Need a CD Bootable CD

disneyjoe7

Help.

Lost.

Confused.

And

Frustrated.

Systems

You need a CD you can boot to? Might need to explain a little further. Drop in your Windows CD/DVD and boot to that? I'm confused.

renowilliams

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

Help.

Lost.

Confused.

And

Frustrated.

You need to be more specific about what kind of bootable cd you need. Firstly, what type of computer do you have (custom built or an H.P,Dell,Acer etc...) Are you looking for an operating system disk ie XP or Vista. Or are you looking for a bootable disk which will allow you to use dos commands?





Tim

disneyjoe7

Ok thanks for the reply....


My wifes computer a Dell Laptop with Vista Home 32bit. She's over it and what's it OFF, I can install Win XP on it or Win 7 for now. But since it's a laptop need a clean install either way XP or 7, so to due so I need a boot cd so I can wipe hard drive.

I have a nice Win98 boot floppy but can't seem to find a way to make a CD bootable.

Or is it easier with a USB, but since I have her backup files on it... I'm don't wish to mess that up.

obieone

Is this what you're looking for???


http://www.dban.org/

nadams

If you have either the XP or Win7 CD, they'll be able to wipe the drive, no additional disks needed.

disneyjoe7

obieone wrote: »

Is this what you're looking for???


http://www.dban.org/

I'm doing something wrong here, I downloaded this file below. Then burned and rebooted no go not bootable.

http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?groupname=dban&filename=dban-1.0.7_i386.iso&use_mirror=hivelocity

disneyjoe7

nadams wrote: »

If you have either the XP or Win7 CD, they'll be able to wipe the drive, no additional disks needed.

Really I always fdisk'd a drive first, but maybe I'm adding a step or two? Would that clean a partition also, making it one large drive?

Systems

Drop in the XP CD and choose to boot to the CD drive in the bios. When the computer starts select to boot from CD then delete all patitions. Create a full partition using the maximun space on the hard drive (or create a small partition and copy XP to that partition and use it to load XP from a DOS prompt) and then format and install XP. Go to another computer and make a driver disk from the dell download site for all the drivers you need for the laptop that XP doesn't install.

Done.

WilliamM2

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

Really I always fdisk'd a drive first, but maybe I'm adding a step or two? Would that clean a partition also, making it one large drive?

If that's what you want it to do. When it gets to the setup screen, you will have three options. Install on selected partition. Delete selected partition, create partition. Just delete them all and create one large partition.

disneyjoe7

Thanks all, I'm going in... It's all or nothing now.

Would like a bootable CD with some tools (DOS tools?) for the future. But for now it will work.

WilliamM2

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

Thanks all, I'm going in... It's all or nothing now.

Would like a bootable CD with some tools (DOS tools?) for the future. But for now it will work.

Here you go:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html

disneyjoe7

WilliamM2 wrote: »

Here you go:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html

Ok tried it on my laptop, downloaded burn it... Didn't work. Then found some other software on download.com http://download.cnet.com/UBCD4Win/3000-2086_4-10550208.html which build from your OE software? Well it failed as it failed to build cleanly having 72 errors. So I'll try this on another computer tomorrow, as I give up tonight. But now I question if I even if I need this as I have Linux boot CD which allow me to get files off a BSOD machine. Then if I can use a OS disk to redo / format a disk, do I need anything else?


On a side note, the Win 7 64bit looks and runs really sweet so far on my wifes laptop. Got a little weird when my wife needed Adobe Flash software, but the Vista option worked ok.

WilliamM2

It's an iso file, you don't burn it directly to the disc. How are you burning it? If you don't have software that will burn an iso, go here, it's free:

http://cdburnerxp.se/

megasat16

I'll give it a shot! Your Bootable Drive Order might be set to boot from hard drive first?

Did you check your BIOS to boot from CD first?

Try the Knoppix Live CD from here. It's pretty sure a bootable image.

http://www.knoppix.net/

WilliamM2

I'll give it a shot! Your Bootable Drive Order might be set to boot from hard drive first?

Good thought, but he was able to boot to the Win7 CD and install it.

renowilliams

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

Thanks all, I'm going in... It's all or nothing now.

Would like a bootable CD with some tools (DOS tools?) for the future. But for now it will work.

