Installing a Boot Driver

During the text-mode setup phase of Windows installation, the Setup program installs drivers for devices that are required to boot the machine. Most of these drivers are included with the operating system.

A user can install an additional third-party driver during text-mode setup by pressing the appropriate key and inserting a floppy disk from the third-party vendor. A third-party vendor provides a txtsetup.oem file on a floppy disk to enable a user to install such a driver during text-mode setup.

To install a device that is required to boot the machine, a user installs the device hardware, turns on the machine, and installs the device's driver (if it is not included with the operating system), in the following manner:

• During the beginning of the text-mode setup phase of booting, the system displays a message indicating that the user can press a key to install custom drivers.
• At this point, the user presses an Fn key to install a driver for a third-party device, then inserts the vendor's floppy disk.

Certain error messages displayed when a machine fails to boot can indicate that a boot driver is missing. For example:

• If a machine fails to boot and displays the message "Inaccessible boot device," it might be because the boot disk is a third-party mass-storage device that requires a driver not included with the operating system.
• If a machine fails to boot and displays the message "Setup could not determine your machine type," it could be because a new HAL driver is required. This error does not occur on most machines, but it might occur on a high-end server.

Note that this procedure is for installing a driver that is not included "in-the-box" with the operating system. Do not use this procedure to replace or update a driver included with the operating system. Instead, wait until the system boots and use the Device Manager to perform an "update driver" operation on the device.

If a vendor distributes a driver for a device required during boot and intends for the user to install it during text-mode setup, the following rules apply:

• Driver file names must not exceed eight characters, and extensions must not exceed three characters.
• The vendor's distribution disk must include a file named txtsetup.oem in addition to the other driver files.

A txtsetup.oem file is a text file that contains a list of hardware components, a list of files to be copied, and a list of registry keys and vaules to be created. For details about the contents of a txtsetup.oem file, see The txtsetup.oem File Format.

A single distribution disk with a single txtsetup.oem file can support multiple hardware devices. Such a file would contain a single Defaults section with an entry specifying the default choice for each hardware type. The file would also contain a HwComponent entry for each hardware type and the appropriate associated Files.HwComponent.ID and Config.DriverKey sections.

A sample txtsetup.oem file is provided with this DDK, under the installed DDK's \src directory.