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How to Create Windows NT 4.0 Setup and Recovery Boot Disks

Windows NT 4.0 Setup disks and recovery boot disks serve different purposes. Learn which utility, switch and floppy files each requires.
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Windows NT 4.0 has two different floppy-disk tasks: creating Setup disks from the original installation media, or making a boot disk for an NT system already installed on a hard drive. For Setup disks, run Winnt.exe or Winnt32.exe from the CD’s I386 directory with the appropriate switch. For recovery, format a floppy in Windows NT and copy the boot-loader files to it.

Create Windows NT 4.0 Setup disks

Microsoft’s instructions for Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0 use Winnt.exe or Winnt32.exe from the installation CD’s I386 directory. These utilities create a set of NT boot floppies for installing Windows NT or using the Emergency Repair Disk workflow. Use the original NT installation media and a functioning floppy drive.

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The switch determines where Setup expects to find its installation files:

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Switch Setup context Where Setup looks for installation files
/O Boot disks for a Winnt.exe or Winnt32.exe installation With Winnt.sif on disk 2 and MsDosInitiated=1, Setup looks in the temporary $WIN_NT$.~LS folder.
/OX Boot disks for a CD-ROM or floppy-disk installation Setup checks the CD-ROM drive and then the floppy drive when Winnt.sif is absent or MsDosInitiated is set to 0.

These behaviors are documented in Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q131735. Choose the switch for the source location Setup should use; the distinction is not simply between two ways to make identical disks.

Run the utility

  1. On the Windows NT 4.0 CD, open the I386 directory.
  2. Start the utility appropriate to the installation environment: Winnt.exe or Winnt32.exe, and use /O or /OX for the desired Setup context.
  3. Follow the utility’s prompts to create the floppy set. Keep the disks in order for Setup.

Make a boot disk for an installed Windows NT system

A recovery boot disk is not an MS-DOS startup disk. It contains the files that start the NT boot loader; Windows’ remaining system files stay on the hard drive. Microsoft’s documented minimum is Boot.ini, NTLDR, and Ntdetect.com. Add Bootsect.dos or Ntbootdd.sys if either file exists on the system partition. See Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q101668.

Prepare the floppy and copy the files

  1. Format a blank floppy under Windows NT or a later Windows version. Use a disk and drive compatible with the machine you need to start.
  2. From the system partition, copy Boot.ini, NTLDR, and Ntdetect.com onto the floppy.
  3. If present on the system partition, also copy Bootsect.dos and Ntbootdd.sys.
  4. If file attributes prevent copying, remove the hidden, system, or read-only attributes as needed. Restore the original attributes after copying.

What happens during startup

Formatting under Windows NT writes a boot record that points to NTLDR. NTLDR reads Boot.ini; for a Windows selection it runs Ntdetect.com and transfers control to the operating-system loader. An MS-DOS or OS/2 selection can instead load Bootsect.dos. The floppy supplies the startup files, not a complete copy of Windows.

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Know the scope of this method

These Microsoft procedures describe physical floppy media and assume a working floppy drive. They do not establish a USB-based replacement procedure for a modern computer. If the intended machine has no floppy drive, these instructions alone do not provide a supported USB equivalent.

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