Microsoft KB Archive/73416

= Uninstall Disk Must Be the Same Media as Drive A =

Article ID: 73416

Article Last Modified on 11/16/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0a
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.2 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.21 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.22 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q73416



SUMMARY
If the Uninstall disk you create (labeled &quot;Uninstall Disk&quot;) 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

Additional query words: 6.22 5.00 5.00a 6.00 6.20 low density, double &quot;Uninstall Disk 1&quot; 2&quot; 720K, 360K, error reading or writing to drive a:

Keywords: KB73416

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