Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Formating CDs

by DiLuna Jun 9, 2005 10:33PM PDT

Is there some way can I format a CD with the operating system on it so I can start from the CD drive in case of hard disk problems? I'm running a dual boot with Windows 98SE and XP Pro.

Thanks for any info.

DiLuna

Discussion is locked

3 Posts

- Collapse + Expand Details

- Collapse -

Not with Windows

by Yew Jun 10, 2005 12:30AM PDT

There are a number of LiveCD Linux distributions, where you have a full fledged Linux operating system running off of a CD. Windows doesn't allow you to do this, unless you want to try and dig out some old DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1 floppies. That could probably be done.

Best you can do, is have something similar to a boot floppy, only on a CD/DVD, so you can include a wide array of other utilities. None of which really involve any sort of a graphical interface.

So, live by the credo of system admins the world over: Back up early, back up often!

- Collapse -

(NT) (NT) Set BIOS to boot from CD 1st

by jcd Jun 10, 2005 12:37AM PDT

- Collapse -

Hard disk

by Riz4l Jun 10, 2005 1:56AM PDT

In case of Hard disk one of the best resources are linux Live CDs. You can use it to scan windows formatted partitions like NTFS so if you have important files they can easily be recovered. It will also allow you yo copy files to another instaled hard disk. A great linux Live Cd is Slax which can be downloaded from www.slax.org, it is small only 180mb. So it can easily be downloaded, and since it is a live cd there is nothing to install runs straight of the CD. Damnsmalllinux is also pretty small (50 mb)

Back to Windows Legacy OS forum