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How do I make a bootable CD?

E

ekiefer

n00b
Joined
Mar 23, 2005
Messages
13
Hi.

This came up in conversation between a friend and I, and I've never thought to try it.

But since so many newer PCs are coming out without floppy drives, how do I go about burning a bootable CD for emergencies?

Thanks,

Eric
Pittsburgh
 
i might not fully understand your question, but nero has an option for making bootable cds.
 
I'm assuming you want to know how to burn software onto a disc so that when your computer reads the disc it will boot off of it.

Programs like Nero and Burn for Free etc have the option to "burn iso". That is what you should choose should you wish to make it a bootable cd.

-cheers
 
When you say bootable CD I am going to assume that you mean an OS disk or something. You need to burn the boot image on the OS in order for it to boot.
 
Mushroom Prince said:
Programs like Nero and Burn for Free etc have the option to "burn iso". That is what you should choose should you wish to make it a bootable cd.
Click to expand...
That has nothing to do with bootable CDs or not. If the iso image isn't bootable, than neither will the CD.

Anyway, the easiest way is to have a boot floppy ready that does what you need it to. Nero will let you chose to make a bootable CD, and asks where the bootimage is. The default option is the A: drive, so stick in your floppy. Then you can add more files to the CD itself.

You really should specify what your planning to do. I have many bootable CDs and DVDs, but they aren't all using the same bootimage.
 
Well, I mean an emergency boot disk. You're telling me to put in a floppy disk. I'm saying there are a lot of newer machines that don't have floppy disks. Therefore, I figure I must a CD ROM that is capable of that. Unless there is another option (flash drive or something else?)

Eric
 
ekiefer said:
Well, I mean an emergency boot disk. You're telling me to put in a floppy disk. I'm saying there are a lot of newer machines that don't have floppy disks. Therefore, I figure I must a CD ROM that is capable of that. Unless there is another option (flash drive or something else?)

Eric
Click to expand...
I said that the easiest way to make a bootable CD now, for in the future, is to have a bootable floppy first. Nero copies that to the bootsector of the CD. Saying you want to create an emergency boot disk tells us nothing. What do you want it to do? Boot to a dos prompt to be able to access the CD? Boot a WinPE environment? Boot some application, like Ghost, to restore and image? Making a bootable CD is very simple, as all the major burning apps have wizards to walk you through it. YOu just have to decide what you want the bootable CD to do.
 
Not trying to thread crap but I want you to be aware of something.

Newer systems, 865 chipset and newer are flexible enough to boot from USB devices such as a Jaz drive, flash drive, etc. as well as a CDROM for emergancies. Older systems it's kind of hit and miss.

Recently, my Shuttle SS51G (SHADUP, it works fine for me and what I use my PC for) had CMOS checksum error and would only boot in a flash recovery mode. This mode only works with an actual 3.5" floppy drive, it would not boot from a USB floppy or even a CDROM. I had to actually dig out a floppy from the collection of parts and install it temporarily to reflash the bios. Many older systems will be in this exact same boat.
Also, Windows 2K, XP and even 2K3 STILL require SCSI, RAID, SATA and/or other specialty drivers for the hard drives to be on a floppy and used at install time.

If you want a bootable CD for BIOS recovery and flash purposes, read your mobo manual and see if it has a recovery mode that requires the origional CD (I know the Asus P4P and P4Cs do, it's nice) to reflash and recover in the event of bios failure. If it doesn't, ask the manufacturer if a CD can be used instead of a floppy. Otherwise, don't bother.

If you want a CD for data and/or OS recovery, look into Bart's PE builder. It will give you a helluva lot more options than a DOS based CD will and a GUI! :D The directions on how to make it bootable are all listed in the directions on building it. It's fun and gets you a PC merit badge!
 
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