Re: Help me understand system boot.

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"amlandreau" <amlandreau@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:53C7A8F9-4295-4405-BD63-9FCBB8397BD7@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi everybody,

I would like to build up a bootable optical disk (CD or DVD) that would help me recover essential data that are recorded on a PC
which fails to boot Windows Vista Ultimate (hang up). I heard of Live CD/DVD based on Linux hat do the trick by loading a mini
operating system without using the c:\ disk at all. That is: boot from CD/DVD drive to memory and offers features to save files on USB keys.
From the Web I downloaded a file called "LinuxMint-6.iso" size 664MB. As recommended I burned it to a DVD and got the same exact file on the disk.
Now when I try to boot from that disk nothing happens. That is according to its set up the BIOS accesses the optical disk, reads it and presumably does not recognise it as a bootable disk.
It then goes away and boots from the next bootable device which happen to be the c drive with Vista on it. Hope somebody will help me understand how a PC boots from a CD drive that only contains an single ISO file on it. Thanks in advance.

Andre Landreau



It looks like that iso image is to install Linux , something you don't want to do.

I think this is the sort of thing you are looking for, The Ultimate Boot CD:
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
You can download a ready made iso image from there.
(It is a bit basic and dated now.)

Also have a look at the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows:
http://www.ubcd4win.com/index.htm
You have to make your own as they can't sell a ready-made cd (apparently due to copyright laws), but you can download all of the tools.

I suspect that the reason your dvd didn't boot was because you just copied the iso file onto a dvd. The burning software has to be able to recognise iso files.

Download the free Imgburn program to burn iso files correctly:
http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download


.

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