I want to make a Vista Boot disk

F

flysalot

Member
Hi there - complete novice here but I've registered with this forum because you seem to treat beginners with respect and are always helpful to each other.

I have a new laptop which came with Vista Home Premium. I want to load XP on it and I have ordered an upgrade copy of XP Pro. I already own Windows 2000 so the plan is to load 2000 and then upgrade to XP. Now in order to do this I thought I would have to completely wipe away Vista but I think now, after reading here, that I should be able to use your Easy BCD and get both working. I'll get back to that point later.

First I would like to make a complete back up DVD which I could restore from if everything goes completely wrong. Again, I read on some other MS sites that the complete backup process provided in Vista does NOT give me a 'bootable' disk. However, I have used The Acer eRecovery process to make a Full Back Up which they referred to as a 'Factory Default' disk. One person on the Acer helpline thought this would be a bootable disk and another thought it would not!

Finally, I'm getting to the question here :smile:. Can anyone tell me how to tell from the contents of the disk whether it is bootable or not? e.g. one of the files is called STCDBOOT and it's described as an ISO file. Would that do it? (Ask if you need any more details?) The whole thing fills 2 DVDs. And I forgot to mention - I have Kubuntu installed on a seperate partition from Vista so if this disk is a complete image of the whole computer, I guess the Linux stuff will be in there somewhere.
 
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Hello and welcome to NeoSmart Technologies, flysalot.

There is something called an "El Torito Boot Sector" that is the equivalent of the MBR for a CD/DVD.

This nifty program (free, of course) can check if your CD has an El Torito boot sector and if it is or isn't bootable.

Let us know how it goes :smile:
 
Ok here come the dumb questions!
How do I use this program?
I clicked the link and then chose the middle link Mkbootcd 1.02
I chose to save it and then clicked to opn the zip file. I'm now looking at a bunch of stuff. So I've chosen to 'extract all files' and its asking me where to extract them to?
I've just let it put them on the desktop as it suggested.
Now what?

Ok wait. I just scrolled up the page and I'm reading - sorry!
I let you know.
 
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Basically, just stick them on your desktop like you did.
Then Start | Run | CMD.exe
Code: 
cd desktop
That will let you run the program and see if it's bootable or not.
 
Nothing happened.

I have Vista so there is no Start/Run etc, but I found the command prompt in Accessories - I hope thats right. I typed
cd desktop and it did this

C:\Users\Judy Brunton\Desktop>
and nothing else.

I tried just double clicking on the application in the extracted folder. A command window flashes open and then disappears - not long enough for me to read it.

I have the DVD in the drive and I did try reading the rest of that web page last night but it made no sense to me, sorry.
 
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Well, once you're at the desktop in command prompt, you need to type the name of the program there.
So if the file is "myprogram.exe" you would type in
Code: 
cd desktop
myprogram.exe
 
That means that the file was not found - either the file was not extracted to the desktop (if so, copy it to the desktop) or it was misspelled.

Double-check those two things and see what happens.
 
Thank you for your patience!

This is a copy of the result now:

Code: 
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6000]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Judy Brunton>
C:\Users\Judy Brunton>cd desktop

C:\Users\Judy Brunton\Desktop>
C:\Users\Judy Brunton\Desktop>mkbootcd.exe
'mkbootcd.exe' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Users\Judy Brunton\Desktop>mkbootcd.exe
mkbootcd - make bootable CD image(El Torito specification)
30-Mar-98 [email]gigo@yk.rim.or.jp|imaizumi@nisiq.net[/email] V1.02
21-May-98 *BETA* Joliet Extensions [email]petry@rbg.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de[/email]

Usage:
verify:mkbootcd isoimage
make:  mkbootcd isoimage bootentryfile bootimage
       mkbootcd isoimage bootentryfile - <indirect
options:
    -        Use stdin
    -D[Q]      Set CD-ROM Drive Letter is 'Q'
    -M[nnnnnn] Set offset for multisession
    -I[xx]     Set bootIndicator
    -T[x]      Set bootMediaType, F means Auto
    -F[x]      Set bootMediaTypeFlags
    -C[nn]     Set bootSectorCount
    -L[xxxx]   Set bootLoadSegment
    -P[nn]     Set PlatformID
    -J         *BETA* Preserve Joliet Volume Descriptor
    -S[string] Make Section entry with ID string
ex.
mkbootcd mycd.iso bootcat.bin osboot.ima -i00 noboot.ima -i88 osboot2.ima

mailto:gigo@yk.rim.or.jp
[url="http://www1.yk.rim.or.jp/~gigo/"]OpenDNS[/url]

C:\Users\JUDYBR~1\Desktop>
 
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Try this:

Code: 
mkbootcd -DX

Replace X in the above command with the letter of your CD-ROM drive.

