Making Bootable OS CDs - using WinImage, NeeDetails.

[Four_of_Five]

I'm fairly new at this, especially about creating ISO files...and I recently had the "bootable bug" (badly needed it) and I came across something useful like this Making Bootable WinXP Cds website which was fairly easy to follow except the WinImage part (which unfortunately, was the first step)....

So I was just wondering if any of you guys or gals, found some better instructions on how to use WinImage...or better yet, found an easier way to make bootable cds.

Thanks for any tips!

[bottle-necked]

I usually use WinImage5.0 but don't have it installed right now.

If I remember you would put your CD in, wait, then cancel the autorun program. In WinImage5.0 click Disk then the drive letter of your CDROM drive (puts a check mark by the letter) then click "Read Disk". This will read the contents of your CDROM and list the file names in WinImage.
Then "save Image As", select ".iso" name the image and save to hard drive. This 'rips' the cdrom, creates the image file, and stores it on hard drive.

That page shows how to 'extract' an already ripped CD image file to your hard drive. Just start WinImage click File, open, browse, find the image file (*.iso). The image will load into WinImage showing the file structure. Click "Image" "Extract" choose destination folder, then extract image to destination. (creates the cd on hard drive in a folder)

In the old days we had to create an image file of what we wanted on the CD, with Bootcat.bin and Bootimg.bin as the first in order, then edit the image file with a Hex Editor then burn that mess to a cdrom so it would boot. I haven't did it for awhile I've about forgot how.

WinImage is easy to use and pretty nice for backing up floppy disks too. Just image all your important floppy disks and burn them on a CD. If you even need one just use the program to write a new floppy disk from the image. Pretty neat.

Good luck.

[coyote]

does anyone know if using this method will use smartmem. I know if I just boot with a plain dos disk and then change directories to the i386 folder and run winnt to install.....it takes FOREVER. You have to use the xp floppies that came with the cd.

Will making the cd autoboot install smartmem?

[Metaluna]

If you're going to make a bootable XP CD, you might as well also slipstream the latest service pack into the CD. It really speeds up the install process.

[Four_of_Five]

I'm actually using WinImage 6.1 but thanks for all the replies and ideas.
Hmmmm....SmartMem...interesting...need to do more research on that one too
Yeah, rebooting from a WinXp cd is takes painfully too long..

[bottle-necked]

Neat way to make a backup......Kinda lenghty process though.