Create a bootable CD or DVD with or without floppy

The information on this article will guide you step-by-step how to generate a bootable CD/DVD, either using a bootup floppy disk or a boot picture file. You will finish up having a bootable CD or DVD, with CD-ROM driver supported, that could startup your PC and raise the command prompt. This is going to be a lovely beginning point, then you can run other utilities such as hard drive ghost, etc..


With the CD-ROM available on  every computer nowaday, floppy drives become a history. However, for those who find computers a hobby, might run in to a situation when they need to generate a bootable CD that works like the elderly floppy disk. Regrettably, to do this, you still need a floppy drive to read your bootup floppy disk. Wait, the lovely news is, you can down load a bootable ISO picture and burn it to a CD. And even better, they have a duplicate of an ISO picture right here. You can download this picture and follow the instructions below, or you can do a web search for more options.


You will need a boot disk (floppy) or a bootable ISO picture to start. In the event you don't have, you can download an ISO picture here. This boot picture is Windows-98 based, which means it makes use of the Windows 98 bootup sequence, which ought to do what they need. You can also download different boot disk images from the world wide web. I have found bootdisk.com has an excellent collection.


Lots of current CD/DVD burning program support the bootable feature. In the event you already have your favourite burning program, look around to find the bootable option. For this article, I will use the steps and sample screen-shots with the burning gizmo called Nero.


I assume that you already have Nero installed. Also, it is highly recommended to make use of a rewritable disc so you can redo the system in the event you need to.




Launch Nero Burning ROM
At the New Compilation Window, select "CD" from the drop-down menu and choose "CD-ROM (Boot)" for CD, (or select "DVD" and "DVD-ROM (Boot)" for DVD)








In the event you use a bootup floppy disk, insert the floppy disk and choose "Bootable logical drive..."


At the "Open" Window, browse to the location where you saved the boot picture and choose the picture you need to make use of and click "Open" (you might need to change the "Files of type" to "All Files" in order to see files with different extensions.)




In the event you use an picture file, select "Image File" then click "Browse" to browse to the picture.





Click "New" at the New Compilation Window.
Nero New Compilation Window disappears and Nero brings up its main screen where you can add more files to the CD/DVD in the event you wish. For example, adding a "ghost" folder with the file "ghost.exe" as follows.
One time you are done adding all the files you need to, click on the "Burn" icon.






At the "Burn Compilation" Window, select "Burn"!