Solve : AUTOEXEC.BAT Fail to launch?

1.	Solve : AUTOEXEC.BAT Fail to launch?
Answer» Hi all, I' aware AUTOEXEC.BAT isn't run as per win98 now in winXP, however..... I have a good question I hope u genius's can answer (enough sucking up ??) I have just purchased a second hand Compaq Presario 2500 P4 2.4 Ghz running XP Home SP3 as a fresh install. As with all my puters, the first thing I do is to create a Norton GHOST Image of the entire C: Drive as back-up for when I truly kill it by playing around too much. Problem is the AUTOEXC.BAT does NOT run when the system is cold booted into a GHOST boot floppy as it does (from the same floppy) on all my other systems. Every time it boots it runs PC-DOS then sits at an "A:" prompt and goes no-where. I must type "autoexec" at which time it loads all the mouse drivers on the floppy, and executes the Norton Ghost program in the DOS environment just fine. I have read about autoexec.nt etc till my eyes are bleeding, but found nothing helpful about booting from a floppy into a DOS environment using an XP Computer. The reason I need this is as Norton Ghost runs very well in the DOS environment but needs help loading drivers for USB storage and DVD burners etc in order to place the GHOST Image somewhere large enough. I guess my question is simply "How can a puter NOT run an Autoexec.bat file when that puter is cold booted into a floppy containing that autoexec.bat file ?" You guys probably have a simple answer, so I'm ready to raise my hand and slap my forehead any time Cheers from Melbourne, Snapperhead. on floppy disk when you run the PATH command do you see it pointing to autoexec.bat ( when booted from floppy )... Have you edited the general boot disk that Ghost creates that broke it or it never worked correctly?Originally there was DOS. Later it grew a G.U.I option - it was possible to invoke Windows, such as Windows 98 Windows XP is NOT an option supported by DOS. Windows XP is entered by starting the computer. Windows XP supports multiple instances of command line options (CMD.EXE etc.) It does not work the other way round. You can boot-up with MSDOS if your floppy disc has more than an autoexec.bat file. It needs to be a complete DOS BOOT disc which old computers would recognize. That will give you DOS, but it will not be possible from that DOS to then launch Windows. That DOS will not even be able to read C:\ if it is NTFS format. Your ALTERNATIVE is to make the computer dual boot, but that is a whole new ball game that will take far more than this forum thread ! ! Regards Alan Their problem has nothing to do with Windows since it is in PC-DOS in which the problem is occurring at A: which is booting, but it is not following through with autoexec.bat Quote Every time it boots it runs PC-DOS then sits at an "A:" prompt and goes no-where. I havent played anough with PC-DOS to know of the differences. With Ghost I have always created the bootable floppy and was good to go. I later migrated that bootable floppy to a Bootable CD by using Roxio Easy CD Creator 5 to convert the Floppy to Bootable CD to support systems without a floppy drive or (healthy floppy drive that hasnt choked on a hairball ) My bootable Floppy has the Ghost software with NDIS2 Network Drivers for Intel Pro 100 Chipset NICs and runs with no problem. Any system can be supported by plugging in a spare Intel Pro 100 NIC into a FREE PCI slot vs having to have a floppy created for each build to support different Network Adapter drivers etc. Once booted I can deploy images via Peer-to-Peer from my image server to the bare system with no OS and have the system up and running in like 15 minutes for a 8GB image. Why not post the file ? ?Hey good idea Patio... Maybe the autoexec.bat file has a typo... as for Quote when I truly kill it by playing around too much. could suggest that the floppy has been altered.There's not much to a Ghost boot floppy....somethings missing though.Thanx for your reply's guys....... Great to see people actualy reading posts on a forum for once (which is why it's called a forum - not a notice BOARD) I will endevour to post the file and a screen shot or two asap. The boot floppy I am using is the one made by Norton Ghost, and is used on all my system creations, with no hassle at all. I even created a new one, but alas to no avail. The only difference here is that the laptop is using XP Home and not XP Pro. Late LAST night I tampered with the AUTOEXEC.BAT file's properties, and changed it to run in 'compatabiliy mode' with win98, and behold... IT WORKED !!! But it's still a weird way to do things, given the need to load some drivers later for accessing my Ghost Server over the wireless network etc etc. Will post some detail post cafiene. Cheers, S.

