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Document ID: DSET-3FCJWK

Aptiva - Boot disk does not work correctly

Applicable to: United States

It is a good idea to have a boot diskette available that will allow you to boot up the system in the same manner as booting up from the hard drive. In most cases, copying the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files from the C:\ root directory to the A:\ drive is sufficient. However, there may be occasions when the boot disk will not function properly, either causing a system hang or error messages, such as "Bad command" or "File not found".

In many cases, this problem can be repaired by editing the AUTOEXEC.BAT file and inserting the line:

C:

into the file right after the @ECHO line. Doing this will change the current drive from A: (the boot drive) to C: during bootup, allowing the remainder of the lines in AUTOEXEC.BAT to work from the same starting point as the hard disk bootup.

A better fix for this type of problem is to check each line in the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to see if a full path for a program is included in the statement. For example, you may just have the word

MOUSE

in a line, which would cause the MOUSE.COM file to be loaded from a directory specified in the PATH statement. By changing that line to specifically include the drive and directory for the MOUSE file, such as:

C:\DOS\MOUSE

the system will know to specifically look in the \DOS directory of the C: drive to locate the MOUSE program and load it from there. While the MOUSE line is only an example and is not likely to be a problem even when booting up from the boot diskette, it is better to always have a full path specification (drive, directory, and filename) so that you'll be sure that the system is getting the right file from the right directory.

In the case of the MOUSE program, if you were to install a different mouse for your system that had its own driver in the C:\MOUSE directory, the installation procedure for the mouse might only tell you to include the line

\NEWMOUSE\MOUSE

in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. When you boot up from the hard drive, the current drive would already be C:, so the system will know to look for MOUSE in the C:\NEWMOUSE directory. If this same statement were in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file on the diskette, however, the current drive would be A: and the system would not be able to find the \NEWMOUSE directory on the A: drive and thus be unable to find the correct MOUSE file. By changing the AUTOEXEC.BAT line to:

C:\NEWMOUSE\MOUSE

the system will know to look on the C: drive for the \NEWMOUSE directory to find the mouse, whether you boot up from the A: drive copy of AUTOEXEC.BAT or the C: drive copy. This allows you to then use the same copy of AUTOEXEC.BAT on both the C:\ root directory and the A:\ root directory.

The MOUSE program is just an example. The same technique applies to other programs. In almost all cases, though, it is a good idea to include a full path specification for any program loaded in either CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT. This will allow you to copy the files from drive C: to drive A:, for example, and still have the same bootup sequence if you boot up from drive A:, rather than from drive C:.

Sometimes a pre-made boot diskette will help. A boot diskette will allow you to run the startup files for your system from a floppy diskette. This keeps most of the TSR's and memory managers from loading into conventional memory, thus freeing up more memory. You can download and execute the file MAGICMEM.EXE (for DOS / Windows 3.1 / OS2 systems) or W95BOOT.EXE (for Windows 95 systems) to create a boot disk for your system.

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	Hint Category	DOS/Windows 3.x
	Date Created	20-03-97
	Last Updated	15-03-99
	Revision Date	15-03-2000
	Brand	IBM Aptiva
	Product Family	Aptiva
	Machine Type	2134, 2168, 2144, 2176
	Model	6R6; 6R7; C21; C32; 6R9; C31; C54; C5D; F31; 6R8; 7R1; 7R2; 7R3; 7R4; 7R5; 7R6; 7R7; 7R8; 7R9; 7RO; 8R1; 8R2; 8R3; 8RO; C23; C33; C35; C53; C55; C57; C5H; C65; C66; C67; C69; C73; C75; C77; C79; C7H; F23; F35; F57; F69; F79; 5R5; M91; 2R5; 2R7; 2R8; M30; M35; M50; 2R6; 4R7; 4R8; M40; M54; M58; 3R0; 3R8; M60; M70; 3R4; 3R6; 4R1; 4R9; M31; M51; M52; M63; 2R9; 3R1; 3R3; 3R5; 3R7; 3R9; 4R0; 4R2; 4R3; M41; M53; M55; M56; M57; M61; M62; M71; M72; 5R1; 6R3; A10; A12; A14; 5R2; 5R3; 5R6; 5R8; 5R9; 6R0; 6R4; 6R5; A15; A40; A44; A45; A50; A51; A52; A90; A92; A94; 1R2; 66P; 67P; 86P; OR8; 1R1; 1R3; 1R5; 22P; 24P; 25P; 27P; 29P; 63P; 67P; 82P; 83P; OR6; OR7; OR9; 1R0; 1R1; 26P; 62P; 2R0; P30; 2R3; S15
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