Paste the output here and that should do the trick.

btw - can't you just try to boot from the CDs you made and see if they boot?
 
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]Right. I thought about trying the disk but I was afraid it might restore and wipe out my existing set up - don't laugh!! I said I was a novice.
I asked my husband and he said no, I could try that. But the other risk is that I might be fooled by the eRecovery stuff that Acer put on this machine. Again, don't laugh if that's a stupid idea! So he suggested I try it in another old laptop we have at home.

Anyway I tried your suggestion and here is the result:

C:\Users\JUDYBR~1\Desktop>mkbootcd -DE
mkbootcd - make bootable CD image(El Torito specification)
30-Mar-98 gigo@yk.rim.or.jp|imaizumi@nisiq.net V1.02
21-May-98 *BETA* Joliet Extensions petry@rbg.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de

Usage:
verify:mkbootcd isoimage
make: mkbootcd isoimage bootentryfile bootimage
mkbootcd isoimage bootentryfile - <indirect
options:
- Use stdin
-D[Q] Set CD-ROM Drive Letter is 'Q'
-M[nnnnnn] Set offset for multisession
-I[xx] Set bootIndicator
-T[x] Set bootMediaType, F means Auto
-F[x] Set bootMediaTypeFlags
-C[nn] Set bootSectorCount
-L[xxxx] Set bootLoadSegment
-P[nn] Set PlatformID
-J *BETA* Preserve Joliet Volume Descriptor
-S[string] Make Section entry with ID string
ex.
mkbootcd mycd.iso bootcat.bin osboot.ima -i00 noboot.ima -i88 osboot2.ima

mailto:gigo@yk.rim.or.jp
OpenDNS

C:\Users\JUDYBR~1\Desktop>


[/FONT]
 
continuing help needed please

I have not done any more since that last post - busy trying to get a job!

I presume from your previous response that it tells us nothing?

If I try to boot from the disk what is likely to happen? And how do I respond in either situation?

I'm guessing that the disk is not bootable so I need to plan how to proceed.

On DVD 1 I have a file called STCDBOOT which is an ISO file 121 MB does this tell us anything?
Also: RCD.DAT; SCD.DAT; WINNT.SIF; a folder called 1386 with NTDETECT (MS DOS App) and SETUPLDR.BIN inside; a folder called ACER which contains "tools" and an IMAGES folder containing 71 files named DAEOT327.000 up to DAEOT327.067 and a couple of others. There are more of these image files on the 2nd DVD.

Any more comments before I take myself off to a different thread to find out how to proceed?
 
You should be able to safely stick the CD and attempt to boot from it. I've asked a friend who had a similar recovery cd, and he says it'll always ask if you want to continue before it does anything.
 
I have the file stcdboot.iso in the hidden partition on my ACER laptop.
Using partition magic I was able to copy the file out to a drive and then used Nero to load the image file.
Then I was able to browse the disc image and it looks like a bootable OS install image. When I get a chance I'll burn image to a disc and see if it is the recovery disc.
 
Good luck with that :smile:

(btw, are you flysalot?
if not, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies, nice to have you here :smile:)
 
Hi
Sorry for the long silence.
Basically I managed to use the Vista partitioning tools to alter the partition sizes giving Vista just enough space and the rest to two partitions (or 3 - I can't remember now :shame:smile: I loaded XP onto one of these partitions (H) and use another for all my data (D). I now have a fully functioning laptop using XP so it talks to all the programs I want to run etc. I also have Vista still sitting there in its own partition (C) waiting for the day when I might want to 'upgrade'. :happy:

I know I can just restore and it will bring me back to Vista and whether it would wipe out XP or not I'm not sure at the moment. Probably not as it will only restore the one partition I think. However the best arrangement would be to use Easy BCD to get a dual boot going but I have not done that due to getting on with other jobs.

Since I now have that job I was trying to get, I doubt that I will do anything on this until next Easter or Summer so I hope I can still obtain the latest version of BCD then - I presume it would be silly to get a copy now as you are constantly updating it.

I remain very thankful for all the help and support I got here - I will likely be back - and I hope I've made good notes of everything I did so that I can remember what to do next time:scared: :grinning:
 
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