Can't Restart in MS-DOS Mode

I need to restart Windows XP in MS-DOS mode. I'm installing slackware (dual boot), and I was doing great until this point.

The intructions say to go to "Shut Down", and then, "Restart in MS-DOS mode". Well, my comp lacks this option. I look up how to start up in MS-DOS mode, and the help file says I need to make a bootable DOS floppy. I follow the instructions, and restart my comp.

I see this when my screen starts:

A:\

I type in: cd c:\

It changes for a second, denies me input, then automatically swtiches back to A:\.

Please Help Me! :( :( :( :rolleyes: :( :( :(

XP has no Dos mode to speak of. What OS did you make the dos bootable with? Do you have NTSF as the filesystem on the c drive?

As Thantos said, WinXP does not have a DOS-mode. Gates sez it's because it's fully 32bit now (about time).
If you have C: formatted with NTFS, you won't be able to access it because DOS can't understand it. You'll need to use NTFS-DOS (or whatever it's called) which IIRC you have to pay for.
Don't you have a bootable CD? Why do you need to go into DOS?

WTF Sokra... no. You get a bootable floppy from www.bootdisk.com (choose 98SE version with no ram drive) and boot to an instance of DOS through the floppy. You can then do whatever you want.

Stan100, where did you get your boot floppy? Or did you make it yourself.

> It changes for a second, denies me input, then automatically swtiches back to A:\.
Well yeah, you have real DOS on a floppy, with its lowly FAT partition and a hard disk with an NTFS partition. It simply does not recognise it as a formatted disk so it can't possibly change to c:\

What are you going to do when you get there anyway?

If you haven't done so already, you need to 'defrag' your NTFS partition (to pack all the data to one end of the disk) and create another EMPTY partition for Linux to occupy.
Does XP disk admin permit NTFS partitions to be resized? If not, you need an appropriate tool to do it.

Once you have your free partition, then I would think you can just put your bootable Linux install CD and boot straight off the CD and install Linux into your nice new empty partition.
No DOS required.

Make sure your important XP information is backed up. Although the risk is fairly small, mishaps at this level tend to be spectacular.

Alright, this is what I intended:

I was looking at Slackware. (I have partition magic, but it said I didn't have to repartition anything, and until I know fully what I am doing, I didn't want to risk it; I do have everything backed up)

Now the instructions say, "Restart in MS-DOS mode, and run linux.bat" (btw, I figured out how to change the drive, but I've had some screwed up things happen. I'm looking into that bootdisk thing now)

I did make the floppy on my own. By going to my computer, clicking on the disk, File->Format->Make MS-DOS boot disk.

I tried running linux.bat while on windows, but I need to be in pure mode. If worse comes to worse I'll have to get the iso bootable slackware. The reason this is a problem is I have to practically beg my friend to dl it (I have 56k).

I don't want this thread to turn into "You should try RedHat", or "SuSE is best". I like learning diving in head-first. I learn better that way. I started with C++ and did great, and I just feel that I can do this, and when I finish, I'll feel better. I appreciate the quick responses, but I NEED MORE HELP :D :D :rolleyes: :D :D

BTW, I'M RUNNING NTFS

ha, you should do what I did. I had 56k when I first got linux. Took me 2 days to get the iso:D

You think I should really download the ISO? I guess.

What will it do though? I won't need to start in MS-DOS mode right?

What's in linux.bat ?

Linux.bat

Well, I've been trying to figure out my HD number thing. Is there someway I can find it out? But I figured if I could get MS-DOS running, I'd go onto that next.

What exactly do you mean by HD number? Do you mean address like 0:0 or the name Linux gives it like hda?

For the first, the first number is the channel. If it's the primary channel it will be zero, if it's the secondary it will be one.
The second number is the drive. If it's the master it will be zero, if it's the slave it will be 1.

For the linux one, they're all named hdx, where x is any letter. hda will be the first drive in the primary channel and hdb will be the seconc (slave) drive in the primary channel.
hdc is the master in the secondary channel and hdd is the slave in the secondary channel.
I think it starts using hdg with SATA drives, but I'm not sure, I haven't seen that part of the output since I disabled it.

my C drive is the primary drive. i still haven't made a new partition, i guess i should do that too. this is my question relating partitions

I have Partition Magic, and I have multiple partition options. I can create a logical partition, extended, primary, and linux. under linux there are 3 different types ext2 ext3 and swap. what do i pick?

btw sorry for the lack of punctiutation and spelling errors, but i gtg now, thanks in advacmnce.