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Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don't do it. |
I have burnt several CDs in which the originals were bootable only to learn that subsequent copies are not bootable. I understand that the index files or boot info are located on a separate track on a CD and a simple copying of files and burning will not make a backup CD bootable.
What simple software is available that will recognize and burn the info that makes a CD bootable?
Depends on what you want to burn. If it’s just a data CD, you can use floppy emulation. If it’s a Windows 2000/XP CD, or some other specialized disc, then you’re going to need the boot sector for the disc.
For XP (and these instructions also apply to Windows 2000), there are step by step instructions, replete with screen shots, at WindowsXP.nu. Oh, and by the by, Nero is developed by a German company. So no wonder their instructions read like someone whose primary language isn’t English.
27 coasters…..at least you have a matching set for parties. 
Hi, Mark ~
Thank you for your very speedy reply! I am pulling my hair out here 
I thought it would be as easy as copying the CD files and burning to a CD with a special setting for bootables. Floppy emulation?? I have seen that but do not understand what or how it relates to burning CDs.
The site you referred me to looks pretty nice and simple, but I got stuck on the first part. It first says ‘Extract your XP ISO file “. An ISO file is an image of a set of files, correct? Do I have an XP ISO file? And from where do I extract it?
Also, since I have Nero 5.5.9, I installed the recommended Nero Registry file. It crashed my system. Should I uninstall Nero and just buy Easy CD 5 Plat?
When I am successful with this, I will have to throw a congrats party and make sure of plenty of libations to utilize the coasters 
Floppy emulation is there so that when your system boots and the BIOS is configured to look at the CD-ROM drive as a boot device, it will boot to that CD as though it were a floppy disk. I haven’t used it extensively, but it does work. For instance, you could create an MS-DOS boot CD, complete with AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files, or a Windows 98 startup CD – much like the floppy that is normally used. Essentially anything you can do with a floppy disk, you can do with a floppy-emulated boot CD. I’ve used this technique to create bootable BIOS flash CDs, so that I have my choice of BIOS images to load.
The ISO file is indeed what you thought: an image. It’s an exact image of the data and its layout on the CD – so if you have the ISO image from a CD, you have one big file that contains the exact duplicate of the CD, without a bootable sector. You can extract it from the Windows XP CD itself – WinISO is the tool that I use for such things.
I don’t know about the registry file that you referred to for Nero. I’ve never had a problem with it on my home system, but a friend’s Dell didn’t agree with it and I never did figure out why (but I believe it was a proprietary CD-R drive). If memory serves, a Dell is exactly what you have – so it might be worth your while to call them, give them the ticket number on your machine, and politely ask them exactly what the problem is. Find out what kind of CD-R/CD-RW drive you have, and make sure the software you are using to toast CDs supports it. Not all drives are supported, particularly in the case of an OEM computer. OEMs will purchase a license to the software and add drive support for their products, and if you use an “off the shelf” version, even though the product name is identical, it might not work.
And, if you run out of coasters at your gala, you know how to create more – ‘just gimme five minutes.’ 
Is WinImage or ISOBuster similar or the same as WinISO?
I have xpboot.bin, but can’t seem to get Nero to get to it. I am getting that it will only look to read a drive smaller than 650MB, so unless I have a tiny partition, I am guessing I must put this on a floppy and then let it read from A:, sound right? What if on eidn’t have a floppy drive? I know most units have them, but many do not these days.
I have a Fujitsu 7631-C Lifebook with full retail version of XP Pro. I threw the Dell out the second story window last year, remember?
My Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-R2102 is fully supported and no generic drivers.
Good news! I have burnt one multi-session CD-R. Still working on the bootable. I’ll figure this out eventually.
Finally! 
After researching and downloading WinImage, IsoBuster, CloneCD, ClonyXXL, XPboot.bin, 288.ima, mktb.exe, and a variety of manuals and tutorials, it turns out that my lack of understanding made this more complicated than need be.
All I needed to do to create perfect bootable CDs was use the “Copy CD” button (not the “bootable CD’ button for creating bootable CDs from scratch) and check the appropriate boxes as I have done here:
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