Making a bootable CD

[spudboy]

Can anybody offer advice on making a bootable CD from an install CD image that is not bootable.

We have downloaded the files for Windows 2003 Server 64-Bit from our Microsoft "partner" site (and got a "partner" key to install it with).

But the image we downloaded is just the install files, with an AutoRun and a Setup.EXE in the root directory. This might be OK if you are upgrading and the computer already has an OS on it.

However, we want to start with a clean/empty hard disk, and go from scratch.

We have Nero and Roxio burning software available if either of them are of any use.

Any ideas?

[loanrangie]

I have used Seagates sea tools/ disc wizard to create a boot disc for when installing a new drive in a new pc so that should work for you - free download from Seagate.

[TyGras]

The install should give you the option of a install over current information /OS on the drive or doing a format and fresh install. To me that would be the best option. Check your new operating system and insure it isnt an upgrade first. If it is you will require a legally licensed copy of windows to prove that you are elligable for the upgrade.

[Ferret]

If you have Nero, there should be an option to make a bootable cd/dvd.

There is in my version, Nero 6.6

[spudboy]

Thanks for the pointers - I'll download that Seagate utility, and take a look in Nero then. I have Nero v7 on CD but not installed anywhere (it came as one of those free add-ons with a motherboard)

[spudboy]

The install should give you the option of a install over current information /OS on the drive or doing a format and fresh install. To me that would be the best option. Check your new operating system and insure it isnt an upgrade first. If it is you will require a legally licensed copy of windows to prove that you are elligable for the upgrade.

It is a download from the the MS partner site (work collegue downloaded it) so I will check that it is not an upgrade - otherwise a self boot CD is still not going to help I guess. We want to start with a clean/empty server, so the upgrade route is not going to be a go-er.

[TyGras]

I did some beta testing with Vista before it came out. The OS was downloadable from the MS site and came down as an image to your hard drive which you copied over to a CD/DVD disk. I had the same problem with it not being bootable. They had instructions on the beta site as to get around that but I havent been able to find that forum (it might be gone).

Have you got your problem solved yet? I will be back in WA this Friday so if you need more help pm me and I will see what I can find.

Good luck...

[dmdigital]

This is a bit dated, but I found it very useful over the years.

Bart's way to create bootable CD-Roms (for Windows/Dos) (http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/)

[spudboy]

Well the problem has now been solved, but not through cleverly making a bootable CD.

We went back to the Microsoft partner area and just through chance found a separate menu that let us download an ISO image of the CD, which turned out to be bootable.

Burnt the CD and it worked first time. Happiness! Now we can move on to solving our initial problem that caused us to rebuild the server .......

Thanks for all the help. DM - I'll be reading that link next up in case I have to solve this sort of thing again.