Answer»

Hi all,

I' aware AUTOEXEC.BAT isn't run as per win98 now in winXP, however..... I have a good question I hope u genius's can answer (enough sucking up ??)

I have just purchased a second hand Compaq Presario 2500 P4 2.4 Ghz running XP Home SP3 as a fresh install. As with all my puters, the first thing I do is to create a Norton GHOST Image of the entire C: Drive as back-up for when I truly kill it by playing around too much.

Problem is the AUTOEXC.BAT does NOT run when the system is cold booted into a GHOST boot floppy as it does (from the same floppy) on all my other systems. Every time it boots it runs PC-DOS then sits at an "A:" prompt and goes no-where.

I must type "autoexec" at which time it loads all the mouse drivers on the floppy, and executes the Norton Ghost program in the DOS environment just fine.

I have read about autoexec.nt etc till my eyes are bleeding, but found nothing helpful about booting from a floppy into a DOS environment using an XP Computer.

The reason I need this is as Norton Ghost runs very well in the DOS environment but needs help loading drivers for USB storage and DVD burners etc in order to place the GHOST Image somewhere large enough.

I guess my question is simply "How can a puter NOT run an Autoexec.bat file when that puter is cold booted into a floppy containing that autoexec.bat file ?"

You guys probably have a simple answer, so I'm ready to raise my hand and slap my forehead any time

Cheers from Melbourne,

Snapperhead.

on floppy disk when you run the PATH command do you see it pointing to autoexec.bat ( when booted from floppy )... Have you edited the general boot disk that Ghost creates that broke it or it never worked correctly?Originally there was DOS.

Later it grew a G.U.I option - it was possible to invoke Windows, such as Windows 98

Windows XP is NOT an option supported by DOS.
Windows XP is entered by starting the computer.
Windows XP supports multiple instances of command line options (CMD.EXE etc.)
It does not work the other way round.

You can boot-up with MSDOS if your floppy disc has more than an autoexec.bat file.
It needs to be a complete DOS BOOT disc which old computers would recognize.
That will give you DOS, but it will not be possible from that DOS to then launch Windows.
That DOS will not even be able to read C:\ if it is NTFS format.

Your ALTERNATIVE is to make the computer dual boot, but that is a whole new ball game that will take far more than this forum thread ! !

Regards
Alan
Their problem has nothing to do with Windows since it is in PC-DOS in which the problem is occurring at A: which is booting, but it is not following through with autoexec.bat

Quote

Every time it boots it runs PC-DOS then sits at an "A:" prompt and goes no-where.

I havent played anough with PC-DOS to know of the differences. With Ghost I have always created the bootable floppy and was good to go. I later migrated that bootable floppy to a Bootable CD by using Roxio Easy CD Creator 5 to convert the Floppy to Bootable CD to support systems without a floppy drive or (healthy floppy drive that hasnt choked on a hairball )

My bootable Floppy has the Ghost software with NDIS2 Network Drivers for Intel Pro 100 Chipset NICs and runs with no problem. Any system can be supported by plugging in a spare Intel Pro 100 NIC into a FREE PCI slot vs having to have a floppy created for each build to support different Network Adapter drivers etc. Once booted I can deploy images via Peer-to-Peer from my image server to the bare system with no OS and have the system up and running in like 15 minutes for a 8GB image.
Why not post the file ? ?Hey good idea Patio... Maybe the autoexec.bat file has a typo...

as for Quote

when I truly kill it by playing around too much.

could suggest that the floppy has been altered.There's not much to a Ghost boot floppy....somethings missing though.Thanx for your reply's guys....... Great to see people actualy reading posts on a forum for once (which is why it's called a forum - not a notice BOARD)

I will endevour to post the file and a screen shot or two asap.

The boot floppy I am using is the one made by Norton Ghost, and is used on all my system creations, with no hassle at all. I even created a new one, but alas to no avail.

The only difference here is that the laptop is using XP Home and not XP Pro.

Late LAST night I tampered with the AUTOEXEC.BAT file's properties, and changed it to run in 'compatabiliy mode' with win98, and behold... IT WORKED !!!

But it's still a weird way to do things, given the need to load some drivers later for accessing my Ghost Server over the wireless network etc etc.

Will post some detail post cafiene.

Cheers,

S.

Solve : AUTOEXEC.BAT Fail to launch?

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