Bootable CD - Halfway working - Help!

[UILanMan]

Ok.. I'm through making coasters. I've used 2 different programs to do this, and neither of the two are working right. All I'm wanting to do is make a bootable CD with a custom config that has some of our utilities on it - and as of this moment, I can make bootable CDs till the cows come home that *boot* - but don't show you any of the data outside of what was on the floppy that the programs used to retrieve the OS. I've been using Nero 5.5 and Easy CD Creator 5.0. In each program, I've made the file system ISO9660, Mode 1, and in Nero unchecked the Relaxed ISO Restrictions. Everything is said to be compatible. All of my files are in 8.3 format - I've triple checked.. even made a cd with just one directory and a small file thrown inside to see if that would work, but no go. I've even tried a different OS (which again works, but a directory listing after you boot with it just shows the contents of the floppy you grabbed the image of - none of my added files are there). Oh and also as a note, if you look at the cd in a 9x/2k machine, you see all the files I've added.. it looks exactly right. I've tried MS DOS 6.2, Caldera DR Dos, DOS 5.0 - don't think it's an OS issue.

Has anyone done this successfully, and if so, with what program?

 

[dkraut1]

I could also use some guidance here as I have a few coasters myself!
I used Easy CD / Roxio to create a bootable CD and it boots and loads the CD drivers but did not run "Autorun" after that?

 

[Cuular]

The autorun thing is part of windows. So booting off the cd is not going to run that stuff. However it should use the autoexec.bat and config.sys that is part of the DOS it is using.

As fasr as helping with the first problem, I haven't made Bootable CD's yet. But hopefully someone will figure this out. I want to ghost my current setups and make a bootable CD that contains the ghost program to do the restore with. I hate floppies, and only have a single floppy between my two machines.

 

[dkraut1]

UI, I'm a little confused as to your actual problem? you said that you can get the CD's to boot but you can't see any data? Did you use the option to create a bootable CD from Easy CD 5? Did you use the option to image a 1.44 Floppy? and if so, did you use a good Win98 startup floppy to get the image?

 

[boomerang]

You might want to take a look at this site. I have not done this myself and don't actually know if this site will answer your questions.

I just looked this through and it looks pretty hairy! I just typed in "make bootable CD" in Google and this looked promising. Way over my head.

 

[Luke727]

It's been a while since I used it, but WinISO lets you make bootable CD's pretty easily. WinISO. The shareware version is pretty crippled, but (not that I condone this ) a quick trip to any crack site will get you around that....

 

[Kwatt]

When you boot from the floppy are you able to read a CD? If not you'll have to edit your "config.sys" to add the device driver for your CD drive. And your "autoexec.bat" to assign the CD drive a letter.

You might look for "NTI File CD" software I have not tried it. But, It is supposed to make a CD-RW disc into a giant floppy drive. It came free in a box of Memorex CD-RW blanks.

Thats the only thing I can think of at 2:30 AM

Kwatt