Bootable CD

[anita2002]

Hi all,
I have heard this word a lot of times. "Bootale CD". Can anyone explain me abt it?. Is it same as a Bootable floppy? And how to make CD bootable?
thanks in advance,
Anita

[si_the_geek]

yes it is basically the same as a bootable floppy

from what I have seen you need to create the CD file system on a hard drive partition the same size as the CD or smaller (ie: 640MB or less), then use your CD-writing software to burn it (use any special options that it provides to make bootable CD's)

In Nero you go to file-new (turn the Wizard off if apt), then select CR-Rom (boot).

[Jez1]

Most comps aren't set up to look for boot records on the CD drive, though. You'd need to adjust the BIOS first.

[kleptos]

Originally posted by Jez1
Most comps aren't set up to look for boot records on the CD drive, though. You'd need to adjust the BIOS first.

Actually, every machine i have seen in the past few years have all been CD bootable. I have only run across one that wasnt and thats because i disabled it.

[blackeyed]

well bootable CD and bootable floopy are used for same purpose i.e is to boot your system from cd or either floopy. As CD are more reliable these days so often the operating system CDs are on bootable CDs. simply these are used to boot your system from other source then your hardisk.

anita i guess you look like some indian actress

[Jez1]

Actually, every machine i have seen in the past few years have all been CD bootable. I have only run across one that wasnt and thats because i disabled it.

Fair enough

Maybe I'm a bit out of date with that one...

[Sastraxi]

It's a miscommunication.

Jez was referring to the fact that most computers, BY DEFAULT, don't check the CD drives at all in the boot cycle. These need to be added to the boot order first. So, both of you are right

[Yonatan]

If your computer is at most 5 years old, you can be fairly certain you can boot from the CD-ROM. To make sure, check if that option is available in the BIOS setup.

My computer is 4 years old and it works for me.

To create a CD that uses boot information from a "boot image file" (.img, IIRC) you can create a .iso image with WinISO, and then burn it with a program that supports burning .iso files, like Nero.

This feature doesn't really have much use besides for operating system installers, though.

[anita2002]

Thanks to all of you..
Still i have some related questions..
1)What are the advantages of making an IMAGE of data and burn it? Why not to write just the data as it is to CD?
2)Can we use the remaining blank space left on the bootable CD, as hardly 1% or 2% of the CD space will be occpied.
3)Will it work if we just burn the contents of the Bootale floppy to the CD and after that can we make the CD bootable with "NERO" as "si_the_geek" said.

[si_the_geek]

Originally posted by anita2002
1)What are the advantages of making an IMAGE of data and burn it? Why not to write just the data as it is to CD?

You can do that if the CD writing software supports it, check the help files that come with it to work out wether or not you need to make an image first. I have yet to find one that doesn't need to have a hard drive partition the same size as the target CD (but then I haven't looked too hard!)

2)Can we use the remaining blank space left on the bootable CD, as hardly 1% or 2% of the CD space will be occpied.

You can put extra files on when you create it, but the majority of CD drives (not recent ones) won't be able to read it unless it is finalised (locked for writing).

3)Will it work if we just burn the contents of the Bootale floppy to the CD and after that can we make the CD bootable with "NERO" as "si_the_geek" said. [/B]

Yes, except you don't write it and then make it bootable, you write it as a bootable CD in the first place.


For Nero (and probably most other software) the best thing to do is to make a 640MB partition on a hard drive, copy to it the boot files and any others you want to have on the CD. You can then test it by booting your computer to that partition/drive. Once you are sure it is ok then use Nero to create a bootable CD from it.