Creating Setup Floppies In Windows
Last Updated: 06 May 2004
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*** PLEASE NOTE: Link(s), If Provided, May Be Wrapped ***
Normally, the best way to install NT/2000/XP is to boot
from the setup CD. If, however, you have a situation
where the CDROM is not bootable, or for some reason you
want to start setup from floppies, then you will need to
do the following in order to create those boot floppies.
SETUP CD
• Windows NT ............. WINNT /OX or WINNT32 /OX in \i386
• Windows 2000 ........... MAKEBOOT or MAKEBT32 in \BOOTDISK
• Windows XP Home ........ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=33290
• Windows XP Pro ......... http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=33291
• Windows Server 2003 .... No Setup Floppies Available
NUMBER OF DISKS
The various editions of Windows require a different
number of floppies for the setup disks. Microsoft has
indicated that subsequent to Windows XP, it will not be
possible to create floppy boot disks for their OSes.
• Windows NT4 ............ 3 Floppy Disks
• Windows 2000 ........... 4 Floppy Disks
• Windows XP ............. 6 Floppy Disks
• Windows Server 2003 .... No Setup Floppies Available
BOOT DISK UTILS
• http://www.svrops.com/svrops/dwnlddisk.htm
• http://www.dewassoc.com/support/useful/boot_disks.htm
WHITEPAPERS & TECH DOCUMENTS
• http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=131735
• http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=197063
• http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=310994
• http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=810562
• http://www.winnetmag.com/windowsnt20002003faq/Article/ArticleID/13901/windowsnt20002003faq_13901.html
• http://www.winnetmag.com/windowsnt20002003faq/Article/ArticleID/23118/windowsnt20002003faq_23118.html
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ADDITIONAL SEARCH OPTIONS (MS KB)
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/
• http://www.microsoft.com/technet/
• http://www.microsoft.com/
EXACT PHRASE ........... "SETUP DISK"
EXACT PHRASE ........... "MAKEBOOT"
EXACT PHRASE ........... "WINNT32"
ALL WORDS .............. "WINNT32 /OX"
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PERSONAL NOTES
• WINNT and MAKEBOOT are used to create the boot disks
from a non-NT/2000/XP system (such as Win9x).
• WINNT32 and MAKEBT32 are used to create the boot disks
from the NT/2000 family of operating systems.
• Windows XP does not have a native way to create boot
disks for setting up the OS. You have to rely on the
bootable CD, or download the appropriate files from
Microsoft.
• If you are looking to install any of the NT-family of
OSes (NT/2000/XP/2003 Server) there is no need for
you to format the drives in advance using FDISK and
format from DOS or Win9x. All of this can be done
rather easily via the setup CD.
• Setup from Floppy is not available for Server 2003
