How to make a boot disk with an image of a thing. We create boot disks with Windows XP. Creation using third-party programs

Boot floppy disks (or CDs with a boot area) are used in many cases:

• to change parameters (formatting) of an already used hard drive or when partitioning a newly purchased one;
• to install the Operating System;
• in case of failure of the Operating System (up to refusal to boot at all);
• when restoring the System from an image (for example, Norton Ghost);
• to try to recover a “forgotten” Administrator password;
• as well as in many other cases.

There are a huge number of ready-made BootDisks - boot floppy disks, and many programs (for example, the same PartitionMagic) have the function of generating their own boot floppy disk. As a result, we have a bunch of different boot floppy disks (often double ones to run one program) or ready-made (purchased) boot CDs, and we don’t always remember exactly on which one and what exactly is launched.

I was interested in two main questions:

• have several boot options from one CD;
• have a boot image larger than one standard 1440 KB floppy disk.

The ability to solve both of these issues at once on your own is provided by the CD boot manager Bootable CD Wizard. This is a kind of "constructor" Boot Menu, in which the download option is selected.

What you need for work

Naturally, the BCDW “constructor” itself is distributed free of charge. There are currently two versions of BCDW commonly mentioned online - 1.50z And 2.0a1. On the official BCDW website, only 1.50z is offered for download. Version 2.0a1 is in an alpha release state and has not been officially released, but is available online. Since it is functionally superior to 1.50z (in particular, it supports loading some ISO images and Windows XP SP2), many people use 2.0a1. You can download version 2.0a1 via a direct link from our website: in a 7-zip archive (84 kb) or in Zip (303 kb). This article discusses configuration files BCDW 2.0a1, however, most problems could be solved using version 1.50z.

With these file settings bcdw.ini available to choose from five options for booting from a CD, loading from a Flopper, or continuing the normal boot, bypassing the Menu, from the hard drive, and if you do not touch the keyboard, the last option occurs automatically after 10 seconds.

All text data can be changed arbitrarily. If you want to toggle different Menu windows (location, sizes, background colors and letters) - read the file description bcdw.ini V Complete Guide(if you bothered to download it) or on the website. Here are the settings options from OSZone conference participants:

Sections of each option are collected in one text file.

Creating Boot Images

Typically, bootable floppy (IMA) or disk (ISO) images are used.

Boot disk images (IMA)

If there is no ready-made image, we assume that we have a Boot floppy disk and WinImage.

Insert the floppy disk into the computer, select WinImage disk A: , read the floppy disk and save it into an image (with *.IMA extension). The description with pictures is again either in the Complete Guide or on the website. If there are TWO of these floppy disks, the image is made from the first floppy disk, then the image format changes to 2880 KB, and all files (by replacing matching ones) from the second floppy disk are transferred to the image window. During the process, it is advisable to “slightly” adjust the download description. For example, for floppy disks from the package PartitionMagic You can completely remove lines from the AUTOEXEC.BAT file

ECHO.
ECHO Please Insert PartitionMagic Disk 2
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO *** Press Any Key to Continue ***
ECHO.
PAUSE >NUL

Now we don’t need to wait for a replacement with a second floppy disk.

To create an image of any size, it seemed easiest to me to take HDD(any old one, of the size that comes to hand), mark its first partition as active and set the size to 700 MB (and where more?), correctly transfer to it system files from boot floppy ( Sys A:C: ), copy the remaining files from the Boot floppy disk there, and then dump EVERYTHING that you would like to see after loading there: CD and mouse drivers, DOS test programs, NTFS partition viewer, Norton Commander along with all archivers (ZIP, RAR, ARJ, LHA, ICE and other exotics), and even in general DOS Navigator, the overall size stopped worrying us. Now, having connected this hard drive as the main one, reboot the computer from it and perform full customization applications, along with General Settings and Menu NC(or other file manager). It would not hurt to insert the line into the AUTOEXEC.BAT file

otherwise, many DOS programs will not run from the CD, and they may not work if all hard disks, and even the disk itself C:, are marked as NTFS.

Then we load into normal mode, attaching this screw additionally to your main one, we take the same WinImage(we are now interested in him Professional mode) and, pointing it to this same 700-MB partition, we make an image of the entire partition, saving it as *.IMA. The size of the resulting image is 700 MB. If WinImage indicate " Cut off unused part of the image" - the size of the image file will be determined only by the size of the files that make it up (in my case - about 8 MB), but you can add more files to this image up to its full size, 700 MB. It wouldn't hurt to have surgery" Defragment the current image" - then its volume will be even smaller.

Bootable disk images (ISO)

To boot from ISO you need BCDW 2.0a1, but it cannot load absolutely any ISO image. Boot images can be found on the network (for example, memtest) or created yourself using the same WinImage (Disk - Create CD-ROM ISO Image). In this way, for example, you can create ISO images of Acronis True Image and Disk Director Suite boot disks.

