[lotuseclat79]

I need to create more than one bootable CD, each with a separate ISO file for the respective software. I come to find out that I do not have at least ahead Nero 5.5.24 or later, but instead 5.5.10.56. The upgrade to ahead Nero 7 discount upgrade is $64 vs $80 full tilt boogie. Not worth it if there are freely available CD ROM burners.

Can anyone recommend a freely available tool for this purpose?

Also, what is the difference between just burning an ISO image to a CD, and making the CD ISO image bootable? Is there a difference? I thought there must be at least a FreeDOS OS (i.e. independent OS) which could find the ISO image to launch on the CD - is that correct that that is the difference in what makes a CD bootable vs just a CD with a file archived on it?

The two different ISO images I need to make bootable CDs with are:
1) memtest86+-1.65.iso
and
2) seatoold_en.iso (Segate Tools Desktop - English ISO)

Tia,

-- Tom

P.S. I can boot from my Windows XP Pro SP2 OEM CD, but just burning the image of the ISO onto the CD doesn't appear to boot from it. Note: Because I can boot the Windows CD, I do have the boot order specified to boot off of the CD before the hard disk in my BIOS!

[JohnWill]

Well, if you create an ISO of the XP CD, and then burn that ISO to another CD, it should boot, that kind of operation has always worked for me. FWIW, Nero 5.5.10.56 will create bootable CD's.

WIth MEMTEST86+, I just downloaded the ISO, pointed Nero at it and burned the disk as an image, worked fine.

[lotuseclat79]

Hi John,

What your saying is that my CD's with either memtest86+'s ISO or seatools ISO should have booted? How come they didn't?

Ok, looks like I should go back to square one.

Thanks,

-- Tom

[Squashman]

From what I see on Nero's site, the last update to 5.5 was 5.5.10.56. Where did you come up with that other version number.

[DoubleHelix]

If you burned the ISO file itself directly to a CD, that's why it didn't work.

[Rockn]

Not all ISO images are bootable. The original CD or media the ISO was created from also has to be bootable.

[JohnWill]

The MemTest86+ ISO is most certainly bootable.

Can you tell us something about the system? I've seen systems that wouldn't boot all bootable CD's, obviously something about the BIOS, never tracked it down.

[Rockn]

If it is indeed a bootable image then there is something wrong with either the image, the way it was burned to CD or the computer that is attempting to boot from it. Try it in a different computer first and if it still doesn't work look at the other two options.

[lotuseclat79]

Originally Posted by Squashman

From what I see on Nero's site, the last update to 5.5 was 5.5.10.56. Where did you come up with that other version number.

Hi Squashman,

The ahead Nero version 5.5.24 came directly from the Seatools Desktop Usage Instructions document on Segate's website.

-- Tom

[lotuseclat79]

Originally Posted by DoubleHelix

If you burned the ISO file itself directly to a CD, that's why it didn't work.

Hi DoubleHelix,

Yes, I used ahead Nero v 5.5.10.56 to burn the ISO files each directly to a CD-RW. So, why didn't it work, as John Will says it should have, and the Segate Tools Desktop Usage Instructions say that v 5.5.24 should be used, but Squashman says 5.5.10.56 was the last 5.5 version?

-- Tom

[lotuseclat79]

Originally Posted by Rockn

Not all ISO images are bootable. The original CD or media the ISO was created from also has to be bootable.

Hi Rockn,

What do you mean when you say that the original CD or media the ISO was created from also has to be bootable?

Back ot my orginal question - what makes an ISO image bootable vs non-bootable?

The supposition I am making here in asking the question is that I am familiar with what makes a flash BIOS diskette bootable, i.e. they usually have more than the flash file that will replace the BIOS, they have a FreeDOS OS that is independent of the OS intended for compatible hardware on which FreeDOS works in order to boot up into memory from the diskette.

So, I guess the question I am really asking is - Does an ISO bootable image have as part of it (probably at the start), a bootable OS (like Linux bootables or FreeDOS, etc.) that distinguishes it from say a non-bootable ISO image with documents that you may see sometimes when running Linux?

-- Tom

[lotuseclat79]

Originally Posted by Rockn

If it is indeed a bootable image then there is something wrong with either the image, the way it was burned to CD or the computer that is attempting to boot from it. Try it in a different computer first and if it still doesn't work look at the other two options.

Hi Rockn,

Don't have another computer, but do have a dual-boot machine with Linux FC3 and WinXP Pro SP2 both hosted on separate Seagate disks using Grub.

Unfortunately, there is no MD5 for the ISO image in either case which would be a good standard for all websites with downloadables to follow.

Like I said, I used ahead Nero v5.5.10.56 to burn the image. I wonder what the difference is between it and v 5.5.24 according to Seagate? Perhaps options is my guess, if it ever existed in the first place.

I suppose I can try re-downloading and then check each MD5 signature - if they are different and the new downloads work, then that would indicate the first downloads were the problem.

-- Tom

[MysticEyes]

ImgBurn or DVDDecrypter will also burn ISO's to CD-R's.

Maybe this is of some help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Tori...OM_standard%29

[JohnWill]

An ISO image is a complete image of the media. If the original media it was created from was bootable, and you burn the ISO image correctly, the burned copy should also be bootable. Nero 5.5.10.56 was indeed the last version 5 version, I have no idea what 5.5.24 is.

[Triple6]

Try burning to a CD-R instead of a CD-RW.

I wonder if 5.5.24 should actually be something like 5.5.2.4.