Super Bootable CD-R

Ryo Hazuki

Just wondering How hard it would be to make a bootable CD that can install windows XP, 2000 and Win 98.

Ideally, when its loaded, it would Display WindowsXP Pro Setup , Windows 2K Pro Setup etc, like if you have multiple Operating Systems.

Is there a program that can do this for you, or can anyone give me a link to a tutorial, google has so far given me nothing even close.

SouperComputer

cd-no, they wont fit!!!!!

maybe a DVD!

Ryo Hazuki

No not the whole OS, just the Files needed to launch the installation program. Then I would insert the relevant CD. Eg winXP

Kali

All a bit pointless really.. if you have the relevant cd then insert it anyway
If you have a large HD though you can make a Norton Ghost CD that can boot different OS images from various hidden partitions to a root partition, I've it working on a test machine in work, damn handy.

Capt'n Midnight

I'm a little confused - if you already have all the bootable CD's why do you need another one.

Biggest Gotcha with win 2K cloning is it don't really work if you use different HDD controllers (eg: different versions of Intel PIIX 4) (BTW: NT4 clones didn't bat an eyelid when presented with the same choices !)- has anyone got sysprep to work around this using the inf's for optional IDE controllers ??
ICYDK sysprep is M$'s way of cloning - you run it , clone the drive and on the next start up on the doner PC (and any one cloned from it) you are dumped into the "enter the license number" screen - or blue screen depending (Be bloody careful with this one - it's from the same folks who put rollback.exe on the OEM NT4 CD) ... Pity there is no way to change to a generic IDE controller prior to coning (or is there ??)

'98 is much easier - you put a little batch file on the bootable cd -if it can't find C: - use the undocumented Fdisk commands to create an active 2GB FAT 16 partiton, format , xcopy the CD onto the hard drive - sys C: and reboot. - now you can upgrade the '98 to whatever after it's settled down doing it's found new hardware dance..

If you have a network - all you need is a good ole' floppy with NIC' drivers... - other alternatives are usb hard drives - if you can select it to boot in the BIOS.

bricks

http://www.nu2.nu/bootablecd/
This site has loads of info on bootable CD's
I can't remember where I seen it but it is posible to have a bootable CD with both win2k and winxp and a menu just like you say. They will fit because you just copy the i386 directories accross. The problem is that you need to Hexedit the boot sectors and a few other files to make it work. i.e. one of the i386 directories will not be called i386.

Ryo Hazuki

I'm a little confused - if you already have all the bootable CD's why do you need another one.

I dont have the bootable CD's anymore, they are "backup copies" I made as the originals were destroyed in an earthquake 7 years ago in Laois.

So you see the problem I have.

It would be handy to have a CD like that, and I could put other utilities on it also.


Ill take a look at that site, thanks.

Renton

Its actually quite easy to do ,

Make a folder on your hard drive, call it "source" for example.

in the source folder, create 3 subfolders, called win98, winxp and win2k

from the win98 cd, copy the contents of the "Win98" folder on the cd, into the win98 folder on your hard drive

from the winxp cd, copy the contents of the "i386" folder on the cd, into the winxp folder on your hard drive

from the win2k cd, copy the contents of the "i386" folder on the cd, into the win2k folder on your hard drive

Now, go and create a bootable floppy disk, make sure that there is some sort of dos cdrom driver, for this case im going to use aoatapi.sys.

make sure that the floppy bootdisk contains himem.sys, mscdex.exe and aoatapi.sys.

and make your config.sys look like this:

[php]
[Menu]
MenuItem=win98, Run win98 setup (default)
MenuItem=win2k, Run win2K setup
MenuItem=winxp, Run winXP setup
MenuItem=none, Boot to a dos prompt
MenuColor=12,7
MenuDefault=win98,10

[Common]
device=himem.sys
device=aoatapi.sys /d:idecd000
dos=high

[win98]

[win2k]

[winxp]

[none]
[/php]

Then make your autoexec.bat look like this

[php]
@echo off
mscdex /d:idecd000 /l:j
IF "%config%"=="win98" GOTO win98
IF "%config%"=="win2k" GOTO win2k
IF "%config%"=="winxp" GOTO winxp
IF "%config%"=="none" GOTO end

:win98
J:
cd\win98
setup /is
goto end

:win2k
J:
cd\win2k
winnt
goto end

:winxp
J:
cd\winxp
winnt
goto end

:end
[/php]

So a quick recap:

You should now have a bootable floppy disk, with

• aoatapi.sys (or any nice dos based cdrom driver)
• himem.sys
• mscdex.exe
• autoexec.bat (as above)
• config.sys (as above)

Now, Load Nero Burning Rom (i hope thats what you use)

Make sure that your bootable floppy is in the floppy drive at this time.

Close the Wizard and scroll down the list on the left hand side of the window, down to "CD-ROM (boot)"

Click New, and then add the 3 folders from the source folder into the cd layout thing.

(note: dont add the source folder itself, just the three subfolders)

Click burn and there you have a bootable multi os installing thingamibob.

Renton

Ryo Hazuki

Nice One, I have to try That.

Littletinyman

Wow Denis you focking nerd!

Renton

Sorry par, you're really cool.

zAbbo

I take it ur using some sorta dodgy winxp ver yah,

well search for info on xpboot.bin

Will allow u to make a new cd-r, bootable from ur corrupt(;)) winxp cd

Can`t really say to much here, said to much tbh

...eh go and buy winxp :cool:

PPC

Try http://www.bootscriptor.org
Also have a look at this aswell Welcome to Multi-Bootable N-in-1 CD Howto

Just found this by accident, seem to be good.