XP Bootable CD, Where to find?

WinXP SP2,

I'm looking for a bootable CD image file that can be down
loaded and burned to a CD. Without having to go through a
lot of "add this ", "remove this ", "download this ", etc.

A google search got a lot of hits but each of them had some
condition(s) like above. A search here got lots of hits also
but none that i saw for a direct link.

thanks,
savagcl

 

I think REATOGO is about as close as you can get.

You may also want to consider downloading the iso file for Ubantu 7.10which will run from a CD and allow full access to thre XP file system.

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

 

Thanks for the feedback!

Question: Will the reatogo change my PC's normal bootup?

Reason i ask, I belong to PC club in an old age ne comunity and i volunteer my time to help them fix their
PC's when they dont work (most know nothing about
computers) . A lot of times their PC just won't bootup for
various reasons.

So, I need a generic bootable CD to get windows going so i
can (hopefully) determine what the problem is.

Thanks,
savagcl

 

Hi savagcl,

No, the CD that you would construct by using the process I linked would not alter the computer in any way at all. It would only require that the boot sequence be set to check the CD rom drive before the HD. I should mention that although it's not made real clear, you will need an XP install CD to be able to create this boot CD since many of the files come from there.

If I may, I would suggest the Ubantu method that I linked as perhaps easier to build and easier to use. It is a complete iso file and will only require you to burn it to a CD using your burner software. Just select to create a CD from an image file and point it to your downloaded file. The one downside is that the iso file is a very large (695 mb) download so if you don't have a broadband connection, it will take quite a while. With broadband it's about 25 mins.

You can boot to it and run it from the CD without actually installing it on the HD so don't elect for the HD install unless you decide to later. It's very user friendly and you can quickly get up to speed with it.

As for either of these methods enabling you to boot a defective installation, they will not do that. What they will do is allow you read/write access to the windows files. If you know which area needs the work, that's going to allow you to fix things and perhaps get it back to bootability.

There are other times when a simple boot floppy or boot CD will be able to boot a system that has a corrupt or missing bootloader file or MBR. I'll link you to a zip file that you can download and unzip to get an iso file for burning this type of boot CD. Get Bootloader iso here. As an alternate, you can make a boot floppy to use when that is the drive that's available. Get bootloader floppy creator file here. That's a self executing file so download it and double click it and follow screen directions. It will ask you to furnish a blank floppy to write the boot files onto.

When you boot either of these (CD or floppy) you will be presented with a menu that will allow you to choose which partition of which HD you want to attempt to boot. It provides 2 partition choices on each of three HD selections. That covers almost any situation you will ever run up against

Good luck with you work. I'm sure the folks you help appreciate your efforts. I hope I have helped you to help them. Post back if you hit any snags along the way.

Dude

 

Knoppix is another solution

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

 

hawk22,

Bear with me on this, I'm new to Linux.

i got the knoppix_V5.1.1CD-2007-01-04-EN.iso file
downloaded and put onto a Cd.
When i try a hard-boot from it, i get the message "missing
operating system ".

Once i get the iso onto a cd, what do i need to do next?

Thanks for the comeback,
savagcl

 

Did you use your burner software to create a boot CD from the iso file you downloaded? Placing the iso file on a CD is different than creating a CD from an iso file. Forgive me if I mis-understood your actions.

iso burning instructions

 

TonyT,
Yep, thats exactly what I did (iso to cd)! Live and learn.
So do i need to extract the files from the iso? How? Will
ZIP or 7-ZIP do it or do i need some other software?

Thanks for the link to UBCD (at least its coming down as a .exe file.

savagcl

 

I took the Knoppix iso file and using easy media creator 10
(also tried NERO with same results),
i selected "Data Disc ", and selected the option to "make
bootable" then i added the Knoppix iso file and burned the
cd.
The burn finished successfully but when i look at the cd, all i can see is
"file system: CDFS ",
"free space: 0 bytes ",
"total size: 696 MB ".
When i use windows explorer to look at the cd, no files or
icons show. Actually nothing shows on the cd and, again
when booting, all i see is "missing operating system" on
screen.

Shouldn't i see some files or folders?

Thanks,
savagcl

 

This should help to understand how to burn an ISO.

How to burn a ISO Image using NERO

 

Thanks, whiskeyman,

I got it done.

appreciate the help, guys,
savagcl