creating bootable cd's

[matt_richards]

Hello there,


I am having a problem with Drive Image 2002 (but also have the same thing with Norton Ghost). I need to create some bootable program CD’s as I frequently deal with computers that do not have a floppy drive – my Sony Vaio being the biggest culprit. I cannot find how to do this from within either of the programs. I tried creating bootable CD’s from the floppy images (using easy cd creator), but the boot failed because something was referencing the non-existent a drive.

I would be very grateful for some feedback as this is causing my quite a few problems.

Thanks in advance,

Matt.

[pointd]

I haven't tried this on a machine without a floppy disk but this is where I go when I need a bootable Ghost CD.

http://www.ping.be/satcp/ghostresq01.htm

Please let me know how this turns out as I will be faced with your dilemma come summertime.

[GaryRouth]

That link from poind looks pretty good for a Ghost boot.

If the computers without floppy drives are fairly new, you should be able to boot with a Windows disk (Win95/98/ME/2000/XP). Are there not enough system disks to go around? If you've already bought the licenses, and would use them only for emergency boots: you could make an emergency copy (one per licence).

But it sounds like the Ghost type image from pointd's link is more along the lines of what you're looking for.
. . . Gary

[p.s. . . . (on your other question from before the holidays) I think my network admin has forgotten about the net access recommendation note - but so far, everyone else seems to be using IBM's Director. I'm hearing positive feedback in the press and from friends in large institutions IT, especially when there's already a large IBM presence (minis, mainframes, client PCs)]

[matt_richards]

Pointd:

I checked out that link - it seemed very comprehensive. I believe I followed the instructions to the letter, but I keep getting a "detectCD was unable to determine the cd drive letter".

Gary

I have a number of bootdisks, so getting the machines to boot from CD isn't a problem. I just can't get either Ghost or Drive image to launch from a CD. I don't want it to automatically restore, just go into the program so I can choose what to do.

Thanks for remembering the internet control thing - I will check out Director. I also found this article which was pretty helpful (just in case your interested)

http://216.239.37.100/search?q=cache...n&ie=UTF-8</a>

[pointd]

I always use the method supplied in the link and have several bootable Ghost disks to prove it however all the laptops I have used this on have the CD drive built in and it is not removable so maybe that is the difference.

Other than that it is up to someone else to suggest an alternative.

[avx]

forgive me for askign the dumb question here...but dont you need a burner to creat boot disks? Cuase when I bought my burner, I was messing around with it, and it had the option to format a disk for using it as a boot disk, and I did format it, I have yet to make an actual boot disk yet...but is it actually possible to make a boot disk without a birner and just use a blank CD in your DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive?

avx

[pointd]

Is your hard disk split into more than one partition?

If so then you would have to edit the line "device=oakcdrom.sys /D:cdrom001" to reflect the partitions on your disk. i.e if you had 2 partitions the CDROM would be E: not D:

How about going to Sony to see if they supply files for a bootable CD for their machines. A lot of the big manufacturers tweak theri hardware so that only drivers etc supplied by them will work.

[David_Jones]

I may be missing the point, but if you create a Win98 bootable CD, and include ghost.exe, and put ghost.exe in an autoexec.bat file, then it should boot up, run Ghost, and you are away?

David.