Made XP iso boot disk, but PC can't read it!

[alexanderblake]

I am switching from Vista to XP SP2 on my new Dell 1525 laptop. I've acquired all the drivers for the HDD, USB interfaces, wireless drivers etc. I open nLite and throw in my fresh, legitimate version of XP Pro SP2 and then created a modified iso.

I burned the iso, and the laptop sees it, but won't run it. It starts in DOS and after recognizing drivers, it defaults to A:\ (a drive that doesn't exist). When I access the E drive (CD) it shows myXPcd.iso on it, but what do I do now.

This has been a huge ordeal, and I just want to get it done. PLEASE, PLEASE HELP ME!

Thank you very much!

Blake

Edited May 4, 2008 by alexanderblake

[alexanderblake]

Oh, and I burned the CD at 4x with Nero 7 to be sure it would burn correctly. I've tried a couple of these boot discs, and the never seem to work for me.

How do I get the iso to start? The PC just automatically starts Caldera DOS7 when the CD is in the drive.

[jaclaz]

You appear to have made the mistake most if not all people do at first attempt(s).

A .iso file is ALREADY an integral image of a CD.

You do NOT write the .iso file INSIDE the CD (possibly selecting somewhere else in your burning app to create a bootable CD).

You write the .iso OVER the entire CD, in other words you do not see the .iso file when browsing the CD, but rather the files contained in the .iso file.

Check these howto's, though they are made for earlier versions of Nero, nothing important has changed:

http://www.weethet.nl/english/cdrw_usingnero_iso.php

http://wizardskeep.org/mainhall/tutor/neroiso.html

This one is non-visual but covers a lot of other softwares:

http://iso.snoekonline.com/iso.htm

jaclaz

[TheFlash428]

My first though was exactly what jaclaz mentioned.

For example, when using Nero, do NOT select a "Bootable Data Disk" as your project and add the ISO file to the CD file structure.

What you want to do is select "Disc image or saved project" and choose your ISO file as the image file to write to your disk. (You may have to change the file type to "All Files" in the file selection window, as Nero image may be the default file type, .NRG not .ISO--either will work though).

This is based on my experiene using Nero Express from version 6.0, but it should be pretty similar using Nero 7.