command prompt before xp log on

richyb_safc · 31 Mar 2009 at 20:08

Hi all,

Does anyone know how to launch a command promt window from the xp log on screen, or before at some point?

I need to format the drive xp is installed on without actually loading xp up. I've tried booting from the xp cd but it's having none of it, still just loading into the current install of xp. so if I could somehow format the hard disk before xp loads it should be all good

although probably not...

Frapple · 31 Mar 2009 at 20:26

I think UBCD has dos.

theheyes · 31 Mar 2009 at 20:27

I think that one would be classified as a 'bug' rather than a 'feature' if it did exist...

Is it actually booting from the CD? If it's going straight to Windows then your optical drive is probably set to a lower boot priority than the hard drive in the BIOS settings. Change this setting.

richyb_safc · 31 Mar 2009 at 20:31

theheyes said:
I think that one would be classified as a 'bug' rather than a 'feature' if it did exist...

Is it actually booting from the CD? If it's going straight to Windows then your optical drive is probably set to a lower boot priority than the hard drive in the BIOS settings. Change this setting.

I have done, it says searching for boot cd(or something)...........done

then booting from cd, then it boots from the hard drive.

I tried setting the hard disk to slave but then I got an error, the optical drive is set to master...

this is confusing

richyb_safc · 31 Mar 2009 at 20:48

I've now unplugged every other ATA cable other than the optical drive and hard disk, put the jumper over master on the optical drive and took it off (slave) on the hard disk. F11 for boot options and selected optical drive, press any key to boot from cd...then it boots from the hard drive. This is an absolute nightmare! Also, I have no experience with anything other than SATA hard drives and optical drives so I could well be doing something obviously wrong!

any suggestions?

Aod · 31 Mar 2009 at 21:21

richyb_safc said:
I've now unplugged every other ATA cable other than the optical drive and hard disk, put the jumper over master on the optical drive and took it off (slave) on the hard disk. F11 for boot options and selected optical drive, press any key to boot from cd...then it boots from the hard drive. This is an absolute nightmare! Also, I have no experience with anything other than SATA hard drives and optical drives so I could well be doing something obviously wrong!

any suggestions?

you're pressing a key when it says "press any key to boot from CD" right? please don't tell me you're not pressing a key...

bledd · 1 Apr 2009 at 09:43

^^ as above

also if you have a USB keyboard, look in the bios for 'legacy usb' or 'keyboard usb' enable..