Creating bootable linux CDROM using XP

Michael ODonnell michael.odonnell at comcast.net
Mon Oct 4 08:26:00 EDT 2004


> If the .iso is of a bootable CD-ROM all you have to do is write
> the bits to disk as-is.
>
> The first 1.44 or 2.88 MB of the disk image is basically a DOS-type
> floppy image that gets booted which then boots the CD-ROM (El
> Torito format).


I don't think so.  IIRC, El Torito calls for a special pointer in the
headers that indicate where to find the bootable image, which is not
simply the first N bytes of data.

> Perhaps when you drag&drop the CD software is reading the disk
> image format (is it FAT?)  and remastering, losing the El Torito
> disk image.

Nope - the md5sum is unchanged.

> You want something that can explicitly burn a disk image.
> Perhaps the windows utility can't do that but Nero can?  Or you
> can find someone with linux or a mac to write it for you...

I have many linux boxes - that's not the problem.  I'm trying
to understand the XP approach well enough that I can coach
someone through it who doesn't have Linux.




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