrom to the hard drive - That works with win9x versions, but I don't know about XP or 2k. Just don't run a windoze setup program on a machine that you do not intend to use - it will confiure itself around the motherboard running setup.

Check your CMOS and make sure your Floppy controller is enabled. Check to see that it's set to the right type, usually 1.44MB.

If you still get no drive light and FD spin, dieconnect the power cord and open it up. Check the FD cable on both ends. On most mainboards, the FD controller is keyed so it will only go in one way, but check it. Pin 1 on the cable (with the stripe) goes to pin 1 on the board (usually with a square solder pad).

If you have a 2 FDD cable, the A drive goes at the end, past the twist. Usually pin 1 is toward the power connector, but get a magnifier and check; look for a square solder pad or number 1 on the FD circuit board.

HTH