China DOS Union

Making Your Own Bootable Computer CD

Author: Fire Fox 7-29 11:01

　　
　　CD burners are getting cheaper and cheaper now, and more and more people are using them. When burning CDs, I wonder whether you’ve noticed that when you restart the computer, some CDs can boot the computer directly from the CD-ROM drive. How is that made?

　　Actually, the method is very simple. You can first make a boot disk. If your requirements for the boot disk are not high, and you only need it to boot the computer, then it really couldn’t be simpler: just make a Windows 98 boot disk under Windows 98, or a boot disk for some other operating system. If you need to edit the "CONFIG.SYS" and "AUTOEXEC.BAT" files further, please do so yourself; I won’t go into detail here.

　　Then install the “Nero - Burning Rom” burning software (please download it here). I don’t need to say much about this software, right? It’s a veteran-level piece of software. Start “Nero - Burning Rom”. First, click the "Creates a new compilation" button on the shortcut toolbar, or use the command drop-down menu "File->New...", then click "CD-ROM (Boot)" on the left side of the interface. This function is specifically for making a CD that can boot the computer directly from the CD-ROM drive.



　　Under Soure of boot image data on the right side of the interface there are two options; choose either one:

　　·Bootable logical drive (must fit on the CD!)

　　This option makes the files on a floppy disk into CD boot files that can boot the computer directly from the CD-ROM drive (of course, there must be boot files present).

·Image file

　　This option reads an image file named "IMAGE.IMG". You can click "Browse..." to choose the path.

　　Finally, click the "New" button on the right side of the interface. At this point, making the CD’s boot files is complete.

　　Next, you can burn whatever files you need onto the CD.

　　Appendix: How to make an .IMG image file:

　　.IMG is an image file. It can be created by software that makes image files. For example, the specific operation for making an .IMG image file with HD-COPY:

　　The following explanation uses HD-COPY For DOS Ver 3.0 as an example:

　　① Start HD-COPY For DOS and execute the "Read" command to read all files on the floppy disk (for example, the operating system boot disk mentioned above, or some other disk with boot files that can boot the computer.)

　　② Execute the "Put to file" command to make the .IMG image file (enter the absolute path where the file will be stored, for example: D:\File\IMAGE.IMG)


　

Article source: PConline

I’m afraid the image file for a bootable CD can’t be made with HD-COPY. It’s best to make it with WinImage and save it as a *.IMA file.

Of course it can’t be made with HD-COPY, but it can be made with commands like MAKEISO.

If everyone is interested in this!

Then I’ll make a fool of myself a bit!!!
Hehe!

Of course I’m interested, especially in no-emulation bootable CDs. I hope everyone will post more threads like this.