Here's a very easy way and undocumented (I think) way to make a Vista boot disk.

1) In Vista, format a floppy disk. Do not make a MS-DOS startup disk.

2) Boot into another OS or WinPE or BartPE (whatever OS gives you access to Vista files).

3) Copy "bootmgr" file from root of Vista to the root of floppy.

4) Create a folder called "Boot" on floppy.

5) Copy "BCD" file from "Boot" folder on floppy. Rest of the files in "Boot" are not necessary.

If you are dual booting, then your "bootmgr" and "BCD" may be in your other OS partition.

Edited March 22, 200719 yr by spacesurfer

Also, if you have a dual-boot system with XP and Vista, you can also boot XP from the floppy. Copy bootmgr, BCD as described above and also add to the root of the floppy ntdetect.com, boot.ini, and ntldr.

Note that bootmgr and BCD reside on the active, primary partition. So if XP is the active partition and is the primary partition, then Vista boot files will be in the XP partition. This occurs when you install Vista from within XP.

Addendum

Note: for the purposes of creating XP-only, Vista-only, or XP/Vista dual-boot floppies as described in Multi-boot Vista and Other OSes with Grub Menu, you should change your "Startup and Recovery Settings" in Advanced System Properties from within Vista. Save the settings, boot to XP, then copy the modified bcd file to floppy. You must do this each time you change the settings.

Addendum 2:

This boot disk will only work on your system and not some else's system. This is because bcd contains a unique GUID for your Vista installation.

Edited June 5, 200719 yr by spacesurfer

Here's a very easy way and undocumented (I think) way to make a Vista boot disk.

2) Boot into another OS or WinPE or BartPE (whatever OS gives you access to Vista files).

Hi!

I think this is faster and doesn't require booting in another OS:

-> open a command prompt with administrative privileges and type these 3 commands:

MKDIR A:\Boot
XCOPY /H C:\bootmgr A:\
REG SAVE HKLM\BCD00000000 A:\Boot\BCD

The C:\Boot\BCD* files are locked because they are loaded as hives in registry.

Tested on my Vista 64 with sata-Raid0 C: and it works.

HTH

Davide.

Your suggestion looks great but I have one question:

I have a Laptop with NO floppy drive, only a CD/DVD writer and 4 USB ports. Vista Ultimate 32 bit OS is my only OS.

I just want to flash/update my BIOs and have to do it from the command prompt at boot up as it's a .bat file not an .exe file. Cannot do it from within windows via the command prompt. Just the way this laptop is setup from the Manufacturer.

I'm guessing if I copy the "bootmgr" file from my root dir over to a CD and boot to the CD...it should bring me to a command prompt on start up or do I need the "BCD" file?

What is the "BCD" file? Do I need it?

Thanks

rkent57

I just want to flash/update my BIOs and have to do it from the command prompt at boot up as it's a .bat file not an .exe file. Cannot do it from within windows via the command prompt. Just the way this laptop is setup from the Manufacturer.

You're off track as you don't need to follow this if you want a command prompt. This does NOT give you a command prompt.

What you need is a good old DOS boot disk or Win 95/98 boot disk. If you google for it, you can download an image. Then, google for a program that can put that dos boot disk on a USB to make it bootable.

I've never felt the need to boot to a command prompt so I haven't treaded that territory.

Vista boot disk is very important. There is a feature in Windows Vista where in you can boot your PC thro' USB disk. Get more information on Windows Vista Boot Disk here. The Vista has a newly built boot loader with two parts. Vista booting is quite fast.