Say "No" to burning bootable CDs, DVDs from ISOs

Download and burn to CD the HD maker's diag/repair CD, boot and run full scan and you will have your answer: Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
-- and so said our friend gregrocker elsewhere in this forum, a day ago.

Nothing wrong and we have been habitually burning bootable CDs and DVDs from ISO images supplied by various vendors and software authors. A month ago even me would have done it - in fact I did burn the Seatools DOS a month back. But not any longer - not after I came to know the power of EasyBCD.

And so here we take-off. Fasten your seat belts.

Download and install EasyBCD 2.0.2 from here .

Create a folder in any convenient location on your HDD and move all the bootable ISOs into that folder.

Here I have them on my H Drive.



Now run EasyBCD.

1. Click on the "Add New Entry" tab on the left.

2. Select the "ISO Boot" Tab.

3. Give a name in the "Name" field.

4. In the "Mode" field select "Load from Memory"

5. Show it the path to the stored ISO which you would like to run on boot.

6. Click on "Add Entry"

You are done.



To check,

7. Click on "Edit Boot Menu" and you will find the bootable ISO name there.



If you want to rename or change the menu-show-time, do it and then click on "Save Settings". Close EasyBCD.

Next time you boot you will be presented with an option to boot into Windows or the bootable ISO.

Say goodbye to CD, DVD burning. :)

This is old stuff. Martin (severedsolo) made a tut for this way back.

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ning-disk.html

But then again, theres comfort in cd/dvd because if the boot manager is corrupted etc., this method wont work.

Thanks for pointing out the existence of the tutorial on the subject by severedsolo.

I did do a search for "EasyBCD" but could not find anything to suggest it or I was too impatient to do a thorough search and so went on with it.

Of course, the system should be bootable and that is a basic requirement for using this method. But then how many times do we see people telling "download this bootable ISO and burn it to a a CD and carry on this test'' even when the system is bootable? I should have perhaps titled it " Say "NO" to burning bootable CDs and DVDs from ISOs when you need not.Try this first." :) .

I have now gone through the tutorial by severedsolo. IMO, tutorials of this nature need to be updated constantly using the current stable version instead of beta versions and I think my write-up fills that gap today. Even if I had encountered it, I would have gone through this write-up after referencing it to severedsolo and stating that this uses the current stable version.

Finally, I am not an expert but an ordinary user. I write from the user's perspective and from what I have learnt. The inspiration to use EasyBCD came after I read through the review on it in PC Magazine and then tried it, then started imaging my systems from the stored ISO.(My mini-PCs do not have optical drives) Seagate website tells burn the SeatoolsDOS ISO to a CD and I did it. Now I feel anguished. Experts tell burn it to a CD even when it need not be. I feel anguished. My write-up is a direct result of this anguish.

sometimes a bootable cd is handy, for those occasions when your pc won't boot.

Of course the nature of the beast usually requires you to run those bootable disks on somehow damaged Systems. The next best thing would be several ISOs on a DVD which boots into a menu first like a Swiss Army Knife for your friendly neighborhood technician.

options are always good.
I like options

Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

-DG

My simple question/s to all.

Why not a bootable pen drive? I did install Windows 7 using a pen drive. I did flash the bios using a bootable pen drive. ( of course after scrounging the net for hours on end :))

I still haven't put my heart into creating a bootable Paragon recovery pendrive and Shadow Protect recovery pendrive from their respective ISOs. It should be possible to create a bootable pendrive with any bootable ISO. True or false?

If true, then why not bootable pen drives? Aren't they more handy than CDs and DVDs? Should we be still burning CDs, DVDs and BDs and stack them up like we did with floppies?

I would like to be enlightened for I am not a geek. :)