In general, BCDW recognizes an image not by extension, but by content. So you can rename the extensions of all your images to at least *.APO.

How to register image loading in bcdw.ini

All that remains is to put all your resulting images into a folder and make the appropriate changes to the section of the file bcdw.ini , placing the names of your boot options there and brief descriptions these options. You probably already guessed how this is done by looking at the code above. Just in case, let's explain the format:

; the path to the image; Name; description
; ^ - line feed
\img\Quicker.IMA ; System floppy DOS 7.10; ^ Fast loading without frills
\img\memtest.iso ; Memtest ; ^ Indispensable for thorough testing random access memory(RAM)

All. Ready to record.

Burning a bootable disc

We will consider creating ISO image the CDImage utility, as well as the classic method of burning a bootable disc using programs such as Nero or Easy Media Creator. It is recommended to first play around with a rewritable CD-RW a couple of times, so as not to launch damaged disposable CD-R discs from the balcony towards the horizon.

To begin with, to the root of the Project Boot disk place folders And .

CDImage

CDImage is discussed in more detail in the article Creating a bootable ISO/CD. The kit, which can be downloaded from our website, includes everything you need to create a multiboot disk image based on BCDW (except BCDW, which you need to download separately). The set includes a file Create_ISO_BCDW.cmd , by running which you will get the desired ISO image. Let's take a closer look at the file by opening it in a text editor:

@echo off
TITLE Creating ISO Image of BCDW project
ECHO.

:: Specify the path to the distribution (files the disk being created)
SET DISTRO=C:\XPCD

:: Specify where to create the resulting ISO image
SET OUTPUT=C:

:: Enter the volume label (no spaces!)
:: It will also be used as the name of the ISO image
SET LABEL=MULTIBOOT_BCDW
:: List of standard tags
:: Windows XP http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=342
:: Windows 2003 http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=355

:: Removing file attributes
ECHO Removing any possible attributes set on %DISTRO% and its subfolders...
attrib -R -H "%DISTRO%" /S /D
ECHO.

:: ISO creation
ECHO Creating ISO...

:: It is assumed that the folder with BCDW is in the root of the created disk.
:: Change the path to the bootloader (.bin) if necessary.

:: For BCDW 2.0a1
CDIMAGE.EXE -l"%LABEL%" -h -j1 -oci -m -b"%DISTRO%\bcdw\loader.bin" "%DISTRO%" "%OUTPUT%\%LABEL%.ISO"

:: For BCDW 1.50z
:: CDIMAGE.EXE -l"%LABEL%" -h -j1 -oci -m -b"%DISTRO%\bcdw\bcdw.bin" "%DISTRO%" "%OUTPUT%\%LABEL%.ISO"
ECHO.

PAUSE
EXIT

You need to indicate where the project files are located (by default - C:\XPCD) and where you want to save the resulting image (by default - the root directory of drive C). You can also easily change the volume label to your own. We assume that the folder , containing the loader, is located in the project root. If you placed the folder in a different location, then change the path to the downloader. Double click on the file Create_ISO_BCDW.cmd starts ISO creation image. This is perhaps the simplest and most reliable method of creating a boot disk.

Classic recording method

We specify the file as the boot image loader.bin , it is in our folder (so as not to look for it every time) . (Note: we are talking about bootloader 2.0a1; for 1.50z please indicate bcdw.bin ). Don't be alarmed, it's really only TWO KiloBytes. File initest.bat we won't need it here.

You can add whatever you want to the remaining space until the CD-R is completely filled.

There is one pitfall here: not all CD burning programs have the necessary settings (for example Small CD-Writer for our purposes doesn't fit). In the recording settings, you MUST specify the parameters " Emulation mode"="No emulation" And " Number of sectors to download" = 4 . If this is not done, with standard recording of information on a CD with a volume of more than 100 MB, the boot sector of this kind refuses to work. True, less than 100 MB - it works, even when recording via Small CD-Writer.

For those in the tank

Settings (with pictures) for the programs Nero, CDRWin, WinOnCD, Easy CD Creator, Instant CD+DVD, CDImage or mkisofs are all available in the same Complete Guide or on the BCDW website.

If you are not tired, then we still have something to tell you. We offer two examples demonstrating the use of BCDW in real conditions.

Simplify to the extreme

If there is only one boot image, then multiboot is not required (for example, you need to create a boot image of everything hard drive or only one of its sections, unless of course it is larger than the volume of a CD-R), then the INI files of BCDW are practically degenerate.

The prepared image itself *.GHO the entire hard drive (or just one partition) is transferred directly to the root of the bootloader image No_Ghost.IMA (here you will need exactly the same 700 MB image).