There is a boot cd called Hiren's boot cd that not only allows you to boot to a dos prompt but also will allow you to get files off a computer with a corrupted operating system. This cd also has a lot of utilities for checking hardware. I highly recommend it.

Here is a link


http://soft.softoogle.com/ap/hiren-s-bootcd-download-6916.shtml

disneyjoe7

I'm testing my "Boot CD" by changing BIOS so it just boots from CD. If it boots it does, if not it gives some "Non bootable software" message.

I don't seem to have an issue with burning a CD, but finding a good software link. Can anyone post a link for what you guys are talking about? If not happy with Salk Linux boot CD for file recovery, but one the other hand a DOS based would be nice also.

Sami

http://www.ubcd4win.com/

These have already been mentioned:

http://www.knoppix.net/
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Sami

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

But now I question if I even if I need this as I have Linux boot CD which allow me to get files off a BSOD machine. Then if I can use a OS disk to redo / format a disk, do I need anything else?

If you only need to get the files off, then that's all you need.

disneyjoe7

renowilliams wrote: »

There is a boot cd called Hiren's boot cd that not only allows you to boot to a dos prompt but also will allow you to get files off a computer with a corrupted operating system. This cd also has a lot of utilities for checking hardware. I highly recommend it.

Here is a link


http://soft.softoogle.com/ap/hiren-s-bootcd-download-6916.shtml

Ok I'm lost or I getting tried of burning CD to find it doesn't work.

Downloaded this file above unzip'd it and burned only the ISO file to disk. Rebooted and have this message again.

"No bootable devices--strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility." If CD is bootable then it works fine I never see this message.


What I'm doing wrong, and I need it in little steps.

megasat16

Your CD/DVD lens may need cleaning? When you put a bootable CD, did you see any lights from the CD at bootup indicating that the computer is reading the CD and before it comes up with unbootable devices error?

Do you have any other computer to try and see that the bootable CD you created is good?

It's probably that the CD reader in your computer can't read CD-R media if it's too old.

Sami

Are you burning the <file>.ISO to disc or are you creating the disc from the ISO? Big difference. Download ImgBurner and use it to burn a disc from the ISO.

http://www.imgburn.com/

WilliamM2

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

What I'm doing wrong, and I need it in little steps.

WilliamM2 wrote: »

It's an iso file, you don't burn it directly to the disc. How are you burning it? If you don't have software that will burn an iso, go here, it's free:

http://cdburnerxp.se/

Again.

disneyjoe7

Thanks William,

I'm working on dailup right now, I download this later to see if it does make a difference. But since I downloaded Nero as a trial, does this software offer a bootable option? I'm missing something? I just right clicking file and send to burner drive then burn from there. It works for Win7 software, but nothing I burned to boot?

For the record, I tried this CD on another computer it didn't boot either.

Sami, I don't know what you're saying... But what I'm doing from the statement above?

Thanks all.

Sami

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

Sami, I don't know what you're saying... But what I'm doing from the statement above?

From Nero, select "Burn Image" option. Do not burn the ISO on the disc as a file, it is an image of the disc.

disneyjoe7

Sami,

Dead on buddy, worked as a charm.

Thank YOU.


Now I feel like a dummy.

megasat16

With nero installed, I can just double click on the ISO file and it'll burn the ISO file as an image file. I think you went a great length to burn the ISO file (copy) by opening Nero and choose to create a data CD?

renowilliams

Glad to see you got it burned. Sorry, I should have explained more clearly how to deal with an image file. I usually just right click on the file and select to open with the burning program I want to use ie: Roxio , power iso etc... or as megasat says double click on the file and the default burning program will open up pre-selected to burn an image.

Anyway, I'm sure you'll like the Hirens boot cd.


Tim

disneyjoe7

Yes, Hirens CD is cool and has many tools on it nice. Ultimate BootCD nice also, but Hirens wins due to password fixes. Darik's Boot and Nuke title fits this CD pretty well, use CAUTION if booting from this one or really know what you're doing


Nice to have some options for that BSOD which you can't recover from one day, hate to lose all those pictures I like to take again.

Sami

Now that you're doing the filesystem again, put all that important data on a separate partition. That way it's still there even if you need to do a clean install again.