start up in ms-dos

[seanyharris]

how do i start up in ms-dos when i shutdown i have 2 options 1.restart...2shutdown..i want to do a format on my hard drive i have a restore disc but wont run in windows it says need to start in ms-dos but cant work it out..any help would be appreciated

[Jeff the Brit]

You need a boot disk. Assuming your Win ME is still working, go to Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs and click the Startup Disk tab. Stick a blank floppy in and Windows will make you a boot disk. Alternatively, borrow a Win98 or Win98SE startup disk from a friend. Any of these will allow you to see your CDROM from DOS.

[mahdi]

BTW off the disk it is not called 'Boot to DOS'
it's called 'Minimum Startup' or something like that...
Silly Microsoft, command lines are for everybody :D

[Frederico]

you also can boot up with the win98 or win98Se CD you just have to enable boot from cdrom in you bios setup... It's much faster than the disket.
;)

[confus-ed]

You could press F8 when you boot and then choose command prompt. You won't be able to see your cd rom though.

I'm not 100% that the recovery floppy lets you see the cd rom though without real mode drivers, so use the CD.