Uninstall Disk Must Be the Same Media as Drive A (73416)


The information in this article applies to:
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0a
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.0
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.2
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.21
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.22
This article was previously published under Q73416

SUMMARY

If the Uninstall disk you create (labeled "Uninstall Disk") is not the same media (density) as drive A, you receive the following error message:

error reading or writing to drive a:

MORE INFORMATION

Because Uninstall Disk 1 must be a bootable disk, it must be the same density as drive A. For example, if drive A is a 1.2-megabyte floppy disk drive, only a high-density 1.2-megabyte disk should be used for the Uninstall Disk 1.

The ROM bootstrap routine is executed when the computer is booted. It checks to see if a disk is in drive A; if there is no disk in drive A, it checks the active partition on the hard disk drive. Note that it never checks drive B; therefore, it is not possible to boot from drive B.

This behavior is a function of the BIOS, not MS-DOS.

For more information on the ROM bootstrap routine, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

bootstrap

Modification Type: Major Last Reviewed: 5/12/2003
Keywords: KB73416
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