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This knowledgebase article discusses the creation of bootable CDs or DVDs from downloaded ISO images.
<h3>What are Bootable CDs and DVDs?</h3>
There are many reasons to need to boot a PC from a bootable CD or DVD. Most users with an intermediate level of PC experience are familiar with having to start their machine up from a Windows setup CD or DVD to install a clean copy of Windows. Many recovery programs and utilities, such as our own <a href="/EasyRE/">Easy Recovery Essentials for Windows</a>, also come in the form of a bootable CD. These products are more than just repair tools — the CDs must ship with their own operating system ((Most recovery tools will use a stripped-down form of Linux for the bootable recovery environment. In the past, repair CDs used to include and rely on Microsoft's Windows PE, a mini, bootable version of Windows; but is no longer used due to concerns over the licensing agreement.)) and work from within it to repair your PC.

<h3>Creating a bootable CD or DVD</h3>
Our knowledgebase contains guides on creating a bootable CD or DVD from an ISO image using free products like <a href="https://neosmart.net/wiki/burning-iso-images-with-activeiso/">ActiveISO</a> and <a href="https://neosmart.net/wiki/burning-iso-images-with-imgburn/">ImgBurn</a>. The instructions must be followed very closely, and it is essential that you do not open the ISO file directly — instead, install the burning software you plan to use (ActiveISO or ImgBurn) and use that application to browse for and open the ISO file you have downloaded.
<ul>
	<li><a href="https://neosmart.net/wiki/burning-iso-images-with-activeiso/">Creating a bootable CD with ActiveISO</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://neosmart.net/wiki/burning-iso-images-with-imgburn/">Creating a bootable CD with ImgBurn</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Booting from a CD or DVD</h3>
There is a separate knowledgebase article dedicated specifically to <a href="https://neosmart.net/wiki/booting-from-a-cd-or-dvd/">configuring your PC to boot from CD or DVD</a>. If you're having problems getting your PC to boot from the CD/DVD drive after following those instructions, this page contains <a href="https://neosmart.net/wiki/troubleshooting-boot-from-cd/">an index of troubleshooting inability to boot from CD/DVD and common solutions</a>.
<h3>Unable to boot from CD/DVD?</h3>
If you're having problems getting your PC to boot from the CD/DVD drive after following those instructions, this page contains <a href="https://neosmart.net/wiki/troubleshooting-boot-from-cd/">an index of troubleshooting inability to boot from CD/DVD and common solutions</a>.