Burning a bootable CD 1

[G0AOZ]

Not sure if it's the right place for this one...

LG CD-RW, Nero Express v5.5.9.9 running under W2K SP3. Creating or copying under Windows is fine, but problem reading the wanted files on the CD.

Need to create a CD with WIN98 boot files, and have a number of directories on that CD containing DOS programmes.

No problem creating a bootable CD, but the directories are not visible in DOS, only in Windows.

How can I burn the CD so that the DOS directories are visible (and accessible) at the DOS level?

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[satrow]

Hi Roger, it sounds like you are leaving the disc 'open', if so, this may 'hide' previous sessions from some OS'es.

If you burn the disc and 'close' it, it should then be more compatible and be seen by DOS.

 

[G0AOZ]

Thanks for the thought Satrow. I take it that "close" and "finalize" could be deemed the same thing, in which case I'm already doing that.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[bcastner]

. Is Nero InCD installed?

. Why not use the inbuilt XP burner for this chore.

 

[G0AOZ]

Thanks for your reply Bill.

No, Nero InCD not installed. Would this solve the problem?

"Why not use the inbuilt XP burner for this chore". Don't think this is available in W2K, which is the op system on the machine in question...?

I have had a poke about on an XP machine here, but can't see any reference to making a bootable CD in XP.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[bcastner]

I misread your OS, sorry.
No, InCD would not help.

I believe what you need to do is to make the CD under floppy emulation rather that using a Windows boot sector approach.

From the Web:
Place your boot floppy in the A: drive, and put a blank CD in your CD burner. If Nero opens a "wizard" dialog, cancel it. We'll be using manual settings, including some that are redundant, to ensure that your boot CD can work with the widest possible types of PCs: Click to File/New; the "New Compilation" dialog should open. In the left part of the dialog window, scroll down and select the "CD-ROM (Boot)" icon. A "Boot" tab should open in the right side of the dialog.

Under "Source of boot image data," select A: (or wherever your boot floppy is located). Click "Enable Expert Settings," and (if they're not already selected) select "Floppy Emulation 1.44MB," and "Nero Boot Loader." Usually, you can accept the defaults for the "Load Segment" and the "Number of loaded segments."

Next, click the "New" button in the upper right of the dialog. You should then see two panes: one (empty) labeled "ISO1" and one labeled "File Browser."

In the File Browser, navigate to your boot floppy, select all the files, and drag them into the empty ISO1 pane. Once the floppy file names appear in the ISO1 pane, right-click in the file name area of the ISO1 pane and select "Create Folder" from the context menu. A folder icon with the temporary title "New" will appear.

In the File Browser, navigate to your collection of diagnostic/repair utilities, and drag them into the "New" folder in the ISO1 pane. You can add as many files as you like, up to the capacity of the CD. Just make sure that all these additional files go into the folder named "New" and are not mixed in with the files you copied from your floppy.

Because you'll eventually be accessing all these files from DOS, note that long file- and folder names will be subject to DOS's 8.3 naming limits. Nero will check and warn you later if names are too long for the CD format, but you can save yourself some possible confusion later by renaming any long files or folder names in the ISO1 pane to short, easy-to-recognize names. As an example, if you have something named "Password Recovery Tool.EXE" in Windows, you might want to rename it to something like "PWRECOVR.EXE" for DOS access.

For maximum compatibility, you should also keep the number of folder sublevels on the CD to a minimum: Very long paths--folders within folders, many levels deep--can cause problems both in maintaining CD compatibility and in allowing some older PCs to read the data on the CD; long pathnames also hinder command-line navigation. Eight sublevels is the absolute maximum for a CD in the standard ISO 9660 format; keeping your CD to just two or three levels of subfolders is probably even better. When you're done copying (and perhaps renaming) files and folders, right click on the "New" folder, select "Rename," and give the folder a short, easy-to-remember name, such as "Tools."

You also can give the CD itself a custom name. Under the ISO1 title bar, right click on the CD disk icon, and give your boot CD a short, obvious, DOS-friendly name (something like "boot_cd" or "dos_boot").

When you're ready, click File/Write CD and a new dialog should open, with the "Burn" tab already selected. If the "Finalize" option box isn't checked, check it now. Click the "Write" button, and you're done.

 

[G0AOZ]

Bill, many thanks indeed for that very useful info...

I will need to obtain another version of Nero, as the latest v5 does not provide the "Expert Settings" options and "Nero Boot Loader".

I've printed it off and will give it whirl once suitable software is available. Thanks again.

ROGER - G0AOZ.