That is a rather generic message in Windows. From the OS Help Files:
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To create an MS-DOS startup disk
The MS-DOS startup disk you create will allow you to boot into MS-DOS.

Insert a floppy disk into your computer's floppy drive.
Open My Computer, and then click the floppy disk drive to select it.
On the File menu, point to the name of the floppy drive, and then click Format.
Under Format options, click Create an MS-DOS startup disk.
Click Start.
Important

Creating an MS-DOS startup disk erases all information on the floppy disk.
Notes

To open My Computer, click Start, and then click My Computer.
The MS-DOS startup disk only allows the system to boot into an MS-DOS prompt. The disk contains no additional tools.
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This will get you onto the hard drive but will that help? Maybe...Now there is something else called "Automated System Recovery". Again from the Help files:
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Automated System Recovery overviewYou should create Automated System Recovery (ASR) sets on a regular basis as part of an overall plan for system recovery in case of system failure. ASR should be a last resort for system recovery, used only after you have exhausted other options, such as Safe Mode Boot and Last Known Good. For more information about other recovery options, see Repair overview.

ASR is a two-part system of recovery: ASR backup and ASR restore. The backup portion is accomplished through the ASR Wizard located in Backup. The wizard backs up the system state, system services, and all disks associated with the operating system components. It also creates a file containing information about the backup, the disk configurations (including basic and dynamic volumes) and how to accomplish a restore.

You can access the restore portion by pressing F2 when prompted in the text-mode portion of setup. ASR will read the disk configurations from the file that it creates and restore all of the disk signatures, volumes and partitions on, at a minimum, the disks required to start the computer. (It will attempt to restore all of the disk configurations, but under some circumstances, it might not be able to.) ASR then installs a simple installation of Windows and automatically starts a restoration using the backup created by the ASR wizard.
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This may be more of what it is suggesting. Now the OS cd is bootable so if you need to use the Recovery Console you can boot to the cd and run FIXMBR or whatever else you need.