Boot To Dos CDROM

[Mark]

I'm burning a lot of worthless CDs trying to make one to boot to DOS (no
floppy drive available).

I've downloaded several programs to boot to DOS, unzipped them, and burned
the iso to a CD. When I boot to the CD I get the Hardware Profile
Configuration Recovery Menu, which shows Profile 1...no other option except
to boot to last good config, etc. When I hit enter it boots to XP.

I need a CD ROM that will allow me to boot to DOS to run the various fixmbr,
fixboot commands, when trying to repair a PC that has a corrupted hard
drive.

I must be too dense, the CDs have the ISO image, and I am booting to the CD.
TIA

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

Not sure, but one thing you say gives me pause: Did you simply copy the ISO
files to CD or did you use a utility that is intended to properly place the
image (contents of the ISO file) onto the CD.

Note that DOS is pretty much useless for working on Windows XP systems,
especially if the partitions are formatted in NTFS. In fact, FIXBOOT isn't a
DOS function at all. What you need is to boot to a Windows XP installation
CD and use the Repair Console, or, I suppose, use a BartPE CD or similar.

Lastly, while you say you can boot to the CD, it doesn't sound like you're
actually succeeding when you describe the process. Are you sure your system
is even trying to boot to the CD? Is your BIOS boot sequence properly
arranged to have the CD boot before the HD?

 

[Mark]

Thanks Gary. I'm surprised you are still lurking in this NG, Vista
newsgroups seems to have stolen the good gurus. Glad you are still
available to help out.

I just copied the ISO to a CD, now I see why that didn't work. I found out
that I have to use my Nero to make a bootable CD. That worked. Now, I have
a bootable CD with the Ultimate Boot CD ISO, but can't see or use any of the
options.

I've used XP repair, works good, so I'd better just stay with that method.
I had hoped to have all of the repair options on a bootable CD so I can
repair PCs for folks in my computer club, so I don't have to carry a list of
the commands...fixboot, fixmbr, sfc scanonce, all of those goodies.

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

I don't know anything about the apps you're talking about, but I kind of
assumed you were talking about command-line interfaces when you used the
term DOS. You're going to have to memorize or carry with you a list of
commands no matter which command-line OS you're using.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Thanks Gary. I'm surprised you are still lurking in this NG, Vista
newsgroups seems to have stolen the good gurus. Glad you are still
available to help out.

I just copied the ISO to a CD, now I see why that didn't work. I found
out that I have to use my Nero to make a bootable CD. That worked. Now,
I have a bootable CD with the Ultimate Boot CD ISO, but can't see or use
any of the options.

I've used XP repair, works good, so I'd better just stay with that method.
I had hoped to have all of the repair options on a bootable CD so I can
repair PCs for folks in my computer club, so I don't have to carry a list
of the commands...fixboot, fixmbr, sfc scanonce, all of those goodies.

Those are all on stock XP boot disks via the recovery console, but, sfc will
require the correct type of CD and will ask for the disk. It checks files
between the hard disk and the install CD, so you can't make a generic disk
to use sfc; you need the correct disk type for that machine.

However, you can use any bootable XP disk to get into the recovery console
and run many of the other commands.


HTH
-pk

 

[Mark]

Thank you, I appreciate the replies.

Those are all on stock XP boot disks via the recovery console, but, sfc
will require the correct type of CD and will ask for the disk. It checks
files between the hard disk and the install CD, so you can't make a
generic disk to use sfc; you need the correct disk type for that machine.

However, you can use any bootable XP disk to get into the recovery console
and run many of the other commands.


HTH
-pk

 

[Plato]

I'm burning a lot of worthless CDs trying to make one to boot to DOS (no
floppy drive available).

I've downloaded several programs to boot to DOS, unzipped them, and burned
the iso to a CD. When I boot to the CD I get the Hardware Profile

ISOs cant be burned the same way as regular data. The easiest app. I've
found to do so is:

http://www.bootdisk.com/plan10/burncdcc.zip

 

[Mark]

Thanks Plato, that'll work.

ISOs cant be burned the same way as regular data. The easiest app. I've
found to do so is:

http://www.bootdisk.com/plan10/burncdcc.zip

 

[Plato]

Thanks Plato, that'll work.

You're welcome.