What is a boot disk?

[O'Brian]

Hi friends,,

I heard many times this word Boot Disk. What is that and how it functions?

[Shikhar]

In simple language Boot Disk is known as Startup disk also.A boot disk will allow you to boot off of a diskette instead of your hard drive. This diskette can be used to fix issues that may arise during the lifetime of your computer and/or to help load older MS-DOS games.he term boot comes from the idea of lifting oneself by one's own bootstraps: the computer contains a tiny program (bootstrap loader) which will load and run a program found on a boot device.

In earlier operating systems that used the FAT or FAT32 file systems, such as Windows 95 and Windows 98, a boot disk was especially useful because it allowed a person to access files on a hard disk even if Windows was unable to start. This ability also represented a security risk, because anyone with a boot disk and access to the computer could start the computer and access any file. Hard disks formatted with NTFS have built-in security features that prevent using a boot disk to access files.

And the functions for which it is used are ;-

1. Operating system installation.
   
   
2. Data recovery.
   
   
3. Data purging.
   
   
4. Hardware or software troubleshooting.
   
   
5. Customizing an operating environment.
   
   
6. Software demonstration.
   
   
7. Administrative access in case of lost password is possible with an appropriate boot disk with some operating systems.

[aalbaiz]

To create a Windows 2000 Professional bootable diskette you will need four 1.44MB diskettes and the Windows 2000 Professional CD.

Click Start / Run / browse to the CD-ROM drive.
Open the "BOOTDISK" folder and double-click makeboot.exe and click ok to launch the program to create the diskette.

Users can also easily create an Emergency Repair Disk by clicking Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and opening Backup. From the Backup window, click the button for Emergency Repair Disk.

The Windows installation disc contains the files necessary to start Windows, so it is itself a boot disk. If a problem is preventing Windows from starting, you can use the installation CD to start Windows. The installation CD also contains Startup Repair, which you can use to repair Windows if a problem prevents it from starting correctly. Startup Repair can automatically fix many of the problems that in the past required a boot disk to fix

A modern PC is configured to attempt to boot from various devices in a certain order. If your computer is not booting from the device you desire, such as the floppy drive, you may have to enter the BIOS setup function by pressing a special key when the computer is first turned on -- Delete, F1, F2, F10 or F12 -- and then changing the boot order. More recent BIOSes permit the interruption of the final stage of the boot process by pressing a function key (usually F11). This results in a list of bootable devices being presented, from which a selection may be made.

Modern Apple computers will boot from an appropriate disk if the user presses the C key while the machine is starting.

[Twitter]

Once the bootable diskette has been successfully created, following the below steps you will be able to boot from the diskette.
Place the diskette into write-protect mode (in case a virus is on the computer, this will not allow the virus to transfer itself onto the diskette).
Insert the diskette into the computer and reset or turn on the computer to begin the boot process.
As the computer is booting, answer the questions prompted (if any).
Once at the A:\> take the appropriate actions depending upon the situation of the computer.
If you are unfamiliar with MS-DOS we recommend you see our MS-DOS page.