Burn to CD-R folder , which contains two files bcdw.ini And loader.bin (folders are not required here either), and the folder , which contains a single file No_Ghost.IMA . We use the same file as a boot image loader.bin .

Boot from CD-Rom. No input Selection menu, loads immediately Norton Ghost, and, you will laugh, but the file *.GHO (not a bad size) lies right on the disk A:\ . Of course, you can get rid of folders altogether, but this is probably too much...

Making it as difficult as possible

This article uses a disk with five different boot options as an example. If you are not modest and continue to add options, you will have to scroll down the menu for a long time to see them all. In such a situation, the question inevitably arises about a more convenient menu navigation system. You can solve the problem by creating tree menu structure.

Let's say your download options can be divided into several categories: Installation of operating systems, Component stability test, etc. Then you can display these categories on the first screen. The user, having selected any category, will go directly to various options downloads.

For example, by choosing Creating and changing HDD partitions, we get to a submenu containing PartitionMagic And Acronis Disk Director.

This is even easier to implement than to explain in words. All you need to do is bcdw.ini specify the path to the corresponding INI file that defines the contents of the menu. The format of this INI file is exactly the same as bcdw.ini. In the example described above, we have approximately the following (only sections are given, since the rest will be the same, and the descriptions of the loading options are taken arbitrarily and may not fully correspond to the screenshot).

bcdw.ini

\bcdw\OSInstal.ini ; Installation of operating systems;^ Your description.
\bcdw\Test.ini ; Component stability test;^ Your description.
\bcdw\PrtRstrk.ini ; Creating and changing HDD partitions ;^ Your description.

OSInstal.ini

\i386\setupldr.bin ; Windows XP Pro Regular; ^ Regular installation of Windows XP Professional.
\i386\setupld1.bin ; Windows XP Pro Unattended; ^ Unattended installation of Windows XP Professional.

Test.ini

:Return ; Return to previous menu
\img\memtest.iso; Memtest ; ^ Indispensable for thorough testing of random access memory (RAM)

PrtRstrk.ini

:Return ; Return to previous menu
\img\Part_Mag.IMA ; PartitionMagic & BootMagic 8.0; Allows you to change, divide, merge and convert sections.
\img\adds_10.iso ; Acronis Disk Director ;^ The same thing, but on Linux, the operating algorithms are more optimized.

Menu nesting is not limited to two levels. You can attach a submenu to any menu. The main thing is not to get carried away and not to complicate navigation more than necessary. Naturally, you can make your own design scheme for each menu.

The Bootable CD Wizard is being discussed at the OSZone conference.

Instructions

If the application is not yet installed on your computer, you can download the distribution from the official website of the manufacturer. The download will only take a few minutes. The program is paid, but for now the trial version is enough for you, which has all the necessary functions and will work for 30 days. Run the installation and follow the wizard's instructions.

In the main program window, click on the “File” button and select “Open” from the drop-down menu. A dialog box will appear in front of you, on the left side of which you will see all the folders located on your hard drive. Select the desired folder. A list of folders in it will appear on the right side. Select the prepared boot disk image from this list. At the bottom of the window, in the “File name” line, its name will appear. Click on the “Open” button next to it.

A new window will open in which you will see the contents of the selected image. Here you need to make sure that in the “Image” information field located at the top of the window, there is the inscription “Bootloading”. If it says “No booting”, then create a boot disk from which you can run operating system, this image will not work.

To start burning, click on the “Tools” button and select “Burn CD image” from the menu that appears. The same result can be obtained by clicking the corresponding button on the “Toolbar”, or simply using hotkey F7. The Recording Settings dialog box will open. Specify the program the path to the drive, select the recording speed (to avoid errors, it is better to stay at the minimum). From the recording method scroll-down menu, select Disc-at-once (DAO) - all at once. Check the “Check” box. Click "Burn".

The “Burn Image” window will open, in which you can monitor the burning process. At the end of the process, the disc tray will open automatically and a notification about the results of the operation and data verification will appear on the screen. If everything is in order, then you will see a line that says “Check completed successfully!” Otherwise, the recording will have to be repeated using a different blank.

note

If you want to burn a boot disk image to a DVD-RW, be sure to format the disc before burning. This will prevent the old data from being read along with the new entry.

If the Nero package is also installed on the system, then in order to avoid conflicts between applications, in the settings UltraIso programs, on the “Recording” tab, you need to uncheck the “Use NeroAPI if possible” option.

Helpful advice

Now that the settings have already been completed, you can record boot images without opening the main program window. Just select the desired image and double-click on its icon. UltraIso will open, in which you will see a bootable image ready to burn. All you have to do is insert the disc and press the “Burn” button.