[Help] - XP Home CD Not Bootable

[tedly]

I have a legit copy of XP Home OEM. I want to keep an image of this on my system so as to make cd's whenever I need it. I have done this for my Windows 2000, Windows XP Pro, and Windows XP Pro VLK CD's. All of these work fine, however my XP Home CD does not. I use Nero 6 to burn the image. I have the latest release of nLite, and I used it with no options, just created a bootable iso (just like all the other images). I've done the suggestions of trying it at a lower burn speed, and at Disc-at-Once; nothing works. Please help.

Title Edited - Please follow new posting rules from now on.

--Zxian

[LLXX]

You may try adding a replacement bootsector to the ISO - one can be downloaded from the MSFN Unattended CD site.

If it doesn't have a bootsector, it won't boot.

[jaclaz]

Read my post here:

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16381&st=18

There could be the steps/files you are missing.....

jaclaz

[-I-]

if you have a legit copy - why not just copy-disk (in nero),

//* unless you want it to be slipstreamed first ofcaurce *\\

[tedly]

I work as a tech at a local store, and my legit copies are sealed in the safe to be sold as retail copies. I'd prefer to have an image on my desktop in order to make copies whenever my copy gets damaged from over-use.

And jaclaz, the link was not helpful to my problem. I'm trying to understand why everything except for XP Home works fine, and how to get my Home copy to boot.

[LLXX]

Does the ISO have a bootsector?

[tedly]

Not really sure where I'd verify that. The fact is I did a very simple setup with nlite. No options, just creating a bootable iso. It worked for ALL my other discs, just not XP Home. Upon inspection of the image, it does not appear to be any different than the others.

[Lazy8]

As long as you covered the basics (such as making hidden and system files viewable in Folder Properties) when you copied it, you should theoretically be able to boot it. I ran into problems with Nero setting boot options, and occasionally with nLite's ISO creation.

Validate the integrity of your source, extract its boot sector (using ISOBuster or similar), and use CDIMAGE to make your ISO. When I used these measures, XP Home only failed to boot when I used poor quality CD media.

[tedly]

.

" (such as making hidden and system files viewable in Folder Properties)"

Hidden system files/folders have nothing to do with this as it's all done within the nLite program. I select the windows cd from the nlite software, pick a temp directory for the files, then create a bootable iso

[Lazy8]

Understood, tedly. Folder Properties are most critical while copying Windows source from CD to local directory, prior to use by nLite. You copy only the files you can select.

[tedly]

Like I said, I let nlite do that for me as well, it's not done by a file copy via windows explorer.

[LLXX]

What exactly do you mean by "not bootable"? It could be the following:

- drive cannot read your disk: no boot

- the disk is readable, but the bootsector is missing or it does not confirm to Bootable CD specifications: no boot

- the bootsector is present but cannot load setupldr from i386: error message is usually displayed

This helps in solving the problem, so please provided the information.

[tedly]

The drive has nothing to do with it. This happens on ANY computer you try it on, and all other discs boot fine. There is no error, it just skips right through booting from cd. You can't even force it by not setting anything else in boot sequence BUT that. Hell, it doesn't even work if you have no other bootable devices plugged in.

The disc is readable if you put it in your cd in windows. I don't know if the bootsector's missing.

Like I said before, I do the exact same thing for all my other discs, Windows XP Pro Retail, Oem, VLK, Upgrade, Windows 2000, they ALL boot. Taking the exact same steps with an XP cd, and it does not boot.

[LLXX]

Most likely missing a valid bootsector for whatever reason... this XP home CD is definitely a little different from the others.

Download a bootsector from the Unattended MSFN site, add it to your ISO, burn, and try again.

[Lazy8]

I had the same result with nLite's older versions, when attempting to make a bootable ISO. Since then I preferred to extract the bootsector from each Windows source for reuse, and use CDIMAGE for ISO creation. Could be the makeiso.exe utility provided by nLite that is the cause.